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InternetWeek: Most of your online business is with existing customers. How do you reach new customers over the Web?
Solvik: Business-to-business e-commerce today tends to be focused on demand fulfillment and improving the economics and effectiveness of the customer relationship, not necessarily consummating the relationship. What you're going to see is a transition from companies going to their customers and saying, "I want you to do business with me over the Web," to getting companies totally integrated electronically, not just human-to-machine, but machine-to-machine. Standards like XML and companies like WebMethods and Bowstreet Software are working on software that will enable more of that enterprise-to-enterprise integration.
InternetWeek: What other trends do you see in online selling?
Solvik: One clear thing that's a threat or benefit to corporations is the concept of the market maker. For large corporations, that could be good if they're aggressive about partnering with a market maker or if they create a market maker. Take the example of MetalSite.com, which is...