From the solution builder's point of view

The solution provider, having access to the Internet will have an over choice of possible experts for each module. How is the solution provider going to choose which experts to use? How is the solution provider going to be able to judge the risk factors?

The solution builder will not be able to be familiar with all the technical aspects involved in a required solution, not least because it is unlikely that he or she will be aware of them . Instead, the solution builder will have to be an expert in Internet communications because the only way he or she is going to know what modules to include and what experts to use is going to have to come through trusted advice and recommendations.

The solution builder will have to join special interest groups; he or she will have to get advice from other experts whose opinions they trust; he or she will have to be aware of what is happening in their own industry in respect to Internet and Web activities and will have to know what their competitors are doing. Above all, the solution builder will be part of a constant feedback loop between the end users of the solution and the evolving design.

All this information is liable to be obtained through using suitable Internet communication strategies. Through various sources, the solution provider will be able to get a broad idea of the kind of co-operative situations that need to be set up, the expertise needed and the kind of money that will be involved. The solution provider will be doing all this through communications with people.

Of course, an experienced solution builder will have built up a list of experts and specialists that they have used before, but, even so, the rapidly changing world of e-business and e-commerce will necessitate that they constantly be on the search for more. All solution builders then, will be open to establishing new agreements of co-operation. Recommendations from trusted sources will count for much, but, so also will tangible evidence.

A solution provider will be particularly responsive to recommendations from experts already working on a solution if, as is likely, the design is based upon a bottom up approach. Needs arising out of emergence and end user feedback, as the design progresses, will throw up all kinds of requirements for specialities and new kinds of expertise. In this way a solution builder will not so much be designing a solution and then creating a team to build it, the solutions and the team will be self constructing: evolving of their own volition in direct response to the system requirements.

Using all the communication possibilities available to create the right mix of people to build the components for an e-business or e-commerce solution, at the end of the day the solution builder will still be investing in uncertainties. However, like the newsagent designing a newspaper delivery service, like the professional investor creating a portfolio of investments, none of the components can be guaranteed to be a perfect choice so they will spread the risk by discounting values and build in adequate redundancies to compensate for any failures or shortcomings.