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Time Based Competition
The "Vision" Thing

Internet
The Net Era
The Internet - Some Perspectives
Chat Society
Net Governance

Branding
Brand Positioning
Brand Personality
Brand Extension

Written - 1999

SO much has been said about the Net that it takes a good long think before one can come up with something different to say about the Net in general. Specifically, of course, there are events and occurrences by the day that are pushing the borders of impossibility further and further back. In fact the line between the imaginable and the technologically possible has grown rather blurred, over the past few months.

Let us step away from the nuts and bolts of the Internet, and look at it from 4 distinct perspectives : the Net as a business tool; the Net as a technology; the Net as a carrier and the Net as a culture. But first, a few basic reminders. Number one, the Internet is still very much US centric. 50% of the hosts come from the US. The backbone of the Net is in the US. Second, there is as yet, no danger of all the bandwidth being clogged with the traffic. Rest assured, there is enough and more. Third, the good old democratic days of the Net - small company equals big company on the Net - are over. Today the Net is very competitive and very cluttered. Typically, more money needs to be spent on promoting a web site than on developing it. A whole new vista of media planning is opening up.

The Internet as a technology
To many people, the Internet is just this. As a technology, the Internet represents a set of open standards and protocols that include TCP/IP, HTTP, HTML, ORB, IIOP, etc. These are commonly accepted and can be deployed across all hardware platforms and operating systems. The use of agents or objects, which perform specific tasks, can reside anywhere on the Net, and can be used both within and beyond the enterprise, is another hallmark of this technlogy. This has led to the evolution and wide adoption of this technology in intranets or corporate internal webs. Intranets have to potential to change entire knowledge management and information management systems in organisations, and in an era hailed as the age of information, this can mean huge strategic advantages. IDC has reported returns of 1000% and above for large corporations in manufacturing and service, deploying intranets. Internet technology is continually evolving. It has thrown up radically new ideas such as push technology and streaming audio, in the last 12 months. Push technology, for example alters the fundamental axiom of the Net - that of the user pulling content to his desktop. Now he / she can receive a broadcast (web cast) from CNN every morning or 3 times a day. Streaming audio allows you to listen to live rock concerts or seminars, while continuing to work on your desktop.

The Internet as a business tool.
This is the evolving perception of the Net, but here too, one can question whether people have grasped even the potential of the Net as a business tool. Most companies are still in the stage of testing the waters, putting Websites on the Net and using it to communicate with customer and/or investor communities. In India, though, we are a step behind, as most Indian sites look like scanned corporate brochures, however pretty they may be. "Who is using the Net well ?" You may ask. GE, Bank of America, Fedex, Walt Disney and the Wall Street Journal for a start. Whats so special about these companies ? The common strain here is that they all use applications beyond basic information dissemination that make their site rich and a source of value for visitors. They came on line with a well crafted, coherent plan, and built communities around their products and services, or delivered tangible value through their sites. They used the interactivity of the Net to its hilt, and built 'virtual value chains'. Communities are now being hailed as the way to go for most organisations, but there can be only so many communities, clearly, the early birds will get the lions share of the worms.

The Internet as a carrier.
In treating the Internet as a communication medium, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that it is after all, a carrier of bits, and that this functionality can be used to add a lot more value to your business. Simply put, instead of building your proprietory networks to link your branches and factories at great cost, why not use the Net ?
A stellar example is the move towards electronic commerce. E-Commerce, whether business-business or business-consumer, is poised to rewrite the rule book of business. Starting with simple online ordering, going all the way to secure online payments, this is being hailed as the most exciting field on the Internet.
E-commerce is usually taken to mean transactions where payments are made online. But that's not all. Many companies have taken online parts of their selling process, without necessarily including online payments options, but are still reaping enormous benefits. A perfect example is that of AMP, the connecting parts and systems seller. Amp used to issue 400 catalogues every two years, mailing them at an annual cost of $4m to its customers, who would have difficulty locating the part they wanted. Since they took their catalogue online (in eight different languages!) AMP has recorded annual savings of $ 1.5 - 2m.
Retail stores like Amazon.com and CDNow have managed to build powerhouse businesses on the Web, using the potential of the Internet to the hilt. Amazon for instance is able to undercut competitors by 40% due to their savings from not incurring warehouse and inventory costs, distribution costs or retailing costs. When an order comes in, it is transmitted to the publisher and shipped, eliminating inventories and all the associated costs that real-world competitors have.
Canny organisations are also transferring other processes to the Internet - FedEx has successfully taken its customer service module online. The Package Tracking feature has helped to make the site a Web legend. Other organisations are using the Internet to set up virtual clearing houses and trading rings. The Paper Site is a trading floor for sellers and buyers of paper to get in touch. The JTSIN (Joint Transmission Services Information Network) is a highly secure network that allows electrical utilities to buy and sell excess power, making it one of the most interesting and novel business applications on the Web.

The Internet as a culture
The Internet is, as Mark Andreesson opines, a separate universe. It is a world unto itself, with its own norms, mores and culture. What is the culture of the Net ? Open systems, cooperation, transparency, specialisation, value addition and innovation are some of the things that spring to mind immediately. The Net must be the greatest working example of global cooperation. It's organisation is still democratic, since there is no one person or body deciding what the rules should be. It takes a whole lot of effort on the part of a very large number of organisations to manage the Net. The Internic is the accepted organisation for domain naming, the W3C formulates HTML standards, the IETF carries the flag for technology standards on the Net, CommerceNet coordinates business and transaction specifications, and so the list goes on. Transparency is another cultural signpost for the Internet. Most people and organisations on the Net have left behind the notion of power from witholding information. Companies talk about their plans and growth strategies secure in the knowledge that strategy is essentially inimitable. This is in part driven by the very high level of specialisation that is found on the Net. Organisations have focussed strongly on areas such as encryption (RSA), certification (Digisign, Verisign), Electronic cash (Cybercash, Digicash)….etc. Freedom of speech is supported by most netizens and given the fast forward evolution of the technology, the culture itself is a continuously morphing, mobile culture. The Net is definitely, still, a preserve of the intelligent. Moreover, it thrives on ability and trust - there is no end of shareware products that ask you to try the product and pay - if you find it worthwhile. Intellectual honesty comes through in all this as a signature of the Internet as a culture.

The Internet today can be used to access medical help, business solutions, domestic requirements, friends and associates and professional expertise of all types. Somebody once said "2 years ago, 'Internet' was not in the Encyclopaedia. Today, the Encyclopaedia is on the Internet." The Internet has been exploding around us, in the process transforming itself from a charge of the technology brigade, to a gigantic cultural juggernaut. Its time we stopped looking at the Net as a technological diversion, and started using it to make the impact on the world that it has potential to do.