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The world of e-applications

R. Srinivasan

SUDDENLY the Internet seems to be everywhere. You see dotcom signs in magazines, in hoardings and in the media. The explosive growth of the Internet phenomenon is arguably the single most revolutionary technology of the 1990s. It has become the largest and the most important network of networks today and is fast growing into the information superhighway of the future. Unlike any other technology, it is constantly growing and expanding as more and more users, consumers and networks join its global web. Already, there is a bewildering list of applications in use but what is remarkable is that the application of today may well become obsolete tomorrow or may be superseded by a far more powerful one.

The Internet, as a technology, evolved from a research and development network (ARPANET) established in 1969 by the United States Department of Defence to enable corporate, academic and government researchers to communicate via e-mail and share data and computing information resources.

John Barr of Needham & Co. wrote thus: ``The Internet is changing other industries. It will change ours. Ultimately, the Internet will address the entire electronics design and supply chain.''

All along communication companies were concerned with the time involved from the development to the marketing stages of a product, but the challenge now is the `time-to-volume' pressure as any product must quickly be translated into volumes to be able to withstand competition. As more and more information is being put into the software for developing newly emerging consumer applications, companies are faced with the dilemma of using more advanced components and technologies while at the same time coping with shorter time-to-market cycles. These companies must move very quickly from the prototype to very large volumes while developing any new product as they cannot afford to experiment with multiple design alternatives. Many companies in the US are now resorting to the marketing of their products through the Web as distribution times must be cut drastically to be able to ensure volume growth.

The stranglehold that Net-based operations are beginning to have on our day-to-day life can be appreciated from the extent to which applications have multiplied. Long distance travel, both intra-country and inter-country, ticket bookings and, indeed, even seat selection in the aircraft can all be done by sitting in one's home, thanks to local-area and wide-area networks. One of the greatest advantages of the Internet is e-mail, and people around the world now increasingly use this facility as it is both instantaneous as well as reliable. There have been many developments, especially in the US, in networked operations and not a day passes without one hearing of a new development leading to spectacular savings in time and cost.

A look now at the areas where networked applications are being used -- which would widen considering the speed at which chip-making and other semi-conductor companies are developing new products. It is only a matter of time before more and more activities are networked. For example, not so long ago, a capacity of one gigabyte was considered quite high but now capacities of 10 gigabytes are common.

Networked information systems in automobiles: Automobile companies are constantly researching the possibility of installing more information systems inside the car to be of assistance to the driver. By enabling connections to the Web through the cellular network and other devices, the information available on the control panel inside the vehicle is proposed to be increased manifold. Systems will equip the vehicle not only to provide information about its location, road-map of the area it is proceeding to, and traffic and weather reports, but also facilities such as Net browsing, accessing and sending of e-mails and quotations of company stocks on the stock exchange being transmitted live.

In the next couple of years, cars in the US are expected to roll out of assembly lines with all these features, and companies will even be vying with each other in providing consumers with maximum on-line facilities, all through gadgets of the size of a car radio.

E-healthcare/e-hospital: This concept is fast catching up. It not only does provide immediate access to relevant information to all concerned but also reduces paper-work drastically. A network of patient diagnostic information will provide all members of the network instant and easy physician-to-specialist consultations so that diagnostic and treatment plan for the patients can start immediately, within a few hours, unlike as in the past when it used to take days to do so.

This network creates a virtual hospital environment where physicians concentrate on diagnosis and treatment. It provides even for remote-control stethoscopes for patients at home so that the device can remotely read out normal diagnostic measures such as blood pressure, sugar levels, pulse rate and temperature of the patients. Some remote-control stethoscopes even relay high-quality heart and lung sounds through the telephone lines enabling a real-time examination of the patient by the physician. Though remote-controlled surgeries are being done, newer devices -- such as a camera with a three-dimensional view -- enable surgeons feel the extent of the cut as the scalpel cuts into the tissue.

The surgeon's movements are mimicked by a robot so that the surgeon can watch his own movements through the robot on the operation table. The robot is controlled with voice commands for making the actual incisions. Another facility afforded by the Net is the medical transcription service, which is already being accessed by physicians to ensure quick, cost-effective diagnosis and for monitoring their patients.

E-pharmaceuticals: Before long, pharmaceutical companies may use the Internet as a common communication platform for collecting data on results of trials of their new drugs or devices. One of the major, time-consuming processes in the research and development of new drugs is the need to test the drugs on volunteers for safety and efficacy. This process, in addition to the huge cost, involves years of effort involving thousands of patients and doctors and a great deal of paperwork.

A software that enables physicians to submit information directly through the Web from their clinics to the drug companies has already been developed. Indeed, one company was able to access early information and data on the trials of its new drug by using this software and thus save cost, effort and time. It was able to suspend further development of the drug in time because of its high probability of failure; this would not have been possible at such an early stage had the company adopted the conventional process of collecting data and information through enormous paperwork.

Networked factories: The Internet links factories of a company with all its customers and its other offices and branches around the world so that up-to-date information is available for any of these almost immediately. Such a link-up facilitates `off-the-shelf' dissemination of information on problems such as delays in manufacture and defects, enabling even the customisation of details because of the flexibility it affords.

If information on, say, the status of a product relating to two or more factories in the same location or in two or more factories in different countries is needed, it is available `off the shelf' -- thus saving one the trouble of using the telephone. The status of many design cycles can now be directly ascertained from the Internet so that the faster the rate of technological innovation, the shorter is the access time. With the facility of networking the entire enterprise, companies can connect multiple systems and give management users immediate access to accurate and up-to-date information for quick decisions.

With appropriate hardware and software, the monitoring and controlling functions are facilitated tremendously, eliminating thereby troubleshooting and machine downtimes. It also enables automatic reporting -- thus doing away with manual data collection, compilation and processing -- and access to reports from any part of the world. Networking also helps reduce costs significantly, by obviating the need to train employees on different networks and facilitating the flow of information from the senior management to the shop-floor levels from any part of the world.

That the Internet-networked enterprise is more flexible than, say, a specific software such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) was acknowledged by SAP which specialises on a special software for automating and integrating the internal processes and supply chains of big companies. ERP was found to be losing its sheen as companies found that they were losing their flexibility running their businesses according to ERP rules rather than on the Internet-based network. As the Net affords much greater flexibility, even corporate giants such as IBM and Oracle have been reinventing themselves by going the e-way.

By using a software along with ERP, SAP was able to extend ERP R/3 to the Web, transferring all of a company's operational business to the Web. The Net, with the open platform facility that it affords from any connected device, provides everybody in the management access to applications/services which will make them more productive and efficient.

E-mart network: Scores of Internet marts have sprung up in the US affording an opportunity to the consumer to browse, view and order any product from a vast multitude of products of various manufacturers displayed in one place on the website. These are similar to the physical bazaars, supermarkets or malls and the customer has the facility of sitting in his own home and deciding which product suits his requirements after an evaluation of alternatives available from competitive sources.

Practical problems such as security of credit cards or bank accounts furnished by the customers to the suppliers do exist, but this development is still at the nascent stage which could be refined over time by suitable safeguards in the software used. Besides the integrated supermarkets, there are also dedicated websites of individual companies displaying their wares with details such as prices, ordering quantities, delivery schedules, payment terms, and so on.

E-advertisements: While surfing the Net, myriad product advertisements keep blinking on the screen; this is a useful way of advertising one's products as it catches the attention of consumers directly by visual contact with the screen. The PC user-base would, however, have to be substantially large to be able to meet the cost of advertising through the Net and ensure that the expenditure incurred in putting the products on Web-display is commensurate with the income generated.

E-distance learning: Companies are now increasingly resorting to Web-based learning to train their employees on new products, new management techniques and business skills. E-learning is the facility of learning from a remote location through the medium of the Internet, computers and multimedia technologies. Critical training and education programmes could now be accessed much faster through the Net than before when companies had to bring people together from various locations for training in traditional environments.

Education materials -- traditionally provided through the print medium -- are now available in the form of video, simulations, interactions through chat sessions and slide-displays through powerpoint, and make greater impact on the trainees than the traditional media such as audio cassettes and lecture sessions.

E-ncyclopaedia: People often find themselves at their wit's end because of the non-availability of reference materials and other related information which they might require for special programmes such as seminars and conferences, often at short notice. Not any longer.

There is a vast storehouse of published materials on almost any topic conceivable in various websites which, again, could be located through the medium of search engines. These websites are becoming the vehicles for a tremendous knowledge explosion and will be increasingly accessed in the future because of the flexibility they afford for sifting through portions from a whole mass of information. Many of such published materials have the facility of being downloaded or printed, thus affording the flexibility of reading them through later off-line.

E-banking: Banks are increasingly marketing their services that could be used through the Net. As this area is fraught with risks of fraud and manipulation, adequate safeguards will have to be built in the software operating the systems network to gain customer confidence, acceptance and popularity. While banks in the US are already touting these services to attract business, it will be quite a while before these can be carried on any meaningful scale in India.

In conclusion, one can only say that we are in the midst of exciting times. Never before has a technology provided such an array of uses, facilities and the potential for providing solutions to almost any business problem. This technology will, in its wake, bring about a revolutionary change in the hierarchical structures in organisations, making whole functions headless and enabling a highly dispersed reporting where anybody in the organisation could be involved in the decision-making process as the information-flow dispenses with the old one-up and one-below structures.