IT-Enabled Services - IT Enabled Services - page 5

1.2.2.1 The Viewpoint of Global Customer Service

The followings are the quotation from Reponen's eight-point forecast about the
business environment in 2010 (Reponen 2003b , p. 5).
- Everybody would have a personal communicator that localizes, identifies, communi-
cates, and acts as a credit card and key
- Commerce would be mainly done via networks (order, payment, supply information, etc.)
- Delivery chains would be modified so that customized physical products may be
assembled close to the customer using standard parts and elements
- Services would be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week
- Most people would find work in information-related fields, and telecommuting work
would increase to around 50 %
- Delivery channels would become more direct via automated networks
- Juridical companies would be founded and re-founded according to financial and
legislative needs
- Labor markets would exist where work is offered through the Internet, and people
accept posts, often without even knowing their employer
As it turns out, most of the forecasts stated above turned out to be accurate. In
fact, the point about telecommuting and electronic commerce is particularly evi-
dent. Although the author overestimated the penetration of credit cards in the
Japanese market, his predictions are mostly correct. Reponen also presents a
method of analyzing ITeS based on the work of Karimi et al. ( 2001 ), who
categorized industries into four types (Reponen 2003b , p. 6):

- IT-Enabled Customer Focus Firms
- IT-Leaser Firms
- IT-Lagged Firms
- IT-Enabled Operations-Focus Firms

There are two dimensions on the four categorizations as follows:

- Customer Focus
- Operation Focus [ibid.]

According to him, “a sustainable leadership position should, however, be gained
with an intelligent combination of process reengineering and IT.” He further added
that “in IT-led firms, integration and coordination of operations will be the main
challenge.”

1.2.2.2 Improving the Previous Study

The works of Repponen et al. need some improvements. Their study reflected the
technological environment at the turn of the century. During this time, some
technologies they expected had not developed, while others they did not imagine
had shown remarkable development. For example, they recognized the trend of
digitization of the industry as a whole and the penetration of digital communication