The document discusses several potential applications of the Internet for businesses, including communications, research and development, marketing, and project support. It notes that the Internet allows for improved two-way dialogue, access to information from anywhere, virtual collaboration, and around-the-clock customer support. It also outlines an Internet capability plan for providing access, email, file transfer, web pages, discussion groups, and other features to take advantage of these opportunities.

1. Applications for the Internet
Communications
The Internet has great scope to be an effective communications tool within all areas of a company's operations.
Among the many communications uses to which it can be put are:
• Better two-way dialogue between management and staff.
• Enabling personnel to access project information, to send in documents, to submit reports, etc. - all from the field.
• Encouraging the creation of virtual problem-solving teams.
• Allowing people anywhere in the world to find out where to contact your company and who to contact - at any
time of the day or night.
• Facilitating the creation of an efficient trans-national system of operations - design can be in Dublin, development
in New York, production in Oak Ridge.
• Allowing staff to communicate with groups within their areas of expertise.
• Providing the ability to link in with customers, contractors and others to provide them with information, and to
obtain valuable feedback.
• Providing the opportunity to link up with Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) systems.
• Keeping in touch with the world media which is moving increasingly onto the Internet.
Research And Development
Firms are increasingly working with contractors and customers during the project planning and design phases, and the
Internet can assist greatly in tightening these links. The amount of information on the Internet is phenomenal. Having
become familiar with its search facilities, it is possible to assemble information on practically any topic imaginable,
much faster than using traditional search methods. For Research & Development purposes the Internet will:
• Foster specialist discussion groups on specific research and development issues.
• Improve your capacity to create geographically-diverse teams to work on particular projects.
• Allow you to establish more collaborative approaches with contractors and joint ventures with other companies.
• Provide a mechanism for greater involvement by the customer in the product development process.
• Help you keep up with changing trends, and to adapt to these trends.
Marketing
Marketing a service encompasses advertising, distribution of company and capabilities information, and post-sale
customer support. It enables a company to:
• Have much better two-way communications with its customers.
• Make comprehensive marketing information available at any time of day, anywhere in the world.
• Better understand its customer's needs and react accordingly.
• Use email as a low-cost means of keeping its customers informed about the company (weekly email newsletters,
etc.).
• Use newsgroups to identify consumers with an expressed need for its product.
Project Support
The Internet is an ideal medium for providing support information which requires to be constantly updated. For
companies, the challenge is to provide support in a cost effective manner. The Internet can help in this area by:
• Making information available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, anywhere in the world.
• Reducing the load on help-desk support lines while increasing customer satisfaction.
• Using intelligent agent software and artificial intelligence approaches to semi-automate many sales and support
functions.
• Helping customers to solve their own problems by providing comprehensive and accurate information.
• Using email as a cheap and fast method of dealing with customer queries.

2. • Centralizing project support functions.
• Delivering those products which can be digitized directly to the consumer's computer.
General Uses
The Internet is an important new business tool and its use need not be limited to just those areas outlined above. There
are numerous other activities in which it can and already is playing a useful part. For example:
• It can increase a firm's ability to source raw materials, supplies, equipment, etc., on a worldwide basis.
• Increasingly, governments and large corporations are placing tender information on the Internet and in some
cases you will be expected to respond to requests via the Internet.
• Education/Training will increasingly be delivered on-line. Rather than have staff attend courses outside the
workplace, the Internet will be used to provide the courses in-house, thus reducing the time and cost to the
company. One US company estimates it saves between 35% and 38% over the cost of sending its employees
to the same courses in classrooms by using on-line training. It also means that education can be delivered
when employees have the time to address it.
• It provides another and less expensive means to recruit personnel. This is particularly beneficial where the
targeted personnel are based abroad.
• Because Internet information is digital-based it can be searched and then stored much more efficiently than hard
copy information.
Internet Capability Plan
Internet Access
• Individuals can gain Internet access 24 hours a day, 7 days a week dial in access by modem from
anywhere in the world.
• We can provide dedicated lines to entire networks. Several users can be sharing the same line.
Electronic Mail
• send guaranteed messages to individuals or groups
• files can be sent directly by attaching them to a message
FTP Server
• makes files accessible to the general public
• files can be protected by password
• files can received on ftp server
World Wide Web
• fastest growing part of the Internet
• user friendly (point and click)
• allows people to view text, graphics, sound and video
• interactive forms to receive information back

3. • allows people to receive files
• searching is available
UseNet
• incredibly large discussion groups
• entries and comments over wide array of topics
Other
• Live video conferencing
• Live audio broadcasts