Exploring the uncharted world of the future Net
04/01/2001
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Most of us have already uncovered some of the values of the Internet, for such things as travel, exchanging ideas and information, following the stock market, and, of course, for getting and exchanging information within our own industry. Websites have gotten steadily richer, and many users have found a few that they migrate to again and again because of special offerings or convenience in getting to useful information.
But down the road we will realize that today's
Internet is a pale shadow of what it could be. The same is true of "intranets" within our own organizations. The tremendous potential of this emerging resource has scarcely been tapped, and a great voyage of discovery lies ahead as we learn how to structure much more valuable tools for our lives. Many new uses will happen by accident, like Goodyear dropping some rubber on the stove. Some highly successful killer applications will be so obvious and simple that we will kick ourselves for not thinking of them first. Others will be more subtle, requiring sophisticated interfaces and perhaps easy payment schemes to make them financially viable while still being simple to use. Many of these will require standards to enable convenient linkages without troublesome incompatibilities and barriers, and to give us confidence in the security of transactions.
A simple example of the discovery mode happened at Texas Instruments in its efforts to use the Net to allow customers to track orders. First, the tradition of secrecy surrounding most semiconductor operations had to be broken down to allow outsiders to gain access to internal manufacturing data. But once the system was in place — according to Jim Shultz, manager of worldwide procurement and logistics systems for TI, who discussed it at a recent Semi breakfast near Boston — something unexpected happened. Lots of accesses came from workers and managers inside TI's own plants, who now could gain rapid access to status and planning information at the click of a mouse. His chart showed that outsiders continued to probe the system actively even over the Christmas holidays, while internal access dropped to zero.
This illustrates the power of the Net to speed operations and add efficiency. Normally, outsiders would not have been able to track their orders over a holiday period in the US, since their contacts were not available. Further, TI's own people were able at all times to check plans and job status quickly, without having to play phone tag with other departments or wait for update reports.
Some companies are saving thousands of dollars on transaction costs for supplies and consumables. Marcia Rabb of Axcelis said at the same meeting that her company had already cut its transaction costs by two-thirds, but to progress even further, more accepted standards will be needed in the world of e-commerce. She cited the efforts of an independent consortium to develop RosettaNet, an XML-based standard for ERP systems. UMC, for example, has adopted RosettaNet for its product configuration standards. But, to illustrate the difficulties, Rabb pointed out that versions 1.1 and 2.2 of the new standard are not compatible.
Europeans envision lots of this sort of activity, as well as a wide range of other applications for consumers and business and professional users, via pocket devices using new third-generation (3G) mobile terminal technology. Broadband satellite and wireless carriers will allow multimedia applications and seamless access to the Internet using pocket-sized terminals with color screens and keypads that can be accessed from anywhere. The great success of Europe with the worldwide GSM system for mobile phones is encouraging the kind of cooperation needed across the infrastructure to turn 3G dreams into reality.
The road may get rocky at times, but the glimpses of the potential we have already seen suggest that it will be well worth the effort.
Robert Haavind
Editor in Chief