Consider that across Europe Internet sales of about one billion dollars last year are projected to reach 30 billion dollars by the year 2001. One study says that the worldwide Internet commerce activity will double, double in the next six month alone. And most of that is business to business transactions. We see the total market for Internet commerce hitting 200 billion dollars by the end of the century. And that is a conservative forecast. It is not just about buying and selling. About a year ago IBM coined the term E-business to describe all the ways that people will derive value from the Net. Transactions among employees within the business to prove how products are developed, how ideas are shared, how teams are formed, how work gets done. Transaction between a business and its suppliers, its distributors, its retailers, to increase cycle times, speed and efficiency. And the very important transactions and interactions between governments and citizens, educators and students, health-care providers and patients. It is a very exciting stuff. And the greatest changes and challenges are not in the technology. In fact, connecting to the Net is relatively easy. The big challenges are in the fundamental transformation of the way things get done in the world.
跨歐洲的 Internet 上的銷售額去年是 10 億美元,到 2001 年將達(dá)到 300 億美元。一項研究表明,世界范圍內(nèi)的 Internet 商業(yè)活動僅在未來 6 個月里就將翻一番。其中絕大多數(shù)是商業(yè)團(tuán)體之間的交易。我們認(rèn)為本世紀(jì)末 Internet 商業(yè)的全部市場將會達(dá)到 2000 億美元。這還只是保守的估計。我們說的不僅僅是買和賣的問題。大約一年以前,IBM 創(chuàng)造了一個術(shù)語 E-business (電子商務(wù))描述所有人們得以從網(wǎng)上獲取價值的方式。企業(yè)雇員之間的交流將驗證如何開發(fā)產(chǎn)品、如何共享觀念、如何形成小組、如何完成工作。企業(yè)與其它供應(yīng)商、分銷商、零售商之間的交流將加快資金循環(huán)次數(shù)、速度和效率。另外政府與市民、教育者和學(xué)生、醫(yī)務(wù)提供者和病人之間的交流和交互作用也非常重要。這種情況令人非常激動。最重要的變化和挑戰(zhàn)并不是技術(shù)方面。實際上,連接到 Internet 上相對來說很簡單。大的挑戰(zhàn)來自于這個世界運行方式的基本變革。