Focus: Economic Forecast
Internet technology, Web applications will be hot
Jean DerGurahian Business Review Reporter
The future of business lies in the Internet, and the companies that provide e-commerce solutions have a leg up in the market, observers say.
Software developers who make Internet-driven applications will be in hot demand in 2000, said Jeffrey Lawrence, vice president of technology for the Center for Economic Growth Inc. In 1995, the Albany-based non-profit economic development group established the Capital Region Software Alliance, an organization of the area's software companies.
Lawrence said the Capital Region has about 250 software companies, ranging from large corporations like MapInfo Corp. of North Greenbush to small startups like STEP Tools Inc. of Troy.
Traditional software--programs created to run on personal computers in homes or offices--are taking the back burner to applications software, where users are on the Web, accessing programs in remote locations, not loading them on home desktops.
These kinds of applications are driving more interactive and creative work to be done over the Internet, said John Botti, president and chief executive officer of BitWise Designs Inc., the Schenectady manufacturer of DocStar imaging system and Authentidate, an online verification system.
"All the rules have to be retooled" for e-commerce, Botti said.
Internet users are becoming more sophisticated, and people are beginning to realize that owning a technology is not as important as owning the benefit of a technology, he said, adding, "The real value is in what the software does," not in owning it.
Users--especially those in commercial markets--want Web sites with more than just point-and-click features, which are what most online retail businesses have, Botti said.
BitWise's Authentidate service is one of those interactive applications. The system authenticates, stores and retrieves documents sent over the Internet.
Other local companies are following this trend and developing content-based services. Matrix Intermedia Corp., a company located in E-Comm Square, the emerging high-tech community center at 3 City Square in downtown Albany, creates media systems focusing on e-commerce and Internet marketing. The company is focusing on creating "portals," private, interactive Internet sites.
Botti predicts that Web applications will continue to drive e-commerce and that gains made last year from Internet companies will double this year.
"It's not very difficult to say this will continue for a while," he said. |
