Internet editorial

Citation

Sloan, B. (1999), "Internet editorial", Facilities, Vol. 17 No. 12/13. https://doi.org/10.1108/f.1999.06917lag.001

Internet editorial

Keywords WWW, Small-to-medium-sized enterprises

UK Finance Minister, Barbara Roche, in June 1999 said that: "... UK competitiveness is at risk because small businesses in the UK are close to the bottom of the international league tables in the use of ecommerce..."

This Internet Editorial is dedicated to the topic of e-commerce so as to encourage businesses to explore the use of this technology in promoting their business electronically.

The growth of information and communication technologies has created a revolutionary way of trading in which primary business activities are feasible electronically over telecommunication infrastructures. This phenomenon, which is widely referred to as Electronic Commerce (e-commerce), incorporates trading of tangible and intangible goods and services for the business-business and business-consumers sectors. Electronic Business (EBiz) offers many potential benefits for facilities managers and businesses to trade electronically.

ProC-E-Com -- Property and Construction Electronic Communicationhttp://www.sbe.napier.ac.uk/ProConIT/procecom.htm

Property and Construction Electronic Commerce (ProC-E-Com), a research unit established within the School of the Built Environment at Napier University, Edinburgh. The unit has been established to address the issues relevant to the use of electronic commerce within the property and construction supply chain. The main activities of the group fall into two main areas: technology and integration. Information is provided for SMEs in the property and construction sector to assist them to exploit the potential of e-commerce. A feature of the site is "ProC-E-Com Review" which provides up-to-date information on what is being discussed in the media concerning e-commerce, together with links to information on software and Internet service providers.

eCommerce Weeklyhttp://www.eweekly.com/

eCommerce Weekly (formerly Entrepreneur Weekly) is a free weekly newsletter designed to bring you the latest on-line sales, marketing, and e-commerce strategies to help you succeed on-line. In addition, the newsletter brings you the latest news of companies and services geared to helping Internet entrepreneurs do business on the net.

Electronic Commerce Guidehttp://ecommerce.internet.com/

A site sponsored by IBM e-business solutions which is set up to encourage business to invest in the use of e-commerce. Mention is made of Electronic Commerce Modeling Language (ECML), an industry standard which is supported by retailers, credit card providers and on-line payment providers (including American Express, Visa and Mastercard).

E Business Magazinehttp://www.hp.com/Ebusiness/

Hewlett Packard's own on-line journal which encourages the use of e-commerce. Links are given to information on E-Commerce, E Tools (to help in operating an electronic business), as well as E Read (a few articles on matters of interest to the e-commerce community).

e commerce todayhttp://www.ecommercetoday.com.au/

An Australian site featuring a weekly news and analysis bulletin on e-commerce in Australia. The site covers government regulation, legal issues, security, and more.

United States Government Electronic Commerce Policyhttp://www.ecommerce.gov/

A US Government site promoting the use of e-commerce. Links are provided to documents outlining a framework for global electronic commerce, together with links to important US documents on electronic commerce policy. In addition, links are provided to international sites on electronic commerce policy.

European Initiative in Electronic Commercehttp://www.cordis.lu/esprit/src/ecomcom.htm

At first sight this may seem out-of-date, having been written in 1997. However, the information it contains is still relevant to many businesses who have yet to exploit the potential of e-commerce.

If you have information on any Internet sites which you think may be of interest to the readers of Facilities, please pass details to Brian Sloan by e-mail at: B.Sloan@napier.ac.uk

Brian Sloan