Change as a Competitive Advantage

No matter where a business is along the e-business adoption path, the ability to change can provide a significant competitive advantage. In the early phase of e-business, the need to change may come from a sudden increase in Web site traffic caused by a holiday shopping season or an unexpected current event that suddenly increases interest in a company's products or services. If that company can adapt instantly to this change, its customers get what they need without interruption. If the company can't adapt quickly, then the customers will become frustrated with a sluggish Web site and simply click over to a competitor.

This ability to respond to change becomes more important the farther down the e-business adoption path you go. When key business processes are fully integrated from end to end, there are many more places from which change can come and many more problems created for inflexible e-business infrastructures. This is precisely why IBM has adopted a company-wide strategy it calls e-business on demand.