Some say that the Internet is the most important technology since the dawn of the PC revolution in the 1980s. It offers the world of commerce not only a means of leveraging existing investments made in LAN and PC technology but also new and exciting ways for those organizations to use the Web as the basis for a much broader range of business applications that extend their communication and information-sharing capabilities.
Some pundits contend that your organization will not survive into the twenty-first century without a presence on the Internet. Phrases such as “increased competitive advantage” and “a thousandfold return on any investment you make when you deploy this technology” are indeed compelling. Couple this with the ability to provide greater flexibility in global communications both inside and outside the enterprise (based on common infrastructure standards), and an environment that supports the accessibility and dissemination of that elusive corporate asset—information—appears to clinch the deal. As the Internet and associated Web technologies continue to mature into an effective platform for businesswide communication and information sharing, the level of sophistication and functionality will unquestionably increase. Tempted, or still skeptical? In either case, read on.
So just how easy is it? Well, to meet this challenge, you need to provide an integrated, platform-independent environment that provides access to information, irrespective of time and place. It’s relatively easy to provide Internet access (subject to your IP network being in place and that you don’t forget the additional demand that will be placed on your server technology and communications bandwidth), and it is relatively easy to put up your first Web site to supplement the front-office publicity vehicle providing paper-based promotional activities. The reality, of course, is that this will be yet another technology fad unless it is driven by a well-defined strategy and it identifies some clear business benefits up front. Companies need to at least understand the basics and determine exactly what this technology can do for them. Despite how this technology develops in the future, the business potential of the Internet and associated technologies appears to be here to stay, and the one thing you can be sure of is that your competitors are at least exploring the potential.
Strategies that are driving the adoption of this technology are in line with key factors driving business. These factors apply to every organization: the need to increase the competitive edge, to reduce time to market for new products and services, and to increase revenues while driving down the cost of operations. This technology also offers completely new business opportunities that were never possible before. Other factors that drive deployment are based on threat. Web technology really does level the playing field; entry into existing markets becomes less expensive and easier as barriers, including geography and currency, are blown into cyberspace. Your organization could well be competing against an almost virtual organization, one that does not have the mature overheads and inflexible IT infrastructures of overweight dinosaurs.
Benefits can be realized at many different levels across the enterprise: corporate, business unit, and departmental or functional. Each of these areas has a fundamental need for effective communications, information sharing, and collaboration throughout the organization, both vertically and horizontally, from the start of the supply chain through to delivery of finished goods or services. This may well include both suppliers and customers as part of the process. Let’s also consider initiatives such as Business Process Reengineering (BPR). Yes, I know, most office processes were never designed in the first place, so how can they be reengineered? However, BPR is all about breaking down the silos, those departmental barriers that have been reinforced more often than not by the technology solutions of the past. BPR attempts to extend the private network to the public network and integrates suppliers, customers, and partners into the workflow. Organizations are preparing to extend their corporate vision beyond the boundaries of the enterprise itself, integrating suppliers, customers, and partners as part of the end-to-end value chain. The vision is one of teams or workgroups delivering against business objectives—access in a timely manner to quality information for the new knowledge worker is the key element. This in turn will improve the speed and quality of decision making within and beyond the organization.
You might have read examples of what the leading companies are doing with the technology. In case you haven’t, let’s take a look at what organizations are doing currently. Early use of the technology tends to be evolutionary and generally falls into two categories: message-centric, in which the Internet technology is used for managing message transfer and file transfer between different locations; and document-centric, in which the technology is used to place corporate product and service information, policies, and standard office procedures on Web servers for access by both internal and external users.
What do we mean by “information” when we talk about the need to track down information quickly? We are not talking about structured data—all that wonderful stuff found inside our production and transactional databases. We are talking about unstructured information—all that ad hoc, rich information that our business communities use on a day-to-day basis, the real value-added information that continues to elude the business users. This information is scattered around the organization, sitting on those islands of isolation—personal computers. There is no version control and no easy way to retrieve the definitive source without sifting through tons of information. No wonder productivity within the office environment has declined during the past few years. Here is a key corporate asset that is generally little understood and, for the majority, is never really managed.
During the past year, the Internet and the World Wide Web developments have provided a range of technologies to assist in the publication of rich information in electronic form, not only in an effective and user-friendly way but in a way that offers a mechanism for providing a centralized repository and common navigation system that all can use. These technologies usually manifest themselves in an intranet within the organization. The intranet created a lot of interest in 1996, and it appears to be the most practical corporate use so far for Internet technologies. Intranets permit internal company information to be accessed from any platform and to be distributed cost effectively. Intranets provide many benefits to enterprises. Use of the browser paradigm simplifies internal information management and improves internal communication. Similarly, Web navigation and search engines make it easier for people to find and analyze information. Just as a World Wide Web presence informs customers, an internal Web presence can be used to inform and educate employees. Integrating Internet technologies with an enterprise infrastructure and legacy systems—whether they are client/server or mainframe applications—provides yet another opportunity for leveraging existing technology investments.
Businesses and software vendors are looking to the Internet as the ultimate in client/server networking. Businesses are defining the real value of the Internet as the connection between platform-independent desktop browser software and Web-enabled applications that are the front end for database servers. The Internet is additionally proving to be an ideal environment for exploiting the synergies among the many maturing but often proprietary technologies such as groupware, workflow, and document management.