THE Internet will drive the next wave of change in world computer technology, a US technology expert told a seminar attended by senior executives in Dublin yesterday.
Business needs to "get ready for the Internet to change everything", said Mr Eric Berg, director of strategic technology services at Price Waterhouse in California.
The changes would affect corporate and consumer technology and would be accompanied by an increase in the pervasiveness of the Internet.
Mr Berg was introducing the 1997 Price Waterhouse technology forecast, a forecast of how technology would evolve over the coming two or three years. The seminar was attended by executives who make purchasing decisions involving the latest technology, often for six or seven figure sums.
The total transaction value of goods and services which would be purchased using the Internet would "explode" from virtually zero two years ago to just under £120 billion by the end of the decade, Mr Berg said. Across all industries the Internet would lead to the removal of intermediaries from the "value chain".
It is likely that payment by credit card would remain the most popular method of payment for goods and services over the Web for the next two years.
Mr Roy Hanan, of Price Waterhouse Ireland, said companies need to take advantage of Ireland's strong telecommunications infrastructure to maintain their competitiveness internationally.
One delegate, who did not want to be named, told The Irish Times that, companies in her sector were currently spending up to 14 per cent of annual turnover on new technologies. Clientserver technology is now mandatory rather than optional".
The average shelflife for the latest technologies was considered to be four years.
The challenge is to buy products when they are past the highrisk stage, "on the cusp of their maturity", but not on the "plateau of their life cycle or going down".
Major companies which do not have up to the minute systems lose their skilled personnel to competitors, as these personnel need to be working with the latest technology in order to retain their professional value.
The woman, who was responsible for her company's worldwide strategy for information technology and communications, said it was difficult in Ireland to get the suppliers who could install new technologies. The suppliers are "run off their feet" working for the larger multinational sites such as Hewlett Packard at Leixlip, Co Kildare.
Mr Berg gave an example of how customers could use the Internet to make inquiries to a company's accounts department, saving the company the cost of employing people to answer the telephone and speak with customers.
It is likely electronic goods such as microwaves would soon be built so they can be contacted over the Internet. Home computers are likely to be given away under schemes similar to the ones which currently apply to cellular phones.
Cable TV networks and satellite technology as well as telephone lines would be used to link home computers to the Internet. In the next few years it is likely that televisions would be built with an in built and standard component allowing them access to the Internet.
