Masonry Magazine October 1997 Page. 40
Specifically, how does
Internet use help business?
"The Internet can be useful in any industry for connecting businesses together, for communication, for scheduling and customer service," Ellsworth says. She offers seven examples:
✔The helicopter approach: Get the big picture.
The headlight approach: Look beyond the horizon.
✓ Doing your homework; knowing your competition.
✓ Form alliances; ad-hoc collaboration.
✓Make your site dynamic; creative.
✔ Learn continuously; work smarter.
✓ Be fast, twitch and nimble, ducking and running.
"You can't outspend them, but you can outsmart, out-"fox" and out-maneuver them," Ellsworth says.
What are some of the most
interesting, creative ways the
Internet has been used by business?
"Leveling the playing field," Ellsworth says. "A small business can have a visible presence just about equal to a larger business. Globalization small businesses can go out and market globally with little additional investment beyond a Web page."
How secure is the Internet?
"The Internet is an open system, meaning that until recently, security was not really an issue," Ellsworth says. "For business people, there are two issues - reality and customer perceptions.
"In reality, there are a number of very solid means of securing data ranging from firewalls (a hardware and software security measure used to keep intruders or outsiders out of a computer, used extensively in electronic commerce) to secure servers, and more solutions are in the works. Even banks are not 100 percent secure after all, although most of their losses are from employees as opposed to the Dalton gang riding into town and breaking into the vault.
"Now as for secure transactions - I was pretty curious about this myself, so I did a quick research study with credit card companies, banks and their intermediaries. I essentially asked them to compare loss rates of 800 number usage of credit cards and Internet usage.
"A skittish little bunch, they swore me to secrecy about the actual loss rates, but the conclusion was that Internet losses were slightly less than 800 numbers. Now to be sure, the volume of these sales is vastly different, but I was just after a kind of baseline to start with. But the big problem is the safety of large treasure troves of credit card numbers because they are worth going after."
About the author and her books
Jill H. Ellsworth, Ph.D., Senior Partner with Oak Ridge Research, is an internet marketing research expert, a consultant regarding business and marketing on the internet for Fortune 500 companies, and is a speaker in North America and Europe on business, marketing and education on the Intermet. A former university professor and dean, she holds a doctorate from Syracuse University. Ellsworth is the author of The Internet Business Book, Marketing on the Intermet, and The Internet Business Kit (from John Wiley & Sons), and Education on the Internet and The Internet Unleashed (both from Sams.net Publishing).
Ellsworth serves on the Survey Working Group of the internet Society, and is an active Intermet participant. She can be reached via e-mail at je@world.std.com, and through her Web page: http://www.oak-ridge.com.
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