Delta eCommerce Connection

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Delta e-Commerce Connection

• Kenneth W. Rea, Vice President for Academic
  Affairs
• Gary A. Kennedy, Head, Agricultural Sciences
• Phil Hamilton, Assistant Professor of
  Agribusiness
• John Nwoha, Project Director

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Project

• USDA Fund for Rural America Rural Community
  Innovation Grant
• Title Diversifying the Economy of the Lower
  Mississippi Delta by Developing E-commerce
  Businesses
• Total Funding 539,680 over four years

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Project Goals

• Assist agricultural and rural small businesses in
  e-commerce development
• Sponsor seminars about how to get started with
  e-commerce for a business
• Provide assistance to individual businesses by
  developing web-sites and providing technical
  assistance for one year

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Project Goals

• The LA Tech Farm Salesrooms vertical
  integration, renovation, and newly-developed
  web-site was the spring-board for this project.
• The e-commerce portion of the Salesroom project
  will be used as an example to clientele in both
  seminar and individual business projects.

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Description

• The project will provide a university model of a
  vertically-integrated agricultural enterprise
  that markets value-added products directly to
  consumers via an e-commerce format.

FOR MORE INFO...
Address for the Delta e-Commerce Connection
project is www.deltaecom.latech.edu Address for
the Tech Farm Salesroom is www.techfarmsales.lat
ech.edu
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Description

• An educational collaboration between Louisiana
  Tech University, the Louisiana Small Business
  Development Center Network, and university sites
  in Arkansas and Mississippi will develop and
  provide multimedia e-commerce training materials
  to rural businesses through a series of
  educational seminars.

FOR MORE INFO...
Address for the Delta e-Commerce Connection
project is www.deltaecom.latech.edu Address for
the Tech Farm Salesroom is www.techfarmsales.lat
ech.edu
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Description

• Technical support for
• Web site development.
• Developing an Internet marketing strategy.
• Electronic retailing services.
• Space on secure server provided to selected
  participants for one year.

FOR MORE INFO...
Address for the Delta e-Commerce Connection
project is www.deltaecom.latech.edu Address for
the Tech Farm Salesroom is www.techfarmsales.lat
ech.edu
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Resources

• Resources allocated to this project
• Seminars
• First Year Louisiana Tech University and ULM.
• Second Year Four in northern one-half of
  Louisiana.
• Third Year Five throughout state of Louisiana.
• Fourth Year Six in the Lower Mississippi River
  Delta.

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Resources

• Resources allocated to this project
• e-Commerce Platforms
• Startup/transition process, including space on a
  secure server for one year is provided to at
  least
• 4 rural businesses around northern Louisiana
  in Year 1.
• Another 18 rural businesses will be added during
  Year 2 and Year 3.
• During Year 4, 15 sites in Arkansas and
  Mississippi, as well as Louisiana will be added.

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Advantage

• The advantage of the Delta e-Commerce Connection
  project over similar projects is
• Clientele are provided training with seminars AND
  have follow-up opportunities for actual
  e-commerce development for individual businesses.

TO SIGN-UP...
Applications for the follow-up service will be in
seminar registration packets. They will be
picked up at the end of the seminars.
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Schedule

• Expectations of implementation --

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Current Status

• OTM bid process for service provider
• Web-site development for Tech Farm Salesroom
• Web-site development for the
• Delta e-Commerce Connection project

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Current Status

• Coordination with Louisiana Small Business
  Development Center Network
• Identification of collaborators from Arkansas and
  Mississippi
• Development of educational modules for seminars
• Experimental design for assessment of project
  success

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First Seminar

• Tuesday, June 18, 2002
• Lomax Hall on Techs South Campus
• Announcement available on College of Applied and
  Natural Sciences display table