Re: UKNM: Dot Com Fever

[Ray Taylor]

From: Quentin Langley <

qlangleyyahoo [dot] com

>


> Now, this is just silly.  What on Earth do you mean by

> saying that all businesses will be "e-businesses"?

> What do you mean by the term?


Well, I'm no authority on the subject of information and communications

technology but my understanding is that it means businesses that are

fundamentally organised electronically, including all supplier and customer

transactions, end-to-end. The concept pre-dates the Web, and has somewhat

suffered from the belief that it's got something to do with "getting a web

site."


> If a hairdresser allowed you to book an appointment

> online and sent the stylist around to see then I

> suppose that would make it an e-business, even though

> the actual cutting would be by conventional means.


It goes further than that. If the hairdresser could spend more time doing

the cutting and chatting to the customer instead of having to take orders,

order supplies, do accounts, pay heating bills, pay invoices, etc., then

this would probably be the point at which the hairdresser became an

e-business.


> Tescodirect is an e-business.


No it isn't. It's a web site, it's a retail service, a home delivery

service, etc. But it certainly is not an e-business. It's not even a direct

sales operation, since you still buy from a retailer at retail prices. The

fact that TescoDirect takes orders online and delivers products to the door

is very commendable and no doubt gives rise to lots of corporate

back-slapping in Cheshunt. But e-business it is not.


> But I doubt that most

> hairdressers, prostitutes, pubs or gyms are going to

> operate on this basis.


I would have thought that prostitution is a business that works exceedingly

well on the internet already. I have never been a prostitute but I imagine

that performing to a camera in a different country to your client would be

an absolute advantage from the point of view of health, safety and sanity.


But any of the businesses above would benefit from becoming e-businesses.


And for the benefit of members of this list with double figure IQs,

e-business does NOT mean that you do not deal with your customers face to

face. It does NOT mean that hairdressers have to send you a pair of scissors

by Parcelforce, and it does NOT mean that people will STOP going into High

Street shops.


On the contrary, my view is that the likes of Amazon (probably the closest

thing yet to an e-business) will at some point open up, or acquire, bricks

and mortar retail outlets as part of their ongoing brand extension.


Come on people, abandon your technofear and start looking at what the future

has in store. It doesn't stop with a pretty web site.


Ray Taylor



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