Intel is doing more for E-business than simply making faster processors. The chipmaker also is a big proponent of business-to-business integration and revealed Tuesday that it will process $5 billion--or 10%--of its revenue and supplier purchases using RosettaNet E-business technology standards.

RosettaNet is an XML-based standard introduced in 1998 that lets supply-chain partners automate IT system interactions responsible for collaborative demand forecasting, order management, shipping and receiving logistics, invoicing, and payments. Intel says its long-term goal is to squeeze as much as $500 million in annual costs out of its supply chain, although the company hasn't publicly set a deadline for this.

Much of these savings will come from eliminating the use of electronic data interchange to communicate with suppliers and customers, although this could take as long as a decade, says Chris Thomas, Intel's chief Web services strategist. "The costs in EDI are the human overhead costs because IT departments have to meet to design a custom business process each time with each business partner," he says. Intel positions RosettaNet as a favorable alternative because it's a standard that multiple companies can adopt, eliminating the need for individual customer interfaces.

Thomas says companies are missing out on cost savings if they wait for widespread adoption of Web-services standards Soap and UDDI rather than using XML today. He noted that all 90 of Intel's trading partners in 17 countries are using RosettaNet standards. Says Thomas, "XML is a key to getting started with Web services."