Editor’s
Corner
WHAT OF THE TECHNO-DISADVANTAGED?
Recently a Deloitte & Touche survey of almost 1,500
companies around the world found that the overwhelming majority have no
plans to use the Internet for business transactions, and only one in 20
companies polled conduct business via the Internet. The fifteenth annual
small business survey conducted by Dun & Bradstreet revealed that
only 25 percent of those surveyed have electronic mail, and just five
percent cite the Internet as a key technology that affects their
business.
The results from this research by two reputable companies confirm
once again that most businesses have not gone electronic. At least not
yet. Intel’s experience with trying to pull the plug on its fax on
demand system are also testimony to this. Even though telex has been
replaced by fax, it hasn’t disappeared entirely. Telex’s phase-out
has taken decades and it still persists.
We’re at a complex juncture in communications history. We’ve
invented many channels, each newer one surpassing the potential of the
previous ones. The drawing board and think tank are irresistible to the
intelligentsia that creates new technologies. Inventions, however,
proliferate faster than their adoption and main stream use. New choices
are the enemy to the status quo, an anathema to those who hate to
embrace change. As we add more options are we really improving the
quality of communications? Or, are we instead merely creating more
channels that need to be managed, placing more stress on the customer
service front line?
Hard copy communications, such as the mail, have served civilizations
for centuries. Paper, it seems, is more of a primal experience. More
real. Right now the non-electronic sector of the business world is the
largest. As technologically disadvantaged as such companies may seem,
they are the majority, requiring voice operators, mail and fax services.
It’s their coming of age that will determine our electronic success in
the future.
