After several years of slumping IT spending and the bursting of the dot-com bubble, it was probably inevitable that someone would postulate that the 25-year run that could be called Age of the Computer is over. That was precisely the position of Nicholas Carr, a freelance writer and editor of the Harvard Business Review, whose 12-page article said that the major computer innovations have run their course. He said that companies could no longer expect to achieve competitive advantages through computer services because they have been commoditized.
Newsweek’s Nov 24 issue explored the topic thoroughly without resolving it, despite testimony from some in the nation’s computer industry. But where Web services are concerned, we believe the opportunities to establish competitive advantages are still dramatic and untapped -– particularly for small to mid-market businesses.
The reluctance of companies to spend on hardware or software during the past three years is a natural, cyclical pullback after the “irrational exuberance” of the late 90s, which was fueled by record profits, the fear of Y2K interruptions, and the maniacal pursuit of all things Internet. It does not mean that opportunities to create competitive advantages do not exist.
In fact, our experience suggests there are opportunities to build Web applications that both grow the top line (revenues) and reduce expenses for companies. The only thing holding back many companies from embracing these Web services are overall budget constraints.
How do you know if your Web services need a healthy dose of investment? Most customer-focused Web sites in operation today were designed and programmed 3-4 years ago. If that’s the case with your Web site, it’s probably missing new display technologies that could present your company more effectively and take better advantage of your screen real estate. And it could be costing you too much to update and maintain, given the advances in content management technologies during the past three years.
Your 3+year-old customer-focused Web site might also be missing some of the benefits of more advanced applications that provide segmented information, either through access-controlled general content areas or customer-specific features.
If your customer-focused site isn’t providing an experience and a level of service that will generate loyalty and repeat purchases, then you should be considering a Web investment soon. Your competitors surely will.
Internally focused Web applications were often neglected in the last, great wave of Internet spending. They offer great promise to increase productivity, provide higher levels of service, and cut costs.
Sharing information over an Intranet has come a long way since the late 90s, when the most popular applications were driven by human resources, such as benefits information and declarations. Today, even small- and mid-size companies have the opportunity to enjoy productivity gains associated with knowledge sharing through well-defined Web applications.
IMA recently finished a project for a client that was a redesign and new information architecture for an Intranet that promises to share content across departments and across the country, to field offices in several cities. The result is expected to be a more efficient and better-informed work force.
Even if the pace of breakthrough technological advances has slowed, as Carr contends, the opportunity for breakthrough applications has not. In fact, a slowdown in the pace of technical innovation might actually hasten the investment in applications, because the fear of investing in a shifting technological market or a declining price market has been reduced. (How often did we hear about purchasers waiting to buy technology in the past because Moore’s Law would render the purchase obsolete in less than two years.)
Our bottom line on the topic: there’s probably no better time than now to invest Web applications that can drive your business objectives.
