Business-to-business commerce on the other hand, as epitomized by Dell, Boeing, Cisco, and others, can yield profits today. The rapid spread of outsourcing and Application Service Providers will accelerate the penetration of consumer e-commerce, however, we believe the consumer focused retailers with already existing 1) lists of paying customers (Nordstrom, Costco, Walmart, etc.), 2) hard-won merchandising skills, 3) physical distribution facilities ("clicks-and-mortar"), and 4) robust supply chain processes will outstrip the 100% virtual "e-tailers". Clicks-and-Mortar retailers will soon outstrip all but a very few e-tailers such as Amazon. B2B service providers and "industrial marketers" will join them in retaining their market valuation because they will return positive ROI on their Internet investments.

Our principals were among the first in our profession to realize the implications for business of the technologies embedded in what are known today as the Internet and the World Wide Web (WWW). As a result, we believe we are unique in our understanding and embrace of electronic information and communications technology as effective tools for achieving radical improvements in critical aspects of our clients' businesses. And we also understand the limitations of the technologies and various implementation approaches. We have completed projects in aerospace, entertainment, retail, and trade development that bear out our beliefs.

A great deal has been written about the benefits the on-line world will bring at some point in the undefined future. The hype about consumer, retail electronic commerce, entertainment-on-demand, and the steady advance of communications technologies have obscured the benefits that can - and cannot - be achieved by businesses with existing technology and proven processes. We focus on practical applications that can be delivered today and provide significant competitive advantages to early adopters.

To this end we have devoted considerable time and energy to leading the development of international product data information standards, business processes designed to take advantage of these standards, and the technology that supports them. These initiatives span the communications protocols and transaction tools from conventional EDI (ANSI X.12 and EDIFACT) to the burgeoning XML initiatives. We believe our "missionary" work in these areas will benefit our clients to a significant degree in coming years in terms of incremental business, improvements in customer service, and profitability.