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The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle of quantum mechanics says that the act of observing changes the outcome. So it is with the extended enterprise - the act of supporting business relationships with networked systems changes those relationships.

Changing relationships are shaping next-generation technology decisions in areas like portals, the service-oriented architecture (SOA) and integration platforms. As affordable Web services technologies take hold, letting even the smallest of businesses link up, global industry-wide trading ecosystems will emerge. Mega databases run by third-party hubs will store vast amounts of data on global ecosystem operations, enabling forecasting on a scale never before possible. If a virus slows Asian production, for example, Eastern European factories will know immediately that they must compensate to satisfy an uptick in orders from North America.

Where such tight integration eventually will lead the business world in the decades to come remains anyone's guess. But the trajectories of leading-edge extended enterprises offer the industry a glimpse of that path. Today companies have begun shifting their focus from custom external integration efforts to internal rollouts of standards-based technologies. By revamping themselves, they expect to ease the next generation of external integration projects. From this point of tightly integrated operations will evolve new business relationships based on unprecedented trust and instantaneous communication. In the stage beyond, those relationships would grow into new organizational structures, such as the virtual company.

Companies within the aerospace, automotive, finance, high-tech, human resources and retail industries have created some of the most cutting-edge extended enterprises today. They already are seeing new business relationships develop.

For example, in a multiphase, multimillion-dollar project of which the first phase will be completed by year-end, United Airlines has begun building an advanced content management system for its many vendors' plane maintenance documents. Based on the Enigma 3C Platform from Enigma, the content management system will eliminate the last vestiges of paper manuals used by its staff mechanics and contract maintenance facilities while improving content integration. When an engine or parts manufacturer modifies maintenance manuals, the system automatically will update the data for access by any mechanic who needs it. United will tightly integrate and hyperlink maintenance manuals and data from the aircraft parts vendors, allowing mechanics to move from one manual to another regardless of which parts maker created the document, says Greg Hall, senior vice president, maintenance and engineering for United in Chicago.