ECommerce Challenges

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E-Commerce Challenges

• Peter Keen
• Bled, June 2003

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Challenges

• Note Challenges are not problems but
  opportunities that are difficult and if not may
  become problems
• Challenges reflect a goal and mission
• The initial e-commerce mission has been achieved
  there are still plenty of problems security,
  building trust relationships, credit mechanisms
  (an understudied issue), designing mobile
  services people will pay for, etc..
• BUT we have gone way beyond E-commerce, are
  pretty much done with E-Commerce, are in
  e-Commerce and in many instances Commerce

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Where we are TODAY

• Welcome to the variable cost economy
• Goodbye to the value chain we are in the
  business of scale-free value networks
• Business is now on demand global co-sourcing of
  skills, outsourcing of basic processes,
  intellectual property as licensing not
  protection, open sourcing as the basic
  substructure of business, branded technology
  mega-utilities, modular services instead of
  systems development, drop-shipment as business
  model, etc..
• The key challenge your role in the Creative
  Economy

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Some realities

• The U.S. and Europe face exactly the same
  phenomenon in global outsourcing of low-end
  processes and of high end knowledge work as in
  the outsourcing of manufacturing except faster,
  bigger and with even more radical consequences
  the work is where the (best) people are, not the
  other way around
• Any region or country can now be eBig without
  heavy capital investment
• The e-commerce technology base is a substructure,
  not infrastructure
• Traditional IS is dead

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The Challenges

• eBig is the single key challenge everywhere the
  new Europe recreates Europe and has a unique
  historical opportunity
• IS must learn about design and collaboration
  (good luck!!!!)
• Educators must ensure they position students to
  be part of the creative not commodity skill
  market Todays premium skills and managerial
  practices are often tomorrows Save As and
  XML/SOAP messages
• The e-commerce business- organization- and
  people-centered community must take the lead in
  business process design and face off the new
  generation BP automators

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The challenge agenda

• For business on demand users of services
  sourcing of skills, contracting and coordination
  skills, the process-driven firm, defining roles
  and players in value networks
• For regions and countries bringing together the
  action-makers not just policy-makers in
  government, business leadership, community and
  educators (yes, it can be done think Ireland) to
  build a role in the on demand world
• For organizations solving the dilemmas of
  demographics and skill sourcing (and, alas, the
  painful disruptions of many labor markets