September 18, 2000

In Praise of E-Bystanders

By Lou Bertin

Recent columns

The FTC Hits A Home Run Plugging The Skills Gap Face The Music, Microsoft Microsoft's Grassroots Strategy More Observer archives...

his is a piece about seduction. About all that seducers on either side of the gender equator no doubt hope to inspire in their subjects. The feelings of being wanted, surpassingly charming, and, above all, attractive. That the subjects are objects worthy of all of the seducer's attractions, wiles, and oh-so-practiced whispered nothings.

Potent stuff, isn't it? That which has fueled thousands of words in bodice-rippers, mindless thrillers, and Washington potboilers appears to be a discipline--if indeed such a term as "discipline" applies here (and well it should, based on ongoing personal observation of too many aging Lotharios in too many hotel establishments where alcohol is purveyed)--that is alive and well.

The manifestation of the art of seduction that has captured my attention most recently rests not in the sweaty realm of the fleshy pleasures but in the icy, libido-shriveling world of zeros and ones. Only those who read on ought to consider themselves true business professionals; the remainder of you are officially excused for this month, provided you take cold showers on a regular basis.

The very particular form of seduction that has captured my fancy is, of itself, a bit of a dusty relic as measured in technology terms: It focuses on an issue that the "popular" media has long assumed has long since taken hold, namely: the dot-comming of North American enterprises.

This widespread notion that the great majority of businesses have long since taken the E-plunge may be the greatest myth since Clifford Irving and the Howard Hughes diaries or, at minimum, since the latest sighting of the Loch Ness monster or its progeny. And, as the seducers would have it, those who aren't among the E-enabled are so hopelessly unattractive that they aren't even worth a longshot try.

From the perspective of one who is lucky enough to spend time in conversation with hundreds of InformationWeek's readers on a monthly basis, I'm here to tell you that the dot-com adoption myth fails pitifully to live up to the reality: That there are by far more businesses out there still wrestling with the how's and why's of E-commerce than the actual doing of E-commerce; that caution now rules the consensus of whose with whom I speak, that the notion of "blowing up the old" is as unthinkable to many of your peers as would be sautéing the family pet.

To such thinking on the part of enterprise strategy setters, I say thank the stars.

Just as a seducer's blandishments may seem attractive at a given moment of weakness, so, too, must the bombardment of input about the successes of the dot-coms appear to those who are on the outside looking in at the revolution. Funny thing about this revolution, though: There are well-intentioned losers.

The losers, in this case, are those who ignored the fundamental rule that what's past is prologue. That old customers are the best customers; that any bird in hand is worth two in the bush (unless and until one is unassailably equipped to capture both birds), that "blowing up" what works works well in theory but not in widespread practice.

In a typically well-informed cover story in a recent edition of InformationWeek, my old pal Rick Whiting quotes one of my newer pals, Home Depot senior VP and CIO Ron Griffin, as saying his company didn't embark on its E-business initiative to "maximize Internet sales . . . the objective is to maximize the relationship with the customer."

Sew those words into a sampler and hang it on your office wall.

They ought be the mantra for any company that's looking to take the plunge into E-business or struggling with the mess of what they ought do as they try to blow the water out of their noses in the messy aftermath of their premature initial plunge into the E-waters.

What's past, in this case, is the relationships they've earned with their customers. What's prologue is a new, more facile--but no less rewarding--relationship with that same body of customers and their counterparts. If those on either side of the new-customer/old-customer street aren't catered to impeccably, they'll find another thoroughfare upon which to trod. Ever has it been and ever shall it be. And who would be willing to take that risk?

If the old isn't acknowledged as enterprises move to the new, those enterprises foolish enough to adopt the "new-is-all" approach may as well scrap everything and forfeit any and all knowledge they have about their most valuable asset: the customers they have worked long and hard to win. That there even exists a question as to the validity of integrating legacy information with new-business initiatives is testament to the powers of the seducers.

That there remains conversation about the value of the old in the world of the new is why we're all here. May it ever be thus.

Lou Bertin is an industry consultant. He can be reached at Lou.Bertin@gte.net

Rusty Weston: Matter Of Fact Rusty explores the facts and figures behind business technology.	Charles Pelton: Eye On IT Charles explores IT management issues and strategies that business and technology managers face.	Jason Levitt: Internet Zone Jason focuses on the strange, egregious, and the standard technologies of the intranet/Internet.	Stuart Johnston: Redmond Watch As our eyes and ears in Redmond, Stuart gives his perspective on the latest events at Microsoft.