Automatic for the People Do you know what an eMarket is? If you plan to be a dotcom success, you'd better find out fast.

Emarkets have been touted as the segment of the Internet withthe most growth potential, representing lucrative sales and highprofit margins. In fact, Forrester Research projectsbusiness-to-business sales to reach $843 billion this year.

For small businesses, eMarkets have the potential to completelyalter supply and distribution models. In addition, streamlinede-logistics and e-procurement, arising from the efficiency ofautomated supply chain processing, promise to downsize things likeinventory management from a 60-day cycle to a six-day cycle, allwhile lowering the cost of processing orders and expediting thedelivery of b2b goods and services. But there's a challengefacing eMarkets: They must not only automate the existing supplychain, but also be able to bring in new members on a global scale.Problem is, eMarkets have been heavily criticized for lacking astandard.

According to Forrester's April 2000 report, eMarketplaceHype, Apps Reality, the estimates of how much money b2bprocurement will save participating businesses is based on theassumption that all the needs of the procurement process will bemet. That includes collaborating with vendors on productspecifications, requesting quotes on products, confirming thatdelivery specifications are acceptable, negotiating prices andmore. That's an impossible task without a standard technologyor business transaction protocol in place.