ICT and e-Business Impact in the Furniture Industry - empirica

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ICT and e-business impact in the furniture industry5.2 IWOfurn, Integrated World of Furniture, GermanyAbstractIWOfurn is a B2B web portal for the European furniture industry. It permits registeredcompanies to present themselves through a detailed company profile, uploadbrochures, presentations and catalogues, contact users and manage mailing-lists withinthe community. The portal is a communication channel able to standardise companies’catalogues and support companies' information in all aspects of communication withtheir business partners. IWOfurn is not only a marketing and communication service butalso an e-commerce service provided by IWOfurn Service GmbH, with the final aim toconnect European furniture manufacturers and retailers. Future business prospectspoint to the implementation of functionalities including logistic and financial services aswell as the possibility to adopt radio frequency identification (RFID) technology forproduct traceability, logistics and transport.Case study fact sheetFull name of the company:Location (HQ / main branches):Main business activity:Year of foundation: 1.6.2007Number of employees: 15Turnover in last financial year:Primary customers:Most significant geographic market:Main e-business applications studied:IWOfurn Service GmbHWeil im Schönbuch, GermanyConsulting, marketing, collection of technicalrequirements from companies of the furnituresector, management of the IWOfurn B2B portalNot available yet. Former 1eEurope GmbHManufacturers and retailers in the furniture sectorEuropee-Marketing, e-Sales, e-Communication withCustomers5.2.1 Background and objectivesBackgroundIWOfurn is resulting from a project initiative of FENA, the European Federation ofFurniture Retailers, a non-profit organisation of furniture retail, the members of which arerepresented by the national trade organisations from Germany, Austria, France, theNetherlands, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Switzerland. The technical andorganisational planning for IWOfurn was initiated by FENA with the primary aim to enablethe European furniture operators to electronically exchange data and information. Theportal has been developing into a complex and scalable solution and the commercialdevelopment of the platform services was taken over by FENAnet Service GmbH in 2006,which turned into IWOfurn Service GmbH on June 1 st 2007.103
ICT and e-business impact in the furniture industryAbout IWOfurn Service GmbHObjectivesThe main activity of IWOfurn Service GmbH is to supply consultancy to the operators ofthe furniture industry in Germany and in Europe. The company is responsible fortechnological and marketing management of the IWOfurn platform. Besides that, IWOfurnService GmbH also organises steering committees at a European level, with the aim tocollaborate with national industrial and retail representatives and associations, and inorder to discuss their market and technological requirements. Two major consortia havebeen set up by IWOfurn Service GmbH: the IWOfurn user group, which brings togetherretailers and manufacturers, meeting twice a year to discuss technologies and marketrequirements and the ad hoc groups dedicated to specific technological issues. WithinIWOfurn there is also a partner acquisition team mainly addressing retailers with the aimto motivate their business partners as e.g. suppliers towards the use of the IWOfurnplatform and electronic information exchange in general.The fundamental role of e-business in the furniture sector was the driving force for theimplementation of the IWOfurn B2B platform (www.IWOfurn.com).Exhibit 5.2-1: IWOfurn B2B platform sreenshotSource: www.IWOfurn.comThe furniture retail market includes a huge variety of products, from furniture toaccessories of any kind. This characteristic of the furniture market offered an opportunityto look for technological solutions able to cover all product categories and to reduce theredundancy of data management with the ultimate goal to improve the quality ofinformation, standardise product catalogues to make them easily accessible to all usergroups, increase business exchanges among partners and finally increase thecompetitive positioning of both big groups and SMEs, the latter representing aconsiderable share of the furniture market in Europe. A high level of expectationsregarding the ability of integration of different user groups and technology under the light104
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ICT and e-Business Impact in the Furniture Industry - empirica

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