Most organizations today still view the “Web” as a marketing channel, and it is most often seen as just the website. Web services such as “social networks” and “blogs” are abstract concepts to many senior executives and are the concern of marketing managers and interns or the younger generation. Until a couple of years ago, they may have been right. Some companies are changing this view and the Web is slowly wending its way into the C-Suite. This is important.

The impact of the Web is beginning to be felt now across multiple parts of an organization. And it goes beyond just marketing. As we’ve discussed before, the Web, and the Extended Web (all those devices like the iPhone and BlackBerry that connect to the Web), is impacting investor relations, public perception and can impact share prices within hours of either positive or negative news.

In addition to these issues is the growing transition of business knowledge process applications such as CRM tools, sales force automation, OH&S training, staff education and the like to hosted services. This means less burden for the IT department and shifting the cost of software application development away from the company and over to an outside company. This is reducing corporate IT costs in terms of salaries, space and equipment. Within a few years, an IT department may consist of PC support and the CTO or CIO.

This shift in outsourcing business process applications is not new. It was called the “ASP” industry in the turn of the century. Companies such as salesforce.com have proven it to be viable as well. Today it is referred to as SaaS or Software as a Service and On-Demand, and it is expected to be a multi-billion industry by 2011.

This concept of transferring the burden of delivering services to another company actually began in the early 1900’s. With electricity. The Web is moving the same way. Companies will rely on someone else to provide the storage and the development and ongoing maintenance of the applications. It is cost-effective and ongoing improvements are born by the provider. For if the provider doesn’t stay competitive, you can simply move your data. Mostly.

This is why the Web needs to be more active in C-Suite conversations. There are impacts to staffing, work place policies, training costs and ongoing storage and network access costs; all this beyond just marketing.