Information key to success in online world

The successful ecommerce strategy of the future will not be based around buying and selling goods online.

According to industry experts at the IDC Ecommerce Forum in Paris, the internet and its associated technologies will soon penetrate business at every level, which will mean that companies must focus on exploiting portals and gathering useful information.

Dr Martin Illsley, director at Andersen Consulting, predicted that within five years all aspects of a business will be web-enabled, opening up revenue streams beyond the traditional buy and sell ecommerce model.

Intelligent portals that can predict buying or selling habits as well as monitor transactions will add value to companies' ecommerce strategies, according to Illsley.

He said: "Companies need to get beyond the product value. For ecommerce, the real value is in spotting new opportunities and being able to react to the situation. Everything will be open as we see more embedded chips for monitoring and begin to see customers as objects that we have to learn about."

Stuart Wells, senior vice president of product development at iPlanet, echoed this prediction.

"The portal is the key aggregator of information so that the user can buy or sell more effectively. Recommendations can be made based on previous buying references so that when the user gets online the portal can learn about that individual.

"Ecommerce has to open your mind because business applications are not just transactions but a new generation of experiences," he added.

But Jitsu Desari, director for IBM's business innovation services, claimed that mobile computing will cause a complete disintegration of traditional industries.

"The first stage of the internet was getting business processes online, then we saw companies expanding their business by taking their products onto the web and giving partners web access to their networks.

"But the next stage will shatter the current way of thinking and redefine industries beyond their traditional boundaries. The internet will be more accessible so that anytime, anywhere becomes more than just a slogan."