Running a successful business has always required anticipating and preparing for the future. But now you have to not only keep an eye on the horizon of your own industry, but also consider what technologies will both complement and enable your company's plans. The tools and technologies that empower and enable e-business are constantly changing. Emerging technologies with new capabilities encroach on the terrain of established ones, which have to adapt or fall by the wayside. Increasingly common practices become industry standards and protocols.
Technologies become outdated and outlive their support systems.
As a recent example, Hewlett Packard Co. recently announced that support for its HP 3000 9x7 server will end in April 2002. Now enterprises using the 9x7 must look elsewhere for continued support, or consider replacing it. When planning your company's future initiatives, you have to consider how developments in technology will affect these efforts. There are various means of doing this. Some companies install a Chief Technology Officer to provide such direction.