SINGAPORE (02/21/2000) - Asia has a role to play in the upcoming electronic services arena, according to Ann Livermore, president, Enterprise Computing, Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP).
E-services encapsulates the reconstruction of HP as a prime enabler of the delivery of services over the Internet, which it defines as making assets available over the Internet to drive new revenue streams and to create new efficiencies.
Livermore cited three areas of opportunity for Asia in e-services. The first being in the area of business-to-business e-services, such as with supply chain management, electronic procurement, and trading hubs.
"I believe that there is a big opportunity inside of Asia for supply chain management, and procurement over the Internet. It can be an exciting area that can bring benefit to big and small businesses," said Livermore.
A second area she identified was in consumer e-services, such as for vertical service industries like the financial industry.
"A single device like a cell phone can provide e-services for people, be it travel, business, or traffic congestion information," said Livermore.
Computing e-services is the third area cited by Livermore, such as in the areas of storage e-services, datamining, and MIPs on demand.
Livermore also noted that e-services would be delivered not only to PCs but also to various devices such as mobile phones, cars or even watches that can be designed to receive e-services.
"There is an opportunity for thousands of devices in e-services," said Livermore.
Livermore also outlined three trends that will drive the e-services marketplace:
-- the rise of "apps-on-tap" - where business applications are delivered as pay-as-you-go services on the Internet, enabling companies to drive down IT costs.
-- an explosion of next-generation portals - defined as industry-specific, application-specific and company-specific portals that offer a collection of complementary, third-party services on their sites. An example is banks that offer bill payment, tax preparation and accounting services, as well as customer bank account information.
-- the emergence of a dynamically brokered' e-services marketplace - where requests for services are automatically brokered, bid and transacted on the Internet on the requestor's behalf based on specified criteria, such as best price, most reliable, highest quality.