When Dell Inc. first began using the Internet to expand their business, the company had three basic objectives:

❶  to make it easier to do business with Dell,

❸  to enhance their customer relationships.

"For Dell, online commerce was only the beginning," writes Michael Dell¹, the Founder & CEO of Dell Inc.. "Because we viewed the Internet as a central part of our IT strategy, we started to view the ownership of information differently, too. Rather than closely guarding our information databases, which took us years to develop, we used Internet browsers to essentially give that same information to our customers and suppliers – bringing them literally inside our business. This became the key to what I call a virtually integrated organization – an organization linked not by physical assets, but by information. By using the Internet to speed information between companies, essentially eliminating inter-company boundaries, it would be possible to achieve precision and speed-to-market for products and services in ways not dreamed possible before. It would be the ultimate business system for a digital economy."