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“Getting Real About the Web” (new web efforts),

Business New Haven, April 16, 2001

Getting Real About the Web
By: Lisa Micali	Business New Haven

Now that the market has nose-dived and investors run screaming from any company no matter what its value proposition is, businesses here in Connecticut are getting back to basics about the Internet in an unglamorous, middle-of-the-road, dependable Yankee sort of way.

Faced with an economy showing every sign of preparing for a recession, Connecticut companies turned out in strong numbers despite an undercurrent of FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) at the Connecticut Technology Council's “Winning Internet Strategies,” part of its 2001 Hot Topics Program held March 14th at the Trumbull Marriott.

The back-to-basics business message was clear: Companies are going to have to start repeating the mantra “The Mouse and the Customer Rule” if they want to prosper online. And even that may not be enough. However, it isn't all doom and gloom.

Connecticut-based thought-leaders, VCs, industry experts and local businesses, and more than 300-plus attendees, exchanged ideas on what's working online and what to anticipate going forward. It's clear that more than ever, businesses need to leverage the Internet to better serve their customers more profitably, to cut costs and improve efficiencies. This means measuring and seeing a real return on all Internet-related activities.

“It's all about winning business strategies and the Internet as a tool for executing those strategies,” said Peter Burris, co-research director for META Group Inc., a Stamford-based technology-consulting firm. “When I talk to CEOs around the country, they're telling me they're scared to death of who might be their competition. That's their primary concern. The Internet over the next couple of years will be the homogenizing form of differentiation.”

Others pointed to General Electric Co. and Delta Airlines as the models of companies that may have figured it out. GE recently announced that it expects to save $1.6 billion this year from aggressive efforts to digitize the company, while Delta has enjoyed some success with its online sales channel.

Keynote speaker Marc Particelli of Norwalk's Modem Media reiterated the need to integrate all channel activities, including the Internet. “Previously, the Internet was considered a separate and unique initiative,” he said. “Measurement was centered around page views, click-throughs and the like. Too few companies are not managing their IT -elated activities around integrated qualitative and quantitative metrics. More effective integration with the Web and outside channels is imperative and the new mandate going forward.”

Success stories from Middlebury-based Timex on how to eliminate channel conflict, Cigna's lessons about the importance of listening to your customers as you move them from one channel to the next and strategies deployed by the Savings Bank of Manchester on introducing its PC banking platform highlighted the need for companies to allow the customer to choose a transaction platform.

Technical challenges lying ahead seem more obvious: Fix what we're already doing. E-media companies and venture capitalists pointed to broadband and the next level of applications. The implication is that once we reach this next level, all our problems will be solved and the money will start rolling in. The problem is, that isn't going to happen until companies focus on delivering their current promises and, as Burris said, “Figure out how to use the Internet as a long-term, value-added channel.”

This staid, steady approach to the Internet seems more than ever the essential to success - especially now. Business rules still apply. Balance risk and reward. That, perhaps, was the most important message of the day.