Remember how exciting online shopping seemed last year? Then Toys 'R Us announced Dec. 23 it couldn’t fill online orders, offering instead $100 gift certificates? But how does a parent who ordered in November tell a youngster that he's not getting Pokemon Yellow for Christmas?

Technology consultant Robert S. Tipton described that scenario during a presentation on electronic business he made to the Association of Service and Computer Dealers International during its winter convention at the Hotel Del Coronado.

"Many industries aren’t ready (for e-commerce)," he says. "The first assumption is that your internal house is in order. The second is that business leaders understand the trade-offs." Tipton is a partner in Whittman-Hart, a technology-consulting firm that works with middle-market companies with branches in the U.S. and Europe.

E-business should look to companies like National semiconductor and Wells Fargo as Net role models, he says. National Semiconductor's site is simple to click through, while Wells Fargo used the Web to halve its per-transaction costs. "Is a site accessible, or will a customer click off in frustration?" Tipton asks. He lauds the Apple site as "warm and fuzzy," just the opposite of IBM's.

— Liz Swain