Land of Opportunity and Challenges
Technology is changing so rapidly it’s hard to predict where it will be even five years from now. But here are some trends that give a glimpse into the future.
* Already, technology lets entrepreneurs conduct business just about any place and any time. Working anywhere will become even easier when cell phones, pagers and other hand-held devices can communicate with one another.
You’ll enter your data once--probably in your PC--and be able to access it from whatever device you use, including your cell phone, experts say.
It gets better. With emerging technologies such as Bluetooth, these hand-held devices will be able to communicate with one another via radio waves. Bluetooth is a wireless data standard accepted by hundreds of companies, including IBM, Toshiba, Intel, Ericsson and Nokia.
If Bluetooth ever becomes available, businesspeople will be carrying wireless local area networks around with them. Your watch will reset itself to the local time zone when you step off a plane, your palm-top PC can get your e-mail by dialing the cell phone in your pocket, and if one of the devices needs even more information, it can fetch it from the laptop in your briefcase. If that’s not enough, the cell phone will dial your office PC or central server for whatever data it needs.
* We’ll see more devices besides computers connected to the Internet. Most business computers now have their own Internet Protocol (IP) address--like a phone number that makes it possible for other devices to query it or direct information to it. In the next few years many more electronic devices will have their own IP address so that they can exchange data, receive remote commands or initiate communications with other devices even if they happen to be thousands of miles away. Cars, pagers, phones, security systems, copiers, even the office coffee machine will be connected to the Internet. When the copier jams, it will send its own message to the repair center for remote diagnostics and repair.
* Overwhelmed by information? You may soon get help managing the flow of data and messages. Technology forecaster Paul Saffo (https://www.saffo.org CQwl), director of the Institute for the Future in Menlo Park, Calif., believes the next wave of business technology will include products that help us filter the information and people who want our attention.
“Filtering technology,” says Saffo, “will give small-business people the type of selectivity that one would have in a large corporation.”
Although secretaries and receptionists are becoming an endangered species even in large companies, most CEOs and senior executives still have gatekeepers who screen calls and visitors so the executive’s time is focused on the important business of the company. People who run small businesses don’t have that luxury, which is why Saffo is a big fan of emerging technologies such as Wildfire Communications’ personal-assistance software. The Lexington, Mass., company’s product screens, directs and announces calls.
* Small-business technology wll move over to the Internet. Small businesses increasingly will be using the Internet to market and deliver services and products, said Tim Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies, a Campbell, Calif., consulting and technology research firm.
What’s more, the Internet will begin to replace shrink-wrapped software. Instead of running applications on your PC, you’ll run them over the Internet from a PC, a Mac or even a dumb terminal.
It’s already starting. NetLedger (https://www.netledger.com), which is backed financially by Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, is an early player. Billed as “the world’s first online small business accounting application,” it has a familiar web interface that lets you do all your accounting from within inside Netscape Navigator or Internet Explorer. The company plans to launch other web-based business applications for companies with “one to 50 employees.”
Another Silicon Valley start-up, CenterBeam (https://www.centerbeam.com), aims to provide small businesses with an entire Information Technology (IT) department. For a monthly fee, the company will manage all your computer and technology needs. The procurement and management of PCs, software, Internet access, e-mail and even printers will be outsourced to the company just as corporate IT departments currently manage technology resources for their companies.
Even more ambitious is SmartOnline Inc. of Durham, North Carolina. The company plans later this year to help small businesses manage money, employees, customers, suppliers, equipment and operations with the help of online tools and software. The company goal, according to president and CEO Dennis Michael Nouri, is to “level the playing field for small businesses” with online services.
* Farthest out in the future of all these trends is “ubiquitous computing.” If you think PCs are cheap and small now, imagine the day when they might be literally disposable and small enough to be almost invisible. Microprocessors connected to screens will be used for signage, imbedded into business cards and, perhaps, sewn into the lapel of your coat.
Small-business technology will be discussed at the Los Angeles Times Small Business Strategies Conference, Sept. 24-25 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. For more information or to register online, phone 1-800-350-3211 or go to www.latimes.com/sbsc.
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Technology reports by Lawrence J. Magid can be heard at 1:48 p.m. weekdays on KNX (1070). He can be reached at larry.magid@latimes.com. His Web site is at https://www.larrysworld.com. On AOL, use keyword “LarryMagid.”
