The Impact of Technology

Chapter 11

A service is a deed performed by one party for another. The WWW has seen the proliferation of a host of service providers such as banks, real estate companies, stockbrokers, florists, travel companies, airlines, hotels, and many more establish a web presence. This is simply because the service providers enjoy the unique benefits of 1) establishing a direct link with the customer, 2) minimizing overhead costs, 3) elimination of middlemen, 4) expanded reach, 5) round-the-clock service in the traditional services context. In the financial services market the WWW puts forth the advantages of real time data updates and the facility of actual trading transactions in real time.

Other firms have gone beyond harnessing the traditional benefits provided by the WWW to create competitive advantages by extending the level of service provided. In the instance of the express-delivery business speed and reliability are now taken for granted. Differentiation is technology driven by providing customers the ability to track their packages all along its route and providing recipient specific information detailing time of delivery and recipient signature. Companies such as UPS and Federal Express provide the software that allows such tracking. Other firms such as Dow Jones have found added opportunities by launching Ask Dow Jones, a business information library that combines proprietary Dow Jones content with selected data from third-party vendors to provide timely tactical news.