Business-to-business (B2B) marketers have woken to the reality that their customers are hanging out online and have begun to divert resources in that direction, according to the latest research compiled by eMarketer.

Online spending in the B2B category will rise 23.7 percent next year to $2.4 billion, according to Veronis Suhler Stevenson forecasts. Even so, most of the advertising action remains with print, which attracted nearly four times the advertising revenue of online from the top 100 B2B advertisers in 2005.

According to eMarketer, the Direct Marketing Association is predicting that 2008 is the year when online marketing efforts will become the dominant medium for B2B initiatives; but that seems more than a little optimistic based on current B2B spending patterns. It also may be beside the point.

As noted in a 2005 U.K. Internet Usage in Business Market Report, Internet connectivity is now virtually ubiquitous among companies, in the U.K., the U.S. and elsewhere - and is no longer seen as a tactical weapon used to improve business communications; instead, it is being viewed as a strategic weapon used to improve a business's entire value chain. As the Internet becomes integral to business operations, it is being judged on the same criteria as other capital expenditure.

There is a very real risk that B2B companies with an online focus limited to marketing via search engine or display advertising will lose out to 2.0-savvy businesses committed to internet-enabling everything throughout their organization.