A Billion and Counting
Posted by Katherine Canipelli on Tue, Feb 17, 2009 @ 09:44 AM
Technology changes everything: at home, at work, in our communities. Take this new tidbit: 1 Billion Internet users. Back in 1995, 1 million people were using the Internet worldwide (per MIT, based on hosted computers or IP addresses). Now, according to comScore world Metrix, the world bumped past the 1 Billion user milestone last December (2008). And this stat doesn't include scores of mobile users who connect primarily via iPhones, PDAs, practically every new phone sold, or the local Internet cafe.
Information is the Antidote to Commoditization
Emerging technology is transforming many markets and businesses. According to a recent The McKinsey Quarterly article on business tech trends to watch, "Technology alone is rarely the key to unlocking economic value; companies create real wealth when they combine technology with new ways of doing business." The leading activities cited for transformation are managing relationships, managing capital and assets, and leveraging information in new ways. I couldn't agree more.
As with any network model, the more people that use it, the more value it offers. Thus, as social networking extends rapidly (e.g. LinkedIn and Plaxo) and as more business processes shift to SaaS platforms, the Internet is destined to be the ultimate business utility at home, at work and everywhere in between.
Business Process Innovation isn't Limited to Operations
It's those inbetween areas where new value lurks for the industrial B2B sector. As example, executives in my network tell me that their Internet use is greatest during business travel--primarily on mobile devices--when they're not occupied with leading people.
Although industrial business has embraced web-based technology to support core operations, B2B execs often overlook--or ignore--how they might leverage their commercial development with new web-based communications technologies. This isn't to suggest that we throw out the old, tried-n'-true approaches; it's time to explore how the new tools fit in and where they have greatest impact.
Three Steps You Need to Take Now
Industrial B2B marketers and product managers should champion new tools to spur awareness, demand and sales leads--working smarter with some time invested but no significant capital outlay:
- Rethink market communications with web-centric strategies: expand promotions reach at low cost (effectiveness), increase control of your leads pipeline (efficiency), and facilitate a two-way information flow that will set you apart from the competition (innovation)
- Be where your targeted decision makers are: add mobile device support to your market-facing and customer-facing websites--especially for data/transactions that feed their KPIs (excellence)
- Get comfortable with how social networking and social communities work for your business context: test them first with your employees and channel partners for knowledge exchange (alignment), then develop customer oriented "social" contexts that reinforce your value (EVA)