A company has a static Web site and uses EDI or other programs initiated by trading partners that have limited integration to core business systems. They are promoted to trading partners. Programs reflect the reality of trading-partner groups. It is used to create new business models. There will have to be a winnowing out at some point, but we've just begun to see the entrants.
Interoperability is another concern.
At present, different operating platforms in the oil industry, such as Windows NT and UNIX, are incompatible, limiting the ability of the industry to share information and cross-communicate. A number of companies, including Microsoft, PricewaterhouseCoopers, SAP A.G., Landmark, and GeoQuest, have formed a nonprofit group called COM for Energy to address these barriers and develop a common means by which all companies can communicate. It will be solved. Many types of B2B transactions will require transmission of highly confidential data, and security is a major service area of all the major e-commerce consulting and service firms. In the company's new IndigoPool site, which provides data so prospective buyers can evaluate oil and gas properties, it will be posting only limited information on the intranet and directing clients to the secure enclaves to review more-sensitive data.