The news these days is filled with reports of how information technology is restructuring American businesses: eliminating jobs, recasting traditional roles, creating both expanded markets and new competitors by transcending barriers of distance and time. We also hear that the National Information Infrastructure (NII) will be the vehicle for virtual communities, a conduit for knowledge utilities and a synthetic environment with new frontiers to explore and experience. It is said during the next decade, these emerging capabilities will leverage more change than has occurred during the past two centuries.

Recent technological advances such as high-performance computing and wide-area, broad-band-width networking allow the NII to become an enormous vehicle for data. Different from prior evolutions, NII is fusing together the radio, television, telephone, copier, fax, scanner, printer and computer, all of which will eventually coexist in a single box.

The Internet has changed the rules for international business. Innovative companies use the technology to transcend the limits of size and location to compete on an international basis. It appears those that have established a successful Internet presence have taken an integrated approach. They invest time in using the Internet internally, as well as for outside communication.

The use of the World Wide Web has expanded around the globe enabling users to view documents stored at computer sites around the world. It allows users to see photographic and other images and hear audio segments, while providing links the user can click on to gain access to information related to the "page" being reviewed.

In the academic facilities sector, striving to stay competitive in an increasingly "wired" world, colleges and universities are spending millions to upgrade campus dormitory rooms for improved access to computer networks and the Internet.

The network industry and university sources say that schools in New England -- and especially Boston -- are in the forefront of a trend that will result in billions being spent over the next five years across the nation as schools offer improved access to on-campus computer networks and the Internet.

Improved information is
one of technology's most
important by-products and
should be an ally in helping
us all to better understand
the changing wants and needs
of our customers.

Presently most college students in on-campus housing can access the Internet through conventional telephone lines from within their dorm rooms, as long as they have a personal computer with a modem. But, service is slow and can easily be interrupted because it is not traveling over wires dedicated to transmitting data. At one Midwestern university, they grant students access from the moment they are accepted by sending out e-mail addresses with the acceptance letters. They can sign on to the university network through a home computer and a modem.

This pales in comparison, however, to a cutting-edge university in Boston, where a recently completed installation of an interactive network delivers services throughout its campus telecommunications infrastructure to all classrooms, administrative offices and each of the more than 6,000 dormitory rooms. All students now are offered a comprehensive package of computer network, telephone and video services which provides Internet access, voice mail, electronic mail as well as customized cable television and local telephone services, eliminating the needs for modems and telephone answering machines. Off-campus students, faculty and administrators can dial into the on-campus network with full access and also receive voice mail numbers to call for messages. The university's goal was to build a base for communication that every student can plug into, thus breaking down the barriers.

In the hospitality sector, a well-known hotel in Boston is one of the first hotels in the country to provide instant Internet access for its conventioneers. The hotel's meeting rooms and exhibit hall have all been wired for multi-megalink, direct Internet access allowing conference attendees to simply plug into the hotel's network. Conventioneers can access the Internet, World Wide Web and e-mail and can download corporate materials, presentations and sales collateral from any home page.

In the commercial real estate sector, flexibility and the incorporation of communications technology is recognized as the direction of corporate America. Landlords who want to attract and keep corporate tenants will have to incorporate state-of-the-art communications technologies and flexible office designs that encourage team work rather than segregation. Envision, if you will, the office of the 21st century: it's equipped with miles and miles of fiber optic cable, the latest in high-capability, high-speed data circuitry and computer terminals for each of the hundreds of employees, all of whom are on-line. The industry is predicting that all this technology poses a daunting challenge to commercial real estate if virtual spaces replace physical space.

Some recent studies predict the average space per worker is expected to decline by 25 percent in the near future. For example, the traditional standard of 250 square feet per worker is being reduced to 150 square feet by cost-conscious firms.

These same studies also reveal that telecommuting hasn't had a significant impact on office and meeting space. Most businesses still require office space, even if it's shared, to accommodate their needs at peak time and to remain flexible for unanticipated needs.

Business services that require a high percentage of on-site attention such as accounting and audit work, systems software or management consulting, lend themselves more readily to office sharing. However, many other office-intensive sectors do not. These include financial services, legal services and advertising.

Increased use of telecommunications devices makes it easier to stay in touch with the "home office" and to deliver some services electronically. However, these same trends also have elevated the importance of "face to face" meeting.

Although office hoteling and home office trends are leading to an increase in the percentage of space set aside for occasional and shared use, it is unclear if the future overall demand for office space per worker will increase or decrease.

Overall growth in data processing has increased paper consumption by business, instead of leading to the "paperless" office. Consequently, document storage needs are predicted to grow.

While a reduced demand for commercial real estate may be inevitable, at the same time technology will speed obsolescence and drive down investment returns. As a result, some segments of the commercial real estate industry and its investors will need to shift their focus from physical assets as being the driver of wealth, to customers. Some speculate that the industry will need to shift its focus from owning and managing buildings to meeting and exceeding customer (tenant) wants and needs. Commercial real estate companies will need to develop and promote broad identity to generate customer awareness and loyalty, and thus create franchise value. This strategy already can be seen in the hospitality industry, where it has been clear for some time that hotel companies have seized the advantages of branding, while seeking to offer consistent products and service to customers.

While we've only begun to feel the impact of technology, improved information is one of technology's most important by-products and should be an ally in helping us all to better understand the changing wants and needs of our customers.

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