Internet gets down to real business

Alison Calkins

Tuesday, Nov. 19, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

We've all heard the hype about the Internet.

It's supposed to impact everybody's life by changing the way we communicate and do business.

But is anybody really doing anything other than creating entertaining Web sites and playing with graphics technologies?

Absolutely, according to a "power panel" of technology industry heavyweights who spoke at Comdex Monday.

Ford Motor Co.'s William Powers, vice president of research, explained that the World Wide Web has completely changed the way the company does business.

"The Internet is our face to the outside world," he said.

Ford's Web site went up July 4, 1995 -- the first fully lingual web site offered by an automobile company, with online "showrooms" featuring products in each of 50 countries in each country's native language.

Powers said the site had 1 million hits -- viewings by people accessing the page -- the first month. Now it gets 12 million hits a month.

"It's designed to appeal to the consumer. We list all products, specifications, options and prices. Consumers can even calculate whether it works out better for them to lease or finance," he said.

Once consumers have completed the research, they can check out the dealers' home pages -- complete with maps, photos, and employee profiles -- before going in to shop.

"We have 1,500 dealer home pages so far and they are a tremendous success for both the dealers and the consumers," Powers said, citing an online scavenger hunt that kicked off the introduction of the 1996 Escort and Tracker.

"We had 800,000 hits for the scavenger hunt and 41,000 people came in to dealers to play the game and to buy cars. The Internet has tremendous business applications."

The Vanguard Group is an investment company that focuses on mutual funds. Robert DiStefano, senior vice president, of information technology, said it didn't take the company long to realize that electronic investing makes customers happy.

"We couldn't have wished for an environment any better than the Internet. It wasn't hard for us to figure out that it benefits us. Our focus is on education and service," he said.

Vanguard introduced its web site in 1995. Since then, 3 percent of all new accounts were opened by people who contacted the company through the online service, according to DiStefano.

A host of services are offered to clients, including investing, account services and financial planning.

"In the future, clients will be able to make a phone call and talk to someone they can see on the monitor. It's pretty easy to figure out a model for a company like Vanguard," he said.

The experts also said that the Internet is an invaluable tool for increasing corporate efficiency.

An example is Ford's Intranet, used by the company's 347,000 employees worldwide and 200 of its suppliers.

Engineers, for example, have vehicle component data and three-dimensional drawings at their fingertips. Marketing and sales departments have access to information immediately, instead of using time-consuming requests via phone or fax.

Powers said that more than 80,000 company documents of all types and meeting minutes are part of Ford's perpetually growing data base.

Cisco Systems, the leading global supplier of internetworking solutions for corporate Intranets and the global Internet, has developed a time and money saver of its own, according to Chief Information Officer Peter Solvik.

"We have a total electronic business model that includes customers, resellers, consultants and employees," said Solvik. "Our company newsletters and cafeteria menu are even electronic. We've stopped printing all documentation on paper and estimate that in 1996 we've saved $250 million on printing, telephone and fax costs.

"We get 200,000 requests a month that would have been done by phone or fax. By using the Internet, it's possible to completely re-engineer relationships with your customers."

And then there's the news.

Vice President and General Manager of USA Today's Information Network said the newspaper's online version, launched in early 1995, is a profitable advertiser-supported venture in the electronic marketplace.

"It's one of the Web's biggest news sites," said Lorraine Cichowski. "We started out with a subscription model, but we abandoned that for the advertising-supported model. And it's a complete success."

The online newspaper is updated seven days a week, 24 hours a day by a staff of 83 and gets 16.5 million hits a day, according to Cichowski.

"The demand for online news is not declining. And our newspaper archives are the most requested," she said, adding that the sports and money sections are the most popular and attract big advertisers.

But in spite of all the excitement and the emerging practical, profitable uses of the Internet, one expert urged caution.

Russell Harrison, vice president and chief information officer of the SITA Group in France, said businesses should view the new technologies in terms of the customer.

"We have to be careful not to get too caught up in the power of the tool -- the speed, the graphics and so forth. Businesses need to stay focused on the basics of the business and remember that the purpose of the technology is to enhance customer value," he said.

"The Internet is a superb tool when well applied. You must make sure, however, to use your tool well."