Gartner estimates that B2B e-commerce transactions will account for about $ 7 trillion by 2004. This represents about 7 per cent of the forecasted $105 trillion of total global sales transactions. "What you really need to ask yourself is whether you want a chunk of that pie" says Andrew Rowsell Jones, research director with the Gartner Group. B2C transactions (non financial goods and services) are expected to exceed $380 billion worldwide by 2003.

"By 2004, 70 per cnet of all business relationships will be non traditional" said Rowsell-Jones, what you should be telling yourselves at this point is, "I have to be able to capture something of this market, be a global brand and most importantly reach outside India", he added addressing the assembly of corporates at the Gartner E-Reality Summit.

To be able to achieve this, Rowsell-Jones recommends that companies be articulate about their vision and integrate it with an IT strategy. For this, he recommends that companies establish focussed e-business councils which comprise business planners as well as IT strategists. "A consultant's map without the requisite IT support is totally useless", he stressed. An alignment of business and IT is absolutely critical for a sound e-business strategy. On the business plan front, Rowsell-Jones suggests that planners follow the VC model, that is one which assesses business plans continuously and doesn't hesitate to drop a model the instant he finds it isn't working.

On the technology front, he stresses that enterprises must adopt only those technologies that support key business initiatives and market imperatives.

Cautioning against the hype that surrounds certain technologies which enjoy "high visibility either in the media or what your CEO is going to be asking about next" as Rowsell-Jones puts it, he warns companies against deploying immature technology.

Bluetooth, Linux and Portals were words that figured very high on the visibility axis of Rowsell-Jones' presentation. "These are over hyped, there is still a lot of technology to be developed in these areas" he cautions.

Addressing concerns on how to tackle traditional distribution channels to avoid conflict, Rowsell-Jones suggests that companies should adopt strategies like creating a differentiated product line for the Web or alternately giving the dealer channel some benefit and "get creative about the way you remunerate your dealers".

He points to the fact that there are certain products that are best suited to the net while others are best sold in a fashion that integrates the Net as well as dealer networks.

The sessions on e-strategy also focussed on Customer Relationship Management (CRM) as an important and key differentiator in the Net economy. Speaking on CRM Business Strategy, Neil McMurchy, Research Director at Gartner said, "CRM puts the customer at the heart of your business, you can compete on differentiating factors like price or quality or brand and finally service, which is the case for CRM, the relative importance of service, understanding the catering to the customer has gained a great deal of importance now".

McMurchy indicated that CRM could be effectively deployed to measure and manage demand. Finally he indicated that "You could basically avoid a situation where you send brochures selling a product to a person who has already been buying the product for the last several years so enhanced customer understanding through CRM helps you measure, manage and exploit demand better".