THE cyber-corporation may be nearer to South Africa than many=20 people think. The Internet has featured ever more prominently in=20 discussions, articles, computer exhibitions, new software packages=20 and marketing strategy discussions over the past few months. What sounded like futuristic predictions a year ago, have moved=20 from being virtual to partial to actual reality. American companies are already experiencing the benefits of staff=20 working in cyberspace. There is a growing trend — referred to as=20 “hotelling” — in some corporations, for staff to log on via=20 computer and book some real office space for a few hours on the=20 occasional day. When an executive arrives at the office, she or he is given a=20 ready-to-go, mobile cabinet with stationery and other=20 requirements and a magnetic name plate which denotes the office=20 space as his or hers for the next few hours. Organisations have long experienced the problem of an itinerant=20 population of sales and marketing people — some spend up to 80=20 percent of their time in the field — and the real estate cost for=20 their under-used office space. Commuting is also a waste of time and money and, given the=20 powerful combination of pagers, cellphones, notebook computers=20 and modems, the need to be in an office has fallen away. The=20 * ong-awaited notion of reaching a person rather than a place is an=20
Benefits from proximity-to-client and coalface-of-marketplace=20 perspectives, are inestimable. Fewer people do better and more=20 effective client liaison jobs because their reaction times to market=20 * eeds are limited only by modem speeds. In South Africa — a life assurance Mecca — representatives,=20 claims assessors, brokers and client-dedicated executives can=20 become gypsies in the marketplace. The medical repping business graduated some time ago to full- colour, on-the-doctor’s-desk, notebook computer presentations of=20 * ew products and services. The day is not far away when that same rep will simply download=20 the latest educational or product information, or tutorial in a hotel=20 room at night, study it, engage in a live-time electronic=20 conference with the product trainer or brand manager, answer=20 queries and, the next day, launch that product into the=20
The Internet already has the latest information on the symptoms=20 and idiosyncracies of certain diseases. Data on the Ebola virus=20 was shared internationally in this way. Luxury Cape homes, complete with beautiful pictures, are being=20 viewed by international buyers on the Internet. Any organisation worth its salt which does not already have the=20 Internet and its implications structured into future marketing,=20 advertising and communications strategies, is headed for cyberlimbo.