This chapter hardly begins to describe all of the different problems and possibilities that companies reengineering for e-business will face. It does, however, provide managers with a general approach and suggest some of the arguments they will encounter.

More importantly, it lays the groundwork for the focus of the remainder of this book. Companies may undertake first-generation Web applications without worrying about reengineering their IT operations because Web applications can be undertaken by a special group that simply focuses on creating a Web site. Second-generation e-business systems are different. To develop companywide enterprise systems that can integrate existing legacy applications and provide complex services to hundreds or thousands of users, IT groups must significantly alter the way they develop software. They must learn new techniques and methodologies and retrain their developers. The remainder of this book focuses on the nature of the changes IT must make and on effective ways to make those changes.