I'm back from "assignment". Actually, the editors of News and Review were being overly kind with that description. The truth is I missed my deadline last month. I feel bad about missing it, but I was out of town for four weeks straight doing real work (on-site consulting). Sometimes there just isn't enough time in the day (week, month, year) to accomplish all the things I'd like to tackle.

If you're at all like I am, you probably have a huge pile of interesting subjects you are just waiting for the free time to dive into and understand. I have a list of perhaps five or six hundred items on my future agenda. I can't seem to find the list right now, but I know its here somewhere -- things like C++, the NT OS, and information networks are on the list for sure. Some of the items on the list are things I'm really interested in, some are "hot topics", and a few are both. And by the time I find the list some will be neither.

For an example of a hot topic, take all the recent hoopla about the Internet. Why the emphasis? Well, unless you've been shipwrecked on a desert island for the last few months, you'll know you haven't been able to pick up any computer magazine or newspaper this last quarter without being inundated with headline, front page articles about the new and improved Ginsu Internet (it slices, it dices, it serves up information).

I know by now I probably should be an expert about something as obviously big and important as the Internet, but I have to admit I just haven't got to it yet. One reason I haven't is that while I've skimmed many (perhaps too many) of those Internet articles, the one glaring omission I find in them all is that no one has really suggested to me how I might capitalize on it in a business sense. I know several people who just love to "surf the Internet", reading dialog and chatting with other net denizens, but are they really more enlightened individuals? More productive employees? Helping their companies become more profitable or more competitive? In general, I don't think so. So where's the benefits?

Until last year (when I unexpectedly found myself with a little free time), I was just too busy holding code together for a living and making things work for others to get very far down my list. So I was probably the last computer person on earth to get on an information network. I finally signed up for Prodigy and CompuServe. After a little playing around, I dropped Prodigy (too many commercials) and my usage of CompuServe has dropped off a little. They are interesting and occasionally useful tools, but nothing special - right?

Well, yes, there was that time I was able to get that obscure modem question answered at one in the morning while on the road, and the corporate profile lookup I did for my in-laws that would have otherwise required a trip to the university library. And I do lookup stock quotes several times a week. Ah, there's also mail delivery (including source code and executables) at the speed of electrons for about half what the USPS charges. Maybe there is the hint of a new way to do business here! These examples certainly have value, especially when I consider the cost of about nine dollars a month, but what does the Internet offer over and above the network I'm already on?

Well, having already told you I'm not an expert in this, I'm going to stick my neck out anyway and make a few prognostications regarding what the Internet offers. And its not simply the fact that it dwarfs the commercial information networks by several hundred fold in its raw information storage. This raw information will have its place and value in the scheme of things, but for now is just a side line of the real force for change wielded by these information networks.

I believe the major real world advantage of the Internet is that it is the largest example of a high bandwidth inter-networking standard we have today. Connections to most other semi-public networks are by async modems and are generally 2400 baud. While you can connect to an Internet node at these speeds, the net itself is much higher bandwidth and very high speed connections are available if needed. The government and the rest of the consumer media are hyping as "news" the coming of the Information Super Highway. If the Internet is not actually the Super Highway, it is at least the International Toll Road on the way to the development of the Super Highway and, more importantly, it exists today.

How does this affect the typical business? The implications could be far reaching. The connection to not just a nationwide, but a worldwide network will yield huge savings for many business as the world adapts to a new business paradigm of a less paper oriented society. The speed and advantages of E-mail are well know. As a newer application consider how the current process of sending orders, order confirmations, invoices, and checks by mail adds extra costs to both sides of the transaction.
Although most business paperwork today is computer generated on the senders side, almost none of it is computer readable on the receivers side. Document imaging is gaining acceptance in some fields, but most of these are just images -- not actually content addressable documents. Most critical information needs to be re-entered at considerable cost for it to be computer usable. Then there is the time element. Mail takes one to five days in the US and usually weeks to other countries. If networked orders cut this time to minutes, you save on inventory costs on the customer side and improve responsiveness and inventory turns on the vendor side. In other words both sides become more competitive.

Of course many of you recognize this whole area under the more familiar term Electronic Data Interchange or EDI. For those not visionary enough or not yet forced into EDI by your customers, I believe EDI is a fruitful area to explore for computer assisted business improvements. Most examples of EDI to date are on private point to point dial-up data connections. If you are evaluating getting into EDI today, perhaps you should consider a methodology that would be compatible with public networks. You gain access to a much wider range of potential customers and position yourself for future technology advances.

For just one example of possible future uses, consider an on-line catalog. All the time and cost savings talked about with orders, confirmations and invoices apply in spades to most inter-business catalog situations. Innovative companies are already distributing catalog information on floppies or optical disks and have seen dramatic cost savings while simultaneously improving the content and currency of the documents. How much more improvement is possible if they could just put the catalog on an Internet server and have users down-load it on demand or actually reference it on-line? The catalog could be updated daily with new parts additions, special sales and/or price changes. It would even be possible to show quantity on hand so a customer would know if you can fill his order. The service and customer responsiveness of these new approaches are just as valuable competitive advantages as the cost savings.

Despite my late jump onto the bandwagon, I feel there are many ways an innovative company can use these networks. I certainly encourage you to use public networks for non-critical E-mail, but also to think and look beyond E-mail for other, perhaps higher return ways this technology can enable your company to be more competitive. Obviously there are issues to be dealt with in achieving this kind of technological advance on a large scale. The market is currently trying to deal with security concerns and network pricing issues as examples. But the fact is, most businesses are on one or more of the major information networks today -- your company needs to start taking advantage of this wherever and whenever possible. You can be sure your competitors are.

I guess the Information Super Highway will really have arrived when not just businesses but most individuals have ready access to the networks. Of course, since many people are not yet computer literate and don't have terminals at home, this will take a little more time, effort and probably your tax dollars to achieve. In the mean time, I'd like to hear from you. Let me know what you'd like to see explored in this space. Oh, by the way, you can reach me on CompuServe @ 73251.1453. Happy surfing.