By Jim Jacobson
Gazette associate financial editor
Whether you turn on a television or a radio, open a newspaper or a magazine or, better yet, jump online, you can't miss the people talking about "e-commerce."
And to hear most experts tell it, you wouldn't want to.
In 1998, sales of goods and services on the Internet totaled $50.9 billion, according to Forrester Research Inc., a Massachusetts technology firm. That figure is expected to top $1.4 trillion within four years.
The transactions represent far more than people purchasing a few novels from online bookseller Amazon.com. It means billions of dollars in consumer purchases. And that's only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Sales between one business and another is actually the biggest component of e-commerce. Forrester estimates business-to-business commerce will constitute 92 percent of the total by 2003.
| FYI | |
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If you'd like more information about electronic commerce, try these sites: |
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| www.ebiz.businessweek.com | |
| www.ecommercetimes.com | |
| www.consumerreports.org/ Special/Samples/Reports/ 9812shp0.htm |
While some may contend that the University of Iowa's Henry B. Tippie College of Business has dragged its feet when it comes to training future cyber-executives and online entrepreneurs -- The New York Times wrote about business schools developing e-commerce programs in late 1997 -- the school has no plans to be left waiting at the station.
This year the school began offering two classes, one undergraduate and one graduate, to teach students that e-commerce means more than simply building a Web site.
"Business schools have recognized in the last year that they have to have some recognition of the way the economy is changing," said Andrew Whinston, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin and the director of the Center for Research and Electronic Commerce.
The biggest challenge to getting the class off the ground, according to the professors teaching the classes at the University of Iowa, is the speed at which the relationship between business and the Internet changes.
"An Internet year is equivalent to a month" in regular calendar time, said Randall Schultz, professor of marketing, who teaches the undergraduate class called Web Business Strategies. Professor Doyle Weiss, also in the marketing department, teaches a similar class, called Commerce on the Web, to graduate business students.
"This is almost a living thing," Weiss said about the Internet. "And that's the challenge."
Schultz doesn't even use a textbook for his course. He uses what he calls a virtual text that draws material from dozens of Web sites. In addition, the home page (online starting point) for the class "has the look and feel of a portal (an Internet search engine, such as Yahoo!)."
Weiss uses case studies, such as what role the Internet played in the demise of Encyclopedia Britannica, to teach core business concepts and how they apply them in the Internet age.
Although this is the first time he has taught the course, Weiss said he already plans to toss out a case study from 1995 because the principles it deals with are no longer relevant.
The focus in Schultz' class is the entrepreneurial opportunities the Web offers rather than how the Internet fits into a major corporation's business plan, he said.
One of the course requirements is that students create a Web site, either for a real company or for a fictitious one. As it turns out, some of the students may try to make a go of their mock business Web sites, Schultz said.
Part of what Schultz wants his students to leave his class with is a business model built on business fundamentals.
Weiss said he would like his students to come away with "a sense of adventure and entrepreneurship" as well as the ability to meet the lightning-fast changes on the Internet.
"I think it's one of the better classes I've taken," said Andy McCarville, a 21-year-old marketing major from Ankeny. "Professor Schultz is a really great teacher."
McCarville has designed a site for a Des Moines-based artist. The site will be part of a total marketing package he hopes will not only help the artist sell his work, but also help him receive commissions from organizations that would use the artwork as part of their fund-raising efforts.
If all works out, McCarville said, he may not have to look for a job when he graduates.
Becky Church has also decided to tackle a real-world e-commerce problem. Her sister, a computer programmer and part-time Tupperware sales representative, has created a database program that would help people run Tupperware and similar home-based businesses more efficiently.
Church, a 22-year-old marketing major from Chariton, started with no knowledge of how to create a Web site. The class, she said, has not only helped her learn the basics of creating one, but also how to put important marketing tools to work to create the company's business model.
She and her sister are considering four possible ways they can make money with the product. They can sell it to Tupperware and similar corporations to distribute to their reps, they can sell it through regional distributors, they can sell it directly to the sales representatives, or they can sell directly to the sales person through a partnership with the corporate office.
No decision has been made, she said.
While Church and McCarville said they have enjoyed the class, they acknowledge it has required a lot of work. Just to build the Web site, McCarville said, he put in 50 hours.
What about the future of e-commerce education at the University of Iowa?
The decision-making powers at the college of business are working to answer that question.
"We're getting to a point where (a class like Schultz') should be required," Church said.
Iowa may not go as far as one school in New Jersey, The Stevens Institute of Technology, that created a separate e-business degree.
"I'd suggest putting a Web component in every class," said McCarville.
Schultz agreed.
Because the Internet is the most important change for every business since the 19th century, "Why should it be compartmentalized," he said.
Although the bureaucracy at universities may mean they have some trouble keeping pace with the rapid changes in Internet-related technologies and marketing techniques, the University of Texas' Whinston said schools still have an obligation to focus on "the broad transformation of the economy" that has come along with the Internet and e-commerce.
"It's very important to a business education," Church said. By having that knowledge, you can get any position you want."