The Internet has already changed the roles of nearly half of company directors, according to research by the Sun-Netscape Alliance. But four out of 10 directors questioned did not believe their board fully understood the level of change the Internet would cause.
"The business model five years ago was to stick a Web page up and put the company name on it -- Web presence," said Sun's northern Europe and South Africa director of software and technology, Guy Norgrove.
"But that's useless these days because you've got to leverage the Web, not just have presence there. We had a feeling that while a lot of customers knew [the Internet] was a big thing and it would make a difference to the way they did business, a lot of them were unsure whether they had the right skills or were informed enough to build an e-business."
Speaking at a recent debate on the development of the Internet in FM, Wayne Felton, ex-managing director of Johnson Controls, said: "We cannot ignore the effect of internet technology on business. The FM industry is woefully bereft of relevant developments."
The Sun-Netscape report also highlights the move to using the Internet for fully-fledged e-commerce and away from just improving customer service. But only 25 percent of respondents said that they would be bringing in electronic transactions as a business function.
For FM, the lack of an instantly saleable product is hindering the development of online selling - would you buy a multimillion total facilities management package over the internet?!
Most FM companies still see the Net simply as a traditional marketing tool to provide background info alongside their ad campaigns. What can be done to change this? Can it be changed at all, or is FM destined to completely miss out on all e-commerce benefits?
Coming soon on I-FM, we'll be taking a more in-depth look at e-commerce...
