Subject: Jan2001 ECMgt.com: Year 2001 E-Commerce Predictions

• Management Perspective: 2001 E-Commerce Predictions by Mitchell Levy (http://ECMgt.com/Jan2001/management.perspective.htm)
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Thank you for your comments, suggestions and responses to our survey question. Please keep them coming. Let us know what you think by e-mailing us at ecmgtsurvey@hotmail.com. We currently have over 4,100 subscribers. If you like what you read, please let your friends, clients and co-workers know about our free newsletter.

Our February issue deals with the "The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same." The tried and true basics of business will be back to remind us of the old-fashioned principles that still seem to work, even in this new Internet-enabled world. Profitability, revenues and proven processes will be key. We would like your opinion on the following:

1) Do you think the above statement is true, and if so, can you support it with examples?
2) How would you characterize traditional companies efforts to integrate the Internet to date?
3) What do you see companies doing differently this year? To respond to this question, please go to http://ecmgt.com/bulletinboard.htm or send e-mail to ecmgtsurvey@hotmail.com. When you send your response, please list the city and country where you are located. If you want us to publish your name, company, and title please expressly state that desire.

Thanks for taking the time to respond.

This is an abridged chapter from E-Volve-or-Die.com which contains  Mitchell Levy's E-Commerce (Business) trends for 2001. The book is  available at all major stores on and off line. You can pick it up at http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0735710287/ecnowcom/002-1231670-9810413

E-Volve-or-Die.com - Chapter 13 - A View from the Real World
by Mitchell Levy
Author E-Volve-or-Die.com

Any new business philosophy or set of principles should be tested in the  real world in order to validate what is real, what is feasible, what works  and what doesn't work. I surveyed people online and talked to several  executives who are deeply involved in e-commerce implementation about  what they have learned so far, and more importantly, what changes we  can expect in the next few years. This chapter focuses on what they said.  The online survey was sent to the readership of ECMgt.com, my online  e-zine that explores the trends in e-commerce management on a monthly  basis. The executives quoted here were also interviewed for other chapters in this book. 

In the process of evaluating the responses, there were ten general topic areas  and trends that emerged. All quotes and predictions are grouped by these  ten categories, beginning with a look at the new economic environment, and  ending with ideas about evolving the company for growth.

NOTE: For brevity of this article, only the first three quotes in each section are used. Look to E-Volve-or-Die.com to see all the quotes in this chapter.

Ten Trends from the Real World:

1. The More Things Change, the More they Stay the Same
2. The New Economic Environment
3. A New Internet-enabled World
4. Customers Rule
5. Better, Faster and Maybe Cheaper
6. Business Models and Value Webs
7. New Standards and Rules Create Opportunity
8. Evolving Infrastructure and Tools
9. The New Face of Marketing
10. New Dimensions for Growth and Evolution

1. The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same
The tried and true basics of business will be back - to remind us of the  old-fashioned principles that still seem to work, even in this new  Internet-enabled world. Profitability, revenues and proven processes will be key.

Peter Sisson, Chief Strategy Officer, wine.com
"The new e-commerce brands will grow more slowly because the investment  community has no patience for losses. The emphasis will be on profitability,  which means we will see fewer expensive ads."

Sean Kaldor, Vice-President of E-Commerce, NetRatings Inc.
"E-commerce business operations will mature, and overall methods will  solidify around a few key processes."

Gwen Hanna, Vice-President of People, Homebid.com
" New e-business companies are becoming more humble as they begin to  realize that some of the basic rules and principles of business (such as  profitability) applies to them, just as it does to the "brick and mortar"  companies. Based on these trends, what I humbly predict in the future is  a mutual admiration between the "click and close" companies and the  "brick and mortar" companies, where each will learn to respect and leverage  their approaches to business."

2. The New Economic Environment
Although we are already mired in the New E-Conomy, we are just at the  beginning of the changes, as brick and mortar companies race to be successful  on-line, and dot.coms try to dethrone established companies' brands.  There will be more consolidation, hybrids, partnering, and new business  models that will shift the mix and balance of power.

Clyde Foster, CEO, eConvergent
"There will be a more seamless merger of online and offline worlds. Brick  and mortar companies will get better at online business, and dot coms will  get better at traditional business and profitability. Economies of scale will  result for both worlds."

Lisa Sharples, Chief Marketing Officer, Garden.com
"A multichannel approach will be used for all e-commerce companies,  including retail. The line will blur between who's an e-commerce company  and who isn't."

Rip Gerber, Chief Strategy Officer and Vice-President of Marketing,
Commtouch  "The age of the large conglomerates is over. Ten years from now, the  Fortune 500 will be irrelevant. Those that survive will either be invisible  giants running the infrastructure for everyone else or those that will  unquestionably own their customers through passion-invoking brands  and impenetrable customer relationships."

3. A New Internet-enabled World
In the not too distant future, the use of the Internet will be routine, rather  like electricity, as the comfort level with the technology and this method  of doing business evolves. Not only will more of our work and personal lives be connected because of the evolving technology infrastructure, but  more integrated as well. Processes and functions that we use in the workplace  will make their way into our homes. A total Internet-enabled world where  every IP appliance can coordinate an exchange transaction with or without a  human guide, is right around the corner.

Mohit Mehrotra, Vice-President and General Manager, American Express Corporate Services Interactive
"In the near future, conducting business online will become the norm.  There will be a much higher level of comfort in conducting business online,  from both the company's and the customer's point of view."

Barbara Jones, Director of Customer Service, Cisco Systems
"The customer of the future will live in an Internet-integrated environment -  extending to the home. Ideas such as smart home appliances like smart  refrigerators, or cars that alert you to the maintenance schedule - all controllable  via the Internet - are just around the corner."  

Dylan Tweney, Writer and Consultant, Tweney Media
"There will be more e-commerce in general and people will be more  comfortable with it. We will also see e-commerce in more contexts -  embedded in web applications and in Internet devices."

4. Customers Rule
With the Internet, customers have gained considerable power to choose  with whom they will do business, where and when. The need for intense  customer focus and exemplary customer service will continue into the future,  as customers remain central to the growth of e-commerce. 

Ashu Roy, CEO and Chairman, eGain
"Websites will become 'customer interaction centers', where customers  can access information and buy goods and services on a 'self-service' basis."

Bill Daniel, Senior Vice-President of Products, Vignette
"The place from which you buy things will blur. Customers will expect that  companies provide a choice - which may be tough to do from an infrastructure  standpoint."

Bob Cross, President, Venture Capital Online, Inc.
"If not used wisely, the tools of the Internet merely enable marginal vendors  to provide empty promises slicker and faster - and they call it e-commerce.  In the long run, it won't work, because the customer is still king, and the  Internet doesn't change that. Although the Internet can indeed change  processes and channel structures, it doesn't change customer expectations.  Even in the virtual world of the Internet, customers still vote with their feet."

5. Better, Faster and Maybe Cheaper
With continued learning and experimentation, companies will build better  products and services by utilizing the multiple capabilities of their own  companies and also their partners. Price may still be a determinant in customers' buying decisions, but value received is becoming more important  than price by itself. New ways to conduct business enabled by technology  will lead to many new opportunities for companies, with improved choices  for customers and more efficient payment mechanisms for the exchange of  value between parties.

Brooks Fisher, Vice-President of Corporate Strategy and Marketing, Intuit Inc.
"The nature of money will change. The physical need for it will disappear. This removes the administrative headache from buying things."

Peter Ostrow, CEO, Testmart
"Companies will get better at usability, navigation, and e-commerce in general. There will be better products to buy."

George Roman, CTO, diCarta
"There will be simpler payment schemes which will make it easier for people to buy goods and services. Customers will have higher expectations with sites as well - every interaction must be a positive experience."

6. Business Models and Value Webs
Just when you thought things were settling down with business models,  be prepared for more changes. Improvements in efficiency of the supply  chain and logistics, disintermediation and continuing complex are part of  the future.

Alan Naumann, President and CEO, Calico Commerce
"There will be more collaboration than ever, and it will be much more effective.  We will apply what we've learned from manufacturing supply chains, and  extend successful partnering through to the customer."

Norm Hullinger, Vice-President of Sales and Operations, Egghead.com
"The level of service for the 'last mile' will increase significantly. Express  carriers such as UPS, FedEx, etc. will be faster and less expensive."

Paul Brazina, Executive Director, Electronic Commerce Institute, LaSalle University
"The key to e-commerce profitability will be an efficient and effective system to distribute products and services."

7. New Standards and Rules Create Opportunity
There has been much controversy and discussion about privacy and security  and how it affects e-commerce. Quite often, new regulations and laws can  be perceived as just more bureaucracy that gets in the way of doing business.  However, as security issues are mitigated and standards are commonly  deployed for security and privacy, new opportunities will actually be  created for business.

Mark Walsh, Chairman and Chief Strategy Officer, VerticalNet
"Anonymity on the Internet will disappear. With advances in technology  and electronic signature legislation, the privacy barriers start to disappear.  It will be easier for companies to acquire and maintain information about  customers in order to sustain lifetime customer relationships."

Brooks Fisher, Vice-President of Corporate Strategy and Marketing, Intuit Inc.
"With improved security and recent changes in legislation such as e-signatures,  virtual has become 'real'. This is one of the last holdouts where infrastructure  was still needed. With that barrier removed, businesses can come online  much faster."

Kaj Pedersen, Vice-President of Engineering, Lycos Quote.com
"The Internet has become the method by which many financial firms retrieve  and advertise their services. With this come issues that relate to security  and a company's ability to disseminate information. With the increase in  demand for online trading and financial services, the winners will be those  who can exploit the opportunity for real-time services, within a secure  environment."

8. Evolving Infrastructure and Tools
Many advances have been made in integrating front office and back office  systems both in a company and via the ASP/BSP model. Technologies that  improve speed, collaboration or integration of processes will be a requirement  for survival and growth in the future.

Ashu Roy, CEO and Chairman, eGain
"The network effect of the Internet that allows businesses to collaborate will continue, and that will mean economic efficiencies."

Clyde Foster, CEO, eConvergent
"The biggest opportunity for companies will be the integration of all customer  touch points in a reactive and proactive way. This means a tightly linked  infrastructure that ties marketing and customer relationship management  together."

Andrew Krainin, Senior Vice-President of Marketing, Sameday.com
"New technologies will improve the speed and efficiency of existing supply  chains. Internet-based systems dramatically reduce the cost and complexity  of connecting enterprises, to make collaborative planning and optimization  the rule rather than the exception."

9. The New Face of Marketing
As companies continue to wrestle with issues about online and offline branding,  we are entering a new era of personalization. Marketing will be faced with  implementing new approaches in the Internet-enabled world.

Jim Sterne, President, Target Marketing of Santa Barbara
"We are entering the age of proactive or anticipatory customer service.  Companies will target customers and send personalized FAQs to serve their  customers."

Atul Vashistha, CEO, neoIT.com
"Marketing will change. There will be a need to be more precisely targeted,  more precisely customized. Niche players may actually have an advantage in  the future if they have solid customer relationships in the markets they know.  Also, brand will matter in the end, but companies will have to find innovative  ways to build brand loyalty because there are very low switching costs."

Russ Cohn, CEO, Brigade Corporation
"I believe that there will be less selection and less free stuff online. Also, I think there will be less 'unjustified' customer service."

10. New Dimensions for Growth and Evolution
As today's leaders make decisions about tomorrow's growth, there are  many factors at work in this new environment that will make a huge impact.  Technologies such as wireless and portable computing will provide more  ways to access the Internet, and require companies to provide content  accordingly. The world marketplace means greater demand for products  and services, and companies need to figure out how to build businesses  across geographic boundaries. We are faced with much growth in the next  few years. Whether it happens slowly or quickly, we all need to be armed  with the lessons we have learned so far to be better prepared to meet all the  challenges of the brave new world. 

Anwar Akel, Alexandria, Egypt
"To die is losing the ability to change - not the loss of breath."

Mark Resch, President and CEO, CommerceNet
"Adoption of the Internet will continue to rise - with or without the speculative  enthusiasm of Wall Street. There is surprising vigor around the world, and  much enthusiasm for e-commerce. Clearly, these are the early days - even  in North America only about 10 percent of the manufacturers have true  e-commerce presence on the Internet."

"E-commerce will continue to behave like a complex, adaptive system. There  will be no single global control point or mechanism; the tangle of non-hierarchical  interaction will continue. The sophistication of global electronic commerce  presences will increase, and companies' behavior will change with experience.  The dynamics of the system make it unlikely that optimum equilibrium will occur  in the near future."

Bill Daniel, Senior Vice-President of Products, Vignette
"There will be an increase in the number of people who interact with the Internet and conduct e-commerce using wireless devices."

Jorden Woods, Chairman and CTO, Global Sight
"Mobile, wireless access to the Internet will be commonplace, that will  greatly accelerate globalization (no wait to get wired). And with that,  global standards for the wireless Internet will emerge."

I wish to thank all of the people who made predictions and contributed quotes  for this chapter. These people from the "real world" will help shape our  Internet-enabled future in the next few years, and I am looking forward to  sharing the experience with them.

NOTE: At the end of each E-Volve-or-Die.com chapter there is a  number of evolutionary tactics listed. Here are the evolutionary  tactics associated with this chapter - "A View from the Real World".

Evolutionary Tactics

• A number of the old-fashioned principles that worked in the Industrial age will work in the Internet age. You don't have to start over. Don't relax, we are just at the beginning of the changes brought about by the Internet age. Figure out how you can transition your company to be successful online maintaining the brand you currently have in the physical world or dethroning the brand of the current incumbent.
• Treat the use of the Internet the same as a standard commodity, like electricity.
• Deliver intense customer focus and exemplary customer service; share value among all your partners.
• Run many experiments and continue corporate learning to create better products and services.
• Reexamine your business models and be prepared for continual evolution and change.
• Support Government and private sector activities to bring about global standards in security and privacy.
• Whether you run your internal IT shop or outsource this function, integrate your front and back office systems to deliver improved speed, collaboration and integration of processes.
• Deliver on mass customized products and services.
• Be prepared to embrace new paradigms as they become pervasive in society and help deliver increased value to the customer.

Let me leave you with a few of my favorite quotes this month:

***
"Back to Basics" The year 2000 was a volatile year for eBusiness. The world witnessed the dot-com meltdown and the realization that many B2B models and practices were not mature enough to support collaborative business across the Internet. In a rush to be Internet ready, some organizations ignored the complexity and difficulty of integrating business processes across their extended supply chains. They were also too optimistic about the technical capability of their infrastructures to support complex business process integration. 2001 will be a year of reality. Getting back to basics means that analyzing business goals and objectives, understanding customers and markets and assessing operational/technical readiness to support new eBusiness initiatives will be a top priority for every organization. (Kenneth F. Fitzpatrick, General Manager, Global Marketing Computer Associates International, Inc.)

***
It's only going to get uglier. All those choices are going to get narrower and  first to market will only mean you opened the door for the best to come.  If you're not the best choice, best product, best service, you'll be last.  And best will only last as long as your next version can be introduced. (Aaron Heinrich, VP, NWRPR.com)

***
2001 is going to be a very difficult year. The year of the truth. At the end of  2001 we will probably see the dot.coms which will survive in the long run.  Along that way there will be a lot of businesses which will go out of business.  Difficult times for e.g. Webvan or etoys and many others around the world.  (Patrick Stark) 

I hope you enjoy this eZine.
See you in cyberspace,

Mitchell Levy
Executive Producer, ECMgt.com <http://ECMgt.com>
President, ECnow.com <http://ecnow.com>
Founder and Coordinator, SJSU-PD ECM Certificate Program <http://ecmtraining.com/sjsu>

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SPONSOR'S CORNER 

Summit Strategies, Inc., a research firm that provides technology companies with insight on emerging markets, technologies and strategies, recently announced the publication of The Summit Seven, an annual report of the top forces poised to reshape the e-business landscape. The Summit Seven helps inform and advise the technology industry of the critical business issues that will impact their businesses and market.

The trends and imperatives that predict will be most important for the year 2001 are:

Internet Infrastructure: The second-generation Internet will take shape, as engineers begin overhauling the original with new generations of infrastructure hardware and software for high performance, capacity on demand, and ironclad guarantees.

Application Service Providers (ASPs): Each needs to develop a unique value proposition to attract "early majority" customers-and to survive the shakeout. They will be forced to target more specialized markets; develop more effective and efficient channels, improve scalability; and focus on their own core competencies, while partnering for everything else.

Virtual Workplaces: Standalone portals, hosted applications, and marketplaces will be eclipsed by virtual workplaces: environments that integrate hosted applications, internal and industry content and complementary services that are tailored to the needs of the individual.

Wireless: Wireless carriers will finally recognize that business-rather than consumer-applications will drive the North American wireless Internet adoption, which will dramatically alter the way they approach the market.

Extended Enterprise: The extended enterprise entails seamless integration of a company's B2B processes with those of its suppliers, partners and customers. It is a concept so simple, yet so significant that it will bring about cataclysmic change in the way companies operate.

XML Standards: They're coming. And they'll pave the way for a new era of integration and collaboration for businesses, tying together everything from enterprise-based and hosted applications to online marketplaces to content portals.

E-Marketplaces: E-marketplaces will be forced to add enterprise functionality to their offerings to gain and retain customers as well as reduce costs. The right mix of integrated applications can mean the difference between standing on your own two feet and falling to your knees.

Beyond our Summit Seven list are our Future Watch issues-ideas that could become inflection points, but over a somewhat longer period of time:

B2Me: Technology Gets Up Close and Personal
In 2001, companies will begin to recognize the opportunity to merge B2B and B2C into a "B2Me" Web more in tune with today's information and transactional requirements.

"Insight Economy"
Information alone is no longer enough. In 2001, we will start to migrate from the information economy to an insight economy. Providers will compete to create new tools that will recognize the user's context and deliver the right information when and where it is needed.

Redistributing Network Intelligence
Having convinced much of the world that centralized, server-based computing is the wave of the future, systems and software vendors will swing at least partway back toward more distributed environments during 2001: vendors will push computing and storage engines out to the network's edge, close to the data's consumers. Meanwhile, the emergence of "peer-to-peer" applications and services will renew interest in client-based computing.

Summit Strategies believes that each of these issues could create important new market opportunities and competitive threats during the next two to three years. Each of the imperatives could become a true inflection point, creating new market opportunities and changing the terms of industry competition. And the ability to use the Internet to provide solutions to pressing business problems will be the key criterion for success.

The companies that will survive are those that approach change as a competitive opportunity, rather than a threat to their business.

 ....

 VerticalNet Solutions Inc.
A division of VerticalNet Inc.
301 Howard Street, Suite 1410
San Francisco, California 94105
www.verticalnetsolutions.com

Despite the ups and downs of the e-commerce roller - coaster, one fact is crystal clear: the new economy is being built on a foundation of software.

A variety of authors have detailed the dramatic positive economic impacts of the laws of Moore and Metcalfe. Still others point to the substantial consequences of the high-bandwidth, low-cost, ubiquitous telecommunications network. But we sometimes forget that it is software applications that enable companies to significantly change the way they do business. In a very real sense, software is the glue that links the hardware, the new economy, and the bottom line.

Many observers believe that "collaborative commerce" applications are rapidly becoming the next chapter of the software story. These techniques offer companies a wide array of opportunities for decreasing costs and increasing revenue by changing the landscape of economic relationships among companies. In short, collaborative commerce allows for complete economic cooperation among a company, its suppliers, distributors, customers, and partners. The mindset changes from one of competition or indifference to one of cooperation and partnership.

According to Don Tapscott's recent book, Digital Capital, hundreds of companies are now working to implement this new model that he refers to as "business webs". Carried to its logical outcome, the evolution to web-based collaborative commerce ultimately enables a dynamic virtual enterprise. And the benefits are real: According to eCompany Now, Office Depot attributes its online success to the relationships with its suppliers, which in 1999 alone freed up some $600 million in inventory costs for the firm. Customers benefit too. Fed Ex collaborates with its customers so that they can check the status of their shipments online.

Large and small enterprises are attracted to this model as a means to go beyond traditional supply chain models and to integrate knowledge sharing among those in the web. This allows all participants to better leverage the Internet to increase profitability. In fact, industry analyst Gartner Group believes that web-enabled collaborative commerce applications will become the one of the most important software contributions of the next decade.

One reason is that the new collaborative commerce model offers a value proposition far in excess of earlier approaches by delivering significant and tangible benefits. Analysts list a variety of factors that are expected to lead to a rapid proliferation of collaborative commerce software:

• The explosive growth of Internet-integration technologies.
• The rise in the outsourcing of non-core business responsibilities.
• Coercion by strong participants in the distribution channel.
• The globalization of trading relationships.
• The enterprise's changing focus from departmental productivity and external transaction handling to collaborative interaction.

Technology researcher company Forrester further explains: "benefits that participants in collaborative commerce can expect include the elimination of process inefficiencies, reduction in inventories, and the optimization of production capacity."

Two years ago, analysts believed that a new 'business model' was to the key to success on the Internet. Now it is clear that effective use of the hardware and technology inventions of the last thirty years will require innovative and flexible software to help companies build their positions in the new economy. As the software revolution unfolds in the coming years, companies will become better able to truly re-engineer both internal and external transaction processes via new collaborative commerce techniques. And the gains will multiply as visible and measurable returns generate still further implementation of software-enabled e-commerce.

For further information, please visit the white paper section of www.verticalnetsolutions.com.

READER COMMENTS

1. Peer to peer technologies become significant in the B2B landscape.
2. Lack of qualified personnel impacts growth prospects.
3. Business climate remains skeptical of hype, and easy money stays away from the space
4. We begin the slow work of integration with business processes
5. Wireless and mobile devices become mainstream for business use (not just for watching stock drop...)
6. Interoperability will be seen as critical to successful participation

(Mark Resch, President and CEO, CommerceNet)

*****

eCommerce/eBusiness Predictions For 2001

1. "Back to Basics" The year 2000 was a volatile year for eBusiness. The world witnessed the dot-com meltdown and the realization that many B2B models and practices were not mature enough to support collaborative business across the Internet. In a rush to be Internet ready, some organizations ignored the complexity and difficulty of integrating business processes across their extended supply chains. They were also too optimistic about the technical capability of their infrastructures to support complex business process integration. 2001 will be a year of reality. Getting back to basics means that analyzing business goals and objectives, understanding customers and markets and assessing operational/technical readiness to support new eBusiness initiatives will be a top priority for every organization.
2. "Integration - what's legacy in 2001" We'll begin to see organizations realize that the ERP systems of the 90's are not the eBusiness systems of the 21st century and that a secure platform is critical to tightly integrate all components into a viable eBusiness application.
3. "B2B/eMarkets - the quick and the dead" Any business that is not into eBusiness is going to go out of business. B2B survivors will continue to enhance their business processes by integrating intelligent services from knowledge management and business intelligence. This will deliver enhanced services such at catalog management and aggregation, demand and supply forecasting, inventory and stock prediction, best path logistics, etc.
4. "Small enough to carry, yet powerful enough to conduct business" Handheld wireless devices will play an integral role in certain elements of eBusiness (Quality-Control checks, inspections, authorization, etc). Mobile eBusiness and the dependence on new devices will begin to require flexible application development and management solutions. For trust and privacy, we will see security extend into the wireless world, scaling to meet new demands and emerging standards.
5. "Internet Management - Best effort to guaranteed Quality of Service" Systems and Network Management of eBusiness means ensuring the availability of business applications from all business perspectives. These will include: performance, responsiveness, guaranteed 'end-user experience' and quality-of-service.
6. "Personalization...the next generation" Dynamic Intelligent personalization will become a requirement in 2001. Not only customizing a system according to end-use requirements, but also using techniques such as business intelligence, predictive analysis and advanced visualizations will be used more frequently to enhance the end-user experience.
7. "2001 Portal - The window to the business" The business portal of 2001 and beyond will incorporate knowledge of multiple data sources and will provide business intelligence through advanced techniques such as artificial intelligence, business forecasting and prediction.
8. "Storage - Managing the Mountain" There will be more data to manage across diverse networks technologies and infrastructures. Hardware and SAN's, backed by scalable heterogeneous software solutions will be mandatory.
9. "Supplier push to a Customer Centric Philosophy - Intelligent CRM" Providing an organization with the information and processes necessary to know their customers, understand their needs, and effectively build relationships is the basis of good CRM. In the coming year, we'll notice a development of a new breed of customer-centric solutions, incorporating Human-Touch, value-added portal services (analytical/reporting tools and prediction).
10. "Security - new challenges, new opportunities" As commerce extends beyond normal IT boundaries, there'll be new challenges: More users to manage, more applications to protect, shared resources, mobile transactions. Security needs to combine new defense techniques whilst extending business potential through registration services, access control and certificate schemes.

(Kenneth F. Fitzpatrick, General Manager, Global Marketing Computer Associates International, Inc.)

*****

It's only going to get uglier. All those choices are going to get narrower and first to market will only mean you opened the door for the best to come. If you're not the best choice, best product, best service, you'll be last. And best will only last as long as your next version can be introduced.

(Aaron Heinrich, VP, Niewhaus, Ryan, Wong PR)

*****

I predict a major restructuring in the area of agricultural business-to-business exchanges. With the partnerships, mergers, and acquisitions to come, many of the companies we've heard and read about will disappear. Those that remain will have to prove their worth for their members through exceptional technology, strong partnerships, and the ability to change quickly.

(Gordon Hunt, Executive Vice President, eFruit International)

*****

1. Business process understanding and industry specific content to drive commerce will add more value than pure technology.
2. Transaction fees -- especially for indirect material transactions -- will begin to fade * 2001 will mark the rise of collaborative commerce applications, closely linking the relationship between buyers and suppliers.
3. The IPO market will slowly return by the beginning of 2Q01 and will be relatively healthy by the end of Q301 (but nothing like 3Q99 through 1Q00).
4. 90% of vertical markets / consortia exchanges will slowly fade away due to lack of liquidity and market traction.
5. Private marketplaces and private trading hubs will emerge but will have little commerce volume in their early life.

(Jason Busch, Manager, Business Development, FreeMarkets)

*****

1. Peer-to-Peer Commerce: Individuals being able to share a file from any computer, whether from a broadband connection or a dialup, wireless or not, fixed IP or not, and allow any other users to simply click-and-download or drag-and-drop the content to their local drive (or any other) and be automatically charged without a heavyweight e-commerce & credit card transaction server on their desktop.
2. Tie in of micropayment settlement through existing phone, electric, gas, water, etc. bills.
3. Phone as a mobile commerce credit card & use of CC numbers locally at pay points.
4. Rise of the "electronic payment device"--E-commerce in 2001 won't be electronic, it'll be a physical device that's either a super-smart credit card plus wireless, a tollroad fast-track device that can be used at other establishments (like McDonalds) or a key chain gas pump payment device that can be used at other establishments. Looks for the battle of the devices to see what form factor consumers want most.

(Gregory Alan Bolcer)

*****

1. The convergence of data comms and telecomms through the use of standards like Bluetooth and WAP. Whether WAP will survive the onslaught of Bluetooth -we will have to see
2. CRM is going to become one of the crucial factors in the success of any company as customers are becoming more sophisticated and demanding. The one-to-one relationship trend will become ever important
3. Security around information. The media attention of well known sites that were hacked during 2000 has triggered a wave of concern amongst many regarding the safety and security of information stored on the data warehouses of many corporations. The hacking that Microsoft is currently undergoing has placed concern in the hearts of organisations that use MS products (almost everyone)
4. The project management skills of new EC start ups. With poor project management and planning chances of success is questionable.
5. The strategy of the EC venture - has the strategy been drawn up with proper thought and does it encompass technology as part of the business as opposed to seeing technology as a mere tool.
6. Business Continuity Management - how to appropriately react to downed systems- the disaster recovery plans have to extend well beyond typical systems
7. The human capital element - how do successful companies recruit and keep their talent 8- The markets reaction to the devaluation of tech stocks - this may have a serious impact on new startups that want to attract potential investors.

(Mohsien Hassim, Manager, Ernst & Young, UK)

*****

2001 Prognostications

1. It will be possible to rig your home with a camera that will only unlock your front door and let you in the house after verifying your face.
2. People will see TV set top boxes that ask them what they would like to watch and personalize their channels for them. They will also be able to interact with family members across the television with the increased bandwidths and advancements in data flows.
3. People will begin using smart cards (American Express, MasterCard and Visa International have introduced smart cards in the past year) for multiple purposes - like an Epurse, containing money and pertinent cardholder information, from measurements for your custom Levis jeans to personal digital signature protected by biometrics.
4. Cars will have a service that alerts drivers to traffic patterns and suggest alternative routes. People will also be able to order a pizza from their car on the way home from work and have it ready and paid for by the time they get to the pizza shop.
5. Webcams, microphones and fingerprint scanners will become standard features on computers, allowing for biometric protection of desktop and portable computers.
6. Identity theft will be a prevalent concern - biometrics and PKI will become mainstream security options as individuals and organizations strive to protect their identity.

(Vernoque Wittebolle, Executive Vice President, Keyware)

*****

2001 is going to be a very difficult year. The year of the truth. At the end of 2001 we will probably see the dot.coms which will survive in the long run. Along that way there will be a lot of businesses which will go out of business. Difficult times for e.g. Webvan or etoys and many others around the world.

(Patrick Stark)

*****

I think that a lot of attention needs to go to integration of several e-commerce platforms in the B2B distribution sector. All big players have set-up e-commerce activities: 1) sellers push: They want to sell their products and have an e-commerce site using platform A. 2) buyers pull: they have set-up an e-commerce site (where all their suppliers can post their products) using platform B. 3) Integrators bring them together: unfortunately on platform C. At the end, they all have to communicate. Or e-commerce will not deliver the cost savings that it has promised. And it will die.

(Lowie Van Rymenant)

CONTENT - ECMGT.COM E-COMMERCE NEWS

• STRATEGIES & TRENDS
  
  
• E-PRODUCTS
  
  
• E-SERVICES
  
  
• E-MARKETING
   
• SUPPLY CHAIN
   
• CONTENT, PORTALS & COMMUNITY
   
• GOVERNANCE & GOING GLOBAL
   
• PARTNERS & DEALS
   
• MOVERS & SHAKERS

STRATEGIES & TRENDS

This section sponsored by ECnow.com, please visit them at http://www.ecnow.com

• Most Nations Lack Cyber Crime Laws
• Women Top Men as Net Buyers
• Viant layoffs the latest amid consulting crunch
• Signs of Life on the Horizon
• Amazon Tops November Net Sales
• China's Telecom Catch-Up
• Healthy Worldwide PC Market Despite Lowering Expectations for the U.S. and Europe
• Twelve IT innovations to watch in 2001
• The Great Online Purchasing Migration
• Newbies Make E-Holiday Splash
• The Current Face of US eRetail
• Online Privacy in Japan
• Employees' new Coffee Break: E-shopping
• Asian-Pacific Region To Comprise Half Of Telecom Market By 2010
• DSL Growth Slows, Cable Modems Get Help from Standards
• Study Finds DB2 Customers Plan to Migrate to Oracle
• New PC Data Study Shows That Women are New Majority in Online Gaming
• Youth Vote Influenced By Online Information
• One Year Ago: Trends and Predictions for 2000
• Online ad spending drops 6.5 percent in third quarter
• Stealth Plan Puts Copy Protection Into Every Hard Drive

Most Nations Lack Cyber Crime Laws
International cyber crimes may be impossible to prosecute, as most countries have yet to update their laws to deal with computer-related offenses.

• NUA
• http://www.nua.ie/surveys/?f=VS&art_id=905356225&rel=true

Women Top Men as Net Buyers
Women have made a higher percentage of online purchases than men for two quarters running, according to a survey released Thursday by Greenfield Online.

• eCommerce Times
• http://www.ecommercetimes.com/perl/story/5929.html

Viant layoffs the latest amid consulting crunch
And the piles of pink slips are growing by the week. Internet consulting companies were hit particularly hard this week, with some of the leading companies shedding workers.

• CNET
• http://two.digital.cnet.com/cgi-bin2/flo?y=eBLr0BC75T0U0ZfEz

Signs of Life on the Horizon
With telecom stocks suffering, analysts say the entire industry is headed for a prolonged slump. Here's why they're wrong.

• The Standard
• http://tm0.com/thestandard/sbct.cgi?s=74999623&i=283719&d=716144

Amazon Tops November Net Sales
E-tail giant Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) won top sales honors for November, when 3 million buyers passed through its virtual doors, according to figures released by PC Data Online...

• eCommerce Times
• http://www.ecommercetimes.com/perl/story/5942.html

China's Telecom Catch-Up
Hong Kong is doing great when it comes to telecom and IT infrastructure, and the rest of the Asia-Pacific region is not far behind.

• Wired
• http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,40533,00.html?tw=wn20001208

Healthy Worldwide PC Market Despite Lowering Expectations for the U.S. and Europe
Worldwide PC shipments are expected to reach 40.15 million units in the fourth quarter, according to recently released forecasts from IDC.

• Idc.com
• http://www.idc.com/Hardware/press/PR/PS/PS120700pr.stm

Twelve IT innovations to watch in 2001
eWEEK Labs directs IT's attention to 12 technologies and standards that will be worth watching in the coming year.

• ZDNET
• http://cgi.zdnet.com/slink?69176:4932118

The Great Online Purchasing Migration
Online shopping projections for the six strongest European Internet markets. Also, Americans spent 1.7 million minutes online making long distance phone calls last year, and online sales for the B-to-C market are expected to reach $1.1 trillion by 2010.

• Business 2.0
• http://www.business2.com/content/research/numbers/2000/12/07/23441

Newbies Make E-Holiday Splash
Forty-five percent of this holiday season's online shoppers are making their first purchases ever over the Internet, according to a survey released by Active Research...

• eCommerce Times
• http://www.ecommercetimes.com/perl/story/5972.html

The Current Face of US eRetail
According to Greenfield Online, more than 80% of wired Americans made an online purchase in Q3 2000.

• eMarketer
• http://www.emarketer.com/estats/dailyestats/b2c/20001211_greenshop.html?ref=wn

Online Privacy in Japan
Sixty-seven percent of Japanese consumers reportedly believe they have lost control over how their personal information is collected and used by companies.

• Business2.0
• http://www.business2.com/content/research/numbers/2000/12/08/23460

Employees' new Coffee Break: E-shopping
Nearly half of 46% of online holiday shopping occurs in the office, reports an Internet usage study by Nielsen Media Research and NetRatings.

• USA Today
• http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/cti913.htm

Asian-Pacific Region To Comprise Half Of Telecom Market By 2010
By the year 2010, nations in the Asian-Pacific region will drive nearly half of the world market for telecommunications services and products, according to the latest report from the International Telecommunications Union

• Computer User
• http://www.computeruser.com/newsletter/4294.html

DSL Growth Slows, Cable Modems Get Help from Standards
Deployment issues hindered the growth in shipments of ADSL modems in Q3 2000, while growth in shipments of cable modems, aided by the move towards DOCSIS-certified modems, increased, according to Cahners In-Stat Group.

• Cyber Atlas
• http://cyberatlas.internet.com/markets/broadband/article/0,,10099_535831,00.html

Study Finds DB2 Customers Plan to Migrate to Oracle
With the pending release of Oracle9i(TM) Database, IT departments that have traditionally turned to IBM plan to turn to Oracle to provide the highest levels of reliability, scalability and security.

• PRNewswire
• http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/12-14-2000/0001387170&EDATE

New PC Data Study Shows That Women are New Majority in Online Gaming
PC and console gaming is no longer just a man's folly, according to a new report available through PC Data.

• PRNewswire
• http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/12-14-2000/0001387010&EDATE

Youth Vote Influenced By Online Information
Campaign 2000 firmly established the Internet as a major source of election news and information. But as the audience for online campaign news has expanded - increasing fourfold over the past four years - it has gone more mainstream in its preferences and pursuits.

• People - Press
• http://www.people-press.org/online00rpt.htm

One Year Ago: Trends and Predictions for 2000
With less than two weeks left until the next century, it seems like a good time to speculate about some e-commerce trends and offer some predictions.

• eCommerce Times
• http://www.ecommercetimes.com/perl/story/6161.html

Online ad spending drops 6.5 percent in third quarter
Internet ad spending softened in the last three months, marking the first time Web ad sales fell quarter to quarter, according to a new study.

• CNET
• http://two.digital.cnet.com/cgi-bin2/flo?y=eBOK0BC75T0U0Zo7K

Stealth Plan Puts Copy Protection Into Every Hard Drive
Hastening a rapid demise for the free copying of digital media, the next generation of hard disks is likely to come with copyright protection countermeasures built in.

• The Register

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/2/15620.html

---

E-PRODUCTS NEWS

• Computer Associates Intros Palm PDA Antivirus Software
• Palm to Support Bluetooth, USB and Voice
• Ericsson Unveils First Embedded WAP Bluetooth Technology
• Intel Plans 1.3-GHz Pentium 4 for 2001
• Multiprotocol Wireless PC Modem Cards Expected
• Web Standards Advocates Praise New Netscape Browser
• IBM adds Linux-ready database and Web server packages
• Dell Launches Server Initiative
• Making Mainframe Time Machines
• IBM Brings Magnetic Memory to Market
• Web Development Tools
• Microsoft Tahoe Server beta 2
• Sun Scales Servers
• Windows developers weigh Java's worthiness
• Linux Cluster Used In Genome Project
• Prism Brightens Handheld Market
• VelociRaptor: A simple but tough network security guard
• Sun's Forte for Java delivers solid tools
• Instant online backup
• Security Patch Released for Windows Media Server
• Cytura brings 'extreme personalization' to content
• Storage standard shakeout shaping up
• App server players ending year with a bang

   

Computer Associates Intros Palm PDA Antivirus Software
Computer Associates claims to be the first antivirus developer to deliver a working antivirus package for the Palm series of personal digital assistants (PDAs).

• Computer User
• http://www.computeruser.com/newsletter/4292.html

Palm to Support Blue Tooth, USB and Voice
Palm demonstrated the next release of PalmOS at the opening of its developers' conference in California. Version 4.0 is expected to support 16bit color, Blue Tooth wireless local area networks and the universal serial bus standard.

• Java.Sun
• http://industry.java.sun.com/javanews/stories/story2/0,1072,32597,00.html

Ericsson Unveils First Embedded WAP Blue Tooth Technology
Ericsson has taken the wraps off an embedded Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) server that has Blue Tooth personal area network (PAN) technology featured as standard.

• Computer User
• http://www.computeruser.com/newsletter/4293.html

Intel Plans 1.3-GHz Pentium 4 for 2001
Intel plans to ring in the new year with a variety of new chips, including a more budget-minded version of the Pentium 4.

• CNET
• http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-201-4157808-0.html?tag=st.ne.1006.ttext.sf

Multiprotocol Wireless PC Modem Cards Expected
Sierra Wireless Of Richmond, British Columbia, a provider of wireless data communications hardware and software products, has licensed wireless protocol stacks from Bangalore, India-based Sasken Communication Technologies.

• InfoWorld
• http://www.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/00/12/13/001213hnsierra.xml

Web Standards Advocates Praise New Netscape Browser
A bevy of Web developers behind an organization known as the Web Standards Project (WSP) -- a group best known for its criticism of browser software makers -- has offered an enthusiastic thumbs-up for the latest release from Netscape.

• Computer User
• http://www.computeruser.com/newsletter/4314.html

IBM adds Linux-ready database and Web server packages
IBM today announced Linux DB2 database and WebSphere server applications to run on Linux mainframes.

• Computer World
• http://computerworld.com/cwi/story/0%2C1199%2CNAV47_STO54971_NLTpm%2C00.html

Dell Launches Server Initiative
America's largest PC vendor aims toward the enterprise market with new servers and server services

• ZDNET
• http://cgi.zdnet.com/slink?69641:4932118

Making Mainframe Time Machines
Colleges, with IBM, use Linux to lure students back to the future

• ZDNET
• http://cgi.zdnet.com/slink?69643:4932118

IBM Brings Magnetic Memory to Market
IBM and German chipmaker Infineon Technologies plan to start selling by 2004 a new memory system for laptop computers that uses magnetism to store data.

• USA Today
• http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/review/crh772.htm

Web Development Tools
The pressure is on for Web developers to create flexible, secure, data-driven sites that respond instantly to visitors' changing needs.

• ZDNET
• http://cgi.zdnet.com/slink?69216:4932118

Microsoft Tahoe Server beta 2
Harnessing the information important to your company and making it centrally available is the idea behind Microsoft's newest server, code-named Tahoe. PC Magazine takes a look.

• ZDNET
• http://cgi.zdnet.com/slink?69178:4932118

Sun Scales Servers
Sun last week introduced software designed to make it easier to reassign server resources to different tasks on the fly.

• Internet Week
• http://www.internetweek.com/story/INW20001207S0003

Windows developers weigh Java's worthiness
As the legal battle between Microsoft and Sun Microsystems over Java drags into a third year, Windows developers are wondering: Who needs Java anyway?

• CNET
• http://two.digital.cnet.com/cgi-bin2/flo?y=eBL10BC75T0U0ZflZ

Linux Cluster Used In Genome Project
The Berkeley National Laboratory is implementing a 40-node Linux cluster to pursue its Drosophila Genome Project.

• ZDNET
• http://cgi.zdnet.com/slink?72199:4932118

Prism Brightens Handheld Market
In many ways, reading on the Prism's bright and shiny color screen is easier on your eyes and RSI-prone wrists than reading on a computer monitor.

• Wired
• http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,40474,00.html?tw=wn20001221

VelociRaptor: A simple but tough network security guard
eWEEK Labs believes VelociRaptor is best suited for small and midsize businesses, branch offices, and ISPs that require strong network security and desire the easy setup and manageability of an appliance.

• ZDNET
• http://cgi.zdnet.com/slink?72092:4932118

Sun's Forte for Java delivers solid tools
Organizations developing Java-based Web applications will find Sun's Forte for Java an effective programming tool.

• eWeek
• http://www.eweek.com/a/pcwt0012211/2664147/

Instant online backup
Low-cost online services make keeping an emergency copy of mission-critical company data quick and easy. Smart Business walks you through the process.

• ZDNET
• http://cgi.zdnet.com/slink?71802:4932118

Security Patch Released for Windows Media Server
Microsoft has released a patch for a particular Denial of Service attack that could cripple servers running Windows Media Server.

• ENT Mag
• http://entmag.com/breaknews.asp?ID=3860

Cytura brings 'extreme personalization' to content
Cytura has launched a new version of its content management platform that allows personalization of content down to the word without requiring users to have knowledge of HTML.

• eWeek
• http://www.eweek.com/a/pcwt0012204/2666633/

Storage standard shakeout shaping up
With more than a half dozen storage standards in the works, a February Tape-over-IP forum will be held to bring together leaders of the various protocol standards.

• ZDNET
• http://cgi.zdnet.com/slink?71598:4932118

App server players ending year with a bang
BEA Systems, Inprise, and IBM all end 2000 with new releases of their respective application servers.

• ZDNET
• http://cgi.zdnet.com/slink?71760:4932118

---

E-SERVICES

• Personalization: Is it worth it?
• Sprint Hoping Customers Will Pocket Net Access
• Microsoft roils waters with license changes
• Airfare search race shifts into overdrive
• Putting the Web on the map
• E-Banking, Where Art Thou?
• Sitel's CRM Compass Shifts North
• Priceline Gives Up Down Under
• Microsoft supports Windows Media services on Linux
• Personal Firewalls Fail the Leak Test
• Race to Put Web in the cars
• Record company prepares to sell copy-protected CDs
• The Battle for Instant Messaging
• Verizon Battles Backlog Of Spam
• Japanese Govt Begins Tests On IPv6 Network
• Solution Integrators Muddy the Waters by Referring to them selves as eBusiness Solutions Providers
• Real Networks Unveils New Streaming-Media Technology
• This Is Not My Father's Internet
• Nordstrom.com Tops Forrester Power Rankings
• What will Cisco Turn To Gold in 2001?
• Wireless Web Security: Enter Data at Your Own Risk

   

Personalization: Is it worth it?
Right now, probably not -- unless you're really serious about it and willing to spend the money on the technology to prove that you are. Web sites that have jumped in say that quantifying ROI is difficult.

• ZDNET
• http://cgi.zdnet.com/slink?72010:4932118

Sprint Hoping Customers Will Pocket Net Access
The company unveils a prepaid Internet access card that will allow people to buy a set amount of minutes and use them from any computer.

• CNET
• http://one.digital.cnet.com/cgi-bin1/flo?y=eBRe0B1VeJ0t0d4kE

Microsoft roils waters with license changes
The software giant has angered some clients by abolishing volume licensing agreements next year for the consumer versions of its Windows software.

• eWeek
• http://www.eweek.com/a/pcwt0012214/2667224/

Airfare search race shifts into overdrive
The two largest travel Web sites recently made significant changes to their fare search engines, prompting many industry watchers to conclude they are reacting to the threat posed by the expected debut this summer of airline-owned Orbitz.

• Computer World
• http://computerworld.com/cwi/story/0%2C1199%2CNAV47_STO55532_NLTam%2C00.html

Putting the Web on the map
Antarcti.ca Systems is offering a new visual way to navigate the Web with two- and three-dimensional maps of Web sites.

• ZDNET
• http://cgi.zdnet.com/slink?72061:4932118

E-Banking, Where Art Thou?
Weren't we all supposed to be paying our bills with a simple point and click by now? Weren't the bricks and mortar of the traditional banking world supposed to fade away, like the rotary phone and the television knob?

• eCommerce Times
• http://www.ecommercetimes.com/perl/story/6266.html

Sitel's CRM Compass Shifts North
Baltimore, Maryland-based Sitel Corporation announced that it intends to open 600-seat contact centers in Montreal, Quebec and St. Catharine's, Ontario by the beginning of the new year, bringing to 76 the total of contact centers it operates around the world.

• CRM Daily
• http://www.crmdaily.com/perl/story/6279.html

Priceline Gives Up Down Under
Struggling online discounter Priceline.com said a venture set up earlier this year to launch a version of its name-your-own-price Web site in Australia and New Zealand is dropping those plans.

• Computer World
• http://computerworld.com/cwi/story/0%2C1199%2CNAV47_STO55411_NLTw%2C00.html

Microsoft supports Windows Media services on Linux
A new licensing deal with StarBak heralds the first time Microsoft officially gives its blessing to Windows server functionality delivered from a Linux platform.

• ZDNET
• http://cgi.zdnet.com/slink?72062:4932118

Personal Firewalls Fail the Leak Test
In an attempt to show that personal firewalls may afford their users little protection against serious threats, a respected PC security expert has released a new software tool that pokes holes in many of the leading desktop security packages

• Internet News
• http://www.internetnews.com/intra-news/article/0,,7_529661,00.html

Race to Put Web in the cars
Palm, Microsoft, and Sun Microsystems are all pushing their own visions for Web services delivered to your car's dashboard. Why the rush to this competition? The emerging field promises $5 billion in revenues by 2005.

• Business2.0
• http://www.business2.com/content/channels/technology/2000/12/06/23419

Record company prepares to sell copy-protected CDs
Country music record company Fahrenheit Entertainment said it will begin selling copy-protected CDs by early next year using encryption technology from SunnComm, a little-known company based in Phoenix.

• CNET
• http://two.digital.cnet.com/cgi-bin2/flo?y=eBL10BC75T0U0Zfnb

The Battle for Instant Messaging
Instant messages don't take up much virtual real estate, just a few square inches of screen space when they pop up. But size can be deceiving.

• Boston Globe
• http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/346/business/The_Battle_for_Instant_Messaging+.shtml

Verizon Battles Backlog Of Spam
Verizon Communications worked to clear a backlog of millions of junk messages that slowed email for as many as 200,000 of its Internet customers on the East Coast.

• CNET
• http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1004-200-4076405.html?tag=st.ne.1002.bgif.ni

Japanese Govt Begins Tests On IPv6 Network
Japan's Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications has finished building a next-generation Internet protocol (IP) network that it will this week begin using to test high-speed multimedia data transfer applications.

• Computer User
• http://www.computeruser.com/newsletter/4291.html

Solution Integrators Muddy the Waters by Referring to Them selves as eBusiness Solutions Providers
IDC's New Report Analyzes 35 Companies to Keep an Eye on in the Dynamic Solutions Integration Market

• IDC
• http://www.idc.com/Services/press/PR/SV121300pr.stm

Real Networks Unveils New Streaming-Media Technology
Streaming-media technology company Real Networks Inc. has unwrapped what it says is technology that will improve the reliability of Internet audio and video broadcasts.

• Computer User
• http://www.computeruser.com/newsletter/4342.html

This Is Not My Father's Internet
Note to e-tailers: Many seniors have sizeable incomes or nest eggs and like to travel, buy clothes, exercise, dine out, connect with other seniors who have similar interests, and even date...

• eCommerce Times
• http://www.ecommercetimes.com/perl/story/6227.html

Nordstrom.com Tops Forrester Power Rankings
Clothing retailer Nordstrom.com won the top customer experience ranking in a review of online apparel companies by Forrester Research, Inc.

• CRM Daily
• http://www.crmdaily.com/perl/story/6252.html

What will Cisco Turn To Gold in 2001?
If you follow the bread crumbs laid by Cisco's venture investments, which have increased 45 percent to $256 million as of September 30, 2000, from $176.8 million last year, according to Venture Economics

• Redherring
• http://www.redherring.com/ipo/2000/1219/resources/ipo-fea-cisco-p2121900.html

Wireless Web Security: Enter Data at Your Own Risk
Word has it that wholesale wireless Internet access is a potential silver lining in the flagging New Economy, but is it secure?

• Internet News
• http://www.internetnews.com/isp-news/article/0,,8_544101,00.html

...

E-MARKETING NEWS

Dell cuts prices on corporate notebooks
Dell Computer said it's cutting prices by up to 20% on most of its Latitude notebook PCs for corporate users, a move it attributed to lower costs for components used in the machines.

• Computer World
• http://computerworld.com/cwi/story/0%2C1199%2CNAV47_STO55470_NLTpm%2C00.html

Straight From The Showroom
Faced with an industry-wide slump in PC sales, Gateway announced that it will carry some inventory in its 320 showrooms, temporarily altering its build-to-order business model.

• Yahoo
• http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20001216/tc/gateway_sales_2.html

Bell South To Block More Telemarketers
BellSouth received regulatory approval Wednesday from the North Carolina Utilities Regulatory Commission to offer telephone screening services that can block telemarketing calls in that state.

• ZDNET
• http://cgi.zdnet.com/slink?72198:4932118

PC Industry's Holiday Fears Confirmed
Personal computer makers and retailers worrying that a weaker-than-expected holiday response to their products would not be enough to pull PC sales out of the doldrums had their fears confirmed by the numbers.

• News Factor
• http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/6275.html

Time Warner Wins Potter Domains
A total of 107 dot-coms related to Harry Potter - many of them already registered to another company - are awarded to Time Warner, which already owns the series' marketing rights.

• Wired
• http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,40785,00.html?tw=wn20001221

Amazon getting into outlet biz -- online
The e-tailing giant is testing an online outlet store, betting that it will be as popular as bricks-and-mortar, bargain-basement counterparts.

• ZDNET
• http://cgi.zdnet.com/slink?72009:4932118

Reports Show E-Holiday Peaked Early
Two new studies indicate that consumers remain wary of making last-minute holiday purchases online, although the reports disagree about exactly when this year's holiday shopping reached its zenith.

• eCommerce Times
• http://www.ecommercetimes.com/perl/story/6278.html

What is AMD's Marketing Strategy?
Is it a coincidence that Intel is executing poorly just as AMD seems to have hit its stride... ?

• OS Opinion
• http://www.osopinion.com/perl/story/6261.html

Microsoft CEO Sets Business Priorities, Details Plans To Cut Costs
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer held a virtual company meeting today after issuing a memo that outlined the software vendor's business priorities and detailed plans to "eliminate unnecessary expenses."

• Computer World
• http://computerworld.com/cwi/story/0%2C1199%2CNAV47_STO55433_NLTw%2C00.html

AMD, Intel: Full speed ahead in 2001
Coming off its best year ever, AMD will be going after the big-money corporate market. Meanwhile, Intel sees its future largely in the Internet.

• eWeek
• http://www.eweek.com/a/pcwt0012213/2665666/

Telecoms Facing Bumpy Road
Successful applications for long-distance authority by Verizon Communications in New York, and SBC Communications in Texas, may have created a regulatory roadmap for other regional Bells, but a roadside warning is still in order.

• ZDNET
• http://cgi.zdnet.com/slink?72196:4932118

IBM Set To Market Sedona's Intarsia
Sedona Corporation, a CRM provider to community banks and credit unions, said that IT giant IBM has agreed to market its product to its community financial services customers as an affordable customer retention tool.

• CRM Daily
• http://www.crmdaily.com/perl/story/5945.html

Net Pharmacy Race Remains Tight
Online pharmacy Drugstore.com continues to narrowly outpace niche competitor PlanetRX.com and retains the No.1 spot among Internet health retailers, according to new rankings released by Forrester Research.

• eCommerce Times
• http://www.ecommercetimes.com/perl/story/5944.html

Small Firms use Web for Promotion, not Ecommerce
Small businesses are setting up websites primarily to advertise and promote their business

• NUA
• http://www.nua.ie/surveys/index.cgi?f=VS&art_id=905356217&rel=true

Profitable Websites Invest in Infrastructure & Promotion
ActivMedia's research shows that companies online for three or more years are far more likely to have become profitable than companies in the early stages of website development.

• Activemediaresearch
• http://www.activmediaresearch.com/free_newsroom.html

Attention on the Appliance Server Market Mounts
Intel Gathers Momentum for Appliance Servers and Then Changes Gears

• IDC
• http://www.idc.com/Hardware/press/PR/ES/ES120500pr.stm

Careful Marketers Can Benefit from Online Promotions
Consumers are willing to participate in online promotional programs even it means giving up some personal information

• Cyberatlas
• http://cyberatlas.internet.com/markets/advertising/article/0,,5941_527241,00.html

Online 'Window Shoppers' to Boost Offline Sales
Traditional high street stores in Europe will benefit this holiday season from Internet 'window shopping'

• Nua
• http://www.nua.ie/surveys/index.cgi?f=VS&art_id=905356219&rel=true

Free-ISP closures stranding millions
With the erosion of online ad spending and growing concerns about just how many people notice banner ads anyway, free ISPs are fading fast.

• eWeek
• http://www.eweek.com/a/pcwt0012075/2661818/

E-Holiday Bells Ring : Cha-Ching
Holiday shoppers reportedly expect to spend 38 percent of their holiday budget online this year. Also, online advertising in France, and the No. 1 myth in online marketing.

• Business 2.0
• http://www.business2.com/content/research/numbers/2000/12/04/23263

Oracle Aims to be the Microsoft of e-biz
Larry Ellison built Oracle Corp. into the world's No. 2 software maker by dominating the database business. Now, he wants to own the e-business market -- all of it.

• ZDNET
• http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2662192,00.html

Napster, Click Rates Rising
Click rates for top banner ads jumped in October, and, despite its legal difficulties, Napster rose to 22nd in terms of unique visitors for the month

• Media Info
• http://www.mediainfo.com/ephome/news/newshtm/webnews/webtrend.htm#5

At Least Online Campaign News Stats Are Official
Eighteen percent of Americans went online for election information during the 2000 campaign. Also, increasing the banner ad response rate, and the use of online banking by U.S. households grew by 60 percent in 2000.

• Business 2.0
• http://www.business2.com/content/research/numbers/2000/12/06/23413

---

SUPPLY CHAIN NEWS
This section sponsored by - Sameday.com, please visit them at http://www.sameday.com

• Auto Parts Portal War Heats Up
• DSL Carriers To Take Over For Failing ISPs
• Innotrac Makes CRM Inroads in Western U.S.
• Qwest Asks for Access to AT&T's Network
• Sun, PwC Launch Online CRM Community
• McAfee Virus Update Damages NT 4.0 Files
• Symbol To Provide Handheld Devices to Wal-Mart
• Eazel's Linux software shines on Solaris
• Microsoft Buys Into ERP Space
• Intel Licenses Internet Gear To HP
• Invensys moves to reassure users of Baan CRM software
• J.D. Edwards fights back with supply-chain management suite
• Optical Networking Offers Bright Spot In Dotcom Darkness
• Daimler Chrysler Bids Online To Cut Supply Costs
• B2B: Silver lining amid the clouds?
• Commerce One Suffers a Loss
• Bank of Montreal to host B-to-B app
• Alltel Connects with ATMs
• Networking Remains Hot Spot For Integrators
• Commerce One, Covisint sign tech, equity deal
• Haht B-to-B suite gains ERP connectivity, customer support

Auto Parts Portal War Heats Up
The Big Three U.S. automakers announced detailed developments of their much anticipated supply chain portal, only to have competitor Parts.com which recently lost the contract bidding to the Big Three's current partner Bell & Howell -- launch its own dealer-based parts portal.

• CRM Daily
• http://www.crmdaily.com/perl/story/5947.html

DSL Carriers To Take Over For Failing ISPs
Covad Communications, a competitive data services carrier, will announce plans next week to begin calming the commotion that has enveloped the digital subscriber line community in the last few months

• ZDNET
• http://www.zdnet.com/intweek/stories/news/0,4164,2662451,00.html

Innotrac Makes CRM Inroads in Western U.S.
Atlanta, Georgia-based Innotrac Corporation has announced it is acquiring order fulfillment services company Universal Distribution Services

• CRM Daily
• http://www.crmdaily.com/perl/story/5940.html

Qwest Asks for Access to AT&T's Network
QWest Communications International Inc. said it had asked AT&T Corp. to let it connect to AT&T's cable networks in Colorado and Washington as it readies to launch high-speed internet access cable modem services in those areas.

• Yahoo!
• http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20001214/tc/qwest_att_dc_1.html

Sun, PwC Launch Online CRM Community
Price Waterhouse Coopers, Sun Microsystems, Inc. and BMC Software, Inc. have joined forces to establish a new Web site designed to aid businesses in improving customer loyalty...

• CRM Daily
• http://www.crmdaily.com/perl/story/6271.html

McAfee Virus Update Damages NT 4.0 Files
An update to Network Associates' McAfee Virus Scan anti-virus software has been found to damage the master boot record of Windows NT 4.0 computers, forcing customers to reinstall their operating systems

• The Register
• http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/15649.html

Symbol To Provide Handheld Devices to Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. has selected Symbol Technologies, Inc. to provide employees of its stores and clubs worldwide with wireless handheld computers and accessories. The agreement includes support and maintenance services.

• News Factor
• http://www.wirelessnewsfactor.com/perl/story/6289.html

Eazel's Linux software shines on Solaris
Sun Micro will use new software that lets Linux users manage computer files, view documents, browse the Web and tap into Eazel's online services.

• ZDNET
• http://cgi.zdnet.com/slink?72060:4932118

Microsoft Buys Into ERP Space
Microsoft Corp. entered the enterprise resource planning (ERP) arena with the announcement that it will acquire ERP systems provider Great Plains Software, Inc. in a stock swap valued at approximately US$1.1 billion.

• CRM Daily
• http://www.crmdaily.com/perl/story/6287.html

Intel Licenses Internet Gear To HP
Marking the end of one of Intel's most ambitious efforts to sell systems to service providers, Intel and Hewlett-Packard said they will work together to sell and support products based on Intel's NetStructure network appliances.

• ZDNET
• http://cgi.zdnet.com/slink?72200:4932118

Invensys moves to reassure users of Baan CRM software
The London-based vendor next year plans to add Web support and other new features to the customer relationship management software it bought as part of an acquisition of Baan - development plans that were greeted with sighs of relief by some users.

• Computer World
• http://computerworld.com/cwi/story/0%2C1199%2CNAV47_STO55521_NLTpm%2C00.html

J.D. Edwards fights back with supply-chain management suite
In a do-or-die comeback bid, J.D. Edwards & Sons Inc. released Web-based, supply-chain collaboration software called OneWorld Xe for online purchasing and data sharing between trading partners.

• IT World
• http://www2.itworld.com/cma/ett_article_frame/0,,1_2932.html

Optical Networking Offers Bright Spot In Dotcom Darkness
Despite the recent dotcom doldrums, there's been no let-up in the rush of blueprints coming from prospective suppliers of optical networking equipment.

• Internet Week
• http://www.internetweek.com/story/INW20001220S0004

Daimler Chrysler Bids Online To Cut Supply Costs
The seven-month Daimler Chrysler experiment with online bidding to procure parts seems to be paying dividends in the form of significantly lowered procurement costs and improved supply chain management.

• CRM Daily
• http://www.crmdaily.com/perl/story/6254.html

B2B: Silver lining amid the clouds?
Stocks may be tanking, but the market's leading players and analysts say there's still lots of life left in the B2B space.

• ZDNET
• http://cgi.zdnet.com/slink?71759:4932118

Commerce One Suffers a Loss
The ecommerce solution provider was dealt a devastating blow when Vertical Net Solutions and Converge formed a trading operations alliance.

• Internet News
• http://www.internetnews.com/ec-news/article/0,,4_540981,00.html

Bank of Montreal to host B-to-B app
The Bank of Montreal next month will launch a hosted b2b application that will let its North American corporate customers purchase goods from suppliers and pay for them online using the MasterCard International Inc. procurement card.

• IT World
• http://www2.itworld.com/cma/ett_article_frame/0,,1_2884.html

Alltel Connects with ATMs
An innovative banking software application that allows consumers with wireless access to view their accounts through automated teller machine (ATM) networks is under development by Alltell Communications and Euronet Worldwide.

• CRM Daily
• http://www.crmdaily.com/perl/story/6255.html

Networking Remains Hot Spot For Integrators
While networking equipment vendors sweat the possibility of a slowing economy and an industry-wide slowdown in service provider spending, 2001 is ripe with opportunities for network integrators focusing on enterprise clients, industry observers say.

• Internet Week
• http://www.internetweek.com/story/INW20001222S0005

Commerce One, Covisint sign tech, equity deal
Commerce One will provide the core infrastructure for automotive online marketplace Covisint.

• Info World
• http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/fixup.pl?story=http://www.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/00/12/13/001213hncomcov.xml&dctag=ecommerce

Haht B-to-B suite gains ERP connectivity, customer support
Haht Commerce Inc. this week will debut the latest version of its business-to-business application for selling on the Web, adding service-management features such as returns authorizations and order tracking.

• T World
• http://www2.itworld.com/cma/ett_article_frame/0,,1_3414.html

...

CONTENT, PORTALS & COMMUNITY

• Dot-commers going from laid off to lounge lizard
• Cannes suffers a sea of dot-commers
• Neglected Corporate Employment Web Sites Create Opportunities for eRecruiting and Hosting Service Providers
• The sorry state of digital Hollywood
• It's An E-Date
• Authors Seek Control of Their Names
• Tracking the Internet Union Movement
• ICC Unit Warns Web Firms Over 'Page-Jackers'
• Outbreak Of Viruses Disguised As Vaccines
• Take a Walk on the Wyeth Side
• Techs Can't Mess With Texas
• Seti: Is Anybody Out There?
• Employers OK With E-surfing
• Startup Leftovers Piling Up
• Hackers caught in security 'honeypot'
• Health Care Industry Grapples With Security
• New Tools Confront Shifting Challenges
• Banner Views Boost Conversions More than Clicks
• B2B needs to score a goal
• Insurance agents seek bright online future
• HP delays raises, cuts temp workers

   

Dot-commers going from laid off to lounge lizard
The latest high-tech schmooze fest to hit San Francisco and New York showed how the dot-com economy can have fun even when it's showered in pink slips.

• CNET
• http://two.digital.cnet.com/cgi-bin2/flo?y=eBLr0BC75T0U0ZfDy

Cannes suffers a sea of dot-commers
Along the glitzy docks in the shadow of the Grand Palais, a luxury yacht rented by business-to-business film exchange Internetstudios floats quietly apart from the chaos of the 53rd annual Cannes Film Festival

• Redherring
• http://www.redherring.com/industries/2000/0517/ind-cannes051700.html

Neglected Corporate Employment Web Sites Create Opportunities for eRecruiting and Hosting Service Providers
Aiming to take advantage of many companies' urgent need to post job openings on their own Web sites, erecruiting vendors are now offering Web hosting services

• IDC
• http://www.idc.com/Services/press/PR/SV120400Bpr.stm

The sorry state of digital Hollywood
After years of promise, technology is finally transforming show business

• Redherring
• http://www.redherring.com/mag/issue85/resources/fea-sorry-85.html

It's An E-Date
The overarching strategy of Internet dating services is so simple, it's scary: Provide compelling content--almost all from end-users--and require those clients to respond with an e-mail.

• Internet Week
• http://www.internetweek.com/lead/lead120700.htm

Authors Seek Control of Their Names
R.L. Stine has told some scary stories over the years, but this one is a little odd: The author who has sold millions of children's books does not entirely possess his own name.

• Yahoo!
• http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20001213/tc/online_publishing_1.html

Tracking the Internet Union Movement
While Internet managers should pay close to attention to the unionization efforts at Amazon and Etown.com, they are not necessarily a sign of sweeping changes to come.

• Business 2.0
• http://www.business2.com/content/channels/ebusiness/2000/12/07/23437

ICC Unit Warns Web Firms Over 'Page-Jackers'
The International Chamber of Commerce's Cybercrime Unit has warned Internet businesses to check that their sites are not being exploited by the growing number of so-called page-jackers, who redirect their Web users to other sites

• Total Telecom
• http://www.totaltele.com/view.asp?ArticleID=34709&pub=tt&categoryid=0

Outbreak Of Viruses Disguised As Vaccines
Computer virus writers are disguising viruses as anti-virus updates in an attempt to trick users into running malicious code.

• The Register
• http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/15367.html

Take a Walk on the Wyeth Side
MuseumShop.com launches its Print Gallery, which enables visitors to 'walk' through a virtual museum using RichFX technology. It's the latest way for museums to market goods from their stores.

• Wired
• http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,40741,00.html?tw=wn20001221

Techs Can't Mess With Texas
Software company Vignette wanted to expand its operations in Austin, but officials in the Texas state capital came up with a few environmental conditions first.

• Wired
• http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,40642,00.html?tw=wn20001221

Seti: Is Anybody Out There?
The Seti@Home project, which harnesses the spare computing cycles of millions of PCs, has clocked an astonishing 500,000 years in computing time. Now it's time to start looking at what they've got so far.

• Wired
• http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,40801,00.html?tw=wn20001223

Employers OK With E-surfing
Companies surveyed and interviewed by Computer world said they aren't too concerned about lost productivity from employees surfing the Net for personal reasons.

• Computer World
• http://computerworld.com/cwi/story/0%2C1199%2CNAV47_STO55344_NLTw%2C00.html

Startup Leftovers Piling Up
The dot-com downturn has had some positive repercussions for charities, which are often the recipients of the slightly used office furniture and computer equipment burned-out startups leave behind.

• Wired
• http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,40745,00.html?tw=wn20001222

Hackers caught in security 'honeypot'
Security pros use HoneyNet Project to learn tricks of the hacking trade and raise corporate awareness: '95 percent of a security practitioner's job is convincing people to take seriously.'

• ZDNET
• http://cgi.zdnet.com/slink?720888:4932118

Virtual Home For the Holidays
SpotLife has announced the launch of an exclusive partnership with the USO (United Service Organizations) and Logitech entitled Operation Deliver America.

• Internet News
• http://www.internetnews.com/streaming-news/article/0,,8161_544091,00.html

Health Care Industry Grapples With Security
Many hospitals are researching new uses for information technology, such as smart cards and public-key infrastructure security devices, to build a chain of trust into the entire health care process, experts say.

• Computer World
• http://computerworld.com/cwi/story/0%2C1199%2CNAV65-663_STO55275_NLTs%2C00.html

New Tools Confront Shifting Challenges
Evolving technologies will help IT managers cope with rapid change in and beyond the enterprise

• Internet Week
• http://update.internetweek.com/cgi-bin4/flo?y=eBnY0Bd3Yj0V30CLXx

Banner Views Boost Conversions More than Clicks
In another study in favor of CPM-based online advertising, Seattle-based Avenue A said Monday that it has concluded that banner ads increase conversions, even when users don't click on them

• Internet News
• http://www.internetnews.com/IAR/article/1,2171,12_538511,00.html?nl=np

B2B needs to score a goal
VCs are still bullish on the future of B2B -- just not on exchanges. Scot Petersen tells where some investors are now focusing their attention.

• ZDNET
• http://cgi.zdnet.com/slink?71764:4932118

Insurance agents seek bright online future
Brokers and agents find they must move toward the Web or risk becoming irrelevant

• Info World
• http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/fixup.pl?story=http://www.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/00/12/25/001225hnetrend.xml&dctag=ecommerce

HP delays raises, cuts temp workers
In an effort to cut costs and meet earnings estimates, Hewlett-Packard is asking managers to delay salary increases, cut back on using temporary workers, and encourage employees to take vacation time, sources close to the company said.

• CNET

http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200-4237790.html?tag=st.ne.1430735..ni

...

GOVERNANCE & GOING GLOBAL

• States seek sales-tax simplification
• Privacy policies, tools fluster gathering of info-sec specialists
• Pentagon seeks IT reservists for new tech centers
• German Landmark Nazi Ruling
• Cyber crime Pact Steps On Privacy, Groups Say
• U.S. Official Warns of Cyber Catastrophe
• Malaysia Takes Action On Anti-Islam Internet Surfers
• FCC Vote Looms on Lifting Wireless Ownership Cap
• Disclosure Revisited
• Yahoo! Rejects French Authority in Nazi Dispute
• FBI Looking Into Questionable Credit Card Charges
• Feds Publish Web Access Rules
• Netscape Arrives in India
• Time Wireless First in the Race for GPRS
• Bush Eyes Overhaul Of E-security
• Germany Moves To Squelch Racism on Napster
• EasyJet Gets Tough On Domain-Name Rivals
• Prepaid Patent Portends Wireless Battle
• Microsoft invests $50M in ASP to push .Net
• Intel acquires India consulting group
• U.S. Court Rules Port Scans Are Legal
• World Bank Alliance Goes Live

States seek sales-tax simplification
The Streamlined Sales Tax Project may OK 'model' legislation this month that, if adopted by states around the U.S., could be a key step in the fight by states and major retailers to tax Internet purchases.

• Computer World
• http://computerworld.com/cwi/story/0%2C1199%2CNAV47_STO54969_NLTpm%2C00.html

Privacy policies, tools fluster gathering of info-sec specialists
Microsoft-sponsored gathering yields little agreement, but two new privacy product announcements.

• Computer World
• http://computerworld.com/cwi/story/0%2C1199%2CNAV47_STO54974_NLTpm%2C00.html

Pentagon seeks IT reservists for new tech centers

The Pentagon will soon start staffing five new technology centers with IT specialists willing to spend a weekend each month helping boost the U.S. military's cyber defense.

• Computer World
• http://computerworld.com/cwi/story/0%2C1199%2CNAV47_STO54917_NLTam%2C00.html

German Landmark Nazi Ruling

A complex court case involving an Australian Holocaust revisionist has resulted in the German Supreme Court ruling that any Web publisher, no matter what his or her country of origin, is liable for any pro-Nazi or Holocaust denial information on their pages.

• Computer User
• http://www.computeruser.com/newsletter/4344.html

Cyber crime Pact Steps On Privacy, Groups Say
Civil-liberties groups blasted a proposed treaty designed to build an international framework for fighting computer crime, saying it favored law enforcement at the expense of individual privacy.

• TechWeb
• http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/reuters/REU20001213S0008

U.S. Official Warns of Cyber Catastrophe
National Security Council top cyber-official Richard Clarke said that the next president of the US has to make Internet security a top priority if the country is to avoid potentially catastrophic events.

• eCommerce Times
• http://www.ecommercetimes.com/perl/story/5964.html

Malaysia Takes Action On Anti-Islam Internet Surfers
Insulting Islam on the Internet in Malaysia could prove costly from now on, as the government has warned that offenders face fines of up to $1,300 and/or three years in prison.

• Computer User
• http://www.computeruser.com/newsletter/4343.html

FCC Vote Looms on Lifting Wireless Ownership Cap
The Federal Communications Commission is expected to vote any day on a proceeding that could lift a cap that limits the amount of airwaves any one wireless provider is allowed to own in a given market.

• CNET
• http://one.digital.cnet.com/cgi-bin1/flo?y=eBRe0B1VeJ0t0d4jD

Disclosure Revisited
Over the past six months, Marcus Ranum, a well-respected player in the security field and CTO of Network Flight Recorder Inc., has become a focal point in one of the most heated debates in the security community.

• ZDNET
• http://cgi.zdnet.com/slink?72177:4932118

Yahoo! Rejects French Authority in Nazi Dispute
Yahoo! Inc. filed documents in U.S. federal court declaring that the French government has no right to make the company bar French residents from seeing auctions of Nazi paraphernalia over its U.S.-based Web site...

• eCommerce Times
• http://www.ecommercetimes.com/perl/story/6262.html

FBI Looking Into Questionable Credit Card Charges
Mysterious charges to the credit card accounts of dozens of online shoppers may be linked to the online theft of more than 55,000 credit card numbers

• CNET
• http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1007-200-4238134.html?tag=st.ne.1430735..ni

Feds Publish Web Access Rules
The government has issued standards for making the Web and other information technologies accessible to the disabled.

• Computer World
• http://computerworld.com/cwi/story/0%2C1199%2CNAV47_STO55513_NLTw%2C00.html

Netscape Arrives in India
U.S.-based Netscape Communications, best known for its Netscape Navigator Web browser, announced the launch of its India operations with an initial investment of $10 million.

• Internet News
• http://www.internetnews.com/intl-news/article/0,,6_543301,00.html

Time Wireless First in the Race for GPRS
Time Wireless Sdn Bhd, a unit of Time dotCom Bhd became the first local operator in Malaysia to offer commercial GPRS service this week.

• Internet News
• http://www.internetnews.com/intl-news/article/0,,6_543311,00.html

Bush Eyes Overhaul Of E-security
The next president is likely to change the policy detailing how the federal government and the private sector should organize to defend the nation's critical infrastructure against cyberattacks, according to Clinton administration officials and other sources.

• Computer World
• http://computerworld.com/cwi/story/0%2C1199%2CNAV65-663_STO55335_NLTs%2C00.html

Germany Moves To Squelch Racism on Napster
Germany's Verfassungsschutz, the agency responsible for enforcing the country's strict anti-racism laws, has urged German media giant Bertelsmann A.G. to use its influence with ally Napster to prevent neo-Nazi and other hate-filled MP3s from being traded over its network...

• News Factor
• http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/6229.html

EasyJet Gets Tough On Domain-Name Rivals
British airline easyJet is making life difficult for Web businesses with similar monikers.

• TechWeb
• http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB20001219S0003

Prepaid Patent Portends Wireless Battle
A new wireless technology patent could set the stage for a battle over low-income subscribers, teenagers and other prepaid cellular customers.

• CNET
• http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1004-200-4216503.html?tag=pt.abc.tech..ne_4216503

Microsoft invests $50M in ASP to push .Net
Looking to plant the first seeds of its .Net initiative in the ASP (application service provider) market, Microsoft Corp. announced a strategic alliance with US Internetworking Inc. and disclosed plans to invest $50 million in the hosting services company.

• IT World
• http://www2.itworld.com/cma/ett_article_frame/0,,1_3429.html

Intel acquires India consulting group
Intel added some extra consulting muscle to its operations in India

• CNET
• http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200-4235577.html?tag=st.ne.1430735..ni

U.S. Court Rules Port Scans Are Legal
A United States Federal Court has ruled that port scanning computer networks does not damage or threaten systems, and is therefore legal.

• Fairfax IT
• http://www.it.fairfax.com.au/breaking/20001220/A8712-2000Dec20.html

World Bank Alliance Goes Live
A group of four major banks based in Europe and the U.S. said they've gone live with a system that will guarantee identity of the players making large electronic payments on business-to-business exchanges.

• Computer World

http://computerworld.com/cwi/story/0%2C1199%2CNAV65-665_STO55230_NLTbb%2C00.html

... 

PARTNERS & DEALS NEWS

• MP3.com tunes Tower Records customers into its service
• Dell sets up SAN testing lab with storage vendor
• RCG and Gazelle Team for Data Warehousing
• Carnegie Mellon, NASA, IT Companies To Form Software Research Consortium
• Cisco to Buy ExiO Communications
• AT&T, Wireless/DOCOMO Deal Bodes Well For U.S. Consumers
• PwC and Better Business Bureaus Forge CRM Pact
• AOL-Time Warner Merger May Set Rules
• Macromedia To Fold Atom Films Into Shockwave.com
• Qantas outsources IT to Amadeus
• Ciena to buy Cyras for $2.6 billion in stock
• Nortel Signs Deals For High-Speed Wireless Modems
• UPS, eBay team to create online shipping center
• M2M Hosts Hardware Exchange
• RIM to license Qualcomm's digital wireless technology
• TeleTech Nails Newgen Acquisition
• IBM announces partnerships for fulfillment
• IBM, Seismic Data Provider Building Petabyte-plus SAN
• About Gets Human Voice with Keen.com's Technology

   

MP3.com tunes Tower Records customers into its service
Customers who order a CD through TowerRecords.com will be able to immediately listen to their purchases online using a password account via the My.MP3.com service.

• CNET
• http://two.digital.cnet.com/cgi-bin2/flo?y=eBLr0BC75T0U0ZeEy

Dell sets up SAN testing lab with storage vendor
Dell Computer said it's teaming up with storage systems vendor Imation to set up a performance and interoperability testing lab for use by Dell customers who are installing storage-area networks.

• Computer World
• http://computerworld.com/cwi/story/0%2C1199%2CNAV47_STO54973_NLTpm%2C00.html

RCG and Gazelle Team for Data Warehousing
With the goal of helping businesses transform data into value-based knowledge, RCG Information Technology and Gazelle Consulting have teamed up to offer expanded applications for data warehousing.

• CRM Daily
• http://www.crmdaily.com/perl/story/5950.html

Carnegie Mellon, NASA, IT Companies To Form Software Research Consortium
Carnegie Mellon University, NASA and 12 IT companies plan to announce Monday the formation of a computing consortium to promote and conduct research into the development of highly dependable software systems.

• Computer World
• http://computerworld.com/cwi/story/0%2C1199%2CNAV47_STO54831_NLTw%2C00.html

Cisco to Buy ExiO Communications
Cisco Systems Inc. said it would buy ExiO Communications for $155 million in stock, expanding the Internet equipment leader's position in the wireless technology market.

• Yahoo!
• http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20001214/tc/cisco_exio_dc_1.html

AT&T, Wireless/DOCOMO Deal Bodes Well For U.S. Consumers
Behind all the financial hoopla surrounding this telecom announcement, there's good news for everyday mobile phone users.

• Business 2.0
• http://www.business2.com/content/channels/ebusiness/2000/12/07/23455

PwC and Better Business Bureaus Forge CRM Pact
Professional services firm Price waterhouse Coopers and the Council of Better Business Bureaus announced that they have formed a partnership to help businesses improve relationships with their online customers.

• CRM Daily
• http://www.crmdaily.com/perl/story/5969.html

AOL-Time Warner Merger May Set Rules
For years, the government has taken a hands-off approach to emerging technologies that promise a new world of Internet services for consumers.

• CompuServe
• http://newsroom.compuserve.com/gatewaynews/story.asp?BTM=internet&idq=/apo/Tech/Tech_174.ASP&CoView=PORTAL&PV=TEC

Macromedia To Fold Atom Films Into Shockwave.com
Macromedia Inc. has said it would acquire online video distribution outfit Atom Films through its Shockwave.com operation and bundle the two together to create a new entertainment company.

• Computer User
• http://www.computeruser.com/newsletter/4353.html

Qantas outsources IT to Amadeus
Amadeus Global Travel has signed a 10-year deal to operate the reservations, inventory and departure control systems for Qantas Airways.

• Computer World
• http://computerworld.com/cwi/story/0%2C1199%2CNAV47_STO55531_NLTam%2C00.html

Ciena to buy Cyras for $2.6 billion in stock
Telecom equipment maker Ciena said it was buying Cyras Systems, extending Ciena's optical networking portfolio capabilities.

• ZDNET
• http://cgi.zdnet.com/slink?72053:4932118

Nortel Signs Deals For High-Speed Wireless Modems
The company signs separate deals with Sierra Wireless and Xircom to develop high-speed modems for future third-generation wireless networks.

• CNET
• http://one.digital.cnet.com/cgi-bin1/flo?y=eBRe0B1VeJ0t0d4lF

UPS, eBay team to create online shipping center
UPS and eBay have signed an agreement to integrate UPS's online shipping services into eBay's Internet marketplace.

• Computer World
• http://computerworld.com/cwi/story/0%2C1199%2CNAV47_STO55518_NLTpm%2C00.html

M2M Hosts Hardware Exchange
M2M Corporation and e-commerce market provider Omnemart have joined forces to create an online market for large suppliers within the hardware industry.

• Internet News
• http://www.internetnews.com/intl-news/article/0,,6_543291,00.html

RIM to license Qualcomm's digital wireless technology
Research In Motion, which makes BlackBerry two-way email pagers, said Wednesday it will license Qualcomm's digital wireless technology to make it easier for its customers to access the Web on the go.

• CNET
• http://two.digital.cnet.com/cgi-bin2/flo?y=eBOK0BC75T0U0Zo8L

TeleTech Nails Newgen Acquisition
eCRM provider TeleTech Holdings, Inc. has completed its acquisition of Newgen Results Corporation, which specializes in business-to-business management services.

• CRM Daily
• http://www.crmdaily.com/perl/story/6236.html

IBM announces partnerships for fulfillment
The four partnerships cover all IBM server lines, the company's WebSphere application server, and more.

• eWeek
• http://www.eweek.com/a/pcwt0012205/2666609/

IBM, Seismic Data Provider Building Petabyte-plus SAN
IBM and Seitel, which sells seismic data to oil companies for use in exploration activities, are developing a storage-area network that's supposed to make more than a petabyte of the information available via the Web.

• Computer World
• http://computerworld.com/cwi/story/0%2C1199%2CNAV47_STO55430_NLTes%2C00.html

About Gets Human Voice with Keen.com's Technology
The live answer site will now be able to take an even more personal approach with users.

• Internet News
• http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article/0,,3_541491,00.html
•  

--- 

MOVERS & SHAKERS NEWS

• BlueLight.com rescues failing ISP Spinway
• IBM Pulls Off Linux Coup with Telia
• Iridium Signs $72 Million Contract With Defense Department
• Talk of Nokia bid for Lucent Rubbished
• Troubled Lucent Loses Another Exec
• N.Y. Times Wins Rights to Web Name
• The Net's Free Ride Is Ending
• Napster Hires Orrin Hatch Advisor As D.C. Operative
• British Telecom Taking Prodigy To Court Over Hyperlinks
• Japan May Break Up NTT
• Microsoft Joins Others in Warnings Season
• Gateway Sued Over "Misleading" Financial Results
• Tech Investors Feel the Pain
• Egghead Hacked and Cracked
• Pega Systems Settles Class-Action Lawsuits
• An Extreme Year for New Stocks
• Belgian court to investigate alleged fraud at L&H
• VeriSign Error Releases Customer E-Mail Addresses
• Hospital Hack Points to Need for Standards
• Ballmer: Let's Cut Costs, Raise Salaries
• EMC Challenges Rival With Midrange NAS Device
• Ailing Dotcoms Try Peddling Data
• Vodafone in Bidding for Australian Mobile Operator

BlueLight.com rescues failing ISP Spinway
BlueLight's acquisition of troubled Internet service provider Spinway as it was about to go out of business signals a bumpy road ahead for the free Internet provider market.

• Computer World
• http://computerworld.com/cwi/story/0%2C1199%2CNAV47_STO54949_NLTam%2C00.html

IBM Pulls Off Linux Coup with Telia
Scandinavia's largest telecom and ISP replaces 70 Sun servers with a single S/390 G6 running Linux

• ZDNET
• http://cgi.zdnet.com/slink?69642:4932118

Iridium Signs $72 Million Contract With Defense Department
The Defense Department has reached a $72 million, two-year deal with the Iridium Satellite LLC to provide secure wireless communications for approximately 20,000 government workers.

• Computer World
• http://computerworld.com/cwi/story/0%2C1199%2CNAV47_STO54871_NLTw%2C00.html

Talk of Nokia bid for Lucent Rubbished
European telecoms equipment analysts are dismissing speculation in the U.S. of a possible takeover bid by Nokia, the world's biggest mobile phone maker, for the U.S. telecoms equipment group Lucent Technologies, but some suggest France's Alcatel could be interested

• Financial Times
• http://www.ftmarketwatch.com/news/story.asp?guid={E1DD7A6A-4805-4A52-992E-520D7D6CC306}&source=moreover1

Troubled Lucent Loses Another Exec
John Hughes, a senior executive of the wireless networks unit of Lucent Technologies Inc, is leaving "to pursue new career opportunities" a Lucent spokesperson has confirmed.

• Computer User
• http://www.computeruser.com/newsletter/4323.html

N.Y. Times Wins Rights to Web Name
The publisher of the New York Times has been awarded the right to the internet domain name www.newyorktimes.com by a United Nations arbitrator.

• Yahoo!
• http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20001214/tc/un_cybersquatting_1.html

The Net's Free Ride Is Ending
A slew of companies that bet that free Internet access was the wave of the future are disappearing faster than users can push their delete buttons.

• USA Today
• http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/cti885.htm

Napster Hires Orrin Hatch Advisor As D.C. Operative
Litigation-mired Napster Inc. said that it has hired the chief counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee as an advisor on legal issues and as a point man for legislative maneuvering in Washington.

• Computer User
• http://www.computeruser.com/newsletter/4311.html

British Telecom Taking Prodigy To Court Over Hyperlinks
Six months after the story first broke, British Telecom has finally started legal action for the recovery of licence fees it says are due under a patent relating to hyperlink technology.

• Computer User
• http://www.computeruser.com/newsletter/4357.html

Japan May Break Up NTT
A government advisory panel said that telecom giant NTT may need to be broken up if it fails to promote greater competition within the Japanese market by late 2003.

• TechWeb
• http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/reuters/REU20001214S0006

Microsoft Joins Others in Warnings Season
Microsoft became the latest victim of the PC industry slowdown, as the company issued a revenue and earnings warning for its second fiscal quarter.

• IDG.net
• http://www.idg.net/crd_microsoft_316020_102.html

Gateway Sued Over "Misleading" Financial Results
A class action lawsuit has been filed against computer maker Gateway Inc., alleging that the company issued a "false and misleading" third quarter financial report that led thousands of investors to buy stock at inflated prices.

• Computer User
• http://www.computeruser.com/newsletter/4336.html

Tech Investors Feel the Pain
Tech stocks are getting clobbered after several prominent Wall Street analysts lower their ratings on Cisco, IBM and other big-name firms.

• Wired
• http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,40771,00.html?tw=wn20001221

Egghead Hacked and Cracked
Computer products e-tailer Egghead.com said that a hacker has breached its computer systems and may have gained access to its customer database...

• eCommerce Times
• http://www.ecommercetimes.com/perl/story/6286.html

Pegasystems Settles Class-Action Lawsuits
Pegasystems announced this week that it has settled two class-action lawsuits stemming from its restatement of revenues in 1997 and 1998.

• CRM Daily
• http://www.crmdaily.com/perl/story/6280.html

An Extreme Year for New Stocks
The Year 2000 was a time of crazy contrasts for companies that tried their luck on the public market. Companies raised more money than ever before in initial stock offerings.

• Wired
• http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,40810,00.html?tw=wn20001223

Belgian court to investigate alleged fraud at L&H
In a further blow to Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products, a court in Belgium ordered an investigation into alleged fraudulent business practices at the embattled software vendor.

• Computer World
• http://computerworld.com/cwi/story/0%2C1199%2CNAV47_STO55533_NLTam%2C00.html

VeriSign Error Releases Customer E-Mail Addresses
In what it called an "administrative error," one of the Internet's best-known security and identity companies, VeriSign, released a list of e-mail addresses of more than 5,000 customers.

• Computer World
• http://computerworld.com/cwi/story/0%2C1199%2CNAV65-663_STO55354_NLTs%2C00.html

Hospital Hack Points to Need for Standards
The recent hacking of 5,000 administrative patient files from one of the country's top hospitals underscores the lack of firm, clear, universal standards to ensure the security of online medical records.

• CNN
• http://cnn.com/2000/TECH/computing/12/20/health.care.security.idg/index.html

Ballmer: Let's Cut Costs, Raise Salaries
A company-wide memo from Steve Ballmer asks Microsoft employees to cut costs while raising salaries, according to the Wall Street Journal.

• ENT Mag
• http://entmag.com/breaknews.asp?ID=3859

EMC Challenges Rival With Midrange NAS Device
EMC has introduced a new midrange network-attached storage product to challenge those produced by Network Appliance.

• Computer World
• http://computerworld.com/cwi/story/0%2C1199%2CNAV47_STO55264_NLTes%2C00.html

Ailing Dotcoms Try Peddling Data
Teetering on the brink of destitution, many Internet startups are turning to their last saving grace: consumer data.

• InformationWeek
• http://www.internetweek.com/story/INW20001219S0004

Vodafone in Bidding for Australian Mobile Operator
Having spent US $2.19 billion on Japan Telecom and US $4 billion on Eircell already this week, U.K. mobile operator Vodafone Group has reportedly bid over US $10 billion for Australian mobile operator C&W Optus.

• Internet News
• http://www.internetnews.com/intl-news/article/0,,6_543271,00.html

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