The European e-Business Report 2004 - Berlecon Research GmbH

The European E-Business Report 2004University students in e-commerce presenting eSolutions to business andgovernment organizationsE-commerce related knowledge and experience are exceptionally important to new generations ofuniversity students, which is why it is useful to gather knowledge collected through the degree coursesat one university and share it with students at other universities. It is also useful to present theinnovative ideas of using e-technologies to organizations that have already implemented e-commercesolutions, or are looking for them. For students it is important to present themselves to business orgovernment organizations, their potential employers. Business and government organizations arehunting for talented students and students are looking for promising job opportunities. From thatperspective two established practices are worth a brief look: the Merkur Day and the Students Bazaar.In the spring of 1999, the Faculty of Organizational Sciences, University of Maribor and organizationsin Slovenia’s e-commerce project have initiated an annual students’ event Merkur Day –Undergraduate and Graduate Students in eCommerce Conference (http://eCom.FOV.Uni-Mb.si/MerkurDay2004). The one-day annual conference in October is hosted by Merkur, Trade andServices (http://www.Merkur.si/ang/menu.html). The conference objectives are: experience exchange,provision of a discussion forum on integrated projects (business chains, business-to-business,business-to-consumer, and business-to-government relationships), stimulating the undergraduate andgraduate students in e-commerce research co-operation, stimulating collaboration between studentsand organizations, providing for universities, business, and government co-operation.The ePrototype Bazaar is the undergraduate and graduate students’ e-commerce prototypepresentation of the annual Bled eConference (www.BledConference.org/StudentsBazaar). It isintended for students at honours, masters or doctoral level. A student, recommended by her/hisprofessor, can present an e-commerce prototype, completed as a part of a diploma, and discuss ideaswith other students and conference participants. Preference is given to prototypes proposinginnovative or revolutionary e-commerce solutions and new ways to implement e-commerce, as well asnew ideas for business in Cyberspace.University cooperation with business and government in cross-border e-commercedevelopment in the regionIn Central Europe, a group of business, government, and academic organizations has beenconsidering research and development opportunities in cross-border e-commerce in the region since2001. It is an issue of doing existing business more efficiently by saving time and costs; it is also aboutcreating additional business by exploiting opportunities offered by e-technologies applied in crossborderbusiness and government processes. Over the years, a group of universities has formedeBusiness ALADIN - ALpe ADria INitiative involving the following universities: Graz in Austria, Rijekain Croatia, Budapest in Hungary, Trieste in Italy, Novi Sad in Serbia & Montenegro, and Maribor inSlovenia. In 2004, a term “eRegion” was specifically proposed in order to focus attention on workingtogether towards extensive e-technology usage in business and government organizations in theRegion.The universities indicated co-operate in an Executive Business, Government, and University Meetingon Cross-border eCommerce in eRegions. There have been two annual meetings since 2001.The meeting in October 2004 will focus on eInvoicing issues in the region. However, the topic isconsidered an important challenge to EU as a whole. It is very much related to a Single EuropeanElectronic Market development as a part of the 2005 Action Plan of the European Commission. Sincethe eInvoicing is extremely critical to e-commerce of SMEs, it was suggested by eBSN – EuropeaneBusiness Support Network – that SMEs accelerate its development in all 25 EU Member States. Inthat regard, first steps have been made within Finland and Slovenia for co-operation in a cross-bordereInvoicing effort. The two countries have a comparable level of ePayment systems and are ready foran international experiment.225