'Too many benefits in e-business'

By P. Vikram Reddy

HYDERABAD, JAN. 20. Ever heard of a $20 million company buying a $3 million company for $3.2 billion in stock swap? Well, that was at the height of the global euphoria on information technology more particularly dotcom companies. And the ones in question were the U.S. based Octane (buyer) and Epiphany.

But the picture is somewhat different now after the `dotcoms' went bust in 2000, and venture capitalists put breaks on their enthusiasm. With latest reports putting the number of dotcom closures in 2000 at 210 including 40 in December alone (in the U.S.), costing an estimated 15,000 workers their jobs, the world has shifted to a more `reasonable' plane.

But all is not lost. For e-commerce has come to gain a foothold which cannot be easily shaken. According to another estimate business-to-business revenues are expected to triple to $263 billion in 2001.

``The excitement has died down for now. But over the long term, that (e-business) is how it is going to be. There are just too many benefits there'', says, Jim Highsmith, Director of the U.S. based Cutter Consortium's e-project management practices and President of Information Architects Inc. He is also the author of ``Adaptive Software Development: A collaborative approach to managing complex systems''.

The Massachusetts based Cutter Consortium with a senior consultants group of 75 offers high level advisory and publication services, on-site assessments, consulting and training to help organisations forge solutions to the IT challenges they face. They also assist in project management and mentoring, developing methodologies, handling system implementation and training and conducting presentations for senior management and boards of directors.

Mr. Highsmith is a globally recognised leader in software quality process improvement, project management and accelerated development techniques. The importance of such concepts and services in a `volatile e-business space' is reflected in what Mr. Srinivasan Viswanathan, Silverline Technologies, chief technology officer, says ``Development teams must be adaptable, collaborative, flexible and innovative. Anything less and you may not survive''.

In an interview to The Hindu here, Mr. Highsmith says ``People really don't know what they want. They only know they want e- commerce. Hence they tend to change midway a project-change and adapt as the project progresses''.

``e-projects are of strategic importance to the U.S., so a slowdown on spending in IT in general may not be as much in this segment as in others'', he says adding ``There will be a slowdown in spending. Just a slowdown, not a long term abandoning of such projects. It will just become more reasonable''.

Why is that? Because major companies will realise that their long term competitiveness is at stake. Their customer relations management (CRM) will have to continue. Therefore CRM is one which will receive a big push this decade, he feels. And if only 10 per cent of the dotcoms survive they will fundamentally change the way we do business.

In the process, adaptive software development helps create new models to address problems in the new economy and ``prepare for changes in the new economy''. A little over five years ago, information technology was to help business strategies. But now IT is impacting business strategies and areas like cost reduction and customer relations management.

Recently Cutter Consortium conducted a survey covering 40 companies in the U.S. Its e-project research finding (yet to be released) showed there were 37 projects in-process per company, and 31 per cent of budget was on e-projects. It showed that 20 new e-projects were being initiated each year. The top three business activities supported were found to be customer service (60 per cent), MIS/DSS (42 per cent), and order entry/fulfilment (40 per cent).

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Business
Previous : Banks, PFs should evolve new instruments to boost
           capital market: FICCI
Next     : Forex reserves up $172 m