While visiting a Fortune 100 company, I was discussing Web sites with a few senior marketing people. One of their concerns was site obsolescence. They did not want to invest substantial resources into new Web sites that would be “outdated” in a few years.

From a technology perspective, I am not sure theirs is a valid concern. The World Wide Web is, in fact, based on “old technology” and will continue to be so for some time to come. One basic premise of the Web is it can be accessed and used by any browser on any system anywhere. OK, that is an exaggeration, but for the Web to have become a ubiquitous medium, the bar for basic access had to be low. After 15 years, we still are talking HTTP over TCP/IP. Flash, JavaScript, XML, DHTML, AJAX–all provide a richer experience but do not necessarily make for a better Web experience for our customers. The first question we need to ask ourselves is how can we best serve our customers? And that translates directly into determining how our Web sites will contribute most effectively to the bottom line.

For insurance companies or financial service institutions, there probably are only three really important areas Web sites need to address: lead generation, customer service, and product sales. Anything beyond those basics may make the executive committee happy or thrill the human resources folks, but they likely aren't going to generate a lot of revenue.