It's your customer's experience with your company that is really going to be the differentiator. The retail industry, for one, will move away from stores as simple distribution centers that aggregate goods for consumers and toward stores as destinations that attract consumers with value-added services such as entertainment and information. Internet service providers could offer online community or computer maintenance services, for instance, that are free to consumers but generate profits through targeted ad sales. This means establishing both the technological capability to operate an extended enterprise and the culture that makes it work. In the manufacturing realm, for example, traditional purchasing models will fade away as manufacturers use Internet ordering and public and private e-marketplaces for procurement.
Collaboration is key.
Successful companies will share information, not hoard it. Those that can't let go of traditional attitudes about shielding information from outside view will fail to realize the value of real-time relationships with partners, employees, and most importantly, customers. The partners should focus on cross-company processes that technology enables. And in measuring their success, they should focus on measuring the joint success created by the partnership, rather than just the optimization of the individual partners. The Companies That Learn the Fastest Will Win the Race title body Click here to have a Cisco representative contact you about how Cisco can provide your company with Internet solutions and strategies.