First, TheSauce.com needed a CEO. CD&R asked Munck if he would leave Diamond to take the job. Rogers and Schnall liked Munck's deep understanding of technology-based solutions, of what the Web was all about. For his part, after 14 years of consulting Munck was ready to lead a business full-time. "It was an exciting prospect to be walking the talk," he says. "And here, I was dealing with beautiful material, Brave New World stuff. There weren't the same problems of cannibalization and bureaucracy that we had faced with other clients."

Within Diamond's office atop the gleaming John Hancock Building in downtown Chicago, Munck reproduced the zeitgeist of a hungry Los Gatos, California startup. And he began hiring. He recruited Rik Reppe from Diamond, borrowed Diamond partner Scott McMillen as his chief technology officer, and brought aboard Steve Strasser, an Alliant sales representative, and Jeff Sturgeon, who had helped build Alliant-Link Direct. Within a month, TheSauce.com had 10 employees.

The new venture kept Silicon Valley hours -- seven days a week, 16 hours a day. "The pace is the hardest thing, running everything in parallel all the time," Munck says. "Everything all the time, everywhere." Munck's new crew returned to restaurants in Chicago and Los Angeles to test and to refine the original concept. They started jawboning eateries and distributors about joining the network, and launched a sweepstakes to attract visitors to FlyInTheSoup. com. At the same time, they approached likely content providers, such as Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration, about building online continuing-education programs.

Back at Alliant, the transitional Web site went into beta test in September, as planned. The move to an open system already was bearing fruit. Alliant had brokered a deal with Premier Inc., a purchasing group representing 1,800 hospitals and already Alliant's biggest customer, to integrate its electronic commerce systems. Alliant customers who are Premier members will order from its online catalog through Alliant-Link.com, getting immediate confirmations and feedback on availability. Mason expects the deal will help lift Alliant's revenues from Premier from $500 million this year to $700 million in 2000.

But if fear is the first motivator for change, it also serves as a deterrent. There's still resistance to electronic commerce among some Alliant middle managers who fear the new order system -- not to mention TheSauce.com -- will cannibalize existing operations. "It's taken me a fair amount of time to explain to the marketing and sales- people why opening up to the Net is a smart thing to do," Mason says. "If you're a sales rep, you're worried about being displaced. If you're a market president, you're worried that we're going to be competing with ourselves. It's classic market conflict."

They're right to worry. At best, the Net will fundamentally change the nature of their work. At worst, their work will go away. Web-based ordering will allow rivals to match pricing and promotions as never before, even as it gives Alliant the opportunity to pursue new markets. It's hardly clear whether TheSauce.com will fly -- but if it does, it someday could supplant a big chunk of Alliant's traditional business.

The alternatives, though, are far worse. Instill, already several steps ahead, is moving aggressively, acquiring new accounts and adding features to its system that, for example, help chains monitor their local purchases. "I tell people here that the customer is number one, and that our job is to serve them," Mason says. "If the customer wants to buy through the Internet, we have to make that happen. If we don't, someone else will. And we'll lose."

Keith H. Hammonds (khammonds@fastcompany.com) is a Net Company senior editor. learn more about Diamond Technology Partners (www.diamtech.com), Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (www.cdr-inc.com), and Alliant (www.alliantboston.com), on the Web.

Sidebar: How to Make Your Oldco into a Netco

Seven rules for making the move from the world of old companies to the world of Net companies.

Learn by doing. You can't remake your business into an online wonder overnight. So it's important to seek out a few quick hits -- easy chances to improve your operation and to learn about the Web. The Internet does offer opportunities for companies to create efficiencies -- with order-entry systems or inventory management -- in little time, without massive investment.

Invent a new sandbox. Building a truly revolutionary new Net company from within is usually impossible: The human and institutional barriers are too great. To enact a transformational online strategy, you'll probably have to create a new company, with separate people, offices, and funding.