Subscribe to our mailing list 10 Things Every Businessperson
Should Know About the Internet
1

The Internet is a unique opportunity for business

The Internet is a global connection of computer networks. It enables worldwide computer communication, electronic mail, freely available software and data of all kinds, electronic business transactions and most important, a community of tens of millions of people.

The Internet began as a network for research collaboration but is now being transformed into a global network for commercial use. This recent availability for commercial purposes has triggered remarkable growth: the Internet doubles in size annually.

We are in the midst of defining what an "Information Superhighway" might be. We have some powerful technologies to use: the continuing microelectronics revolution, fiber optic communications, ubiquitous computing, video and the cable TV infrastructure, and the worldwide telecommunications infrastructure. The Internet is seen as one of the prototypes for what the Information Superhighway might be.

One direction of the Information Superhighway seems clear: computing will take on the motion and sound of television and television will take on the interactivity and access-on-demand characteristics of computers.

We are creating a whole new way of doing business . Those on the Internet may come to understand it first.

2

Email on the Internet is easy, cheap and worldwide

Electronic mail (email) is the most commonly used application on the Internet. In many ways, it surpasses the proprietary electronic mail systems of large corporations. Yet, it is not only available to large corporate users but to individuals as well. High quality global computer communication is no longer just an expensive advantage of worldwide corporations.

Access to the Internet includes the ability to send email and with most access providers, there is no extra charge for email regardless of how much you send, how far it goes or how large the messages are. Let me hasten to add, however, that although this may sound like heaven to mass advertising mailers, there are many reasons why advertising on the Internet does not work like it does through the mail--more on this later.

There is one major problem with email on the Internet for business: it is not secure. Messages can appear to be from people other than their actual senders and the contents of messages may be seen by others than their recipients. The technology to fix these problems exists today and can be used through common agreement between senders and receivers. In time, these deficiencies will be remedied for all Internet email, but in the meantime, be forewarned.

3

You can advertise on the Internet but no junk email!

It would seem that free worldwide email to tens of millions of potential customers is an advertiser's dream come true. It doesn't work like that. Keep in mind that the Internet is interactive--your ad recipients can get right back to you and they are in contact with their colleagues. If you fill up their precious computer disk space with ads they don't want, they will register their displeasure with you and they'll spread the word about your irresponsible use of Internet resources. In spite of that restriction, the Internet is a great place to advertise. But you have to know how. The main idea is that people congregate on the Internet according to their interests. They're looking for ideas and information. If they're looking for information about your company's offerings, they will be eager to accept it. The key is to offer information to those seeking it rather than forcing it onto mailing lists.

For example, there are about 50,000 discussion groups on the Internet, ranging in subjects from brewing beer at home to sequencing the human genome. Have your engineering and marketing staff participate in discussions where your products and experience can help. Get to know what your customers really think about their problems, your products and your competitors' products. Then offer them what they need. This is just one way of many that the Internet will change the way you work with your customers.

4

The Internet offers new ways to get close to customers

In the last section, we mentioned thousands of discussion groups. These offer a unique opportunity to help customers solve their problems. While effective, discussion groups are not the only new customer opportunity.

Most companies have a lot of information about how their products are best used. The Internet offers a great way to make this information available to your customers. Apple Computer, for example, has set up an indexed collection of thousands of files on the Internet, accessible by anyone, describing how to use their computers most effectively.

Digital Equipment Corporation found a unique way to demonstrate their new Alpha computers to a broad audience. Digital provides access to two Alpha computers through the Internet. Any Internet user can get an account and try out the new computers across the network.

A rapidly growing Internet facility is the Electronic Newsstand. Magazine publishers make articles from recent issues available over the Internet through the Electronic Newsstand. Readers can sample and order a large and growing collection of publications from anywhere in the world.

Of course, there are also catalog sales over the Internet. Perhaps the most popular are for books but the range of other products is growing. The recent capability to easily transmit good quality pictures over the Net has accelerated catalog sales in recent months.

5

Documents, data and programs are available free

The Internet provides a cheap and effective way to make available research reports, census data, court decisions and public domain software worldwide at very low cost. And this capability has been exploited. Thousands of universities and companies have set up archive nodes on the network, open to the public. The U.S. Federal Government has been mandated to provide on the Internet the enormous volume of data and reports it funds and produces before it is available in other forms. Today there are millions of files available for the taking. In the future there will be much more.

Vast quantities of information is only useful if it's organized and accessible. There are tools on the Internet that periodically scan the public archive sites, build indices to the available files and provide us with tools for searching all the archives worldwide for items of interest. If you make your reports available in Des Moines, an interested customer can find them from Delhi.

6

Lots of information is organized for browsing

Searching for information works well when you know what you're looking for. Otherwise, browsing can be most effective. Thousands of companies, universities, professional organizations and others have used tools available on the Internet to organize large bodies of information for browsing. Some of these collections cover general topics while others are highly specialized to aspects of such topics as law, the environment, architecture, genetics and many, many more.

Businesses can benefit from this browsable information in a couple of different ways. First, with all that information out there, it's likely that there is some that would be helpful in nearly any kind of business. This is particularly true of public domain information such as legal decisions and census data. Second, you can use the tools to organize available information for your own company and for your customers. The information may be your own or you may simply be putting your own organization on information already available on different Internet nodes around the world.

7

Graphical tools are the easiest to use

The Internet was started to serve researchers, many of whom were computer researchers, tolerant of even the most confusing computer interfaces. Most of the computers in the Internet ran Unix, an operating system notorious for frustrating new users. As a result, the Internet began with a savage human interface...but that has changed. Most people who use the Internet today never encounter one of those strange Unix incantations like "grep", "mv' or "rmdir".

Most Internet capabilities are available today through windows, icons, menus and point-and-click actions with a mouse. The computer screen is arranged with easy to learn and easy to use graphical renditions of files to open (although they may actually reside on a computer a continent away) and buttons to click (which send behind-the-scenes messages to take actions, most likely on a distant computer).

The complexity of the Internet is hidden from its users and even application developers don't have to worry too much about it.

8

Corporate networks and data can be protected

You may have heard of the "Internet Worm", a destructive program that infected thousands of computers on the Internet in 1988. It caused a major disruption of the net but did little damage other than that. It dramatized, however, the risks of instantaneous global computer communication and the risk of computer viruses.

Businesses are eager to take advantage of the opportunities of the Internet. But they are not willing to compromise their privacy or put their operational data and other proprietary information at risk. Techniques have been developed, and continue to improve, to allow your employees to connect to the Internet without compromising corporate security. All of the opportunities for businesses --including public archives and information organized for browsing--can be exploited with little risk to the companies.

9

People are the most important Internet resource

The tools are impressive and the huge body of text, data and programs can be really useful, but don't be distracted: the people on the Internet are its most valuable resource. The opportunities to talk with others who have experience and specialized knowledge give the Internet its unique contribution to business. This is why the discussion groups and electronic mail are so important on the Internet: they constitute direct connection to the people of the Internet community. With that said, keep in mind that people will continue to be people--with all their foibles and problems--whether in Cyberspace or Cincinnati. In addition to insights and experience, you will encounter rude people and frequent torrents of worthless blather in the discussion groups. You will encounter at least as many frivolous and recreational discussion groups as serious ones. One of the most widely read discussion groups on the net covers sex in its various permutations and combinations--not a business topic for most of us. As you encourage your staff to become involved in Internet discussion groups, be aware that not all have the same business value.
10

If you're still not on the Internet, you should be.

Internet access costs as little as $10-$30/month with no additional charges for connect time (and that's the way to get it: no connect time charges). That will get you a graphical interface. You can also connect your company's local area network to the Internet, giving all your employees access to the net. Prices vary by the bandwidth of the connection and other factors, in the range of $150-$1000/month.

The Internet can provide access to colleagues and customers around the world. It's ideal for a small company with larger aspirations. Many small companies enter into contracts, partnerships and joint ventures quickly and dissolve them after a brief tenure. Communication is the key to this sort of nimble decision making. The Internet is a great facilitator for locating partners and collaborating on the work. It can also give a small company access to rare equipment: supercomputers around the country are accessible through the Internet for a variety of compute-intensive tasks.

The Internet is essential for a large company with a global client base and collaborative research projects with other companies at distant locations. Many large companies have an Internet connection for their engineering staff. Only a few of these companies, however, have organized to use the Internet strategically, to get closer to customers.

©1997, Harry Tennant & Associates

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