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International dimensions – NOIE, in cooperation with other government bodies, rep-

resents Australia in world forums where decisions are made that may affect national 

interests in the information economy.

Mini Case Study 4.1

SourceUK (www.sourceuk.net) is a successful e‑government initiative that has been responsible for the 

delivery and management of the busiest electronic communication and e‑procurement channels to UK gov‑

ernment and wider  public‑  sector departments in line with the Modernising Government Agenda legislation. 

Approximately 250,000 senior managers, budget holders and decision makers have direct access to the 

channels for their on‑ the‑  minute  must‑  have news and information needs and for the sourcing of their goods 

and services.

SourceUK is proven to be one of the most accredited, respected,  well‑  known and busiest portals of its 

sort available to this marketplace. The portal is currently receiving on average 500,000 visits each month.

Source: SourceUK email alert, 2008.

SourceUK

One of the great challenges of managing e-commerce is the need to be able to assess which 

new technological innovations can be applied to give competitive advantage – what is ‘the 

next big thing’? The truth is no one can predict the future, and many companies have misun-

derstood the market for products:

This ‘telephone’ has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of 

communication. The device is inherently of no value to us.

Western Union internal memo, 1876

Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?

H. M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927

I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.

Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943

There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in their home.

Ken Olson (President of Digital Equipment Corporation)  

at the Convention of the World Future Society in Boston in 1977

I personally believe the best that organisations can do is to analyse the current situation and 

respond rapidly where appropriate. As the Canadian  science-  fiction writer William Gibson 

said:

The future is here. It’s just not widely distributed yet.

A slightly different, and more  forward-  looking, perspective came from Bruce Toganizzi, who 

founded the Human Interface Team at Apple and developed the company’s first interface 

guidelines (E-consultancy, 2007):

Successful  technology-  predicting is based on detecting discontinuities and predicting the 

trends that will flow from them.

Technological innovation and technology assessment

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Part 1  Introduction

He gives the example of the introduction of the Apple iPhone and the other devices based on 

gestural interfaces that will follow.

In addition to technologies deployed on the website, the suitability of new approaches 

for attracting visitors to the site must be evaluated – for example, should registration at 

a  paid-  for search engine, or new forms of banner adverts or email marketing, be used 

(Chapter 9)? (Decisions on strategy are covered in Chapter 5.)

When a new technique is introduced, a manager faces a difficult decision as to whether to:

● 

Ignore the use of the technique, perhaps because it is felt to be too expensive or untried, or 

the manager simply doesn’t believe that the benefits will outweigh the costs – a cautious, 

‘ wait-  and-  see’  approach.

● 

Enthusiastically adopt the technique without a detailed evaluation since the hype alone 

convinces the manager that the technique should be adopted – a  risk-  taking,  early-  adopter 

approach.

● 

Evaluate the technique and then take a decision whether to adopt it according to the eval-

uation – an intermediate approach.

This  diffusion–  adoption process (represented by the bell curve in Figure 4.12) was identified 

by Rogers (1983), who classified those trialling new products as innovators,