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enterprise resource planning (ERP)

 vendors such as SAP, Baan, 

PeopleSoft and Oracle.

The approach of integrating different applications through ERP is entirely consistent with 

the principle of digital business, since digital business applications must facilitate the inte-

gration of the whole supply chain and value chain. It is noteworthy that many of the ERP 

vendors such as SAP have repositioned themselves as suppliers of digital business solutions! 

The difficulty for those managing digital business infrastructure is that there is not, and 

probably never can be, a single solution of components from a single supplier. For example, 

to gain competitive edge, companies may need to turn to solutions from innovators who, for 

example, support new channels such as WAP, or provide knowledge management solutions 

or sales management solutions. If these are not available from their favoured current sup-

plier, do they wait until these components become available or do they attempt to integrate