Financial Times

Climbing the eLadder:How small businesses use the Internet
By Nilooka Dissanayake
Although the Internet has been around now for over a decade, for the majority of Sri Lanka's small businesses it is still a new concept. But that does not mean that we should entirely ignore its existence, either as businesses or as individuals.

As we know from experience, compared to the typical US citizen or the British subject, the average Sri Lankan is more outward looking and aware of what is happening in the world. This is because their world is big; our country is small and because of our history, we have developed an outward looking mentality. Hence, although we start far behind in the race of making use of the vast opportunities offered by the Internet, we could catch up easily. And the catching up is easier because as with any new technology, the latecomers stand to gain from the experiences of those that used it before. With respect to adopting and using Internet technology, the Sri Lankan small businesses are having that latecomer's advantage.

Like with any new technology there is a learning cycle to go through before we can make effective use of the Internet for our businesses. Let us take this eLadder step by step and understand how we can benefit as we progress upwards over time. The diagram summarizes the experience of many small businesses around the world. We can assume it will apply to Sri Lanka also without significant aberrations.

The eLadder begins with the non-users. That may be you and your business today. But, dear reader, if you are high up on the eLadder, bear with us because we need to address all the steps for sake of completeness.

The international experience shows that most businesses and individuals begin their Internet experience with an email account. This could be a free Internet email from a service such as Yahoo or Hotmail. So, it would be that the entrepreneur obtains an email account for the purpose of say corresponding with a foreign buyer or supplier or for making inquiries from foreign suppliers. Although not very common in Sri Lanka, probably due to the lack of computing facilities, the international experience shows that the next stage is to use email for corresponding within the company.

To get an email account is easy enough. Besides the free email accounts that anyone can get from any computer with an Internet connection, the local Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have come up with quite economical "email only" packages. To show a more professional image, it may be necessary to spend a bit of money because, some foreign business associates may perceive free Internet emails as dubious and less than reliable. The person or business that does not have its own subscribed email may be seen as not so well established. So email is the first rung in the eLadder.

After climbing up to the first rung successfully the entrepreneur can, depending on his experience and inclinations, decide to explore further possibilities of the Internet. The first step is browsing in search of information. If this too proves a positive experience the next step would be to establish a web presence for the business. Over time, when this also proves to be beneficial, the business can consider the prospect of conducting financial transactions on the Internet. Then comes the time the entrepreneur feels that other business processes also can be improved by incorporating the Internet into their management. On and on, the business will move up the eLadder and reap benefits over time and depending on experience.

We will discuss these stages in future articles. As we do so, we want to address these issues from your point of view. What are your questions and concerns? Let us know so that we can share these with our readers and seek solutions together. You can contact us on ft@sundaytimes.wnl.lk. And thanks to the responses so far received.

The writer is the Managing Editor of Athwela Vyaparika Sangarawa (Athwela Business Journal), the only Sinhala management monthly targeting the small and medium enterprises, the Ezine Athwela Email Magazine and www.smallbusiness.lk, the bilingual small business website.

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