Evolving Software Markets -- Vertical Software Industries -- Theories Related to Vertical Software Industry Evolution -- Model for Evolution of a Vertical Software Industry -- Overview of Telecom Operator Software Market -- Current State of the Telecom Software Market -- Process Improvement Through Software -- Effect of Software on CSP Performance -- Insights from Operator Interviews -- Analyzing the Current Phase of the OSS/BSS Software Market -- Issues Affecting Telecom Software Market Evolution -- Vertical Integration due to Software Systems' Modularity -- Vertical Integration due to Small Market Size and High Product Development and Integration Costs -- Market Polarization due to Difference in Interface Implementation Efforts -- Barriers to Horizontal Development -- Future Scenarios for the Teleoperator Software Market and their Evaluation -- Delphi Study -- Manager's Toolbox for OSS/BSS Market Analysis -- Developing Toolboxes -- Evolution of Telecom Operator Software Industry - Conclusions and Future -- Evolution of Telecom Operator Software Industry: Conclusions and Future.

Seldom has any business been in such turmoil as the Communication Service Providers (CSP) business is today. Telecom operators providing communication services constructed the infrastructure of the global information society with their trillion investments on various telecommunication technologies from broadband to mobile. Their investments on software turned their technology-specific in-house procedures into modern layered OSS/BSS. This book analyzes the status and the future evolution of OSS/BSS software industry from multiple viewpoints including technology diffusion, vertical disintegration and evolution of a vertical software industry. The analysis uses both commercial databases on software market transactions and interviews of operators in Europe and Far East, using quantitative and qualitative methods. This research complying academic standards aims at serving the practical business needs in the companies shaping the future of communications: the CSPs and the software developers – sometimes found in a single enterprise.