The industry made progress toward e-commerce standardization this year with the deployment of RosettaNet e-commerce standards. Over the past few months several distributors have made major announcements that they began transacting business over the Internet using RosettaNet's Partner Interface Processes.

Several distributor Web sites are geared toward engineers such as Pioneer Standard's Mypioneer.com customized Web sites that offer data on components and technologies and allow engineers to buy prototype quantities. In addition, Arrow offers a home page for Design Engineers and its PRO-Series of SCM e-commerce tools are designed for both engineers and purchasers. And Avnet's Web-based tools allow engineers to quickly locate and choose a variety of the latest components.

Others, like semiconductor specialist Insight Electronics, have teamed up with Internet-based intellectual exchanges such as HelloBrain.com for technology solutions. By partnering with HelloBrain.com, Insight can make its field application engineers and technical consultants available to help EEs on design projects.

We've also seen the unlikely collaboration between rivals Arrow and Avnet for several online ventures. Plus, the top ten distributors have joined Quotility, a new online quote utility offered by eConnections.com, which was created by Avnet. This allows OEMs to collect quotes and compare product info from distributors and suppliers from one centralized location.

We can only hope for more of the same next year with distribution taking Internet services to the next level for engineers in the form of Web-based tools that will offer engineers a chance for online design collaboration. This should provide engineers with a means for quick communication when it comes to notification of design changes among design partners-a major issue for engineers today-as well as improvements in design productivity and time-to-market.