Another example, that we recently uncovered in Ontario was a service called Supply Line. It was designed for government purchasing agents to find suppliers. It provided an electronic yellow pages, corporate descriptions and the capability to post tenders on a elec bulletin board for suppliers and other purchasing agents to see. It also provide email capabilities.
A major reason for the demise of Supply Line was that its information became quickly dated, plus the its charging methods were not profitable. The former points to a major issue of "information fusion" where services in support of electronic markets, such as electronic yellow pages, product catalogues, etc. need to be updated continuously. Again there is an integration/federation issue here.
Both of these system are only loosely connected to the using corporations. But they do indicate a growing movement towards integration. How close the nature of the integration required is to federation remains to be seen.
- Mark