The first wave of Web development is over. Virtually all organizations have Web sites, and most of their customers are comfortable doing business online. The Extensible Markup Language, which started as a better way to build a Web page, is emerging as a universal format for exchanging data between applications and among businesses. Don't leave all the fun to the Yahoos and Excites of the world.
Enterprises can also build portals to serve their customers, employees, and trading partners.
Major airlines last week began selling their first tickets for flights on Jan. 1, 2000. Following the vendors and watching how different industries adopt e-commerce technology is enough to give you whiplash. Web-based application outsourcing is attracting more attention.