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Jinyan Licontent can be communicated and delivered instantly from anywhereto everywhere, provided that the ICT infrastructure is available. Digitaltechnology increases the speed and efficiency at which informationcan be processed, analysed and utilized.Connectivity enhances the ability of companies to carry outactivities remotely and to expand the number of potential customersthat can be targeted and reached. It enables companies to generate revenuefrom customers located in foreign jurisdictions without havingany old-fashioned business presence in those jurisdictions. Such connectivityalso increases “the flexibility of businesses to choose wheresubstantial business activities take place,” and as a result, “it is increasinglypossible for a business’ personnel, IT infrastructure (for example,servers), and customers each to be spread among multiple jurisdictions,away from the market jurisdictions.” 57 Digital businesses are,thus, intrinsically global; the “where” issue is neither here nor there. 58The potential benefits of e-commerce can be illustrated by theDell business model. 59 Dell relied on e-commerce to support a virtualcompany. Orders for computers are placed with Dell by telephone orthrough the Internet. Through the process of just-in-time (or lean)manufacturing, waste is reduced and productivity improved by havingthe required inventory on hand only when it is actually needed formanufacturing. This reduces lead and set up times for building acomputer. Dell orders the parts for a computer only when it has a firmorder. It operates with little in-process and no finished goods inventory.Products are shipped as soon as they are manufactured. This approachalso enables Dell to forgo having brick-and-mortar store fronts withinventory that must be kept on the books or that might become obsolete,thereby significantly reducing overheads. Items that are not built byDell are shipped directly to the customer by the manufacturer. Thesefeatures help Dell to reduce the costs of production and sales. Thisprocess allows Dell to custom design systems for its customer within57OECD, Action 1 — 2014 Deliverable, supra note 3, at 127.58Borrowing from Bill Bryson, Neither Here nor There: Travels in Europe(Perennial, 1993).59See Kenneth Kraemer and Jason Dedrick, “Dell Computer: UsingE-commerce To Support the Virtual Company,” (2001), available at http://digitalenterprise.org/cases/dell_text.html.426

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