Welcome to the World Wide Mall One Stop E-Shopping web site.
Firms must keep investing in IT' -------------------------------------------- - ----- ------------------------------ The winning formula would be a combination of dotcom and traditional business practices ECONOMIC uncertainty and disillusionment with e- business should not influence companies to suspend investment in information technology, leading businessmen in SA were advised last week. Although dotcom hysteria had collapsed into dotcom despair, companies should realise that the advent of e-commerce had changed business tactics irreversibly and would continue to do so, said Leon Shapiro, vice-president of business advisory firm, Gartner Group. "E-business hasn't delivered on its promises over the past few years, so many businesses have decided this is a prudent time to scale back or even suspend all IT activities," he said. "This is not the time to suspend IT investments. But they must be very carefully targeted and relentlessly focused on business processes that matter most to your bottom line. They must involve revenue generation as well as cost control." Companies that forged ahead and integrated e- business into their core activities today would be the winners of tomorrow, said Shapiro. The winning formula would be a combination of dotcom and traditional business practices. The difficulty lay in deciding which IT investments to make, as business needs were changing so rapidly. Research director Andy Kyte said the major failing, particularly in advanced nations like the US, had been a lack of synergy between corporate business strategy and e-business strategy, which was simply plonked on top. Companies needed a holistic business strategy, not an isolated e-business plan, he said. "An e- business strategy implies you have a real strategy and a plaything called e-business, and that's not the successful model for the future," he warned. To come up with a sound corporate plan, companies should look ahead, predict how their markets were changing, and ask how they had to adapt to remain relevant. "Look at your competencies, what you own, and your justification for existence. Then reflect on the assets you will need and what sort of organisation you will have to be to match the future," said Kyte. Those assets had to include the people, skills and knowledge a company would need as well as its physical assets, he said. Most companies would find a mismatch between what they were now and what they had to become, he warned. "There are things you don't have which you need to acquire, and things you do have which could be liabilities." Acquiring new assets was easy, but ditching operations which today were an integral part of the business was far harder. "You can't get from A to B if you won't let go of A, but it's tough," said Kyte. Examples of activities companies might need to jettison were some in-house manufacturing processes, logistical operations or technology services that could be supplied more efficiently and cheaply by a third party. The ability to focus on core competencies and outsource peripheral activities would see companies becoming part of a network of enterprises, with information flowing between all the partners. That demanded a change of mindset as well as adaptable technologies, said Kyte. A survey in Europe showed that this idea of networked companies was not merely an idea dreamt up by analysts, but was beginning to occur. It found that 58% of managers recognised that becoming more virtual in other words, owning less and managing more would be a key to their success. Companies should also bear in mind two other trends when they tried to assess their future: globalisation and transparency. Globalisation had seen competition encroach from every direction. But it worked both ways, said Kyte. Instead of being a terrible threat it could be a fantastic opportunity to expand. "You might defend very effectively, but unless you go out and score some goals you are never going to win the match. You need a management team that looks beyond the local vision," he said. However, before a company invested in enhancing any of its existing processes, it needed to ask whether it should even be handling those processes internally, said Kyte. If a third party could run some operations more effectively, the company could take its first steps into the new interlinked economy. Aug 16 2001 12:00:00:000AM Lesley Stones Business Day 1st Edition FREE REGISTRATION ON OUR BUSINESS SEARCH ENGINE FOR ALL OF YOUR ORDERING ONLINE AND SELLING ON THE INTERNET
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<body> <title>World Wide Mall One Stop E-Shopping</title> <meta name="keywords" content="Online Network B2B BUSINESS CLIENTS E-BUSINESS E- COMMERCE b2c b2p b2b money marketing product sales selling online onlinepro ordering tele s ales web websites auctions new generation ww w .wwmall.co.za wwmall wwmall.co.za wwmall wwm a ll wwmall www.wwmall.co.za wwmall.co.za sear c h engine search engine "> <meta name="Description" content="Firms must keep investing in IT' -------------------------------------------- - ----- ------------------------------ The winning formula would be a combination of dotcom and traditional business practices ECONOMIC uncertainty and disillusionment with e- business should not influence companies to suspend investment in information technology, leading businessmen in SA were advised last week. Although dotcom hysteria had collapsed into dotcom despair, companies should realise that the advent of e-commerce had changed business tactics irreversibly and would continue to do so, said Leon Shapiro, vice-president of business advisory firm, Gartner Group. "E-business hasn't delivered on its promises over the past few years, so many businesses have decided this is a prudent time to scale back or even suspend all IT activities," he said. "This is not the time to suspend IT investments. But they must be very carefully targeted and relentlessly focused on business processes that matter most to your bottom line. They must involve revenue generation as well as cost control." Companies that forged ahead and integrated e- business into their core activities today would be the winners of tomorrow, said Shapiro. The winning formula would be a combination of dotcom and traditional business practices. The difficulty lay in deciding which IT investments to make, as business needs were changing so rapidly. Research director Andy Kyte said the major failing, particularly in advanced nations like the US, had been a lack of synergy between corporate business strategy and e-business strategy, which was simply plonked on top. Companies needed a holistic business strategy, not an isolated e-business plan, he said. "An e- business strategy implies you have a real strategy and a plaything called e-business, and that's not the successful model for the future," he warned. To come up with a sound corporate plan, companies should look ahead, predict how their markets were changing, and ask how they had to adapt to remain relevant. "Look at your competencies, what you own, and your justification for existence. Then reflect on the assets you will need and what sort of organisation you will have to be to match the future," said Kyte. Those assets had to include the people, skills and knowledge a company would need as well as its physical assets, he said. Most companies would find a mismatch between what they were now and what they had to become, he warned. "There are things you don't have which you need to acquire, and things you do have which could be liabilities." Acquiring new assets was easy, but ditching operations which today were an integral part of the business was far harder. "You can't get from A to B if you won't let go of A, but it's tough," said Kyte. Examples of activities companies might need to jettison were some in-house manufacturing processes, logistical operations or technology services that could be supplied more efficiently and cheaply by a third party. The ability to focus on core competencies and outsource peripheral activities would see companies becoming part of a network of enterprises, with information flowing between all the partners. That demanded a change of mindset as well as adaptable technologies, said Kyte. A survey in Europe showed that this idea of networked companies was not merely an idea dreamt up by analysts, but was beginning to occur. It found that 58% of managers recognised that becoming more virtual in other words, owning less and managing more would be a key to their success. Companies should also bear in mind two other trends when they tried to assess their future: globalisation and transparency. Globalisation had seen competition encroach from every direction. But it worked both ways, said Kyte. Instead of being a terrible threat it could be a fantastic opportunity to expand. "You might defend very effectively, but unless you go out and score some goals you are never going to win the match. You need a management team that looks beyond the local vision," he said. However, before a company invested in enhancing any of its existing processes, it needed to ask whether it should even be handling those processes internally, said Kyte. If a third party could run some operations more effectively, the company could take its first steps into the new interlinked economy. Aug 16 2001 12:00:00:000AM Lesley Stones Business Day 1st Edition FREE REGISTRATION ON OUR BUSINESS SEARCH ENGINE FOR ALL OF YOUR ORDERING ONLINE AND SELLING ON THE INTERNET"> <p>No Frame No Gain.Welcome to the World Wide Mall One Stop E-Shopping web site.<BR> Firms must keep investing in IT' -------------------------------------------- - ----- ------------------------------ The winning formula would be a combination of dotcom and traditional business practices ECONOMIC uncertainty and disillusionment with e- business should not influence companies to suspend investment in information technology, leading businessmen in SA were advised last week. Although dotcom hysteria had collapsed into dotcom despair, companies should realise that the advent of e-commerce had changed business tactics irreversibly and would continue to do so, said Leon Shapiro, vice-president of business advisory firm, Gartner Group. "E-business hasn't delivered on its promises over the past few years, so many businesses have decided this is a prudent time to scale back or even suspend all IT activities," he said. "This is not the time to suspend IT investments. But they must be very carefully targeted and relentlessly focused on business processes that matter most to your bottom line. They must involve revenue generation as well as cost control." Companies that forged ahead and integrated e- business into their core activities today would be the winners of tomorrow, said Shapiro. The winning formula would be a combination of dotcom and traditional business practices. The difficulty lay in deciding which IT investments to make, as business needs were changing so rapidly. Research director Andy Kyte said the major failing, particularly in advanced nations like the US, had been a lack of synergy between corporate business strategy and e-business strategy, which was simply plonked on top. Companies needed a holistic business strategy, not an isolated e-business plan, he said. "An e- business strategy implies you have a real strategy and a plaything called e-business, and that's not the successful model for the future," he warned. To come up with a sound corporate plan, companies should look ahead, predict how their markets were changing, and ask how they had to adapt to remain relevant. "Look at your competencies, what you own, and your justification for existence. Then reflect on the assets you will need and what sort of organisation you will have to be to match the future," said Kyte. Those assets had to include the people, skills and knowledge a company would need as well as its physical assets, he said. Most companies would find a mismatch between what they were now and what they had to become, he warned. "There are things you don't have which you need to acquire, and things you do have which could be liabilities." Acquiring new assets was easy, but ditching operations which today were an integral part of the business was far harder. "You can't get from A to B if you won't let go of A, but it's tough," said Kyte. Examples of activities companies might need to jettison were some in-house manufacturing processes, logistical operations or technology services that could be supplied more efficiently and cheaply by a third party. The ability to focus on core competencies and outsource peripheral activities would see companies becoming part of a network of enterprises, with information flowing between all the partners. That demanded a change of mindset as well as adaptable technologies, said Kyte. A survey in Europe showed that this idea of networked companies was not merely an idea dreamt up by analysts, but was beginning to occur. It found that 58% of managers recognised that becoming more virtual in other words, owning less and managing more would be a key to their success. Companies should also bear in mind two other trends when they tried to assess their future: globalisation and transparency. Globalisation had seen competition encroach from every direction. But it worked both ways, said Kyte. Instead of being a terrible threat it could be a fantastic opportunity to expand. "You might defend very effectively, but unless you go out and score some goals you are never going to win the match. You need a management team that looks beyond the local vision," he said. However, before a company invested in enhancing any of its existing processes, it needed to ask whether it should even be handling those processes internally, said Kyte. If a third party could run some operations more effectively, the company could take its first steps into the new interlinked economy. Aug 16 2001 12:00:00:000AM Lesley Stones Business Day 1st Edition FREE REGISTRATION ON OUR BUSINESS SEARCH ENGINE FOR ALL OF YOUR ORDERING ONLINE AND SELLING ON THE INTERNET </body>