'If you're not exploiting the opportunities of e-commerce, you could go bankrupt'. (PM Tony Blair, Cambridge, 14.9.99)
The Government has wholeheartedly endorsed the concept of e-business and has warned that organisations that fail to embrace the 'e' culture are unlikely to prosper in an increasingly competitive market place. Its vision is to make the UK the best place in the world for e-commerce. To this end, the Government has created the post of e-Envoy and set up its own website: http://www.e-envoy.gov.uk.
Getting the right framework to achieve the vision will require a blend of legislative and regulatory change. The Electronic Communication Act became law in May 2000, giving digital signatures the same legal status as written ones - a significant step forward for e-commerce.
The EU is not far behind - e-Europe is Europe's blueprint for taking the lead in the new economy. The Lisbon Summit of Ministers instructed the Commission to present an e-Europe action plan, which was finalised on 24 May 2000. This is the 'road map' of where Europe should be by 2002 and has three major themes:
The brave new world of e-business, however, is not simply a focus for speed of transactions. It raises new challenges, especially in terms of knowledge management and information flow. As intranet use continues to grow employees are becoming more demanding, expecting tools to be provided to facilitate their working environment and career development.
Empowering the employee via 'self service' solutions provides them with access to information and training whenever and however they need it, fuelling the growth in business to employee (B2E) communication.
Beyond the hype surrounding e-business, significant commercial benefits are possible for those organisations able to exploit the potential of the Internet to obtain enhanced value from the supply chain.
Business to Business (B2B) is expected to represent 75% of the dynamic growth in e-commerce during the period covered by Vision 2010 . Even by 2004, e-commerce revenues are predicted to be worth $500billion in Europe and $2000billion worldwide [IDC'99, OECD].
Copyright Partnership Sourcing Ltd 2001. All rights reserved.