The Internet continues to gain in importance when it comes to business transactions. That's according to a survey done by Forrester Research (www.forrester.com) and the Institute for Supply Management (www.ism.ws).

That survey found that in the last quarter of 2001 45 percent of large-volume purchasers (buy more than $100 million per year total) reported cost savings from using the Net for purchases. That was up from 28 percent in just the previous quarter. In addition, 53 percent of large-volume buying organizations view the Internet as either very important or critical to their plans for this year.

Sixty-one percent, up from 53% the previous quarter, used the Web during at least part of the request for proposal process. And nearly 90 percent used the Internet to identify new suppliers.