CSOBS

CSOBS is an acronym for Centralized Service Order Bureau System developed by Bell Laboratories during the early 1970s. CSOBS is an Operations Support System (OSS) created for use in Bell System business offices for customer service representatives to take orders for telephone service from customers. This is one of many OSS systems deployed by Bell during the 1970s. The CSOBS system provided automation for the Service Order process.

The final document created by CSOBS was the Universal Service Order that was distributed by teletypewriters to many departments within telephone companies. CSOBS documented the customer name, address, type of service ordered, dates for disconnect or installation, telephone numbers, wiring points, plug-in equipment, and many more details. Many of these items were assigned a Universal Service Order Code or USOC that is still in use today in the United States. See the Bell System Technical Journal published during the early 1970s for more information.