Of course, such an expansive view as this paints a very broad picture of the way that e-business can impact our organizations and operations. This view is important to understood, because e-business is not a niche or market sector. It's strategic way of systematically improving the way a business operates on a variety of levels.

The connection with the Internet is often one of the most confusing aspects of e-business. In technical terms, e-business has been around for a long time. EDI (Electronic Document Interchange) was the large, valuable need to communicate together created business networks and specialized applications to do business together. These were based on VANs (Value Added Networks), which were private wide area networks allowing organizations to communicate electronically. Once in place, these networks became the means to develop and deliver electronic transactions for the business parties involved. EDI applications then dealt with the fulfillment of that transaction, trough secure electronic and mostly proprietary tools.

The reason that e-business has gone mainstream is threefold:

1. The Internet has been the backbone allowing communication and transactions between many different parties to become affordable and widespread;

2. Business have adopted XML and other standards to create B2B applications much more quickly and at a greatly reduced cost.

3. Virtual Private Networks can be created rapidly and in a secure manner, allowing consumers and suppliers to join new business networks rapidly, using Internet as the communications means.