Includes bibliographical references (p. 253-256) and index.

Leading-Edge e-Business Solutions and Strategies -- What Is a "Strategy of Choice" for e-Business? -- Enabling Internet Business--Delivering a Compelling Message to "Buy, Sell, or Engage" to the World -- Striving for the Customer--The High-Stakes Battle for On-Line Customers and Market Share -- Blurring Lines at Corporate Boundaries--Engineering the Virtual Enterprise -- Understanding the Impact of Technology -- Seeing e-Business Infrastructure as a Living System That Is Part of a Large, Expanding, Networked Ecosystem -- E-Business Challenges and the Dynamics of Today's Markets -- Strategic Technology Blueprint for e-Business -- Where Do You Start? -- Macrolevel Analysis of Business Objectives -- Looking at Business Processes and Relationships -- Best Practices of Technology Leverage for e-Business: From Architecture to Strategy -- The Notion of e-Services -- E-Business Strategic Technology Architecture -- The Role of the Portal -- Developing e-Business Functions -- Today's Biggest Challenges of e-Business Development -- Build Your Company's Vision of e-Service Ideas Tailored to Your Customer's Specific Needs -- Start with Your Key Information Access Requirements -- Understanding the Process of Information Dissemination over the Internet and the Problem of "Information Overload" -- Providing Mission-Critical Information When and Where It Is Needed Most -- Information Intermediation, Knowledge Resource Centers, and "On-Line Librarians" -- Enabling Business Efficiencies Quickly through New Forms of Collaboration -- E-Business and Application Integration -- What Are Companies Facing in Today's Disparate Enterprise Application Environments? -- Enterprise Application Integration: A Multistep Process -- eCRM and Forging a Single Vision of the Customer -- Integration Requirements to Support Internet-Based Customer Interactions -- Controlling Business Process Integration: Being Virtual Rather Than Physical -- Enabling e-Marketplaces: ERP-to-ERP Integration Challenges -- Future Directions: Where Should EAI Be in a Couple of Years? -- The Pressing Need for a Unifying Integration Platform -- Soon We'll Have a Whole Virtual Enterprise: The Case of the European Construction Industry -- The Portal -- The Portal: A Taxonomy -- How Many Types of Portals Are There? -- EIP: Inside and Outside -- Business Intelligence Portals -- Role Portals -- Business-to-Business Portals -- Corporate Portals as a Virtual Employee Assistance Department -- The On-Line Virtual Workplace: A Small but Growing Phenomenon -- Which Type of Portal Is Best for You? -- The Corporate Portal Framework -- The Corporate Portal Framework Defined -- Portal Information Services -- Portal Application Services -- Portal Infrastructure Services -- CPF Architecture for the Extended Enterprise: The Network of Portals -- The State of Corporate Portal Technology -- The State of Technology -- The Corporate Portal Marketplace: An Overview -- IBM's EIP Framework -- Oracle's Portal Framework -- Implementing the Corporate Portal Framework -- Assessing Feasibility -- Identifying Critical Success Factors -- Business Priorities Dilemma -- Starting from the Intranet -- How to Encourage Users to Use the Portal -- Supporting Corporate-Employee Communications with Portals -- The Corporate Portal: Customer Service Center on the Web -- How Leading Companies Use Portal Technologies to Improve Customer Service: Cases in Point -- Managing the Portal as an Organization -- Challenges for the Future -- Intelligent Portals: Delegating Front-End Web Functionality to Intelligent Agent Technology -- XML Story--Working the Language End -- Corporate Portals and Peer-to-Peer Computing -- Competing for Leadership with Portal Organizations.

Discussing the impact of technology, the new challenges it poses to B-to-B companies, and the best strategic use of portals to provide a competitive advantage, the author describes techniques developed at leading-edge companies such as Dell and Cisco, for using corporate portal methods to cut costs, improve business intelligence, and more. 25 illustrations.