These are fundamental questions that ABC must be able to answer in order to gage the effectiveness of its campaigns. It must know its customers’ ‘hot buttons’ in order to offer problem-solving solutions and advertise these solutions-based services to future customers. ABC could also look towards web analytical software to refine its marketing efforts and to help it determine future trends. The key to success is to not just gather and segment data but to use it to better understand customers. Once potential customers can be contacted and converted into true customers the next challenge is to ask the critical questions that will ultimately lead to a successful implementation of a company-wide e-business program.

Let us now examine the critical strategic questions that ABC Company must ask and answer to successfully implement its e-business operations. The focus will be on three main objectives: Data collection, joining information and improving profitability. Each one of these objectives will require a number of answers to a number of questions.   However, all of the answers shall be used for one purpose: to provide the management of ABC with the tools they need to assess their distant partners, or customers, and their direct partners, or distributors and suppliers.  These tools consist of INFORMATION.