This might be the most important book you read in 2011. While most companies have long-since built the internet into their business models, a sizable proportion are failing to understand its broader possibilities, limiting themselves to the narrow scope of a website and the future potential for e-commerce. As Ravi Kalakota and Marcia Robinson, partners in a e-business consultancy, neatly encapsulate in this well set-out text book, the internet isn’t a place on which business can be done, but a tool which ought to be fundamental to a company’s long-term strategy.

E-Business: Roadmap For Success, part of the impressive and accessible of the Addison-Wesley Information Technology Series, is targeted at decision-makers within companies who wish to fully embrace the medium. Importantly, it’s not simply about selling or even marketing on the web; the book focuses much more on what the internet means for customer-service relationships, supply chain and inventory management, payment processes and even research and development.

Laden with case studies, such as how Charles Schwab developed a platform to deliver real-time information to their sales reps, the book lays out a compelling case – and offers clear guidelines – for the adoption of a coordinated approach to introducing internet policies into overall business models. Neatly presented and sharply written by two experts in their field, E-Business: Roadmap For Success ought to be essential reading for any company serious about survival.

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