‘Cynics believe the internet has failed to deliver its promise. However, examine carefully what is happening within the timber market and you will see that its use is growing at an assured rate.
Timber businesses are prepared to pay for internet services that deliver real value – ie they increase sales, or reduce costs. As an easy example, most UK timber traders, large and small, now use e-mail and have reduced their communication costs to source material, communicate generally and, in some cases, conclude contracts. Furthermore, any timber business operating internationally not buying air tickets online is throwing money down the drain.
The timber market is so fragmented geographically that the mere presence of the internet delivers real value to a business simply by being on the network. This ‘network effect’ has certainly been proved true with TIMBERWeb. The attraction of the site to users from over 75 countries is becoming more compelling as more members join. The reason, of course, is not simply “critical mass” but the fact that the ability to obtain valuable trading information increases exponentially with the increase in the number of members. Companies as large as IPC and Coillte have become members of TIMBERWeb, but it is small and medium-sized companies that gain much larger comparative networking benefits.
The opposite is true of businesses that try to “muscle-in” on an already well ordered market like paper, or where technical information freely available on the internet is seen to be valuable. Trying to do on the internet what is already being done in the traditional market place is not at all revolutionary and therefore will be resisted by the players, particularly if it means a mind-switch and a perceived loss of “secret market knowledge”.
Communities of timber businesses segmented by their specific interests already exist – like our own Timber Trade Federation. These will continue to prosper, but on the internet the real value is in being in a community that previously could not exist. There is a marginal or even questionable value in receiving through the internet what you have been receiving relatively easily through traditional means. Technical information and newspapers fall into this category.
So where is the internet going as far as the UK timber trade is concerned?
Having a website is, of course, an important requirement for medium- to large-sized companies, or companies with on-line catalogues, but alone, even they are like a rowing boat in the middle of the Atlantic. Linked from a focused global eMarket place, however, they become a powerful marketing and procurement tool. Smaller businesses can avoid the cost of maintaining and hosting what is usually an out of date website (because the resources aren’t there without a “loving employee” to keep them up to date) by maintaining a member page in the heart of the eMarket place itself. Moreover, they can add stock/requirements lists, sell or procure timber directly, or fish for enquiries without the loss of accessibility to their services by other players in the market.
Broadband will allow a much faster internet during 2002 and increased use of Portable Digital Assistants, such as palm-top computers, coupled with increased security and trading confidence, will reinforce its status as a communication and trading platform.’
