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PA e-Comm News November 1

ADVERTISERS OF THE WEEK

Large companies like Amazon and Dell have been vocal in announcing their online presence and have built loyal customer bases but there is still abundant opportunity for less-established e-commerce sites to trumpet their existence to the world without spending millions of dollars on large-scale ad campaigns. Companies that already have brands can include their URLs on shopping bags, business cards, coupons and existing advertisements in print and on radio and television. As a prime example of this tactic, the Yankee Group pointed to Lands' End's aggressive promotion of its online "build to order" clothing feature in its August 2002 print catalog. And Web traffic tracker Media Metrix reported that fast food chain Chik Fil A has successfully used creative billboard ads to lure Web surfers to its site. Because mortgage rates have dropped so much, there has been significantly higher traffic to real estate sites. Despite the success of the Amazons, Dells and eBays of the cyber world, small and mid-size companies are one of the fastest-growing groups to exploit the Web. They find that they can successfully tout their Web presence by teaming with other complementary sites to offset the cost of an ad campaign or to use links to push each other's wares. Example: a site focused on auto repair can link out to books on auto repair on Amazon. 

The bulletin board concept, one of the first Internet applications and still one of the most popular, today boasts of millions of participants. Leading bulletin board software vendors, such as Infopop and Jelsoft, have added sophisticated notification features to their software, allowing users to choose how and when they want to be notified of responses to their postings. Notifications currently are sent by e-mail, but in the near future, users also will be able to select instant messaging or short message service formats. These new boards also look slicker than the old ones, with customized styles and colors to ensure consistency with the boards' parent Web sites. Users can edit posts in Microsoft Word-style editors and use icons to identify themselves online. The boards usually offer an option for viewing posts either in chronological order or by topic thread. Variety is also an important part of enterprise-level message board life. For example, Infopop offers four different bulletin board products, including basic and premium-level downloadable software that runs on board owners' servers, and basic and premium hosted products. Vendors said their bulletin boards are used for a wide variety of purposes, including self-organizing online communities, commercially sponsored online communities, technical support forums and company intranets. Researchers report that five years ago about 70% of were hobbyists; today, about 70% are commercial.

Amazon.com has reported that sales grew 33% year-over-year in the third quarter, mostly the result of its free shipping and dramatic expansion in overseas sales. That result exceeded the company’s own estimates. Amazon announced it will extend its Super Saver Shipping deal, which currently waives shipping charges on all orders over $25, at least through the end of this year. Amazon's results are another boost for e-commerce in general heading into the key holiday season, which several forecasters have predicted will be a period of strong growth for the sector.

IT spending may be having a less than stellar year, but some companies are increasing their budget allocations for security improvements. META Group predicts that security investments will increase, with 55% of companies spending 5% or more of their IT budget on security by the end of 2003. After 9/11, IT security focused primarily on backup and recovery rather than implementing firewalls or authentication applications; now, because of cyber terrorism threats, CIOs are investing in more protective security software like intrusion detection applications. A mid year interview project of IT executives from the U.S. and six European countries found that security has a higher priority in Europe with 38% compared to 23% of U.S. executives rating it as a top-three priority. While spending on security is seen as a priority at more than 20% of U.S. firms, it comes sixth behind CRM at 39%, e-commerce at 35% and ERP at 29%. 

E-COMMERCE RELATED EVENTS AND INFORMATION

The following are links to upcoming seminars and other events that our readers might have an interest in and/or other information related to e-commerce.

Entries for the Seventh Annual Webby Awards Are Now Being Accepted.

Want to be among the best? Check out winners from the 6th Annual Webby Awards and enter your site for the 7th Annual Awards now. Enter your site's name, url and select the category(ies) in which you would like the site to be considered below. The Webby Awards recognizes Web sites in 30 categories as listed in the pull-down menus below; if you are unsure which to select, consult the complete category definitions. For more details on the online entry process, read the instructions or faq. A Web site may be entered into multiple categories. Sites entered into multiple categories will be reviewed separately for each indicated category, and will require an additional entry fee. For a complete outline of entry fees, read the rules + guidelines. 

Software police give businesses a chance to get legal

The Business Software Alliance will launch its software grace period in Pittsburgh and several other cities on Nov. 1. The month long window gives businesses a chance to obtain licenses for their software without facing penalties. Companies that choose to take part and that obtain licenses for unlicensed software by Nov. 30 will be excused from penalties for violations that occurred before that date, the Business Software Alliance said. It added that fines for unlicensed software, which equates to copyright infringement, can reach $150,000 per violation. The Business Software Alliance said that over the past 11 years, it has collected more than $78 million in penalties from companies that were using unlicensed software. The group's membership is comprised of software and technology companies that include Microsoft, Adobe Systems, Apple Computer and Network Associates. Citing a study conducted in 2001, the group said software piracy cost Pennsylvania more than $209 million in lost wages and $51 million in lost taxes. The survey was conducted for the Business Software Alliance by International Planning and Research Corp. Steven Zylstra, president and chief executive of the Pittsburgh Technology Council and Catalyst Connection, a manufacturing group, said software piracy can have a "serious negative effect on the economy." 

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:

NASA - Goddard Space Flight Center
Office of Procurement
A--SINGLE BOARD COMPUTER
UMP BENCHMARK SOFTWARE 01, Modification 01, UMP Benchmark Software 01
http://www.eps.gov/spg/NASA/GSFC/OPDC20220/NASA-SNOTE-021004-001/listing.html

NASA - Langley Research Center
Office of Procurement
D--SOFTWARE MAINTENANCE SUPPORT
Synopsis
http://www.eps.gov/spg/NASA/LaRC/OPDC20220/1-208-RFI.1137/listing.html

DOI - U. S. Geological Survey
U. S. Geological Survey
70--WORK PLANNING SOFTWARE
Synopsis
http://www.eps.gov/spg/DOI/USGS/USGS/02CR32-NoSolicitation/listing.html

HHS - National Institutes of Health
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
99 -- Information Technology
Synopsis
http://www.eps.gov/spg/HHS/NIH/NHLBI/Reference-Number-A-76_SL_2002_Study/listing.html

DOJ - Drug Enforcement Administration
Office of Acquisition Management
D -- Software Maintenance
Synopsis
http://www.eps.gov/spg/DOJ/DEA/OAM/03-SI-0003/listing.html

DISA - Acquisition Directorate
DITCO-Scott
D--INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SERVICES, INCLUDING COMMUNICATIONS SERVICES
Synopsis
http://www.eps.gov/spg/DISA/D4AD/DITCO/VARIOUS-28-Oct-2002/listing.html

USN - Office of Naval Research
Naval Research Laboratory/Supply
70 -- Software and PC Boards
Synopsis
http://www.eps.gov/spg/USN/ONR/3400/N00173-03-Q-0006/listing.html

DOJ - Bureau of Prisons
FCC Butner (LSCI)
D -- LABORATORY INFORMATION SYSTEM SOFTWARE SUPPORT
Synopsis
http://www.eps.gov/spg/DOJ/BPR/10502/BUH0085-3/listing.html

State - Office of Logistics Management
Acquisition Management
70 -- Fund Raising Software
Amendment 02, Synopsis, Amendment 01, Solicitation 01, Amendment 03, Modification 01
http://www.eps.gov/spg/State/A-LM-AQM/A-LM-AQM/S-LMQAM-02-R-0014/listing.html

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.

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