The Revolution within a Revolution – The Personalization of the Internet

 

Michael D. Houtzager
President, WebHoster
January, 2000

A short time ago, the Internet celebrated its 30th birthday. Those of us who have been in this industry for several years remember fondly when the Internet was described as “a giant library of information with no table of contents”.   Companies fought to keep Internet access out of their organization because they thought their employees wasted too much time “surfing the net”.  People who had PCs at home found that just trying to access the Internet was a technically challenging feat often ending in frustration.  My how things have changed in just a few short years.

Despite all of the challenges, the Internet revolution really started with the introduction of the Netscape browser.  The browser, however limited it was in the beginning, gave the user a window to information that existed on the Internet and a straightforward way of accessing that information.  As time went on, many of the other issues, such as easy and affordable access to the Internet have been largely address.  As the months go by, even the Internet access speed issues are being resolved.  According to Bruce Kasrel of Forrester Research Inc, there were 200,000 digital subscriber line (DSL) subscribers and 1.2 mil cable modem subscribers in the US, or a little under 5% of Web users. However, he predicts that 27% of on-line subscribers will use broadband services by 2003.

Those infrastructure architecture issues could be considered to be part of the extension of the first revolution and necessary to bring us to the next revolution–the personalization of the Internet.

In the Past

Prior to the Personalization Revolution, if a user had wanted to find some information from the Internet, they would typically go to a search engine site (Yahoo, Alta Vista, etc.), type in a keyword and perform a search.  Many times, the user would get back dozens of Internet address containing their key word, and then go on a journey of clicking each link to find the site that had the information they wanted.

Yes, there were some companies who were a little ahead of their time that attempted to personalize the information for the user.  PointCast is one of those who’s star burned brightly only to fizzle out.  The concept was good, however they used too much proprietary software that slowed people’s computer down.  In the end, the information from PointCast was not personal enough play a role in this second revolution.

Today we see the development of “Portals” as an attempt to lock people into a specific web experience.  Yahoo has a portal, Alta Vista has a portal, Microsoft has a portal, and on and on.  Portals allow a user to customize their start page by selecting categories offered from the Portal provider of information.  Portals are a step toward fulfilling the promise of the Personalization Revolution – but not the end product.  Where Portals fall short is they are still considered proprietary.   Yes you can customize your Portal, but your only choices are from the Portal provider.

Up to the Present

Now we are in the midst of yet another revolution–the personalization revolution.  Major companies have finally woken up to the fact that the Internet is real and they better play in this market.  Exciting tools are being developed that allows the Internet to work for you, rather than the other way around.  Let’s explore some of these new developments.

The advent of the Digital Dashboard

The digital dashboard solves the problem of information overload, too often experienced by the advanced to novice user.  With these key sets of new technologies, a developer can both create and use preexisting dashboard components to put in a web page.

A user of the web page customizes the digital dashboard component to meet their specific needs.  A popular example is that of a stock quote digital dashboard component.  The user customizes the component to only display the stocks they have interest in to scroll on their screen.  Depending on the component, the stock prices can be either real time or delayed 20 minutes.

Another digital dashboard set of components can be quickly developed for a President of a company.  The president defines what key metrics are needed to run the business and the component is built to display those metrics.  For example, a moving graphic of sales, cost of sales, and bookings could be encapsulated in a digital dashboard component that remains fixed on the president’s screen.  If the president wants further information, the dashboard component is ready to accept the mouse click of the president to display the sales by region or product line.

The component can even be further developed to allow this president to monitor the list of proposals that are outstanding, say, over a certain dollar figure.  The component will inform the executive about what the competition is doing so pricing decisions can be made to help close the business.

A sales manager determines the key metrics for running their part of the business is number of calls and number of demonstrations by day.  Using today’s new technology, a system can be quickly put in place to dynamically capture the sales person’s calls and demo numbers and flow that data into the sales manager’s digital dashboard component.  Another component is developed to give the sales manager quick flashes on any new buildings that are under construction and delivers the lead to the appropriate sales rep.

What’s different?

What is different about these digital dashboard components?  One might say that the information presented above is already in place.  The difference is that digital dashboard components gives people quick, compiled, graphically pleasing, information derived from the vast pool of data that exists both inside and outside the organization. 

Dashboard components are built using standard Internet technologies.  Therefore they are interchangeable between company and company and modifiable from application to application.  They represent the culmination of our societal effort to dramatically increase the value proposition of information technology.

An example of a digital dashboard component is represented by NetZero’s offering to the public, as shown below:

NetZero is offering free Internet access for the users dedication to their digital dashboard component.  The bet is that their users will click on their component first when looking for a shopping experience.  The revenues they generate from Ecommerce and advertising will hopefully make up for the expense of providing Internet access

What’s behind the digital dashboard component?

When thinking about deploying digital dashboard components throughout the organization, one can think about obtaining the data feeds from sources both inside and outside the organization.  Looking inside the organization, data resides in financial systems, on users hard drives, in messaging and collaboration systems already in place.  Relational database systems are the key to the collection and description of existing corporate data.  Once data is in that repository, it can be quickly indexed and retrieved by a digital dashboard component using standard Internet technology.

Outside the organization, one will look to an information service provider to obtain their feed.   As time goes on, companies will have the option to purchase streams of personally customized information.   The purchase will either be cash or a trade-off from the viewing of advertising banners.

The role of Knowledge Management

The Knowledge Management (KM) industry has been around for a long time.  The promise this industry made was that computers could assist with the decision making process.  Another term this industry used was “Expert Systems”.  For many years, this industry remained small despite their tremendous potential.  For the most part, using a KM system was too complicated and required too much training and effort.

An example of a KM system can be illustrated by looking at Dupont.  One of their divisions produces batch specialty chemicals.  One week the plant would make one chemical, then change over the process line to produce another chemical.  The changeover required an “expert” who seemed to have a feel for making the right adjustments to the process.  The KM system sought to capture the expert knowledge, place their logic in a computer, and use that computer to assist a newer operator to make the line changeover.

This application had very little success and required evangelic support from a few people within the organization to even get accepted by the plants.  The problem was that these KM systems were stand alone and really just too complicated.

 In order to KM to succeed, it must be ubiquitous to the end user.  The KM application should “snap-in” to the existing information system and run on it’s own.  It should be “smart” enough to find trends in the existing data and report its finding back to the appropriate end user via a–you guessed it, a digital dashboard component.

Now that the “digital plumbing” is in place for most organizations, or can be easily bought off the shelf, we’ll see a new emergence of growth for this once floundering KM industry.

The role of the Portal

Portals have been the rage of the Internet industry for the last year.  Previously, we discussed the limited role of the Portal as we move toward the future of the Internet.  Portals new role will be to sit behind a digital dashboard component.  Thus, Portals will move to the middle tier of the web experience.

The Portal will demand more screen real estate and therefore cannot be persistent on one’s monitor.  The digital dashboard component will remain on one’s screen throughout the day.  Clicking for information via the digital dashboard will more than likely lead to a web screen within the hosting portal.   Since the user has already customized and personalized both the dashboard and Portal, business transactions will be quick and simple.

The role of the Intranet

For those who still don’t know, the Intranet is your organization’s internal Internet.  The Intranet uses Internet technologies to present information to the employee in the same compelling and pleasing manner of the Internet. 

Building an Intranet within your organization is really the first step to take prior to the deployment of digital dashboard components.  Just the building forces companies to think about what information is important to the day-to-day operations of the organization.  It also lays the foundation down for the deployment of Internet technologies within the organization. 

After deploying the initial Internet, it’s time to start thinking moving up to include personalization and customization technologies to the Intranet.  Next, the ties into corporate data from the web page get built.  Finally, team productivity applications are facilitated via this Intranet.  Now, you’re ready to deploy digital dashboard components.

Scenario

We’ve sited some example above of how various personalized web services could be used.  Let’s develop a scenario from start to finish to even better illustrate the concept.

Construction Management

A large construction company is faced with the problem of managing multiple projects.  Their goal is to extend the number of projects for each project manager and reduce the variability within each project.  The strategy to achieve the goal is to use technology to improve the capabilities of the construction company.

The construction company starts the development of the construction management system using web technologies.  They adopt a three-tier system.

Once the construction company wins a project, a new web site is built from preexisting web templates (based on the type of customer).  This site will have a membership service open only to the customer and subcontractors.  All related digital files to the project will held in the web site repository.

Subcontractors will log on to the web site to see when they need to be at the job site and download any relevant information (work orders, AutoCAD files, etc.).  The subs will be notified by email and asked to respond back to update the percent completion of their assigned tasks.

All tasks will be tracked by the system and rolled up into a Gantt chart.  The status of the project will be visible to the construction company project manager, and a subset of the project will be visible to the customer.

As the project progresses, digital site pictures showing the progress of the construction will be posted on the web site for all parties to view.  Later, digital cameras will be mounted throughout the facility and send images and video snapshots of the work in progress back to the web site.

Each construction site will have a mobile digital workstation to collect and send data.  Subcontractors will log onto the station to record work progress and log any issues with the job.  Change orders for each subcontractor can be picked up at the digital workstation or via the construction project web site.

To help reduce the variability within each project, standard inspection procedures are developed for each aspect of a project.  Once a subcontractor has logged in and stated they completed their task, work orders are issued to selected inspectors to verify the quality of work.  The inspector, upon completing the inspection, logs into the digital workstation to input the results.

With the collection and issuance of data largely automated, the first tier of the system is in place.  The middle tier consists of the computers that run the web site, the data base, and the applications.  The top tier hosts the digital dashboard components that have been customized for the construction company management, project managers, and customers.

In the middle tier, there are knowledge-based applications that are track the progress of the job.  Their job is to forecast possible problems that could adversely affect the schedule and cost of the project.  There are Personalization applications to dynamically present the correct web screen and file access to the users of the system – project manager, subcontractor, customer, or executive management.  Business applications such as job tracking and links to existing construction company applications reside in this middle tier.

At the top tier are the digital dashboard components.  These applications are in an “always on” state on the construction project manager and executive manager’s computer screens.  They “broadcast” the exception information by project.  For example, if a project is projected by the knowledge management system that it will be six months behind schedule, an alert via the digital dashboard is initiated.  To ensure the problem gets corrected, a special trouble ticket can be electronically initiated by the construction company and tracked closely.

Customers will enjoy this system because it gives them visibility into the status of their project.  Web collaboration technologies will be used to host weekly update meetings and archived for future reference.  Screens will be developed to allow the customer to initiate change orders and see the effect they have on cost and schedule.  And finally, digital certificates will be issued between the customers financial system and construction company’s financial system to automate the exchange of purchase order and invoice data.  Of course, the customer can review payment and invoice history at any time through their personalized web screen.

Conclusion

Due in large part to the success of the Internet, new enabling technologies are being developed that will dramatically alter the use of Information Systems within organizations.  The Internet is all about fast access to informative and compelling information.  It’s about building communities of users with related interests and sharing knowledge.  The spin-off benefit to the corporate user is a vast amount of reusable technologies that can be deployed within their organization.

As we enter into the next millennium, the companies who succeed will be those who have learned how to harness Information Systems to support their business decisions, identify new business opportunities, and streamline business processes.  The deployment of digital dashboard components will give them access to useful information both inside and outside their organization.  Business decisions will be based on a greater pool of relevant information and executed via clicks of the mouse–instead of the usual continual series of internal meetings.