This is not a joke at all. This is what no less a person than Tata Consultancy executive vice-president S Mahalingam told the delegates attending the IPA meet in Chennai.

Before the companies rush to the e-bandwagon, they should realise that the internet as a medium is only an enabler and the final transaction or business has to happen in the physical form, he said.

Mr Mahalingam said the industry should learn a lesson or two from the way the dubbawalas in Mumbai operate in an error free manner. Dubbawalas are a chain of people who collect lunch from houses and deliver it before the lunch break to the offices, and return it to home every working day. Despite being illiterate or less educated, their supply chain is so efficient that the error factor is virtually nil, he said.

He said those companies planning to streamline their value chain management with the aid of Internet tools can learn a lot from this experience. Before anybody jump into the e-bandwagon, the companies need to do an e-business assessment that would map out what all things are needed and how to go about it, he said and added that a successful supply chain management model should yield maximum functionality with minimum vendors in the chain.

Addressing the gathering Mr Krishna Sundar of Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore said that since around 50 per cent of their revenue from sales goes towards the purchase of materials, the management of value chain becomes very important fore the pain industry.

However, before adopting any model, companies should have a clear understanding about the ways and means by which they are going to execute this plan. "Otherwise, e-biz would be like fitting a turbo jet engine to a bulluck cart," Mr Krishna Kumar added.