Brilliant Thinking

My background in the Internet stretches back to 1996, and since then I have observed many trends start, develop, and come to an end. Looking at the evolution of an organisation and its web presence (in a similar sense to the SW-CMM - software capability maturity model), we can abstract a generic model for the “maturity” or evolution of a company’s web presence. This model can be mapped onto a simple graph which can be used as an indicator to highlight the level of complexity (and thus cost) of the required web solution. I call it the Internet Maturity Model and it looks like this:

Level 1: Organisations generally start with email as their first involvement with the Internet. It is a business critical system and relatively straightforward to set up.

Level 2: The next step is usually to create a marketing website - an on-line brochure - advertising the companies services and providing a means to contact them.

Level 3: Some companies need to trade on-line, providing catalogues of items which visitors can purchase with their credit cards. Trading can take a number of forms, but on-line shops are the most common.

Level 4: The fourth step is to start to automate some of the company’s processes and translate them to the web. These can range from accounting processes, to recruitment, to property management, in fact almost anything that can be done in a series of steps. There are many challenges here - including the nebulous change management - which is why it appears as almost the most complex step on the chart.

Level 5: Business transformation - or finding new ways to solve old problems - is the most complex step on the chart because it can often require the use of new methods, technologies or techniques that may not be fully proven.

A third dimension to the Internet Maturity Model

The above presents a very black and white view of where an Internet solution sits along the spectrum of maturity or complexity, but there is a third dimension (or vector) which needs to be considered when designing a solution - the people who are going to use it.

The technical ingenuity that can been built in by the creators or developers of the system quite often baffles the person who is going to be using the system which creates negative results. You only have to ask these same users about blogs, podcasting, RSS feeds, wireless systems, blue tooth and edge devices and you can watch their eyes glaze over in terror!

This “People Maturity” (their awareness of and comfort with technology) needs to be taken into account before designing a solution. If their “maturity” cannot be accommodated in the desired level of application, it may be better to reduce the desired level until the users are ready for the next step.
(This article was originally published around the turn of the century on our main website and has been moved to the blog for posterity).