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Article by Sam Martin, PE, CVS, President of OfficeOnWeb Technologies. 9/1/2000

Can you believe that the Internet has only reached the equivalent of the Model A? People don't begin to see where the Internet is going to take them and their businesses. This month I am going to highlight some of the things you are probably going to see in the near future.

High speed access is "the buzz" nowadays and DSL is an increasingly popular concept. However, I think DSL may be a fizzle waiting to happen. Everyone is tired of poor quality phone lines and loop backs that cut their Internet speed in, at least, half. The phone company is, in my opinion to blame, and everyone from the consumer to the provider is tired of their excuses. As for DSL, we have been waiting for months to have US West/Qwest put in the lines, then find the line quality poor and have to fight to get it working right. If you move, you have to go through it all over again. On top of it all, you still have to wait for it to synchronize during requests. I believe the answer for personal access is coming and it is not on copper, it is straight up. While satellite access had been expected to launch this year, it has been delayed, it is expensive technology, and I am unaware of the existence of an actual consumer working model. However, high altitude planes covering large areas has been tested and trial markets are a reality. I think this will be the future wave of the Internet access.

But it won't just be your computer that is on the net. You will access it on your phone, your car (already in place on some models), your TV, and even your kitchen appliances. You may not know it, but a small CPU resides in almost everything you buy today, and soon, it will all have access. Imagine reading your book from on line or just getting it through the Internet. Stephen Kings new book is already done that way and test products that look like books are under development. Think how much overhead you can save by having a scanner in your stock area that is tied to an on line database. Every time you bring it in, it updates your store and on line shopping cart stock list. When a sale is made, it reduces the stock list, charges the customer for the product, creates the packing slip and invoice, notifies the shipping clerk and gives them all their information. Then it generates information for a purchase order to the warehouse, develops a report about the patterns in your sales so you can project updates in your business plan and places a progress report on your web site so your client can monitor the status of their order. All this from an Internet enabled scanner that resides next to your stock and the web site programming.

The above business application can apply to your kitchen too. You buy products and it automatically updates your personal profile of buying preferences. Every time you throw away the empty or decide you are ready and scan the package, it generates an update on the shopping list profile. You review the list when desired, at home, at work, from your phone, or even at the store; accept, reject, or postpone the purchases; and then go and pick it up inside, at the curb, or just have it delivered. Fantasy? Several start up companies are establishing this concept this year.

WAP, Wireless Application Protocol has been a hot item that people have pointed to for at least a year. Yet my cell phones have had e-mail capacity since about 1995. I get e-mails on my cell phone every day. Our answering service and some support requests are sent to our regular e-mail address and phones. The big difference for the future will be the ability to answer them on the phone (here now) and improved technologies to make it easier to do.

So what does the future hold? More than I can imagine. The one thing that I know is that the future of my business and my clients is going to involve a lot of Internet enabled processes. Customers are going to expect it. Some already do.

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Did you know that in 1998 more than 95% of OfficeOnWeb's new customers made a profit from their web site within their first year of operation? Sad, but it is true. This compares to less than 20% industry wide ever even breaking even. Why? Professional and directed expertise. This industry average for people leaving their current web service provider is 4% per month! That's nearly 50% over a year! Ours is less than 1% per year. That is because we endeavor to make our clients money and don't just offer a "pat solution" that we know has a low probability of ever making our client a profit. Some of the features that make up the level of success that our clients enjoy are:

 Five redundant backbone connections

 99.999% up time on UNIX servers

 Redundant OC-3 connect to all five backbones

 Full data center services

RAID 5 system with weekly backup of critical systems

 True Web Developer Services

 Large support site for clients and visitors

 Four level or higherencryption on all ecommerce solutions designed by Office On Web (this is the government standard required if Government people are to use a site)

 We NEVER host a commercial site on an access server (that is really bad, but common in dial up providers)

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