Investigating the eBusiness to Business Proposition

 eB2 Agenda

The Commonwealth Club, London

Sponsored by:

Organised and Supported by:

30 per cent of the UK's top 1,000 companies consider business-to-business applications the most important area of new system growth over the next year

According to Dr Simon Moores, there is a perceptual disconnection between customers and suppliers. "There are two different agendas out there. End users think the big opportunity is business-to-business e-commerce. But solution providers are ignoring the evidence and are pushing business-to-consumer applications." The survey, commissioned by Web Application Company, SilverStream, targeted senior employees with a responsibility for IT in The Times' top 1,000 companies

Introducing eB2 eB2 is the first DrMoores.Com event to focus exclusively on the eBusiness to Business proposition. Part one of this multi-faceted seminar, is being held at the London Commonwealth Club on 18th November and will involve case studies and presentations from a number of leading IT companies in support of the business to business proposition, its short and long term commercial value, risks and facilitation. Introduced by Sky Television's Business News Editor and presenter, Michael Wilson, eB2 aims, over time, to become THE regular forum for discussion, analysis and presentation of new ideas, projects and technologies surrounding this new and exciting marriage of commerce and technology, which will revolutionise relationships between companies and their customers over the next decade.

Michael Wilson Sky Business News anchor

Preamble to today's event by Dr Simon Moores If we are to speak of driving forces within the growing on-line economy, then an investigation of the many issues surrounding the delivery of an effective, reliable and secure, e-Business to Business infrastructure should lie towards the top of any agenda. A recent survey of Times '1000' companies, revealed that B2B applications represented a significant area of new systems growth, with some 15% of organisations, planning to web-enable mainframe environments over the next twelve months.

Dr Simon Moores

This first DrMoores.Com, eB2 event concerns itself with an overview of several fundamentals associated with the eBusiness proposition. Most importantly perhaps, we lead with the sensitive subject of security in an openly-connected business environment. The Internet is by no means 100% secure and business should be entirely cognisant of the threats and dangers associated with an IP address and any form of on-line trading or transaction processing. Moving beyond the security model leads us to a study of the so-called 'Back-end', the reliability of large 24/7 commercial environments in an increasingly and globally connected market place. We have invited Amdahl, a name associated with many of the world's largest commercial and public systems to examine the infrastructure required of any company that might sensibly plan to offer a broad scale Business to Business or Business to Consumer service over the Internet. Automating business processes and the 'Virtual Value Chain' is an area that we have asked, Informix, a market leader in database technologies to explore. No change of this magnitude can occur without consequences and impact of technology on the current Business to Business process requires some discussion. Technically speaking, the move from the traditional business model towards the e-Business paradigm requires a re-engineering of the business process. This involves matters surrounding e-Procurement and purchasing systems, as well currency management and automated workflow. Softech Consultancy, a company that has built a business automation process for Dell Computer, has been invited to present a view of the demands and processes involved, in translating a business into a powerful virtual presence. Finally, we have invited Intel to present the company's views on the Internet economy and what it sees as the essential processes involved in building a successful European eBusiness.

AGENDA

09:30-09:55	Registration & Coffee
09:55-10:00	Welcome by Michael Wilson, Anchor, Sky News
10:00-10:45	"Deep Impact"
	An Analysis of the Security Threat Associated with an e-commerce Environment Dr Simon Moores, Chairman, Research Group & mi2g Senior Consultant Simon Moores will examine the explosion in electronic commerce projects in the light of new figures that illustrate a disturbing rise in the number of organisations compromised and damaged by cyber-criminal activity. What steps should an organisation be taking to ensure the integrity and protection of its information and business intelligence? DK Matai, managing director and founder of mi2g software will assist during the Q&A session.
10:45-11:30	eBusiness - Ensuring customers continue to be your customers!
	Malcolm Fleming, Director, Amdahl Global Solutions------- European Governments are placing new emphasis on companies utilising the WEB to sell their products both in local and international markets, but as the companies move from using the Internet to provide online catalogues to true transaction based systems, the marketplace is seeing increasing problems. In the last 4 months, there have been frequent reports in the Financial Times, Washington Post and other publications of high flying e-business sites failing to meet the demands of their users, in some cases with severe impact to their stock price. Initial e-business success often driven by Marketing, can result in immense public problems and loss of customers to competition possibly for good, when the necessary infrastructure to support 7x24worldwide access and response is not in place. This session will look at the reasons and implications for business and some thoughts that will assist in reducing these potential e-business disasters.
11:30-11:45	Break
11:45-12:30	eMarketing and The Value Chain Principal
	Eric Blum, General Manager, Informix---------------------------------- Technology impact - how will changes in telecommunications and computing impact this area. eMarketing - how will business use this technology to build virtual value-chains to automate difficult marketing processes today. Security vs Identity - Establishing someone's true identity in the digital world. Taxation - The question of transactional liability.
12:30-13:15	Lunch

13:15-14:00	e-Procurement & e-Supply
	Paul Bailey, Director, Softech Consultancy Having built and deployed pan-European Automations for Dell Computer Corporation and Johnson Controls, Inc. Softech Consultancy speak from broad, real world practical experience. From basic language and currency issues through to supplier maintained e-catalogues, sophisticated authorisation cycles, supplier relationship management, receipting and invoicing, this session will explore the boundaries of what can be done to make the purchasing experience controlled, yet painless. Distributing the purchasing function with e-procurement and e-supply systems integrated with core business systems and automated workflow allows the traditional Purchasing dept to evolve from paper shuffling to a more strategic and sophisticated supplier management force. This is one realm of BPR that has immediate measurable ROI with a direct link to organisational profitability.
14:00-14:45	Destination: Internet Economy
	Gordon Graylish, Director EMEA, Intel Corporation 'Within five years all companies will be Internet companies, or they won't be companies'. So said the Intel Chairman Dr. Andy Grove in April 1999. That statement forms the core of Intel's seminar series "Destination: Internet Economy", which is currently being presented at events around Europe. The Internet is changing business forever. Companies that do not see the Internet as a threat, an opportunity, or both, will be left in the dust as early adopters capture the majority of the benefits. Intel provides the building blocks that enable the Internet Economy. Our presentation highlights the three essentials for succeeding as an e-Business and shows how the technology foundation already in place at your company can help you on your way. The seminar will be presented by Gordon Graylish, a Director of Intel EMEA, and includes "real world" case studies and testimonials.
14:45-15:00	Question and Answer Session