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Thursday
- October 26, 2000
eBusiness Growing Pains Spell Opportunity
for Services Firms
IDC revealed today the significant role service providers
will play in the next generation of ebusiness projects. With
immediate pressure from dot-coms diminished as the market
regroups, businesses are moving from a reactionary mode to
a more strategic approach when planning their ebusiness initiatives.
IDC predicts companies planning to thrive in the new economy
will turn their attention to ebusiness projects that will
yield real returns and will look to services firms for help.
But to take advantage of these opportunities, services firms
must reinvent their own strategies and tailor their offerings
to the needs of emerging and evolving companies.
Traci Gere, IDC's group vice president for
Services research, explained, "Companies are quickly
realizing that buying and selling online is not enough. Instead,
they are exploring new sales channels and marketplaces, creating
holistic customer experiences, sharing knowledge in new ways
to increase productivity and retain intellectual capital,
and linking back-end processes to gain efficiencies. We are
finally moving from ecommerce to what is truly ebusiness."
The demand for newer, better, faster, more
complex solutions that tie the capabilities of the Internet
into overall business value is prompting more companies to
seek the assistance of outside providers. This demand fuels
numerous opportunities in esolutions services - a market
IDC expects to skyrocket from $115 billion in 1999 to $430
billion by 2004.
"To deliver the kinds of solutions companies
need, services firms must be able to not only deliver expertise
on technology, but provide advice on developing new businesses,
streamlining existing business processes, orchestrating new
ventures, and creating sustainable partnerships," said
Michael Melenovsky, senior vice president of IDC's Worldwide
Services group. "We're at the cusp of a do-or-die transition
for services firms. Winning services firms must transform
to reflect the needs of their clients for a broad array of
business services expressly designed for the new economy."
The Harder Dot-Com: Jobs Are First To Go
According to the San Francisco Chronicle:
"A riches-to-rags U-turn is continuing
in dot-com land, as once-flush companies resort to layoffs
to cut costs, according to a new study.
Between Sept. 25 and Friday, Internet companies
cut 5,677 jobs -- 18 percent more than last month, according
to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. It
was the most dot-com layoffs in a single month since Challenger
started tracking Internet layoffs in December.
The total number of layoffs among dot-com companies
since December has hit 22,267 and is likely to grow over
the next three months, the study's author said..."
Click here for the full story.
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