Harnessing emerging information technologies to organization strategy and processes is one of the vexing challenges IT management faces. Candidate technologies must first be identified: sometimes these can bubble up from within the IT group; in other cases, executives rip articles out of business magazines and drop them on the CIO's desk. Perhaps your company is fortunate to have a group or individual assigned with scanning for value-adding emerging technologies. Whatever the source of the inspiration, management then must assess the potential future business implications.