Chapter 5

More important than the business idea

 

A new place to explore

After reading chapter 4, one of the readers in the cafe commented:

I don't know why Peter wasted so much time and space explaining his 'mental model of the Internet'. We don't need to know all these details in order to use the Internet effectively. When I ring my sister in India from Canada, I don't need to know how the analogue sound is modulated and transmitted over wire, how amplifiers are used along the way to boost the signal, etc. All I care about is conversing with my sister!

Peter said, "The Internet isn't about computers talking to each other, it is about applications talking to each other". Actually it is about people talking to each other! The applications are the tools that make our communication, collaboration, or whatever, possible. Just like the phone-wire, I don't need to know how the applications work unless I am developing them for profit.

This was swiftly answered by another reader, Mary Rickman-Taylor, from The Arizona Institute of Business and Technology, who countered:

I don't agree that the time and space spent on the "mental model of the Internet" was wasted...

...it is helpful for understanding and useful to be clear that the messages are pretty well cut up like the Star Trek transporter machine and then literally reassembled at the other end, and that it takes programs (applications) to do this to keep everything straight.

I do agree that the Internet is about people talking to each other and it is true that I don't need to know how the applications work to use the system -- but by knowing how the system works allows me to be an informed participant, whether as a user, as a consumer, or as a citizen -- it allows me to participate in the process, and allows me to avoid being gouged or hustled by charlatans or overly greedy folk, or hoodwinked by the likes ofŠ

ŠI see this exercise as an opportunity to think "outside of the box" for all of us, and do some real speculation as to what sort of e-business might be created.

Mary Rickman-Taylor

 

These two contrasting view points illustrate the inherent problems associated with knowledge gaps. Certainly we can work without all the detail that goes on behind the scenes. We have to do this most of the time – after all, why bother to learn non essential detail when there is so much else to know and to learn? But, with lack of knowledge there is a risk of becoming trapped inside stereotyped metaphors. Only by exploring the details are we able to see beyond the obvious.

The problem is of course, there are so many areas to understand and explore that everyone is forced to ignore the details of most of them. But, this is why it is so important to become involved in different groups and discussion forums because although each individual might be limited to exploring only a few areas in detail, many people between them can explore many more.

Using the metaphor of the caves again, we can think of many people exploring an underground system of caves together. Each might be in a different cave looking for a hidden passage into a new cave system. When one person discovers an opening in their area, they can call to the others – taking everyone along with them to explore the new area that has opened up. In this way a group of people can act like a unified organism, which has the ability to explore many different areas at the same time. This is the principle behind the virtual cafe.

For years, I saw the effort to spend time learning how the Internet really functioned as an unnecessary waste of my time. It was only a chance event, the communication with Yvan Caron, that drew my attention to the detail. Yet, it had a profound effect on my thinking and allowed me to see beyond the stereotyped view I'd always had and into a new cave of wonder and unexplored opportunity.

By having a knowledge of what happens inside the box – even though it may be perfunctory – has opened up a new environment outside of the box to explore.

 

Starting to explore

Having a totally new conceptual model of how the Internet works, I wanted to experiment. Using the green frog approach, I started from scratch: deciding to create an identity for myself. Checking around, I discovered that the cost of registering a domain name varied wildly: from 35 dollars per annum down to free.

Checking this out, I noticed that the full retail price of registering a domain name was thirty five dollars with one of the principal registering services but for a few hundred dollars I could become a subordinate registrar myself and register names for other people at a cost to me of only twenty percent of the full market price.

Click! A little light bulb went off in my head. Here was a product that could be sold which had a 400 percent mark up. It then began to make sense as to why there were so many different prices on offer. There were thousands of people who had paid to become subordinate registers and could make money through registering domain names for other people and charging them for this service at a profit on what they had to pay themselves

I soon discovered that this was a highly competitive market place, with all kinds of tricks involved. People were registering domain names for others very cheaply, even for free as an inducement to getting their business to provide them with Web space, site design or ISP services. Some of these secondary registrars were providing domain names for clients but registering in their own names, forcing the client to deal exclusively through them, or, pay a high fee for name transfer if the client wanted to dispense with their services.

Even more ingenious, some ISPs were giving away free name domain name registration and then providing an auction service for clients to auction the name off. To my chagrin, I found my own name <petersmall.co.uk> had been registered by one of these services as a domain name only a few weeks previous. Perhaps someone is registering the names of all authors in the hope that some of them will want to buy these domain names from them at an auction at sometime in the future?

It then occurred to me that having a domain name <petersmall.something> might be useful to add to the end of my emails, to let recipients know something about me. By checking with one of the sites that tell you if a given domain name is available, I discovered that the address <petersmall.net> was still available. The question then became one of deciding which registrar to use to register the name through.

After making a few inquiries and visiting a number of Web sites I began to formulate a few essential requirements. The domain name would be my permanent IP address, but, it didn't have to be attached to any particular computer. I could choose which computer it referred to and change that computer whenever I wished simply by informing the registrar and the administrators of the computers involved in the transference.

The thought then occurred to me that, if I could move this domain name around, effectively I would have a kind of phantom identity that could be located on any computer in the world. And, wherever this identity is located, any messages directed to this identity could be redirected to wherever I chose.

I then chose a Web hosting service that had a Web administrator I could actually talk to. He advised me that I could simply "park" my domain name on his server and any messages would be directed to wherever I instructed him to redirect them to. This service, including the registration of the domain name in my own name, would cost me no more than ten pounds (fifteen dollars) a year.

At the time I already had a local ISP from whom I was receiving my emails and a Web site located in another country (USA). I then directed the administrator of the Web site where I'd parked my <petersmall.net> domain name to redirect any emails addressed to <anyname@petersmall.net> to my regular e-mail address <peter@genps.demon.co.uk> and redirect any Web reference http://www.petersmall.net to my established Web site at http://www.avatarnets.com.

It may seem a pointless exercise, but, it completely changed the way I started to think about my presence on the Web. I could have many different personalities all directing messages to where I wanted them to go. I could have several "front doors" to my Web site. It wasn't long before I was thinking in terms of a nebulous system of locations and entry points, allowing all kinds of complex presences to be created on the Web.

This revelation, combined with the previous revelation that messages were stateless, started to excite my imagination. I could have a stateless existence that could take on an infinite number of different configurations. I could exist in many forms and in many places at the same time. I was not committed to or restricted by any particular ISP, hosting service, name or location. The possibilities were endless.

The main advantage that came to mind was that this provided a perfect vehicle for coping with change and uncertainty. By spreading my identity over a number of locations I wouldn't be tied to any particular one. The different parts of my identity could be duplicated on different servers in many different places in the world which would give me total independence to switch and change around at will.

Simply by changing a few links I could reconfigure my identity to choose the servers that were the most useful or efficient. I could collaborate with different people through different parts of this system of identity. This is what I had been looking for, a flexible interface to the Internet that could easily cope with change and uncertainty.

The words of Bill Gates came flooding back to me. Hadn't he discovered a new and novel environment? Hadn't he learned how to use that environment and had built appropriate tools to take full advantage of it. Hadn't those tools been useful to others, who were prepared to pay to gain this same advantage? The possibilities that e-business opportunities might emerge from this new way of looking at the Web then took on a practical reality.

 

Creating a source of wealth creation

The best way to make money is to find, or create, a non zero sum game: a wealth creating situation where all the players (collaborators) can gain by sharing the wealth created. Such situations invariably arise out of discovering new ways to improve efficiency. Here we have just such a situation.

A flexible Web presence can lead to improvements in efficiency because this is a way to cope with change and uncertainty. Adding to this advantage, a flexible Web presence can also provide a framework for collaboration that will facilitate a system capable of adaptation and evolution. Wouldn't this be beneficial to everyone involved?

Bill Gates' strategy had been to begin by constructing tools that would be useful to him and his collaborators. Couldn't a flexible Web presence be considered a tool? Couldn't a framework of collaboration also be considered a tool? Figure 5.1 illustrates how a Web site can be thought of as a tool by combining these features.

Figure 5.1

A Web site can be thought of as a tool that provides an efficient interface to the Internet

Returning to the green frog approach, I'd already determined that the first step beyond the green frog was to establish an identity on the Web. This I'd done by creating a domain name and IP address, but, a name and IP address isn't of any use unless it can be used for a purpose. I needed to give this identity a purpose. Once given a purpose, the Web site has to be provided with the ability to fulfill that purpose effectively.

The problem is that a Web site has the capability of being a highly complex identity. It isn't enough that it should act as a brochure or a catalogue. It isn't even enough that it should act as a retail outlet. A Web site needs to be an interactive part of a dynamic community – which is likely to be constantly changing and evolving.

This suggests that the Web identity should be such that it plugs into a dynamic system of communication and collaboration, which provides intelligence and direction. It should be designed to be adaptable and receptive to new and emergent opportunities. It is only by creating such complexity within a Web site identity that the full benefits of e-business can be realised.

This is an important initial need – common to anyone wanting to make strategic use of the Web for e-business – establishing a sophisticated identity on the Web that not only has purpose, but, will also optimise opportunities for collaboration and be able to continuously adapt to change.

Paradoxically, this initial starting place might be a good area to begin looking for an e-business opportunity. Everyone has to make a start somewhere and there are no obvious guidelines. By creating a suitable tool to deal with uncertain beginnings, you would be pioneering a pathway. Others might want to follow along this same pathway and be prepared to pay for the tools that have been created.

The first question that comes to mind is: what kind of identity to establish? The generic answer is that the identity should be such as to be able to take part in a profitable enterprise. The temptation then is to immediately leap forward into thinking about what kind of profitable enterprise that should be. However, this thinking would be pointless, if all you had was a domain name. How would people get to know about your enterprise? If the enterprise is based upon a good idea, how would you compete with others who might either copy that idea or improve upon it?

Rather than think about the idea and the enterprise, the first priority must be to give the Internet identity substance and power. Only then will it be sensible to think about the specific details of the enterprise because only then would you be in a more effective position to implement any business dealings or put ideas into effect.

To get this strategy into perspective, you might compare a Web site to a retail store. With this metaphor, it is easy to realise that a store (a Web site) is not going to be located in a busy high street when it is created. A Web site, on its own, is more like a store built in the middle of the Sahara desert. Clearly, whatever ideas you have for such a store are going to be totally useless until you get that store moved into an area where customers can know about it.

First thoughts might turn to advertising and marketing. The experiences of the early dotcoms are adequate proof that this is not a cost effective way to acquire a customer base. Besides being a very expensive way to attract customers, there is very little incentive for customers to stay loyal if they can find something more attractive just a mouse click away.

Certainly an expensive marketing campaign might attract customers, but, the cost has to be recouped. If the result is successful, it is only too easy for a competitor to look at what you are doing, make a few improvements and then offer the same service or product at a reduced price (or better service) because they haven't the liability incurred in the cost of the marketing. All too often, an e-business advertising and marketing campaign has attracted competition rather than customers.

Money and effort is better spent moving the store out of the desert and into a busy high street. In the world of the Internet this involves becoming a part of a network of communication and activity - in the parlance of the Web, this will mean creating or joining a portal or a vortal.

 

A system of portals and vortals

There are many different ways and buzz words used to describe portals or vortals. However, whatever they are called, or, which ever way they might be described, they all mean the same thing: a point of attraction for a particular interest group.

Portals and vortals are common in the everyday world of bricks and mortar. Shopping malls are prime examples of portals. People shop at shopping malls because there is a large variety of goods on offer and the duplication of traders ensures sufficient competition to produce excellence and bring prices down to reasonable levels. In large towns and cities, particular areas become specialised in certain types of commodities or services. These are vortals: each area providing a depth of service in a specialised niche.

Sometimes, these centres of attraction will attract complementary trades or business, where they act symbiotically. This is evidenced by the number of different businesses and services that will congregate at tourist or entertainment centres.

Vortals and portals are a naturally occurring phenomenon. People prefer to go to places where there is choice and competition. And, because people go there, it is attractive for traders to be there. There is a mutual attraction for traders and customers to be at the same place. This same phenomenon occurs on the Web.

A useful metaphor to use for this situation is the attraction force of gravity. The more atoms in a body (the greater its mass), the more it will attract other atoms and bodies. An atom on its own, or even a small body, does not have the pulling power of a larger body. In a similar way, an e-business on its own, or even part of a small local group, will not be able to attract clients or customers anywhere near as easily as a large group of e-businesses that have integrated together in a common portal or vortal.

This is why advertising and marketing schemes often fail for start up companies who try to establish a business in isolation. They cannot compete against the natural attractiveness of the larger conglomerations. They would be far better off spending their money on achieving excellence and becoming part of a portal or vortal where the combined pulling power has no need for advertising or marketing.

Web based portals and vortals are not always as tangible as they are in the world of bricks and mortar. Sometimes a company will set up a Web site specifically to act as a portal or a vortal, but, more often a portal or vortal comes in the guise of a search engine, guide or directory. Thousands of Web sites are setting up as self proclaimed experts in all manner of niche areas of special interest or technology. These point to other sites and other sites point to them. In this way, they form naturally occurring portals and vortals that direct and influence thinking and actions.

As more and more search engines, guides and directories come on stream, it has produced the phenomena of search engines that incorporate other search engines, guides that are guides to other guides and directories that are directories of other directories. Even experts are pointing to other experts in efforts to become the experts of experts.

In one sense, this can be seen as ever increasing competition as many information sources compete with each other to be the ultimate authority. But, on a different level, this can be viewed as the natural tendency of a dynamic system to self organise. Any dynamic system, which includes competition for survival and success amongst it component elements, will self organise in this way. It will proceed relentlessly towards a state of greater and greater organisation and efficiency. This is evident in all biological systems, where the same thing happens spontaneously, over and over again, without the appearance of any organising intelligence.

To be involved in the world of e-business brings you into this type of self organising environment, which is driven by constant competitive pressure. It may seem to be created by humans, but, this tendency of a system – to promote the efficient while driving out the inefficient – is beyond the level of human control: it is simply an inherent characteristic of all dynamic systems. To be successful in any e-business venture, it is necessary to be acutely aware of this situation and to design any business ventures to not only cope with but to take advantage of the system's natural dynamics.

It is for this reason that we have to approach the creation of any e-business by first working out how we are going to fit into a system of vortals or portals; only then can we move on to the details of how to take part.

 

The links are not in control

All Web based portals and vortals, in their own way, attract people who seek knowledge, guidance, entertainment, products or services. They direct people; sometimes giving advice, sometimes pointing to advantages or price differences. They may also carry advertisements in the form of banners that can transport people off on an impulsive whim. Advertising can also be imbedded into the copy of text in the form of links that take the reader to a particular place of interest. Seen in this way, portals and vortals can be seen as systems of links that direct people around a system of interaction and trade.

With this view, it is easy to think that the sites providing the links are in control of the system, but, it is a fallacy. The sites that control the system are those that provide real substance and value – but, this is not immediately obvious. Figure 5.2 shows the various ways in which customers might be routed to a Web site.

 

Figure 5.2

There are a number of ways in which people are routed to Web sites. The most efficient of those that are a consequence of the Web site providing real value

 

Figure 5.2 indicates that the most efficient routing of customers to a Web site is through providing good value and good service. As obvious as this might seem, it is largely ignored at start up because it relies upon the Web site having already been created and a business already running. It is this question of the starting process that throws many people because it is a chicken and egg situation. You can get people to come to the site if others recommend it, but, how do you get those initial people to visit the site in the first place?

Most people new to e-business will attach great importance to search engines, directories, advertising, marketing and banner ads. They will want to use on-site marketing ploys, flashy appearances, entertaining displays and novelty. However, a little careful thought will soon tell you that such methods are actually counter productive. On the Internet, people do not want to be convinced to become customers: they will arrive with the hope of being customers and expect efficient service, not a sales patter. Selling is treated with suspicion and puts customers off.

There is no substitute for providing real value, efficiency and reliability. If a site provides these there is no need to advertise or hard sell because the Internet is a communication environment and word quickly spreads. This is particularly true in a portal or vortal environment because of the proximity of competition and the ease with which comparisons can be made.

In a world where search engines, guides and advisors are vying with each other for authority, credibility and recognition, a good site will not have to make itself known to them. A superior search engine or authoritative guide will find it for themselves. Remember, they are all seeking to be authoritative sources and they will not want to be seen missing out on an important site within their area of specialty.

At the time I finished writing the last chapter, I had to go to New York to speak at the BOT2000 seminar. Most of the speakers were involved in one way or another with gathering information from and about Web sites. Every one of these speakers was far more concerned with the quality of the information they were gathering than the volume. Simply trying to indiscriminately catalogue all information, regardless of its value was seen as an unintelligent approach for search engines and directories to take.

At the end of the seminar, all the speakers were each asked in turn to give their view as to the future for search engines, bots and intelligent agents. The consensus seemed to be that future development would be in the direction of increasing specialisation and more accurate ways of seeking out quality, value and excellence.

One of the speakers described an intelligent agent that his company was developing that would be used to check out current prices and availability of specific consumer products being offered on the Internet. It didn't wait for companies to submit the details of their Web sites, the agent acted as a spider, constantly crawling around the Web, searching millions of Web pages a day and looking for key words.

This activity produced an unedited list of references, but, then these findings were sorted and classified to produce short lists whose final inclusion in the search engine's recommendations were decided by humans. In this way, a portal of quality was being created that preferentially selected only the best and the most efficient traders in the various categories. It is in light of such intelligent portal and vortal creating systems that any e-business has to be designed.

It is obviously an advantage to be within the route map of a suitable portal or vortal because this is where the traffic will be. But, what has to be appreciated is that these portals and vortals are highly competitive environments. It's no good setting up business in one of them with simply a good idea. All the others traders will only say, "Good idea, thank you very much", and use or improve on that idea themselves. The stark reality is that you must be in a position to maintain a competitive position with any business idea you come up with.

This shifts the emphasis away from the idea itself and onto the problem of being able to put the idea into effect in a highly competitive environment. To be able to do this, it is necessary to be able to make full and optimum use of communication technology. In effect, this means there is a need to create a super identity on the Web in the same way that it is necessary to create a super individual in the environment of the Internet.

To create such a super identity, the green frog will have to acquire superior knowledge in the ways of the Internet and the technologies involved in Web site creation. It is at this stage that the eyes of most bricks and mortar business people begin to glaze over. They are faced with an incomprehensible confusion of technology.

Rather than plunge into this seething mass of unfamiliar techniques and concepts, most brick and mortar businesses will hand over this responsibility to somebody else, someone they think might be able to understand this highly technical world better than them. Unfortunately, they usually have no way of knowing who are the experts and who are the charlatans. This leaves them vulnerable to a huge wastage of investment capital and the establishment of inferior trading positions. This is the first problem an e-business strategist has to solve.

 

In the land of knowledge gaps

Creating any kind of business usually begins by recognising an opportunity, but, how do you spot them? As a one time professional poker player, I learned to look out for anomalies, elements of play that strike you as being unusual or out of character: something that you wouldn't expect somebody to be doing. Such anomalies alert you to both dangers and possible opportunities.

A similar technique can be used for spotting business opportunities, especially in the environment of e-business. Anomalies occur when players in the e-business game who should know better appear to be acting foolishly or inefficiently. Such anomalies expose knowledge gaps, or, a service or product that is not available.

In an effort to keep up with the latest developments on the Web, I subscribe to several different kinds of technical e-mail discussion forums. There I discovered some interesting anomalies.

The first anomaly was that most of the programmers and graphic designers working on Web sites had only a cursory interest in the core businesses of the sites they were designing for. They were primarily concerned with the problems and solutions revolving around their own particular specially niche of expertise.

The second anomaly was the contempt with which most of these technical specialists regarded the people who employ their services. A commonly held view is that the majority of people directing major e-business projects are totally incompetent

To try to understand why this attitude should prevail, I sent in the following post to a couple of e-mail discussion forums where many expert Web site designers hang out:

Reading through some of the posts in this forum and others, I get the distinct impression that many people involved in authorising the work that Web designers do are far from competent.

I'm aware that many small businesses haven't the faintest idea what the Web is about and how it might benefit them. They simply pay someone to create a Web site so as to see what it might do for their business. How common is this attitude? Do many of these experimental efforts succeed? Are there any really savvy businesses who know how to make efficient use of the Web and use Web designer's time effectively and efficiently?

There are many agencies and consultants who claim to know what they are doing and engage the services of freelancers on their client's behalf. What proportion of these are competent? Are there many whom freelancers have much respect for as far as being capable of creating viable e-business solutions? Is the same sort of situation prevalent with in-house design teams?

BTW I'm not expecting everyone to be competent. That isn't the point I'm making. It just seems, from what I'm hearing everywhere, that the complete solution providers (as opposed to the technical specialists) involve an extremely high proportion of people who don't really know what they are doing. Unlike most other business areas, the incompetent seem to be in the majority. However, I'm not stating this as a fact, I'm just looking for confirmation as to whether this proposition is true or false (with maybe an anecdote or two thrown in).

Peter Small

There were no posts contradicting this proposition, but, many supported it; some providing examples and anecdotes. Here is a selection of the responses:

-----------------------

Marcus Bointon wrote:

Many companies really don't have much of a clue, even some very big ones. I waste a good proportion of my time educating my clients about what it is they're asking me to do! I'd say that this occasionally hits around the 75% mark. You really have to do this otherwise they'll complain that you didn't do what they wanted, but only because they didn't know what they wanted! It's usually in your interests to keep things as simple as humanly possible.

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Damian Thomas wrote:

I had a client very recently; apart from knowing nothing about the Internet or websites, didn't know the first thing about e-mail or its uses, and quietly asked, and I quote "Can you see my website from your place?" !!

I replied, Of course, but it can also be viewed worldwide". He was amazed, responding, "phew! s**t! I didn't know that, wow, bla, flipping eck, etc"

So I agree with the comments made earlier, at least half my clients want a website thinking it is just the thing to do. Imagine his surprise when I explained that anyone could send him an e-mail directly from his website :-00hh

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Garrett Coakley wrote:

Sometimes they haven't even thought about it that much. They want one because everyone else has one. Remember the IBM advert from last year with the two guys in the boardroom?

Guy 1: [reading a paper] We have to be on the web.

Guy 2: Why?

Guy 1: [looks back at the paper] ...(comedy pause)... It doesn't say.

I deal with a lot of small companies who have been toying with the idea of having a site built. Most of them dip their toe in the water by having a small (4-5 pages) brochure site. The one thing they have in common is that they don't understand how it all works. They expect their profits to suddenly shoot skywards. They expect their company to instantly gain a coolness factor. They can't understand why their staff haven't metamorphosed into sexy, hip 30-somethings.

Deciding to create an online presence involves a lot of work on their part. They have to look at themselves and decide what exactly it is they are offering. What is the user going to get out of visiting their site? How they can best use the medium. Can they streamline their support process? Going to publish an e-mail address? Better be damn sure the customer gets a reply within 48 hours. etc etc.

> How common is this attitude?

> Do many of these experimental efforts succeed?

Hmmm, if they have no fixed idea in the first place, how would you measure success? Profits? Name awareness? Unfortunately, the attitude is far too common.

I think it should be our job as web developers to educate our clients as to the possibilities of the medium. If you're just going in, taking their money and building what they ask you to, then I'd like to have a word. It's up to us to educate them on browsers, platforms and technologies.

I'm not talking about degree level here, just enough to get them over the initial language barrier. Once you've got that, they start to investigate for themselves, start to understand what the web is capable of (and why they can't have that image three pixels to the left)

Offer to show them cool things, things that are useful, spend a bit of time with them, give a bit of after care service. Hell, one of my clients is now using Mozilla M18 as their default browser after I showed them it (they had asked what this "open source thing" was all about.).

They're also much more likely to come back to you with more work. And do you know what? The next time they come back, they're a little wiser, a lot more trusting, and eager to learn more.

-----------------------

Dave Gray

Oh my god, don't get me started. Incompetence runs rampant all the way up the food chain.

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Martin Burns wrote:

The more clueless ones I see tend to have the latest everything (Flash5, WinME, IE5.5 on fast connections) and look at you funny if you don't automatically offer to do the site in Flash.

Buzzword city!

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Peter Van Dijck wrote:

Buzzword density reaches intolerable levels:

- they will say things like: "Yes we make very interactive sites" without being prompted to do so.

- ask them what testing they do, they'll say: "We test for the browsers" or something (clued in ones will have a real testing program: stress testing, compatibility, usability)

- ask them why if they propose a certain feature.

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Aardvark wrote:

Think about the environments...

- software development shop...

Would they even know how to hire a creative guy? What to look for? What web skills to ask for? Would they do the web stuff, or let the creative guy do it? And then, how do you get a creative guy to stick around when he could make more elsewhere and work in an environment that promotes creativity as opposed to a more rigid SDM? If the creative guy is bad enough, he'll have nowhere else to go...

- ad agency...

Would they even know how to hire a tech? What to look for? What programming skills to ask for? Would they do the web stuff, or let the tech guy do it? And then, how do you get a tech guy to stick around when he could make more elsewhere and work in an environment that promotes an efficient SDM as opposed to a more touchy-feely creative process? If the tech guy is bad enough, he'll have nowhere else to go...

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Alan Herrell - the head lemur wrote:

Peter, your suspicions are correct: "complete solution provider" is an oxymoron.

Sales will tell you anything to get you to sign. Marketing will require sales to do anything to sign. The buzzword weinie will fill you with buzzwords to get you to sign. They like to do meetings, lunch and golf.

I have yet to find a 'complete solution provider' that performs due diligence in terms of : what the client wants to do; who the competition is; what the market size is; if the product/service requires all the toys they wanna sell. If a website is the proper venue for the product and service. (I believe that everyone can benefit from a website, but I am also not blind to the fact that some marketing efforts are better conducted in your face)

I get cruised by these folks on an annoyingly regular basis. Their e-mails start: "Saw your site! We are a complete solution provider and would like to offer/work with you". Their phone calls start: "Saw your site! We are a complete solution provider and would like to offer/work with you.

Upon interrogation, the mailer/caller is working from a script, has no idea what website they are supposed to be talking about, and when asked why did you call/mail me since you are a "complete solution provider", the answer is the dreaded pregnant pause.........

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Ruth Arnold wrote:

The way I look at it, an educated client is a better client. So much of our time as web site developers is spent telling customers why splash screens are a bad idea, why java is slow and sometimes just plain sucky and why their site has to be designed to fit other people's screen resolutions and not just their own. Allowing them to find this stuff out for themselves via mine or other people's web sites can be an empowering experience. They often have a light bulb moment. This can make my job a lot more rewarding.

There are no shortcuts to educating folk other than automating the process as much as possible and letting them know it's not brain-surgery, it's just something new.

I'm sure the same applies to agency staff, but they don't have any incentive to learn the stuff that I tell my customers, and nor do they have time to I expect. It's all bottom-line stuff in their industry. I don't know what the answer is... maybe starting an agency staffed with designers and developers. But let's face it, developers and designers don't exactly make great sales people and are hardly likely to enjoy spending all day, every day on the phone ;-)

 

Complementing these anecdotes was a conversation I'd had with the owner of a successful ISP (Internet Service Provider). He'd told me he'd just taken over a Web design company that had got into financial difficulties.

I asked why the company had failed and he explained that in their early days they'd been spectacularly successful, expanding rapidly to meet the demand from all the local businesses that wanted to get onto the Web.

"The problem", he explained, "Was that most of these clients weren't really sure what the Web could do for them and, after paying out not inconsiderate sums for Web site designs, found they received no benefit whatsoever and lost interest. This happened so often that the Web design company found they were continually having to seek new clients to maintain the level of their business activity. As they exhausted new business opportunities in their own locality, the difficulty and costs of finding new clients increased to the point where the overheads exceeded revenues".

Applying this scenario universally, it isn't hard to see that most of the blossoming e-business activity is being funded with risk capital. Businesses are hearing so many stories about the vast potential of the Internet that they decide to spends ome money just to get into the game to see what it is about. A vast proportion of the e-business activity is driven simply by "me-too-ism" with the blind leading the blind.

Even when a Web developer does know what they are doing, it isn't always possible for them to get their message across. One competent Web solution provider I know told of a large amount of time she'd spent preparing a proposal for a retail chain of seventy small specialist stores.

Together with the marketing manger of this company, she'd laid out a plan whereby each store could have its own version of a Web site where the local manager could provide content and interest specifically for the customers in their own locality. The running costs were negligible and she had quoted a very small fee for setting up this operation because she wanted to have this as a case study for her portfolio.

When the design was finalised, it was presented to the chairman of the company for his acceptance. He took a quick look at the prototype and the price he was being asked to pay and declared, "No. I'm not going to go for this. My office manager's schoolboy son knows how to build Web sites, I'll get him to do it".

 

Emergent opportunities

Such stories abound in the world of e-business. Time and again, examples arise of businesses being unable to take advantage of the Internet because of knowledge gaps, misunderstandings and false expectations. Billions of dollars are being thrown away on e-business projects that fail to reach fruition. Expectations and hopes are constantly being dashed. Investment monies are being poured down the drain.

The tragedy is that it needn't be this way. The Internet and the Web can bring real benefits, increased efficiencies and substantial business expansion: if only business leaders knew how to use the Internet to their advantage.

But, doesn't this situation provide a plethora of possible opportunity for any e-business ventures that can solve the problems of businesses being able to use the Internet efficiently?

 

### End of chapter 5 ###

Back to index Note: This book lead to the creation of the stigmergicsystems.com website

Copyright 2001 - Peter Small

Peter Small

All rights reserved by Pearson Education (Longman, Addison-Wesley,Prentice Hall, Financial Times for FT.COM imprint