Competitiveness of the water utility consulting industry on the Internet in South Africa

Abstract

An adapted version of Michael E. Porter's five competitive forces model was used to determine the competitiveness of the water utility consulting industry on the Internet, in South Africa. This was done by analysing the hits that were obtained by using the search phrase 'water utility' in a South African search engine, Aardvark. Furthermore, an analysis was done of the database of consulting engineering enterprises registered with the South African Association of Consulting Engineers (SAACE). The reason for the database analysis was to determine the number of enterprises or potential entrants, that currently had the potential to render services to water utilities enterprises and which could not be traced via the Internet. The results of the research indicated that there was very little competitiveness in the water utility consulting industry on the Internet in South Africa. However, there were also indications that the situation could change if water utility consulting enterprises started to advertise all the services they render on the Internet and specifically indicated that these services could be rendered to water utility enterprises.