Web becoming essential for business

By Internet Photojournalist John W. Myers

Because that's where more than 200 million consumers are today, who could become your customers.

According to tech research firm IDC, online spending will total nearly $1 trillion by 2002. By 2003, IDC predicts 500 million users of the Web and $1.3 trillion in E-Commerce.

 This new business frontier called the World Wide Web has changed the entire business landscape since its inception in November 1993. The "www" is fast becoming an essential business tool for virtually all businesses, from large, multi-national corporations to small mom-and-pop enterprises.

Just how important is it for the future of your business that you begin developing at least a presence on the Web now, and perhaps even begin plans for a full-fledged Electronic Commerce Website?

Consider this prediction by one of the original architects of the Internet on growth of the Web. Vint Cerf, Senior Vice President of Internet Architecture and Engineering at MCI, was co-founder of the Internet in the late 1970s and is known as the "Father of the Net."

Cerf looked ahead a decade in 1997 and predicted, "The Internet will exceed the scale and capacity of the telephone network sometime in the latter half of the next decade. Ultimately there will be more devices on the Internet than there are people in the world."

 Perhaps Cerf's prediction won't seem quite as radical if you consider, how many telephones do you have in your home? More phones than people? Probably so. So perhaps it's not such a great stretch to imagine by 2007 you could have more computers connnected to the Internet in your home than people.

If you can picture that, then try one more Cerf prediction. Cerf said the Internet will "absorb most telecommunications services" like telephones, television, and radio within the next decade.

Can you imagine a world without telephones, TV or radio? If Cerf sees the future accurately, the Internet will be all of those rolled into one technology before 2007, which is just right around the corner.

 Irving Wladawsky-Berger, general manager for IBM's Internet division, says, "Where I see possibly the biggest opportunity of all is with small businesses--and when I say small, I mean really small, like a restauarant or a hardware store. A small business can order things over the Web. All they will need to be is attached to the right supplier. And all the computing they will need is browser-accessible on the PC."

Wladawsky-Berger adds, "Those companies that are investing to build really compelling Web sites are the ones that are going to be getting the customers."

 Are you considering a Website for your business? If you aren't, you should. Why?
"Granted, these days, you need a Website to be considered a professionally run organization. Not being on the Web is like not having a fax machine: people think you are a fly-by-night," says Internet business consulant Jakob Nielsen in his "Top Ten Mistakes of Web Management."

But spending your hard-earned cash just to "get on the Web" can be throwing money down a rathole unless you provide visitors to your Website some real value.

"Give users benefits from spending time on your site, allow them to do business with you, and their money will follow," Nielsen says. So what is the key to giving Web users benefits?

"Users only care about content (in other words, no, the medium is not the message; the message is the message)" Nielsen concludes.

 I f your company already has a Website, what message is it sending your customers?

Khalil Barsoum, General Manager, Global Industries for IBM Europe, spoke recently at the Internet Society's Internet Summit conference. "Companies moving to E-commerce must understand the importance of branding and scalability on the Internet," he said.

"[Your] brand stands for quality and excellence," said Barsoum. "Customers will expect the same from your Website." He noted that based on a user's experience accessing a corporate Website "your brand can be enhanced or terribly damaged by the site."