Are all systems go for e-business?

By Betti Alisjahbana

JAKARTA (JP): Estimates say there are over 100 million Internet users around the world, and the number is growing exponentially. International Data Corporation (IDC) estimates 510 million people worldwide will be on-line by 2003.

The phenomenon is felt around the world without exception. While it took television 13 years to reach 50 million viewers all over the world and 38 years for radio to reach the same number of listeners, it took less than five years for the Internet to achieve the same milestone.

The World Wide Web, commonly known as the WWW, has made the Internet more user-friendly and exciting. Introduction of color and animated graphics has captured users' imagination and has come a long way from the boring, static pages of the early days of the Internet.

There are approximately 200,000 Internet users in Indonesia, This figure does not include global corporate intranet users with Internet connections, nor does it include local corporate intranet users with a similar connection.

What makes the Internet so influential? Today we see the promise of universal access with 100 million potential customers around the globe. The Internet is a new medium for businesses to reach customers. It is creating unprecedented opportunities for businesses to take what they have in their intranet and expand themselves into a new world with universal reach.

Here are four from the number of compelling reasons for business to get on the Internet:

First, there is the promise of global advertising, i.e., getting our product information directly to end customers more effectively. An increasing number of businesses are using the Internet to make product marketing information -- such as brochures, white papers, product specifications, etc. -- easily available to customers. This avenue will become even more preferable, especially if product information changes regularly and wastes reams of printed material. The Internet is an excellent medium to reach customers and provide them with continuously updated and exciting information.

The Internet also is an excellent means to build customer loyalty. Among other things, we can use it for managing customer feedback. Using the forms capability found in Internet tools such as Lotus Domino, we can easily obtain specific feedback from our customers and have it routed automatically to the customer satisfaction department for timely response. The Internet is there 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The around-the-clock link to customers will prove invaluable and beat the phone feedback system, where customers usually complain of being put on hold too long. Of course, ultimately it is what we do with the actual feedback that determines the degree of our success.

Banks are now introducing additional services to their customers across the Internet with facilities to check balances, make transfers between accounts, pay bills and even obtain loans. They are finding the provision of the services not only enhances customer loyalty, but also reduces transaction costs significantly. On-line costs can be less than 10 percent of those accrued in a physical transaction.

The Internet also is an excellent avenue to expand our business. As more and more startups have found out, it is expensive these days to build a new outlet. Real-estate prices are rising dramatically everywhere. Even if we can afford to rent an office, we still have to take into account the overhead and staffing costs.

All of these pose formidable challenges to anyone wanting to expand his business today. Even when we finally acquire a location and staff that we need to get started, we will have but one physical store with a limited reach to customers.

The Internet is now being used by businesses to reach new customers where a physical store would fall short. They can now reach customers beyond their neighborhoods, states and even countries, something they may have never thought possible before. The concept of electronic storefronts is being deployed faster and faster these days; businesses daring to open their Cybershops are finding new ways of doing business in the Cyberspace.

Security remains an issue to be solved, but it is now commonly believed that if we truly have the products the customer wants, the security issue will be ignored. The key is to give the customers the benefit of the doubt and provide the best customer service possible, and businesses will see how this new dimension of doing business will become permanent. IDC predicts that Internet-related spending will grow 50 percent per annum through 2000. Pundits are predicting Internet sales will reach up to US$400 billion in 2002. No matter what the actual number may be, it will be a huge one.

And the Internet allows us to connect our extended enterprise to cut product development time and streamline everyday business processes. Today's technology allows companies to synchronize planning and forecasting activities over the Internet. By using the Internet as a secure communication backbone, companies can exchange planning information, work out action plans based on that data and anticipate problems that may occur in cooperation with their trading partners.

A successful extended enterprise collaboration delivers to the customer the right product in the right place at the right time for the right price, with the least possible cost throughout the supply chain.

When we connect our key business systems directly to our business constituencies, i.e., our customers, employees and suppliers via our intranet, extranet and over the Web, we have e- business in action.

Timely

Four years ago, the idea of using the Internet for doing business seemed rather illusive at best. Today, there are plenty of products and services providers who are capable of turning that dream into reality. Bold and enterprising businesses are beginning to reap the benefits.

As we are battered by tough times, efficiency and productivity are definitely the key to getting out of the ongoing crisis. New ways of making money with tight resources are always welcomed, and e-business can pave the way to move ahead when the going gets tough.

Indonesian businesses will stand to gain by entering e- business in a borderless world. E-business can certainly help our local business go global and compete with the rest of the world. The current crisis is by no means the time to sit back and wait. The visionary will see light, the bold will act and e-business as a business strategy will open the way for them.

Everyone can flourish on the Internet because the technology is open to all. Small-scale handicraft businesses can start selling their products to customers around the region on the Internet. A small engineering firm can use the Internet to collaborate with other parties in product development projects.

The Internet provides a level playing field where any innovative business can become an effective and successful e- business enterprise. Small businesses can compete with large corporations and even go global by adopting e-businesses. All it requires is to look at using the Internet and formulate a business strategy that leverages the technology, even transforming ways of doing business.

The Internet wave is not going to stop because we are facing difficult times, as it will not stop for anybody. It is up to the brave and innovative entrepreneurs to take up the challenge to move into e-business -- even during the tough times, looking to competing globally as they ride the waves into better times. It will be too late if businesses wait until the crisis is over before they get started, as the rest of the world will have already transformed itself completely into e-business by then.

The writer is a Jakarta-based IT observer.