The Washington Post published a nice history of B2B e-commerce this week, tracing its roots back to EDI:
B2B: Almost as Old as the Internet… Read the rest
Category: Rough Drafts (Page 70 of 81)
More-or-less finished prose that hasn’t been published elsewhere
A panel at the Computers, Freedom, and Privacy conference agreed: Broadband opens a can of security worms for unsophisticated home users.
Panel: Broadband security threat no exaggeration… Read the rest
Web sites are becoming obsolete, as I’ve long argued. This article by Harvard Business Review editor Nicholas G. Carr makes the point convincingly. He points single-function applications like Napster, interactive email tools like Zaplets, and mobile/wireless commerce tools — all of which utilize the Internet without requiring the user to “go” to a Web “site.”… Read the rest
The U.S. Commerce Dept. has launched a site to help small and midsize businesses in the U.S. break into global commerce. The site features research, multimedia webcasts, and a virtual exchange where businesses can get leads from overseas companies looking for products or services.… Read the rest
Six old-school, high-culture institutions, including Columbia University and the London School of Economics, are teaming up to cash in on the Internet-based-education trend. Their new site, called Fathom, will “will seek to address one of the most serious weaknesses of the Internet, its founders said: the reliability of information on the Web.… Read the rest
Business portals fall short of actual CEOs’ expectations, according to this Inc. Magazine story. “In general, the sites’ level of sophistication was far below what most heads of growing companies could really use. ”
Managing by the Web… Read the rest
Yet another retail exchange. Hey, guys? B2B exchanges are supposed to unite markets, not fragment them. How about teaming up with Sears, or Wal-Mart, both of which also recently launched big retail exchanges?
Retailers to form trading exchange… Read the rest
It may sound obvious, but a new study shows that the single most important factor for online profitability is customer loyalty — getting customers to come back regularly. In fact, most online retailers lose money on one-time shoppers.
To earn customers’ loyalty, the study’s authors recommend, treat them as assets — not just transactions — and provide them with real value.… Read the rest
Fifteen big gas and electric companies are hiring PriceWaterhouseCooper to build them an online energy exchange, slated to be ready by the end of this year. No indication of how they plan to deal with existing energy exchanges, such as Altra, which are already ahead of them be a year or more.… Read the rest
Career shortcut: In a hurry to get on the Internet bandwagon? No time to figure out what you can do? The Monster.com Dotcom Job Converter will tell you exactly how to transform yourself from some useless old-economy role like “Teacher” into a way-new-economy position like “Internet Trainer.”… Read the rest