This book examines the evolution of vertical software industry, focusing on the industry of telecommunications software. In particular, this study analyzes the diffusion and vertical disintegration of the operations and business support systems (OSS/BSS) commonly deployed by contemporary telecom operators. Taking as a basis several models of industry evolution (technology diffusion, network externalities, evolution of the product, evolution of the vertical software industry), this book considers the current state of the telecommunications software market, analyzes the factors affecting further evolution of the OSS/BSS market, and describes scenarios of the market evolution in the future.
The current state of the telecom software market is considered in the book from the viewpoints of both telecom operators and software vendors. The analysis suggests that the market evolution has not yet reached its stage of maturity and large developments are still expected in near future. The analysis is based on both commercial databases on software market transactions and on interviews of operators in Europe and Far East. Both quantitative and qualitative methods are applied for the analysis.
The book is intended to decision makers in the CSP business as well as to those developing software for this rapidly evolving business sector. The aim is to do research that would satisfy academic standards while providing help in practical business problems for CSPs and software developers, i.e., for companies that are shaping the future of communications and sometimes found in one and the same enterprise. Seldom has any business been in such turmoil as the CSP business is today. This book opens up the possibility to approach analytically and factually the unknowns of the future of this business. For this purpose, Chap. 4 presents a practical toolkit for managers for fast examination of the directions of the OSS/BSS software market. This is followed by a description about how this methodology was developed and instructions on how to apply the methods for another vertical software market.