Manufacturers embrace Internet as customer service tool.

The Internet is becoming popular as a communications tool for the customers and sales personnel of manufacturers. In a survey conducted by Advanced Manufacturing Research (AMR) among 1000 manufacturers all over the world, it was discovered that a approximately 71% of manufacturers are using the Internet for transaction processing and for improving customer relations. On the other hand, 11% of the respondents plan to utilize the technology by 1998. In addition, a survey conducted by AMR among enterprise resource planning (ERP) providers revealed plans for the creation of new ERP applications