While the dot-com and e-business market seems to have taken a bit of a dip with regards to corporate and public sentiment, it does seem that Europeans remain enthusiastic about adopting e-business strategies - especially when it comes to e-procurement.
So said Carol Zeederberg, in charge of Internet initiatives at Data Pro, a leading ISP and network integrator which recently finalised a management buyout valued at R30 million following backing from BOE Equity Partners.
Zeederberg said a recent study by IDC discovered that Europeans are enthusiastically laying foundations for the automated acquisition and management of goods and services - and are getting themselves ready for an online European Union economy. The study found that 38% of European businesses are already using the Internet to buy goods and services, while another 36% are expected to start doing so by early 2002.
"While sentiment regarding e-business is a bit depressed at the moment - mostly as a result of the dot-com crash and the slowdown of the US economy - only 45 out of 500 procurement managers interviewed across Western Europe were adverse to adopting e-procurement strategies. In most cases this was only because their companies had established business practices and long-running contracts with clients and suppliers which did not lend themselves easily to Internet models."
Although more than 50% of current European e-procurement activity is limited to the acquisition of office supplies, repair and operation supplies, it appears that buying manufacturing products via the Internet is gaining momentum among purchasing managers, with one-third saying they are already buying material as well as production equipment online.
"There might be a big black cloud hanging over the IT industry in general, but it is evident that certain sectors are not being that badly affected. Those companies that are smart enough to put in place solid e-business foundations now - despite the negative sentiment - are arguably going to be pack leaders when the market turns positive again. And it will at some stage."
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