A Victorian government department has used e-procurement to cut its purchasing costs by 75 per cent. Now it's gunning for even greater savings.
John Byrne, manager of e-commerce for Victoria's Department of Natural Resources and Environment (DNRE), said that over the last couple of years the average cost per transaction was reduced from an average $66 down to $44, "without even touching e-commerce", and then to $16 following the implementation of an e-procurement system.
Oracle's announcement of free customer relations management (CRM) software has one competitor calling it a pure "publicity stunt".
"What a joke; anyone knows that you can't get apps on tap, you need to configure the system and work with customers. Oracle need to give its consulting away free, not applications," said Mark Camilleri, managing director Australia and New Zealand for Onyx.
"The application side is only 15 per cent of project deliverables," he said.
The implementation of Oracle's Web Requisitions product 'straight out of the box' presented many challenges for Victoria's Department of Natural Resources and Environment, according to the manager of e-commerce.
John Byrne said: "This was the first release of the product and it had not been tested in the type of environment we wanted to use it in. We wanted to stretch it from being a requisitioning tool to being a full-service tool that covered all stages of the cycle."
Security issues surrounding wireless application protocol (WAP) transactions will continue to concern users until mobile phone computing power matches that required by most security programs.
A free e-mail service accessible via mobile and touch-tone phones has been launched by Australian wireless Internet service provider Netline Technologies International.
The Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union (CEPU) has secured a special Olympic allowance for about 4000 affected Telstra workers. As reported in last week's edition of Computerworld (August 28, p3), the CEPU had lodged a claim with Telstra for a $5-an-hour Olympic allowance for Sydney workers.
Business operating in the computer services industry have increased 52 per cent since June 1996 to June 1999 and grown at a rate of 15 per cent over the past three years, according to a recent Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) report.
Sanford Limited is claiming to be the first Australian-based online broking company to offer Straight-Through-Processing (STP) via Wireless Application Protocol (WAP), under a WAP content distribution agreement with Telstra.
Singapore based ChemRound.com, an industry-owned vertical portal for companies trading in chemicals, plastics and basic industrials, promises to halve transaction costs and increase productivity by 10 per cent within the industry.
The Web site, backed by SK Group, LG Group and Hyundai Group is expected to reduce procurement costs and increase supply-chain efficiency.
The Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union (CEPU) is awaiting word from Telstra on a claim for a $5-an-hour Olympic allowance, with just a few weeks to go until the Games begin.
E-commerce: the way tomorrow's 'normal' business will operate. - How many times have you seen this splashed across magazine and newspaper headlines in recent times? Back when it all started it was just hype, but now this cliche is becoming a reality.
With this emerging reality comes an imperative for executives across all industries to develop a thorough understanding of what e-commerce is and how it can help them do 'better' business.
Perhaps cashing in, but also promising to enlighten, are the providers of many new postgraduate level e-commerce courses aimed at senior managers.
Failure to register digital certificates to enable online lodgement and problems with company firewalls saw many of Australia's largest companies resorting to pen and paper when lodging their first GST business activity statement.
Substantial upgrade costs and discomfort with SAP's functionality in respect of their operation prompted a Queensland government agency to replace its mandated SAP financial systems with an Australian developed financial software.
Employee loyalty has taken a dive since the advent of the Internet, according to a survey by Morgan & Banks.
Ansett Australia, as a wholly owned subsidiary of Air New Zealand, will be an equity partner in the newly formed B2B e-commerce exchange, Aeroxchange.