IT and other operational managers often dislike the idea of outsourcing activities in their areas of responsibility. The reason for this seems pretty clear: outsourcing invites the possibility of added complexity, loss of control, and operational risk. Of course, outsourcing can result in all these things. But it has been a long time since most businesses were completely vertically integrated -- that is, since all company activities were performed internally.

About a year ago, we first addressed the subject of Web services in CBR . At that time, Cutter survey results raised many questions about the meaning of "Web services," how companies intended to use these services, and why many respondents seemed so down on ASPs but nonetheless willing to consider using Web services in analogous ways. The data contained seemingly contradictory results, as is probably not surprising for a relatively early stage in the use of a new technology. In my review of that issue (Vol. 2, No.

Few areas of business have produced as many surprises as has IT. If we look back over the past 40 years or so, we see an accelerating pattern of advance, driven by Moore's Law, in which technologies rise, propagate, and are then eclipsed by new and better technologies. And IT companies come and go almost as rapidly (e.g., Wang, Digital). The problem of keeping track of it all, how to see somewhat into the future to the next important business opportunity, is a difficult one, and it is the focus of this issue of CBR .