March 1997, Volume 1, No. 1 Group Connectivity Is Top Priority for 1997

This year's Forecast highlights the new business opportunities being created by the growth of the Internet and corporate intranets. Three separate chapters are devoted to innovative uses of the Internet and on-line services; electronic commerce; and browsers, servers, and search engines. Subsequent chapters define and discuss information management strategies, including data warehousing, data security, development tools, and network and systems management. The 500-page Forecast also contains exclusive interviews with five senior executives from leading technology companies -- Cisco Systems, Dell Computer, IBM, Microsoft and Oracle -- offering insights into where technology is going and how people will be using it in the future.

In the 2lst century, the Technology Forecast predicts that information technology industries will drive economic wealth. The innovations developed by the computing, telecommunications, consumer electronics, and electronic media industries will affect every business large and small and dramatically change peoples' home lives as well. Among the predictions offered by the 1997 Forecast are changes in the areas of groupware, workflow and document management:

• Document management will be increasingly integrated with core business applications such as accounts payable and material requirements planning.
• Inter-enterprise applications will be possible due to the development of workflow standards.
• Document management software will offer cross-platform compatibility between DOS, Macintosh, OS/2, UNIX, and Windows platforms.

According to John Chambers, president and CEO of Cisco Systems, "Today, more and more people work and make decisions in groups. As a result, systems that allow workers to share information have become crucial to the success of the business enterprise. In addition, the current global business environment has spawned the need for information access regardless of differences in time, place, or type of computer system."

Michael Dell, chairman and CEO of Dell Computer, agrees. "One of the most important changes is that computers are now connected and people are not computing by themselves anymore," he said. "Networks have advanced in a huge way, enabling executives and consumers to communicate through on-line services, company-wide networks, wireless communications devices, and the Internet."

The Internet and Internet-enhancing products such as Lotus Notes have made it simpler to share information both within and across organizations, according to J. Bruce Harreld, senior vice president of strategy for IBM. "Effective knowledge management programs build on that capability by enabling workers to share experiences as well as data," he said. "Encouraging workers to share actual experiences, however, is just the first step. The second step in effective knowledge management is to ensure that the information can be quickly accessed and updated so that workers have real-time information."

Although the Internet is an effective medium for communicating constantly changing information, Ray Lane, Oracle's president and COO, believes that people will eventually become bored with browsing. Lane said, "It's clear that both executives and consumers are looking for more compelling audio, visual and textual content. They want easier and less-expensive ways to access the content."

Ease of use is one of the most important technical innovations, said Steve Ballmer, executive vice president of sales and support for Microsoft. "A second important trend will be the increased use of computers for communications and collaboration. Collaboration will increase because new computing form factors make it easier for different groups of people to get together both inside and outside the company."