<p>Introduction<br/>In the past few years, we have witnessed an explosion in the online world—an explosion that is also a<br/>harbinger of how businesses will operate in the future. Supply chains are being re-thought, products and<br/>services reconfigured, and business models revamped. Yet while e-business and the Internet are turning<br/>everything upside down, one basic component of business remains unchanged: The relationship<br/>between supplier and customer remains (and always will be) the basic building block for every business<br/>transaction. In the online world, the way that relationship manifests itself may be vastly different from<br/>the traditional relationship-building process, but the need to create a compelling customer experience<br/>remains critical.<br/>Consider this: For all the hoopla about e-commerce, 42 percent of customers shopping on the Internet<br/>abandon the online experience in favor of a traditional bricks-and-mortar channel. In part, this may<br/>be due to unfamiliarity with the new chann</p><p><br/></p>