E-commerce is supposed to be changing our lives, making it beautiful, turning paper-based chores into electronically processed opportunities unseen in the history of commerce.

In short, e-commerce is supposed to be changing the way people do business.

But for all its expectations, it's going to take a lot more than dot-com fever to change the way international trade is conducted.


"As business people, we have to be intellectually honest about what it is going to take to accomplish this," Tradecard Inc. Chairman and CEO Kurt Cavano (left) told members at the Chamber's June 29 roundtable luncheon.

We've all heard about Internet time or e-speed, where companies are created in a matter of months. But when it comes to business-to-business e-commerce, when you are talking about a large corporation doing business with another company, this is not something that takes a couple of days. It takes a lot of time and effort.

But the Internet has undoubtedly expanded the way goods are sourced. Online business-to-business (B-to-B) communities allow visitors to source products globally, and some provide a platform for negotiating and even ordering. When it comes to fulfilment, compliance and settlement, however, companies still insist on turning to the paper world, he said.

"If you are going to get the business-to-business value of electronically linking buyers and sellers we need to provide electronic linkages all along the chain," he said. "If you have to switch to paper halfway through, you are going to lose the added value."

And as the whole B-to-B model is about creating added value for both sides of the transaction, the e-commerce vision becomes defunct if the business value of information processing and transaction is eroded by paperwork.

"To get B-to-B going, the whole process needs to be electronically processed. By moving things from a paper-based world to an electronic world there are fantastic advantages to be gained for both buyers and sellers. But there're also fantastic challenges," Mr Cavano said.