Customers no longer need to rely on local businesses for products and services. They can shop at any time and any day of a week for virtually
anything and have it delivered to their door or desktop. Companies can
operate at any time from any geographic location around the world. Jobs can just as easily move across the state or across the ocean. The emergence of the Internet into a full blown international communications system has drastically reduced the costs of operating and transacting business on a global scale.
The move to a global economy has been facilitated by advanced telecommunications networks and particularly by the Internet. At the same time globalization adds challenges to businesses. In a global market cost of labor, varies widely among countries. In general, labor costs are higher in developed countries than in developing countries. Also, developed countries usually pay high fringe benefits to employees, which make the cost of doing business even higher. Therefore, many labor-intensive industries have moved their operations to countries with low labor costs. These moves are greatly facilitated with IT.