The transactions that follow the handshake can take any form required, but you need the human interaction first. It is ironic that the primary reason that the internet has exploded has not been e'commerce or the ability to buy or sell anything on the internet, but rather that people can communicate by sending email or chaffing online. As I recall, Hollywood made a movie named You've Got Mail, not Your Order Has Shipped. Technology has not changed or reduced the need to communicate, it has simply provided alternative methods to do so. Businesses that succeed in the new millennium will be those that avoid technology backlash and employ their human resources in the most cost effective and customer interactive manner That means always using the talent and creativity of the human person whenever applicable and using technology to optimize the human person not to supercede them.
Any company can throw technology at a business problem.
Let me put is more plainly. The company with the best human interface wins. If you can make the human interface better with technology, great. Otherwise, your technology is failing. To close, I would like to add a final thought.