THE SECOND COMING OF SOFTWARE

摘要

Corporations are moving their entire operations online, creating e-business opportunities galore. Most of the time, when networking giant Cisco Systems Inc. wants to launch an important new computing project, the e-business pioneer does the dirty work itself. Cisco's Web site, for instance, which processes roughly 80% of Cisco's sales, was built by its own engineers. But when it came time to devise a way to move all of its own purchasing online, Cisco turned to Ariba Inc., the Mountain View (Calif.) maker of procurement software.