VideoFor lots of companies, buoyant IT budgets are but memories. Many CFOs are now saddled with low returns on their investments. Yet for those in a position to invest, now might be the right time to play off the front foot. The question is, where best to channel resources in today's tough business climate?
There's no shortage of options. Speaking at CFO Asia's eCFO conference in Hong Kong in October, Su-Yen Wong, vice president of Mercer Management Consulting, observed: "If I had a dollar for every time somebody told me 'We have too many E-initiatives in our company,' I probably wouldn't be here today."
But focus CFOs must. As Richard Fennell, a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting (PwC) in Hong Kong, points out: "CFOs, increasingly, are being asked to lead those initiatives. Like the CEO, the CFO holds one of the few positions with cross-organization purview." That places the finance chief in a daunting position. "A fairly rare breed of companies has solid business design and digitization of processes," Wong says.
Motorola, for one, is having a shot at just that. The communications and semiconductor giant's "e-Business, Everywhere" ethos runs the gamut of online endeavor — from a renminbi vendor payment system developed with the Bank of China to a ten-module E-learning course for staff accountants to complete at their own pace. Recently, the company also invested $2 million in an online travel and entertainment system. Shawn Bergemann, Motorola's director of corporate finance for Asia Pacific in Singapore, says the project has delivered to the tune of "seven times return on investment."
For a multibillion-dollar company, such savings are small fry. But they show what can be achieved. As PwC's Fennel observes: "To get [employee, supplier, and customer] buy-in early, you need to deliver something early. Maybe not complete, but demonstrable." Here are 10 technologies that should offer some real help getting through the tough times.
Biometrics
Eye Spy
Only days after the September 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, security arrangements in skyscrapers across Asia began to change. Most of the differences, however, were as low-tech as excluding tourists and insisting on ID badges. Hong Kong-based Cheung Kong Infrastructure, however, is taking security to new levels. It's been investing heavily in the latest ID gizmo — biometrics. After years of development, the latest biometric software enables a computer to confirm an individual's identity based on a stable physical trait, such as the face, fingerprint or iris. When a device like a webcam or fingerprint pad captures an image for measurement of the appropriate body part, a software algorithm converts it to a digital code.
Once the stuff of Hollywood movies, biometrics is now affordable enough for any large-scale security operation. In the wake of the September attacks, airport authorities in Australia and the U.K. launched pilot programs that will use biometrics to identify frequent flyers. The International Air Transport Association believes the software will save immigration officials and security personnel time that can better be used checking travelers who pose a more likely threat. Malaysian authorities are also investigating biometrics for screening passengers, and the Philippine government intends to use biometrics when it introduces machine-readable passports and visas in 2002.
The appeal of the technology is obvious. Joseph Atick, CEO of New Jersey-based Visionics, a specialist in face recognition technology, says that in the wake of the U.S. terrorist attacks he received about 100 calls a day from prospective customers — from as far afield as Thailand. Notes Atick, "There is nothing to remember, and nothing to leave home without." The International Biometrics Group says that industry revenues in 2001 will jump 13 percent from last year's total, to $524 million. To date, most large companies relegate biometrics to secure rooms and data centers, because employers are reluctant to say they don't trust their workers, says Bob Mannal, senior manager of KPMG's Information Risk Management practice. That view could be short-sighted. At its simplest, biometrics should make computer networks more secure — and cut the theft of information and capital assets. Beyond that, scientists believe the technology will ease consumer fears about purchasing over the Net. Japan's NEC has started fitting desktop PCs with fingerprint readers — a user simply cannot log on without fingerprint verification.
Trade Management Software
Pretzel Logistics
China's arduous accession to the World Trade Organization put the role of governments and cross-border trade in the spotlight. Indeed, according to the United Nations, companies spend $420 billion each year — or 7 percent of the cost of global trade — creating and chasing paperwork to satisfy governments around the world. The red tape puts many off the chase altogether. A 1999 report by U.S. consultancy Forrester found that 85 percent of companies surveyed could not fill some international orders because of the complexity of shipping goods across borders.
Now there is a more rational way of dealing with cross-border trade. Stephens, an American investment bank, predicts annual global spending in cross-border logistics technologies will reach $1 trillion by 2005. Some of that looks destined for the pockets of U.S. software developers like ClearCross, Vastera, and NextLinx. They sell trade management software that promises to lower the costs of compliance at every stage of a product's production, from design to final delivery. Web-based and constantly updated with new regulatory content, their products are a leap forward from earlier generations of stand-alone, PC-based trade management software.
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