market changes, while others will have to rethink how to add value to attract customers. High levels of customer service and individualized attention are likely to become more important. As Wells Fargo found, a bank that offers assistance from a human twenty-four hours a day in addition to online electronic banking can attract new customers. And computer vendors that offer free and easy-to-reach customer support may be able to charge a premium, or at least not lose customers to commodity discounters. More than half the computers in U.S. offices are linked to local area networks (LANs). Increasingly, businesses are also linking into the Internet to reach counterparts in other organizations, specialized databases, and potential customers. Each month, some 2,000 businesses join the more than 20,000 that have already set up "virtual shop" on the Internet. Federal Express's 30,000 employees around the world are linked via the Internet to "intranet" sites within the company's Memphis headquarters; some 12,000 customers a day track their own packages using Federal Express's Internet Web site, rather than calling a human operator. Ford Motor Company engineers in Asia, Europe and the United States worked together electronically to design the Taurus automobile. Pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly uses information compiled on its intranet sites to schedule clinical trials and submissions for approval of new drugs in countries around the world. Visa International provides an information service called Visa Vue for its 19,000 member banks on an internal Web site. As electronic security improves, in the form of "firewalls" to prevent unauthorized access to private networks and encryption to protect the privacy of personal and financial data, more companies will use the Internet to sell products and services as well as to link their employees. The Internet opens a global market to the small business and lets low budget nonprofit organizations reach inte...
