Add to this the realities of changing regulations and potential environmental tracking requirements, and you need information systems that provide the flexibility to evolve, deliver fast time to value, and that can integrate with our suppliers and customers.

FORBES: A Master Of Complexity: The Manufacturing COO

In addition, it's likely that the information Google collects as it watches people search and navigate in all these systems will increase the value of the ads it auctions.

FORBES: Real-time search, translation, location--everywhere?

B2B pioneers envisaged them, it is now clear that independent exchanges such as DoveBid depend crucially on deep industry knowledge and must add value with services that facilitate transactions, says Hal Varian of the School of Information Management and Systems at the University of California, Berkeley.

ECONOMIST: If you think B2B marketplaces are dead, read on