by Ian Girling, chief executive, Dorset Chamber of Commercial Industry

THE foundations of the internet, or worldwide web, go back to the early 1960s, and with the input of many engineers and scientists over the next 30 years, the worldwide web was launched on August 6, 1991, thanks to creator Tim Berners-Lee.

Twenty-six years on and it’s difficult to comprehend the impact of the internet and the way it’s changed our lives. Alongside this, the rate of technological development over this time has been mind-blowing. The internet and developing technology has literally changed the way we live our lives and offers incredible new ways in which we can access information, communicate, learn and share knowledge.

I began working in an office environment in the early 1990s. On a floor with around 50 PC users, with black and white monitors the size of huge TVs, just one machine was connected to the internet and we had to take turns to use that specific PC. We no longer typed memos and the old days of the typing pool was gone. Little did we know how the world was going to change. Looking back it’s hard to remember the days before the internet and technology has fundamentally changed the way we live our lives at home and work. My daughter is 14, growing up in a world of tablets, iPhones, Instagram and Netflix. It’s incredible when I compare the world our young people are growing up in to when I was a similar age, with the cutting edge of technology being a ZX81. I grew up in an age of playing tennis on TV with pixels that just blipped.

Of course the advent of the internet and other technology has fundamentally changed the business world – and the way we shop and use services as consumers. It’s completely opened up the global marketplace. Nowadays it is expected that every business has a website – and one that is optimised, attractive as a sales platform and has a high level of functionality. It’s a given now that we expect to be able to find, browse and purchases services at home on our keyboard. The internet has made the world a much smaller place and enables us as consumers to buy from businesses across the globe. This requires all businesses to be highly competitive, differentiate themselves and be easy to find quickly – and this is essential to their survival. In addition, many business models are fundamentally changing and we have seen the growth of incredible web-based business– we’ve only got to look at Uber, Purple Bricks and Airbnb. We’ve also become much more discerning as customers now faced with unlimited choices.

Technology has offered business huge opportunities and efficiencies in the way they operate. This can be in the form of improved processes, instant transactions, reduced operating and staff costs and new markets. In an age of incredible technological advances, it’s absolutely essential that businesses in all sectors are aware of, understand and embrace technology. The cost of failing to do so will give your competitors a huge advantage in an incredibly competitive global marketplace. It’s also a given that it’s difficult to keep up to speed with the rapid development of technology and how this can be implemented in business. Never has there been a greater need for businesses to embrace technology to ensure sustainability and future growth.