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The twenty first century marked the beginning of the web-based enterprise solution. Small-to-medium enterprises can now enjoy all the benefits of large-scale IT solution without the ownership of such technology. With more and more enterprises working toward paperless or electronic environment, the concept of “IT outsourcing through Internet” has gained increasing popularity throughout the business world.
However, one of the major challenges facing any emerging product or service is whether it would be accepted by the market place in the timely manner. The author Geoffrey A. Moore in his book “Crossing the Chasm” advocates that the first step to gain general acceptance of an emerging product is to make it accessible to the technical users. The “Chasm Theory” further indicates that the technical users are the gatekeepers and gaining their acceptance is the key factor towards new product success. It is therefore extremely important to cater to technical users’ needs and make successive modification accordingly.
This theory, although worked well with most hi-tech products, broke down miserably with the aforementioned IT outsourcing business model. The exemplary enterprise in the report, adopted the theory diligently by soliciting numerous opinions from technical users, but, even when all the opinions were analyzed and corresponding modification made, the ultimate result did not turn out as expected.
The report is a summary from author’s personally involvement with the enterprise operation with all the detailed of the business process, from which she made analysis and provided suggestions. The author hopes to give those who are in the similar business or about to enter into such business valuable insights that would be helpful in their endeavors.
Key words: IT Technology, IT Outsourcing, Internet Business
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