By Bob Weinstein, Globe Correspondent, 07/29/99

How "wired" is your company? Low-tech, high-tech, or somewhere in between?

One thing is certain: You can't build a company unless you're taking advantage of the newest technological innovations.

You don't really have a choice: Either rev up and compete, or perish.

It's impossible to list every company's technical needs; that's a function of your company's products or services, as well as its size: annual sales, number of employees, etc. satellite offices, and the like.

Specialists like Anne Massey, professor of information systems at Indiana University's School of Business in Bloomington, advise growing companies to take a panoramic view of their burgeoning enterprise. A company emerging from start-up into a thriving business will need a raft of technical services.

According to Massey, the easiest way to evaluate your present and future technical needs is to mentally carve your company into four sections: applications, system services, servers and platforms, and networks and telecommunications.

It's not as complicated as it seems. Here's a look at each level:

Applications. This includes software to help you run your business better. The software might link you to vendors and suppliers, or provide product information. Initially, you can use off-the-shelf software. But as your business grows, chances are you'll need custom-designed applications.

"At that point, you'll need software and application developers to create the software for your business," Massey says. "The idea is to fit your software to your needs. If your business supplies products for other businesses, for example, you may want to link your system to your supplier's system so you can place orders on line, which is faster and more efficient than doing it over the phone. It makes for faster and smoother communication."

Also, as your company grows, you'll need an Internet Web site, and possibly even an Intranet (see related story). The Internet site promotes and explains your business to the outside world; the Intranet is for communicating solely with your employees. Again, software developers create both applications.

System services. As your company grows, you'll also need what Massey calls "collaborative systems," such as e-mail, Microsoft Exchange, and Lotus Notes.

"This is when you'll need to think about software that controls and monitors workflow," she says. As the work piles up, you'll have to determine what you must track. You might need systems for electronically storing and filing the information and data you're compiling.

"For example, there is data warehousing software that organizes and systematically stores information between departments and offices so it's available when you need it," she says.

A data warehouse is a system designed to consolidate data from multiple sources, thereby solving the problem of information overload. The bigger a company gets, the more information it amasses.

"When data warehousing first became popular, it was focused on big, complicated applications to solve specific problems," explains Framingham-based Hurwitz Group CEO Elizabeth Hurwitz. "For example, figuring out how many of a particular product should be sold to what demographic groups."

The new twist is the direction in which data warehousing is going. Data warehouses were originally designed to solve the problem of information overload. The bigger a corporation became, the more information it amassed. Making the information accessible to decision-makers was critical.

Although the traditional data warehouse isn't going away, future applications will focus on electronic commerce.

"More companies selling on the Web means they'll be collecting tons of information, such as what people are buying or not buying and where they're going when they leave a site," Hurwitz explains. "If this massive amount of information is used efficiently, it can help companies find new and better ways to sell to more people."

At both the application and system services level, your customers or vendors practically dictate what you'll need.

"The question will most always be, 'Can I buy off-the-shelf software that will do the job, or do I have to custom-design it for my organization?' " says Massey. "The people who work at the first two levels are typically software and database designers and programmers. These are the application implementers. Their goal is to figure out exactly what the business needs and come up with the software that does the job."

Servers and platforms. The technical picture becomes more complicated as you increase employees, customers, products, you name it. It means you need equipment (a server) that can respond to multiple requests.

"Clients make requests, servers respond to them," says Massey.

The server can include both hardware and software that performs a service. There are file, database, application, mail, fax, and Web servers.

"Think of a server as a pile of memory that connects businesses to clients," says Massey. And there are plenty of companies, such as Novell, Microsoft, Netware, Sun Microsystems, to name just a few, that will be happy to sell you one.

If you have a Web server so customers can come to your site and get information or place orders, you may need a firewall between the internal systems and the outside world to prevent traffic from crossing into restricted areas of your network.

Networks and telecommunications. Decide how to best communicate with your office or stores line. What kind of Local Area Networks (LANs) or Wide Area Networks (WANs) do you need?

"There is a slew of different networks provided by companies like Novell, Microsoft, Nortell and others specializing solely in networking," says Massey. "Companies called 'systems integrators' come in, evaluate your needs, and then set up the appropriate system," says Massey.

Don't forget your phone system. As you grow, the off-the-shelf, multi-line phone system won't cut it. You'll need a sophisticated system that can handle massive inbound and outbound calls so business isn't lost. All the major phone companies would be happy to evaluate your needs and sell you the system that does the job. Or you can hire a telecommunications consultant who'll be the liaison and manage the whole process.

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The trick is finding qualified professionals to provide you with the best technology and show you how to use it. If you understand technology, you can manage the process yourself and hire software designers to create the right software, data warehouse experts to design a warehouse, and systems integrators to network your offices.

If you're a techno-novice like most, you can hire a brand-name consulting firm like McKinsey & Co., Deloitte & Touche, Ernst & Young, or Andersen Consulting that will send in a technology expert to take all your technical woes off your hands. But be prepared to pay: Thanks to companies' skyrocketing technical needs, consulting firms are doing a booming business.

There is a cheaper way to get your technology in place. Massey and other specialists suggest that you recruit students or recent graduates with a degree in computer science or computer engineering to set up your technology.

"They'll welcome the experience and you'll save a bundle in the process," says Massey. "Most students and grads already have work experience, so it's not like they're coming in cold."

Finally, technology can simplify the hiring process. You can hire Internet-recruiting solutions consultants like Chicago-based Tiburon Group to find you the right people without wasting time posting ads and sorting through resumes.

A handful of companies specialize in Internet-recruiting consulting, according to Tiburon President Carl Kutsmode, who says it's an emerging field with enormous potential.

For an hourly fee, Kutsmode will manage the whole recruiting process for a business. That means combing the Internet for candidates and even pre-qualifying them for a client's needs. Just tell Kutsmode what skills you're looking for, and he'll find the employees who have them. He'll also post ads on specialized Web sites that consistently deliver quality candidates. The result is cost and time savings.

Those are just a few of the technical services available to businesses. Next year, expect new technical needs and job titles to service them. "You'd be wise to stay on top of the market," advises Massey. "The technology is changing faster than most people realize."

Bob Weinstein is a freelance writer in New York who writes Tech Watch, a syndicated weekly career column on technology.