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Worried (or Excited) About Disintermediation?

Disintermediation? ... Microsoft recently announced that Ford had acquired an interest in CarPoint and that consumers would now be able to configure and obtain detailed information on the availability of Ford automobiles online. According to the NYT (Sep 21, 1999), this arrangement "would not displace the traditional role of the car dealer." Really. But some dealers thought that this would threaten consumers with poor service because, "These guys at Microsoft don't even own a screwdriver." Yikes.

Disintermediation is a concern of the real estate industry, too, where middlemen wonder if real estate information providers might threaten their role (or at least their profitability!). Jennifer Reynolds, Director of Marketing at Summit Realty Group/ONCOR in Indianapolis, wrote recently. "If a 'winner' or dominant provider emerges and becomes used as a 'standard', isn't it possible for this provider to begin charging any amount they want for their service?" ... On the other side of the coin, owners and managers (like REITs) are kind of excited about how information services might reduce transaction costs.

Calm down, everybody. Yes, the world will get more complex. But it will not come to an end. ... Listen to Paul Saffo: "Rather than eliminate intermediaries, information systems do quite the opposite. Information systems are powerful commercial tools because they lower transaction costs. Lower transaction costs enable new kinds of transactions, which lead to new market niches and, overall, make the market environment more complex. In short, information systems create openings for new intermediaries to discover and occupy." Here's a link to the full article.

Question... So what new services are you planning to offer your customers / clients / tenants / owners? Send e-mail to me , and I'll report more in a future Dispatch. Thanks!

--Peter