News/Press Releases		Features		Event Calendar

PA e-Comm News July 19

What other liquid can be used as a substitute for blood plasma? (Answer later)

FBI ALERT: In the past five months, a Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) has been affecting several large and small businesses in the Delaware Valley region. The DDOS is taking the form of SPAM email with a twist of email servers getting flooded with "undeliverable emails". The initial report of this particular attacking technology was in December 2001. If you or your business has seen this attacking DDOS, please contact Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Special Agent Matt Fine at mfine@fbi.gov or (215) 418-4313. Thank you.

Experts predict that e-commerce technology will become smarter and faster and will completely transform the way companies deal with internal information and customer service. New technology like interactive company portals that can communicate with other portals in real-time could drastically alter the sales process. Some of this is being referred to as “collaborative commerce," in which companies set up smart hubs that are used both by their own customers and interact with other companies' sites. This could revolutionize the B2B market, according to VerticalNet, by allowing companies to access real-time information about product availability and pricing in their dealings with other businesses. Also, they will be able to send invoices and pay bills. These portals are becoming reality through the development of high-speed broadband Internet access and markup languages, which allow Web pages from one source to be displayed by any other system. Can this benefit consumers? When companies have real-time access to information, they can better gauge deliveries and production and can keep supply more in line with demand, thus resulting in lower prices and better overall service. Experts believe that kiosks will go beyond serving as information touch points, allowing for actual purchases and financial transactions. A customer who sees a TV on Circuit City's Web site but does not live near a Circuit City store could visit a nearby kiosk to obtain a more detailed view of the TV's features and picture quality and could even purchase the TV directly from the kiosk for later delivery. The same technology will impact the ATM market by turning them into product-selling machines. BroadVision software has been installed in several kiosks in some 7-Eleven stores, allowing users to cash checks, purchase money orders and access other financial and e-commerce services. This real-time technology will also transform instant messaging from a chat enabler into a serious e-commerce asset. In the B2B world, these programs could notify companies automatically when supply contracts are slated to expire or provide updates about whether provisions of sales agreements are being met. The overall goal of e-commerce technology innovation seems to be to ensure that all participants in a market are on the same page, even in a constantly changing environment. 

Media Metrix reports that major local newspaper Web sites are growing faster than the rest of the Web. During the past six months, 7 of the 10 largest U.S. media markets saw double-digit increase in visitors to major regional papers' Web sites. During May, unique visitors to the New York Daily News's site grew 23%, while NYPost.com and Newsday.com each saw 12% growth. Unique visitors to Chicago's SunTimes.com increased a staggering 38%; Philadelphia, Boston and Dallas-Ft. Worth local newspapers did not experience the same growth trends. Why so much more attention to online newspapers? According to the report, it is the growing importance of online classifieds and interactive media playing a role in supplementing traditional TV and newspapers. But this growth is at the expense of print readership. 

PayPal has reported that it received a subpoena from the New York state attorney general's office related to its activities in the Internet gambling market. The company said that the attorney general's office asked for information about online gambling payments that occur through the company's network and that it would cooperate, The Wall Street Journal recently reported. This comes on the heels of the buyout offer from eBay, which indicated that it would cease the business PayPal does with Internet gambling companies when the online auctioneer completes its proposed acquisition, because of uncertainty surrounding regulation of that market. 

Computer security is becoming increasingly critical to President Bush's proposal for a homeland defense department, even though he never mentioned the Internet or so-called cybersecurity in his recent speech. Many politicians are worried about tech-savvy terrorists and insist that the Tom Ridge-run agency must shield the United States from electronic attacks. The proposal includes radical changes for the U.S. government's Internet defenses by centralizing nearly all computer protection functions, from the Commerce Department's Critical Infrastructure Assurance Office to the Computer Security Division of the National Institute of Standards and Technology to the Federal Computer Incident Response Center, and probably establish a central position to deal with privacy issues. 

Travel-related software companies are developing lightning-fast search engines to scour the Web and find airfares that are less expensive than the airline-backed Orbitz, whose critics want federal regulators to force the company to drop a clause from its contracts that ensures more than 40 airlines provide their best fares to the Chicago-based company. To counter this claim, Qixo searches reveal that United Airlines and American Airlines, which helped found Orbitz, post cheaper fares on their own sites. Sidestep claims that its bare-bones Web-based application actually produces lists of fares and flight combinations more efficiently than Orbitz, which generally takes 10 seconds or less to produce a list of several dozen airfares to any domestic destination. 

E-commerce employment opportunities still exist and analysts predict high times for certain business segments. So what are the best e-commerce jobs today? According to Aberdeen Group, e-marketing professionals and creative directors are bringing home between $25,000 and $150,000 per year. The hottest jobs involve integrating Internet technologies into brick-and-mortar store environments according to Forrester Research. Additionally, there has been more automation of order management and fulfillment and inventory processes and those segments of e-commerce soon will offer additional opportunities. 

PDAs derive most of their value from their size: large enough to handle the functions for which they are used, but small enough to tote in a pocket. The future of PDA development will revolve around the screen which experts predict will be little more than a screen and a thin border. The key to the success of the BlackBerry is that it does e-mail exceptionally well but promises little else; but e-mail only is exactly what enterprise users want and do not need an elaborate screen. On the other hand, other PDA users want the wireless Web browsing ability and may purchase based upon how big a screen the device has. Then there is the Handspring Treo, which includes more functionality, like a small keyboard, and is one of the smallest PDAs running the Palm operating system. 

President Bush challenged federal agencies to improve their technological information capabilities and to expand electronic government; but not all have accomplished this task. According to the Office of Management and Budget, of 26 agencies reviewed, the National Science Foundation has done the best job, making significant progress in fixing identified information security problems and developing a plan for all of the administration's initiatives. Agencies were instructed to focus IT spending on improving mission performance, reducing duplication, ensuring information security and cooperating across traditional agency lines. One big problem these agencies face is linking fragmented applications. The report also highlighted accomplishments like the relaunch of Firstgov and the debut of GovBenefits. 

According to a report from SilentRunner Inc., the top 10 enterprise security risks faced by network administrators are:

• Email attachments (users opening an attachment and unleashing a worm or virus onto the corporate network); 
• VPN tunnel vulnerabilities (a hacker who worms his way into the VPN has free and easy access to the network);
• Blended attacks (complicated worms and viruses that may execute itself or even attack more than one platform); 
• Diversionary tactics (hackers striking a set of servers in a target company and then, when security administrators are busy putting out that fire, slipping in and attacking another part of the network); 
• Downloads from web sites (users downloading games, movies and music and even porn and opening the network up to attack and sucking up valuable bandwidth); 
• Supply chain and partners added to the network (access granted to a partner company and not closing that access point when the job is over or employees who leave the company); 
• Microsoft's SOAP -- Simple Object Access Protocol (doesn't have security specifications built into it);
• Renaming documents (a user saves business-critical information
  in a different file, gives it a random, unrelated name and emails the information to a home computer, a friend or even a corporate competitor);
• Peer-to-peer applications (user having access to one server and 
  automatically accessing another can allow hackers to roam freely throughout the network);

Music and video browsers (they automatically connect the user with related web sites without the user's permission).

Online brokerages gained as much as any other business during the dot-com explosion. So how are they doing now? With the market tumbling and rising sporadically, the number of people who qualify as active traders has dropped, as has the number of trades conducted at the largest online brokerages. Analysts say the only thing saving this industry is that the established brokerages are offering multichannel options to customers, particularly wealthy investors. According to a recent Forrester Research report, 80% of affluent U.S. households ($1 million to invest) are online. Problems exist: E*Trade is defending itself against a number of lawsuits related to a series of outages dating back to 1999 and investors complain about the pace of trades made during the heaviest selling times.

Following Yahoo’s lead, uBid plans to introduce a listing fee, ranging from 5 to 75 cents, depending on the starting bid price for the item listed. uBid is initiating the fee to weed out some of the listings in the consumer area of its site. Yahoo originally expected its fee to cut the clutter from its auction site since sellers are listing items on Yahoo as an alternative to eBay because of the lack of fees. uBid will also revamp its closing fees: currently, sellers pay a flat 5% commission on the closing price of their auctions; but under the new structure the commission will range from 1.25% to 5% of the closing price.

Deloitte Consulting revealed that its search for a new name has successfully concluded with a real name taken straight from its own heritage – Braxton. This is drawn from a trademark that the firm has owned since 1984, when it acquired the international management-consulting firm, Braxton Associates. 

ANSWER: The liquid from the inside of young coconuts. 

TECHNOLOGY PROCUREMENT OPPORTUNITIES

The following is a listing of recently published technology procurement opportunities with various governmental entities. We hope our readers take the opportunity to investigate these postings and increase their business:

GSA - Federal Technology Service (FTS)
Information Technology Service (10TR)
70 -- Cisco components & accessories
Synopsis http://www.eps.gov/spg/GSA/FTS/10TR/5637-00-EPS/listing.html

NASA - Goddard Space Flight Center
Office of Procurement
D--SOFTWARE SUPPORT
Synopsis http://www.eps.gov/spg/NASA/GSFC/OPDC20220/5-79275-0000-946/listing.html

NASA - Langley Research Center
Office of Procurement
70--FLIGHT SIMULATION MODELING SOFTWARE (FLSIM)AND MAINTENANCE Synopsis http://www.eps.gov/spg/NASA/LaRC/OPDC20220/1-057-RDO.1004/listing.html

USAF - Air Education and Training Command
Columbus AFB, Contracting Squadron
T -- Visual Information Services
Amendment 01 http://www.eps.gov/spg/USAF/AETC/ColAFBCS/F22608-02-R-0016/listing.html

USAF - Air Force Materiel Command
AFFTC - AF Flight Test Center
D -- Windows 2000 MSCA Training
Synopsis http://www.eps.gov/spg/USAF/AFMC/AFFTC/F3XCAI21640200/listing.html

VA - VA Austin Automation Center
Department of Veterans Affairs Austin Automation Center
D -- Information Technology Support Services
Modification 02, Modification 01 http://www.eps.gov/spg/VA/VAAAC/VAAAC/797-02-08/listing.html

EPA - Office of Acquisition Management
RTP Procurement Operations Division, E105-02
70--UNIFY & VISION NUGENESIS SOFTWARE
Synopsis http://www.eps.gov/spg/EPA/OAM/CMD/RFQ-RT-02-00370/listing.html

DISA - Acquisition Directorate
DITCO-Scott
D--INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SERVICES, INCLUDING COMMUNICATIONS SERVICES Synopsis http://www.eps.gov/spg/DISA/D4AD/DITCO/VARIOUS-15-Jul-2002/listing.html

DISA - Acquisition Directorate
DITCO-Pacific
70 -- General purpose information technology equipment
Synopsis http://www.eps.gov/spg/DISA/D4AD/DTP/SYNOPSIS-07-15-2002/listing.html

DOE - All Departmental Locations
Office of Procurement and Assistance Management
70--Direct Connection for Virtual Network
Solicitation 01 http://www.eps.gov/spg/DOE/PAM/HQ/DE-RQ65-02WJ21496/listing.html

Source: www.eps.gov. For direct assistance, contact your local Procurement Technical Assistance Center at www.PaPTACs.com

NEWS & NOTES is a service of the PA e-Commerce Association. Please forward this e-mail to anyone else who might be interested in the content or in learning more about the Association. Remember to visit our website @ www.paecomm.org. or give us a call at 800-497-0809.

Newsletter Archives