 John Warne Sr. Program Director, Service Management Strategies META Group john.warne@metagroup.com |
Q. E-services: strategy or product? Recent predictions have placed the potential for the e-services market between $5 billion and $30 billion. META Group expects the e-services market to be closer to $5 billion (by 2004). This does not include generic Web "support" portal vendors sometimes grouped into this space (e.g., Ask Jeeves). This potential has caused many vendors to begin marketing their products as e-services/e-support tools, often remarketing their same legacy technology under the e-services umbrella (e.g., Previo, Novadigm, Swan), creating confusion among customers. IT groups should consider e-services an electronic (predominantly Web-based) channel strategy for delivering service to their customers (e.g., employees, external users) rather than any single product, because no vendor can (or will) provide a complete e-services environment. This fragmented market, combined with the integration level required among e-services solutions, will cause IT groups to use a phased approach to their e-services implementations, and the majority of META Group clients will not have completed their e-services vision until 2003/04. Customer adoption rates of e-services technology will dramatically increase through 2004, with more than 35% of the transactions being handled via alternative channels (e.g., Web, e-mail, interactive voice response/automatic call distribution [IVR/ACD]). |