Catching up with technology. (From the Editor).

I was recently chastised by a fellow editor for my habit of printing articles, editing them by hand, and then typing in the changes a day later. What a waste of time, they said -- and paper. It's also indicative of how difficult it is for some of us to change our habits and adapt to new technology. Rarely do we use the technology that we have to its full advantage. For all the talk of high-speed Internet bandwidth, for instance, the majority of us wouldn't know what to do with it if we had it.

Much the same can be said about how we approach the development of Web sites. Although most people understand the value of having a Web site, few of us leverage the power of these sites to create a dynamic online presence.

In this issue of Management, Hugues Boisvert, PhD, CMA, FCMA, presents a series of articles that examine a cross-section of Ontario and Quebec Internet sites to study how sophisticated Web site development is in Canada -- how sites compare in the two provinces, and how well they deal with consumers and their needs. If Boisvert was to give Canadian business a mark for their Web site development, it would probably be a "needs improvement."

But there's no question that our use of the Internet is getting more sophisticated, however hesitantly we move toward these innovations. Navigating the Future of Software, Volume 1 of Technology Forecast 2002-2004, published by PricewaterhouseCoopers, notes that e-business is just in its infancy. Companies are just refocusing themselves to gain the greatest benefit from their investment in the technology. To learn more about this report, check our News and Views section in this issue.

Internet and e-mail use, however, leaves companies and individuals vulnerable to online theft and viruses. Now that most of us are used to using e-mail for day-to-day communication, we forget about the risks inherent in using such a communication system. This month, Sally Chan, CMA, explains how to establish an e-mail risk management system. When you confront the vulnerabilities of such a system, you come away wiser -- and you use the technology you have more intelligently.

Robert Colman

Editor-in-Chief