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by Erin Callaway, Contributing Editor Posted on Friday, November 03, 2006 3:10:08 PM   Before you start buying e-business technology, divvy-up the following tasks amongst the members of your e-business team. - Brush up on XML. Most important, learn which standards are vital to your industry. For electronics and high-tech, for example, RosettaNet (Santa Ana, CA) is key. Also, Microsoft Corp. (Redmond, WA) this year is due to release BizTalk, an important XML-based enabler for anyone running e-business applications on the Microsoft platform.
- Establish your position on best-of-breed. If you want to start now, you will likely have to go best-of-breed whether you want to or not. Right now experts and early adopters alike say no one vendor can supply every component you need, so the real question is whether you think you can afford to wait for large vendors to deliver on their promises to provide turnkey solutions. Many enterprise applications providers catering to that market are coming out with suitable all-in-one solutions.
- Determine your integration requirements. Lots of vendors sell integration platforms, but the solutions aren't all the same. Some are better suited for integrating internal systems while others are better for B2B integration. Some providers offer platforms that cover both. By the way, don't forget about the plant.
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