The Internet revolution has only just begun, the head of IBM`s European, Middle East and Asian division, Mike Lawrie, told delegates at an IBM conference on e-business in Sandton yesterday.
The conference was part of the one-day IBM South Africa Executive Forum held in the Sandton Convention Centre.
[VIDEO]"We`re in the first four or five years of a 25-year cycle," he said. As for using the Internet for e-business, most companies around the world hadn`t moved further than a home page and carrying out simple transactions over the Web.
Only 7% were undertaking complex transactions, had core processes integrated across their business and had developed external value nets, said Lawrie.
No more than 1% of companies around the world were using the Web for innovative new business designs and continuously adapting their businesses to harness its potential. Technology, meanwhile, had moved way beyond initial individual applications and was e-enabling entire business processes.
"Whole industries are shifting and changing, new business models are emerging," said Lawrie.
Unlike 18 months ago, these new models "absolutely have to make money". Lawrie highlighted the need for integration and infrastructure as the key drivers of the next generation of e-business.
"The real power of e-business is around end-to-end transactions. To really maximise your return on investment, to reduce costs, increase efficiencies, provide enhanced customer service and gain competitive advantage, you need to integrate all the processes so that you leverage any investment you have already made in each of these areas," he said.
With integration would come "pervasive e-business", with devices connected to the Internet via embedded technologies. "Soon we won`t actually be aware of the technology," he said. "It will be buried within all our consumer products like cars and refrigerators."
As integration embraced more processes, relationships and devices, IT infrastructure would become increasingly important. "The demands on the current infrastructure are enormous and they`re only going to accelerate," said Lawrie.
Infrastructure of the future would have to be end-to-end and open, based on cross-industry standards so that businesses could connect to consumers, other businesses and "billions of devices" wherever they were. Lawrie advised businesses that have made huge investments in IT over the years not to discount those investments but to leverage them.
He said the next phase of e-business would be about innovation, but "the key thing is that innovation must deliver solid returns and create sustainable business models".
In spite of Wireless Application Protocol`s (WAP) misfortunes and the resultant bad press, Lawrie identified mobile commerce as "one of the most exciting, dynamic and explosive technology drivers at the moment".
Val Rahmani, IBM`s GM of Global Wireless Solutions, told delegates that the critical criteria for the success of e-business via mobile technology was that the services offered had to be time-critical, location-specific and personal to the user. She noted that WAP had got off to a false start because the services offered didn`t add real value to the users of mobile devices.
The other critical ingredient was that it must be so easy to use that it quickly becomes intuitive. "There must be no learning curve," said Rahmani.
Mobile devices connected to the Internet had to give users instant access to information they actually needed, 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week, she said.
The service had to be "reliable, secure and available". Many of the services envisaged looked "farfetched today," she admitted. But "these things are coming, and they`re coming fast".
Also visiting SA to participate in the conference was Bill Etherington, a senior IBM VP. Etherington yesterday met with President Thabo Mbeki in Pretoria to discuss IBM`s involvement in the Presidential Advisory Council on IT and the government`s e-government strategy.
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