The Ultimate Technology Survival Guide

Every e-business product explained? Yeah, right.

Actually, that is our plan here. We started this project—categorizing the expanding universe of business software and Internet services—as an internal exercise. Then we realized a map of the e-business terrain would be useful for you too. So here it is: a field guide to e-business that explains, piece by piece, the latest software and Internet services that can make a company work better, and how all the pieces fit together.

We name names—so you can. In the guide that follows you'll become fluent in the differences between Akamai and Ariba, and we'll demystify CRM, ERP, CMS, EIP, and more.

If we don't literally name every e-business product in the universe (we tried), we cover every major and emerging category—and the biggest and most groundbreaking players in each. We explain the distinguishing features of individual products and show how real companies are putting them to work. The goal is to give you a map—and ideas about places the latest technology might take your company and your career.

By e-business we mean software and Internet services that have a direct business function. It's not about tools for the IT guys. And we won't get too industry specific—no software exclusively for making hats or managing cash at multinational banks. Most of the 300-odd products we explain could serve any company.

Sure, e-business is jargon that may be obsolete next week. But it has an essence that's here to stay: It's about people and information finding each other more effectively throughout an enterprise and beyond its firewalls. Customers get their products and answers faster, employees collaborate better, and companies coordinate production and deliveries more accurately with trading partners.

That's e-business. Now here are the tools and services to help you do it.

Copyright © 2004 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Originally appearing in Ziff Davis Smart Business.