So you think you are the humble performance, capacity or system manager, and thus the majority of the fuss about e-business won't affect you! Think again, because it is not all hype. The following is the government's definition of e-business:

'The exchange of information across electronic networks, at any stage in the supply chain, whether paid or unpaid. It takes place:

• within an organization
• between businesses
• between businesses and consumers
• between public and private sectors

Note the all-embracing nature of the definition. E-commerce is the 'exchange of information. It encompasses exchange across all 'electronic networks'. The definition is not limited to just the world wide web (WWW) or Internet. It includes other forms of electronic network such as telephony, mobile telephony and digital television.

E-commerce encompasses all elements in the supply chain. For example, trading between departments in the same company is e-commerce. Business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce is now well established in the media as the area that will involve the greatest value of electronic trading. Business-to-consumer trading (B2C) is the area that received all the early media 'e-hype'. This is the high profile world of 'dot coms' and selling off the web which some people unwisely still consider to be the totality of e-business. Increasingly much public and private sector business such as business rates and taxation will be e-commerce transactions. Again the definition is all-encompassing.

The definition further states that e-commerce does not necessarily involve the transfer of money. Both unpaid and paid transactions are equally e-commerce. A client accessing a map of your office location across the Internet is as much a piece of e-commerce as someone buying your goods from your web site.

So even if your web site is designed by an outside agency and hosted by an ISP, convince me that the above definition does not impact on some of the systems that you are responsible for managing. Even in the smallest businesses there will be interaction between in-house traditional applications and new e-business systems. Fail to come to terms with the new technology surrounding Performance Management of e-business systems at your own peril.

Why? Well, the all-encompassing definition of e-business above is the government's definition. The government is promoting this broad view to Chairmen and Directors of all leading UK businesses. It is thus likely that your Chairman will adopt this wide view of electronic trading as being a good idea. Many of us know how such good ideas filter down the organization from the Chairman. His good idea becomes the senior managers company strategy. That company strategy becomes the middle managers business plan for this year. That business plan is what they hand you as your problem to implement and support.