firm. Fifth, firms may outsource in order to align their IT strategy with the business
life cycle of their products and services.
Outsourcing provides an attractive way for a firm to acquire various types of IT
services in different countries. Obtaining equipment service, processing capacity, or
network services locally may be preferable to retaining permanent staff in each coun-
try in which the firm operates.
(iv) Internet. The Internet was funded initially by the U.S. government (Advanced
Research Projects Agency, DOD) in the late 1960s.^22 The goal of the project was to
develop a robust data communications architecture that would be highly tolerant to
loss of communications lines and other failures. Initially used to tie computer science
departments in the United States together so they could share computing and other
resources, its open set of protocols was expanded and enhanced to encompass many
data communications functions (e.g., electronic mail, distributed processing, file
transfer, etc.). Because these standards were in the public domain, they were adopted
by many manufacturers of data communications equipment until, over time, they
have become a worldwide standard. This happened almost by default. The result has
been the creation of a worldwide data communications resource that is usable in al-
most any country in the world.
It is now commonplace for software developers to post software updates on their
FTP (File Transfer Protocol) servers for downloading by their customers. They then
list the availability of these updates on their WWW (World Wide Web) server Web
page and may also send e-mail notification of the availability of the update to their
customers, directly. Some suppliers even provide customers with a small program
that periodically checks for the availability of updates to their software and can
download and apply them automatically. Not only does this result in faster availabil-
ity of the update, but it also reduces the cost to the developer, by removing most of
the costs associated with distributing the update.
The Internet is a distributed network run cooperatively. Internet addresses are
unique, and the Internet shares a set of common protocols. Organizations pay the cost
of connecting to the network (usually involving some network equipment, such as a
router and a leased high-speed telephone line). Individuals can connect to the net-
work through an ISP (Internet service provider) and pay a monthly fee of about $20
per month in the United States. The common bond is that all computers connected to
the Internet use the same protocols (e.g., TCP/IP), and they obtain their Internet ad-
dress from a common network addressing authority.
With an Internet address, one can:
- Send and receive e-mail (electronic mail) messages from anyone else who has
an Internet e-mail address. In addition, documents, pictures, or video can be at-
tached to the message. - Post (publish) a Web page that contains whatever information the individual or
company cares to provide. For example, a company may provide a brief de-
scription of itself, a list of products or services offered, pictures of them, and a
means for purchasing their products online. This requires an online Web server
and some electronic commerce software.
28.5 NEW BUSINESS PARADIGMS 28 • 15(^22) Then called the ARPANet.