by Ernest von Rosen, April 26, 1995

Do you remember the paperless office? This was the perfect office that the advent of computers was supposed to usher in; leaving us to bask in electronic paper as the trees continued to flourish outside. Instead what we got was three times the paper consumption (or there about) and a computer system that more or less managed our businesses and our daily lives in a manner we had never planned. Technology has a way of doing that, of changing the way we conduct our businesses and lives and in ways we never imagined; the Internet promises to do the same.

If we step back a bit and look at the history of the Internet so far (especially when we look at the World Wide Web, or WWW) we can see that what started as a means to share electronic files and information has turned into a free-for-all in electronic commerce. The first were the bookstores, pizza shops, flower boutiques, and software companies. The idea was the same. Each had a product to offer identified in size and shape and marketing fell into the same category as selling any widget to the electronic masses. But this has, so far, met with limited success. The electronic masses, it seems, is not buying as much as everyone had anticipated at first.

This is not so much the fault of the individual products, but more to do with the anticipation that the users of the Internet have in the first place. What people want is information (perhaps that is why psychiatric advice over the Internet is a hot item lately). They want it cheaply and now. With information people can business strategy, marketing, and purchasing decisions and respond faster to market trends.

The business of stock markets, futures trading, and related financial investments is one such an example. People in this industry live and die for real time information that keeps them one step ahead of their competitor. In the words of one international company which became very successful after installing a completely renewed information system, "... all we needed to be was two seconds faster than our competitors". Realizing this opportunity, several businesses have staked already their claim on the Internet.

Perhaps one of the most innovative is the "PAWWS" system which was featured at the recent Internet World (http://www.mecklerweb.com/) in San Jose, California. PAWWS, or Portfolio Accounting World-Wide from Security APL is a division of Chicago-based Security APL offering fully integrated financial information, quotes, portfolio accounting and order entry on the same WWW site (http://pawws.secapl.com/invest.html). Splits, name changes, mergers, distributions and exchanges are processed by PAWWS giving them an advantage over similar software offered "in a box". They even have a "PAW Tracks" system that lets you track up to 50 securities, the reports of which can be mailed to you daily, weekly, monthly, or as required.

If that is not enough, wait until you can trade your stocks in real-time, over the Internet. National Discount Brokers is expected to join PAWWS in early may. They promise that the fee for a trade at NASDAQ or OTC of any size will cost you $20 (US) and any listed trade of up to 5,000 shares will be a flat $25(US). Listed trades will incur a $3(US) postage and handling fee.

Can't wait until then? Then look at Baker & Co. Inc. (http://www.cris.com/~bumm/baker1.html) who are offering a similar service right now. If you can't get through to their site, they still post plenty of 1-800 numbers for you to try. How about financial futures market? Visit Finacor Vendome Inc. (http://www.finacor.chi.il.us/bonds/) and have a look at Andy's 2:00 screen shot. A clever little picture that shows what the settlement prices were for the day at 2:00 Central time. It is not real time, of course, but it shows the trend as market information is made available over the Internet with as little as 15 seconds delay (at that rate you would have to pay for the info of course).

Doing business over the Internet always brings up a second point: that of secure transactions. Security is always an issue (the details of which are best left for another article) but recent advances in Client/Server security have made that less of a problem. Netscape's (http://www.netscape.com) server with RSA encryption virtually eliminates these security issues, or as a representative for PAWWS said, "It's surely harder to break than it would be to tap you phone and most people have no problem giving secure financial data like their credit card number over the phone."

In the end we may not necessarily have our paperless offices, and it will be a while yet before we do all of our business over the Internet (or whatever it will be called then). However what we will have is a changing attitude towards the value of real-time information and an increasing demand to have it available cheaply and immediately. But what we are still seeing is existing business paradigms being applied to the Internet. Once we see agent technology in place where software proxies represent our interests, be they financial or otherwise, on the World Wide, Wide Area Network and conduct business on our behalf, that is when the real fun begins.

Ernest von Rosen of netResults! offers advice on business integration with the Internet. He can be reached at 631-9818 or visited at http://www.nresults.com

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