| The Internet is
revolutionizing the way business is conducted. By using
some simple Internet-based tools, businesses have
found that they can significantly improve productivity.
Today, electronic mail is the most widely used service on
the Internet. Most companies already have internal email
systems, and many of them are now building gateways
between these internal systems and the Internet so that
they can communicate with customers and vendors. Internet
addresses are fast becoming as commonplace on business
cards as telephone and FAX numbers. Many companies are
also rapidly learning that the Internet offers them far
more than email. With the advent of the World Wide Web
and other new services, businesses are rushing to become
Internet savvy. In fact, practically all Fortune
100 companies now have a presence on the Internet
via the Web. With a relatively small investment, firms
can create a home page to advertise their organizations,
and product offerings. Anyone on the Internet can access
any home page, and download or request information from
it. Home pages can, in turn, contain hypertext links to
other pages, enabling companies to present vast amounts
of information in an organized manner.
|
One of the prime motivators
in this rush to connect is the size of the Internet
market. Despite well-recognized problems in estimating
the number of Internet users, several groups have
attempted to count them. According to an October 1995
survey by O'reilly & Associates, the size of the US
Internet population is 5.8 million people for adults with
direct Internet access, not counting users of online
services such as America Online or CompuServe. Some
sages predict that 1 billion users will be surfing the
Internet worldwide by the year 2000 -- about one fifth of
the world's population. In some cases, growth projections
are not consistent, but on one topic all the experts
agree : the largest growth area of the Internet will
continue to be in the commercial sector. Today, the
Internet is predominantly used as a vehicle for simple
communications, marketing, and advertising, but its full
capabilities in such areas as electronic commerce have
yet to be realized. This is the result of several
factors, including a lack of adequate bandwidth to the
home and office, slow consumer and business acceptance,
unfriendly user interfaces, and inadequate information
security.
|
References :
Terry Bernstein,
Anish B. Bhimani, Eugene Schultz, Carol A. Siegel, Internet
Security for Business, Wiley Computer Publishing,
John Wiley & Sons Inc, 1996 |
