We here at Procurement Leaders like to think we're not backwards in coming forward when it comes to embracing the power of the Internet – as anyone who has witnessed our recent rebrand will testify.

It would take a brave man to deny that the World Wide Web has transformed modern-day business, so you can imagine the excitement around these parts when talk of ‘the grid’ replacing the Internet, surfaced earlier this week.

The ‘grid’ is nothing new – a cursory google search reveals that a press release trumpeting it’s future was circulated in 2002, but recent developments in Switzerland have caused understandable ripples from Geneva to the Galapagos Islands.

Scientists in Switzerland claim the new ‘grid’ is 10,000 (yes, that’s ten thousand) times quicker than your average broadband connection.

The pioneer of the system, hardly surprisingly, is Cern – the particle physics centre that created the Internet – and it claims that grid will soon offer lighting fast capability for tasks such as high-definition video telephony (all for the price of a local call), and the downloading and sending of sophisticated images. All performed in the blink of an eye, and certainly before you can say ‘procurement leaders’.

David Britton, professor of physics at Glasgow University and a leading figure in the grid project, believes grid technology will not just revolutionise the way businesses do business but could also change society.

“With this kind of computing power, future generations will have the ability to collaborate and communicate in ways older people like me cannot even imagine,” he said.

Now that, as they say, is progress.