In today's world, you cannot pick up a newspaper, magazine or click through your favourite TV channels, without encountering the subjects of Technology, with special emphasis on the Internet and E- Business.

The apparent failures of some of the World's "dotcoms" in recent weeks, together with the new age viruses such as "ILOVEYOU", may result in some sceptics declaring E- nough! I would venture to say, "you do this at your own peril..."

We will transform from a telephone-based world into a networked economy, the term " global village" is a reality. Some areas of the world will develop faster, the reason being that they have identified the prerequisites, understood them and have put actions in place. We, in Africa have models to learn from, I concede some adaptation will be required, but implementation should be achievable.

The impact of the convergence of telephony and Internet has already started to change the way we live and do business. For the people that still think that the internet is for surfing, they have unfortunately not identified a tool that entrepreneurs world wide have already started using, a tool that will allow for a competitive advantage against your competition, in whatever industry you are operating. The failures of some dotcoms, cannot be blamed on the Internet! The Internet is a tool, it cannot develop a viable business plan (take a viable business and put it on the WWW, don't expect the WWW to be the business.).

E-business is not about Technology, E-business is not about Electronic Data Interchange! It is about improved communication, the support of business processes, its about exploiting marketing and branding on the Internet. It's about giving smaller companies an opportunity to compete in the "supply chain". It's about giving you and I a better service.

During the 1998 Christmas season, 58% of US Internet households bought at least one product over the Internet, an increase of 400% over 1997. In Germany, 2.2 million of the total 8.4 million Internet users ordered at least once over the Internet.

In 1997, 0.8% of small merchants used the Internet. The expectation is that 7% will be online by 2003. Africans are traders, surely we need to exploit this tool for the sake of SMME and Black Economic Empowerment development.

There are however some concerns that need to be addressed, before wholeheartedly embracing the Internet:

• The African "online" figures vary dramatically depending on the month of the year and the publication at your disposal. But I would not be far wrong to say that we in Africa have less than 1% of the world's "online" population. This is of specific concern, because we have at least 12% of the world's population. The positive sign is even though the SA Internet growth has shown signs of slowing down (It is the first year that the growth is less than 100%), Africa is still on the up and up although from a low base.
  
  
The Telephone penetration (teledensity) or rather the lack of it should remain our Number 1 priority. This being said, Telkom SA must be commended for its vision 2000 program, which will see the teledensity growing to a 16% figure. Most countries in Southern Africa however have teledensity figures of 1%! The low teledensity will have the resulting affect that these new technology innovations such as WWW and E-business will be deployed in areas with high teledensity only, once again widening the gap between the haves and have nots.


• The English language is the "lingua franca" of the Internet. For Africa, by default the rural masses are excluded from both the learning and content provision experiences.
  
  
• It's a culture change... "Most people are used to the normal chain of manufacture, wholesaler, retailer to consumer. E- business cuts out the middleman. We are so hooked on this chain, that we do not trust electronic transactions..."
  
  
• It's a culture change... "The medium offers much more than television, but many people will not rise to the challenge, preferring rather to remain passive, they would rather be on the receiving end than in an interactive relationship."

We need to embrace, these changes, challenge the conventional way, before others do, in essence we need to become E-smart.

This article was written by special request.