Information Technology (IT) has brought significant changes in the business world. Thernbusiness community in Addis Ababa can get significant benefit from the appropriate use ofrnIT. Integration of hypertext and expert systems technology has brought a new dimensionrnto modern information retrieval, because it can help expert users in browsing and navigatingrnwhile non-expert users can get an expert guidance to retrieve relevant information.rnDefinition, components, historical developments of hypertext and its differences withrnconventional information retrieval systems have been discussed followed by a discussion onrnthe expert systems technology. The benefits of integration of these two technologies havernbeen discussed along with brief description of some software tools with particular referencernto Knowledge PrornAddis Ababa Chamber of Commerce (AACC) provides trade information to its members.rnHowever, almost all the respondents in a survey underlined that their informationrnrequirements are not met by the existing facilities. This result is found to be statisticallyrnsignificant at any acceptable significance level (;(2,,)=878370, p=O.O). Informationrnrequirements of various business sectors have been identified. More than seventy percent ofrnthe business houses surveyed possess IT equipment ranging from fax, computers andrncommunication facilities though computer usage is mostly related to word processingrnapplications. Most respondents of the survey indicated their willingness to expand the ITrnfacilities and were willing to pay for their required business informationrnDesign considerations of an integrated expert and hypertext business information systemrnhave been discussed and a quick prototyping approach has been used to develop arnprototype business information system. Hardware and software requirements and thernimplementation issues have been discussed. The prototype system consisting of a hypertextrndatabase coupled with an expert user interface would improve the business informationrnfacilities in AACC