Background
B2B (business-to-business) promises to speed the flow of transactions, increase responsiveness to customer demand and deliver new products to the market faster than ever. B2B will use the availability of technology to create transparency and visibility into the supply chain. The efficiencies resulting from this transparency could lead to build-to-order capabilities and reinforce individual competitiveness. B2B also promises to lower inventory levels, and support real-time collaboration, all of which promises to lower costs.

Purpose
The electronic commerce industry, which includes B2B, B2C (business-to-consumer), and B2E (business-to-employee) initiatives, is exploding as we speak. Change has become a constant in e-commerce, and these exciting times have brought along many unknowns. In an attempt to distinguish between the hype and reality of e-commerce, we initiated a research study to determine the state of B2B initiatives in a few select firms.

While our initial objective was to better understand the participating firm's current B2B e-commerce issues in the supply chain management arena, we found that these initiatives form two sides of a coin for the automotive firms we interviewed. In these firms B2B has a customer side and a supplier side, and together they form e-business. So, from now on, we will refer to our investigation as understanding issues in the e-business activities of these firms.

Specifically, our goal was to seek information on the firm's current and future plans for their e-business strategies, and identify any organizational, technological and infrastructural issues they see impeding the implementation of these plans.

Methodology
The first step in this project called for a review of current literature on B2B, B2C and B2E. This was useful in providing a solid understanding of what was happening in the world of e-commerce, and especially B2B. In this Internet age and e-business evolution, things are changing extremely rapidly. However, by reviewing the available information, an effort was made to stay abreast of some of the major initiatives, such as auto exchanges, knowledge portals.

After this review, we developed a questionnaire designed to explore a firm's current and future plans, both at the strategic and the operational/technical level. We sought to thoroughly understand the initiatives, possible implementation alternatives and any impediments a firm might see in implementing its strategy or its operational plan.

The next step was the in-depth interview process. We interviewed individuals from five different Tier-1 suppliers to the automotive industry. An effort was made, whenever possible, to interview individuals who are involved in formulating the e-commerce strategy for their company, as well as those implementing any operational and technical plans. After each interview, documentation of the findings was sent to each participant for review and feedback, and the summary of these observations are included in this report. The purpose of this Executive Summary is to summarize key findings from these interviews and offer crucial observations for those involved in formulating strategies and implementing initiatives, as well as for those that are developing products or services to support e-business.