These gains are not outcomes of technology per se but of the application of technology to meet business requirements at various steps along the value chain - including access to information which may reduce transaction costs for inputs, extend marketing opportunities, improve market outcomes, and enhance the quality of customer relations (chapter IV). While this experience is evident across sectors, the ways in which individual enterprises relate to ICTs vary according to their needs, the industries and activities in which they are engaged as well as the skills and capabilities of their owners. On the one hand, ICTs offer new ways of building capabilities, through improved access to information, new and more interactive services and innovative approaches to formal and lifelong education.