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In "Welcome to the Revolution," an article in
the December 1993 issue of Fortune magazine, Thomas A. Stewart
discusses four simultaneous business revolutions that are
shaping the future business world. These changes are "the
workings of large, unruly forces; the globalization of markets;
the spread of information technology and computer networks;
the dismantling of hierarchy. Growing up around these is
a new, information-age economy, whose fundamental sources
of wealth are knowledge and communication."
Information can create competitive advantage, improve service
and productivity, reduce costs, and improve flexibility
and responsiveness to rapidly changing business conditions.
The Information Highway is envisioned as an international
network of networks that will provide two-way access among
users, information providers, and services worldwide.
Businesses today are looking for ways to participate in
this information-age economy, to help them become more competitive.
Today’s Internet provides the best current model of tomorrow’s
interconnectivity.
The Internet’s capabilities include:
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Electronic Mail
- private one-to-one and one-to-many global communication |
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Collaboration
- on-line conferences, private discussion groups, the
ability to access files from or log into remote computers |
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Information gathering
- financial information, airline schedules, on-line newspapers,
government and regulatory databases, product and service
information from businesses worldwide, and special collections
of all sorts |
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Information dissemination
- the ability to post information such as on-line catalogs,
product and service information, and support systems |
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Intermarketing
- new marketing communications techniques that work in
interactive network environments, especially when the
marketing process involves high levels of both information
content and interaction with customers. |
Internet Information Highway access is in demand by businesses
of all sizes, educational institutions, government bodies,
and individuals. There are currently 2.2 million host systems
and servers connected to the Internet (1.5 million in the
US alone), and these numbers are expected to double every
year for the next few years. The Internet has been variously
estimated to include about 50,000 computer networks and
between 20 and 40 million users. It is also said that the
Internet is growing at the rate of 10 percent per month.
By the year 2000, there will be about 96 million hosts and
servers directly connected to the Internet, roughly equal
to the number of households in the US. Growth internationally
will be even greater on a percentage.
With this development, there will be both opportunities
and challenges awaiting for us.
By Benson Yeung, Senior Partner
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