April 6, 1998

• The Virtual Corporation: It's Closer Than You Think
  The future is coming at Internet speed, and with it the very nature of business is changing. Today's trailblazing corporations are moving more of their business online in ways that were unimaginable even a year ago.

• Workflow Automation Crosses Company Lines
  By taking advantage of standard Web interfaces to bridge different business applications and using the Internet as an inexpensive and instant communications vehicle, a few early adopters are adding new meaning to the cliche about thinking outside the box.

• Getting Partners To Speak One Language
  Adaptec Inc. wanted to cut in half the time it took to fulfill an order. But some processes were out of the compan y's control. Adaptec outsources its chip fabrication and assembly work to overseas partners. The solution was middleware from start-up CrossRoute Software Inc. that translates Adaptec's SAP R/3 entries into formats suitable for trading partners using different software.

• Linking The Supply Chain With The Cash Register
  Web-based supply chains are offering businesses a new way to curb the costs of selling their wares via automated links with customers and suppliers, while also offering forecasting that reflects actual market conditions.

• Web Inventory Plan Tickles Their Fancy
  Using the Web for end-to-end inventory management is more than horsefeathers to Pacific Coast Feather Co. The $140 million company uses Web technologies to manage manuf acturing and distribution of the 15 million pillows and half-million comforters it makes each year.

• Virtual Markets Create New Roles For Distributors
  Is the Internet displacing travel agents, car salespeople and stock brokers? At the very least, Internet-based selling is creating a breed of virtual intermediaries and new versions of traditional middlemen and product distribution channels. These changes are shaking the foundation of the way consumers and businesses deal with one another.

• Charles Schwab Trades Big In Online Business
  Charles Schwab & Co. is writing the book on online trading. And why not? The San Francisco brokerage and financial services powerhouse has moved nearly 41 percent of its trades online, tripling the number of online accounts to 1.3 million within two years and doubling related assets to $92 billion within a year.

• Interconnected Storefronts Weave A Merchandising Web
  As Internet-based electronic commerce begins to truly flourish, the web of connections between companies, their suppliers, partners and ultimately their customers is catapulting beyond today's mere hyperlinks. We call it syndicated selling. But other catchphrases have emerged to describe this suddenly red-hot phenomenon as well: site-to-site commerce, cut-and-paste and embedded extranets. Take your pick.

• CommerceNet Pilots XML-Based Catalogs
  The CommerceNet consortium began pilot work last summer investigating the use of XML in Internet catalogs. After several false starts, the group is now focus ing on a major pilot of XML-powered interoperable catalogs for the U.S. government--known for the intricate detail of its ordering process.

• Syndication Pioneer Seeks InfoSpace
  InfoSpace Inc. president and CEO Naveen Jain has an immodest goal: He wants his company's syndicated content and commerce offerings to be so widespread they become the equivalent of MS-DOS--the little universal engine that could, driving the next wave of distributed Internet computing.