Catching the meaning behind the buzzwords

E-business is not about technology, says Ernst & Young. It's about business operations and how they are designed and managed to achieve the greatest commercial benefit.

The traditional linear model of the supply chain is rapidly becoming obsolete, the consultants argue. Increasingly, a more accurate description is a web of connections between customers, suppliers, service managers and others. Each connection requires value-added information, and new connections can change the whole nature of the process.

Building an extranet - effectively a closed community with shared objectives - can be the key to optimising business relationships in an electronic environment. Ernst & Young lists a series of potential benefits:

• ready access to information
• faster and more efficient online ordering
• less time-consuming and more accurate processing
• a basis for cooperation for joint ventures or R&D.

E&Y has a vested interest, of course, but the 'Connected Economy' pages on its website (www.eyuk.com) contain quite a bit of good basic information.

Elliott Chase