Dotcoza doesn`t do e-business

By Chris Tredger, Technology Portals editor, ITWeb

Johannesburg, 15 May 2000

Andersen Consulting`s Dotcoza has not lost his grip on e-commerce, despite the abandonment of plans to establish an e-business. This, he says, is due to time constraints and a concern over assessment accuracy.

The happy e-camper had planned to set up an e-business of his own as part of the project, and he admits the potential, knowledge and opportunity is all there. The only problem is time, and because there are just over three weeks to the end of the project, starting a successful e-business from scratch was not feasible.

Instead, Dotcoza has decided to share with the public his tips on setting up an e-commerce venture. Most of these can be found at www.dotcoza.co.za, but consider his first bit of advice - you`ll need money.

It takes a bit of capital and a lot of heart to put up a fully functional, money spinning, e-commerce venture, warns Dotcoza. But the cash-strapped have an alternative in setting up a Web site detailing service and product information on offer, which is both free and fairly straightforward - Dotcoza did it in one afternoon.

Just how difficult is it to set up a fully-fledged e-business? "It depends what you want from an e-business. There are scales. It takes longer than an afternoon. There are movements to make it easier. I know M-Web are looking at creating a template type scenario where you can give them details and they have a template that you can fill in," answers Dotcoza.

The subject of Andersen Consulting`s e-commerce project is full of praise for Ascotdirect.co.za as an example of an e-business set up through the template route.

At the same time, a pyramid-orientated scheme involving joint contributions and payment is one alternative Dotcoza would not advise.

Dotcoza acknowledges local initiatives that bring capital and ideas together. He mentions First Tuesday, an industry institution that aims to get people with ideas but no capital together with service providers and venture capitalists.

Imparting this e-commerce advice has culminated in a series of discussions, articles and other means of feedback, which has kept Dotcoza very busy. But he still has a fair amount of work to do. The research schedule has changed; he was going to look at education and human resources separately, but will now analyse the two simultaneously.

These issues have been grouped in order to leave sufficient time for the project`s final exploration, which will encompass two issues crucial to e-commerce - delivery and fulfilment.