A type of business transformation whereby a company changes the very nature of an asset: by replacing/ exchanging it for another, whether immediately or gradually over a span of time. For example, unending advances in computer and communication technologies enable businesses to interact with customers more rapidly and efficiently, and as a result can have at disposal more timely information about demand and trends, etc. Consequently, businesses tend to reduce their inventories or at times have zero inventories.

This process means that assets in the form of finished products have been exchanged (i.e., transformed into) assets in the form of information.