HELTRUN was established in 1991 and is still moving ahead and trying to survive. It mainly does the following:

Research which is mainly financed by EU and Greek government projects. It was a bit difficult to get involved in such programs in the beginning, however the stronger we become in terms of research manpower the easier is to participate in such projects. However, our ability to play an active role in the Electronic Commerce part of the 5th Framework will determine the success of our existence for the next 4-5 years.

Awareness which is finance by other parties or it is low budget and it takes place at our premises (100 m2 which is given to us by the university). For example in 1997 we have organized 5 major events in collaboration with Associations such as (Athens Chamber of Commerce, Commercial Association of Thessaloniki, Greek -American Chamber of Commerce etc) which were low budget and were partially financed by these Associations. In terms of our ?road-show? we made a deal with the Greek Commerce Association which they finance it. However, in order to be low budget we visit one town every month and that during the weekend.

Innovative applications for Electronic Commerce users which they can't find services yet in the market or the testing of new Electronic Commerce development platforms which mainly takes place in University laboratories.

I believe that our key success factors are:

1. The strong research group. We are 3 academics, 7 PhD students and 5 post-graduate students. The driving force are the PhD students for almost everything including writing papers and participating in international events.
2. Comfortable facilities with state-of-the art technology of which 1/3 was given by the University, 1/3 comes from R&D projects and 1/3 is given by Electronic Commerce vendors (i.e. Oracle, Microsoft etc) with whom we have closed links since we provide them various services (i.e. beta sites, demonstration of innovative applications etc.).
3. Closed links with other Electronic Commerce research units where we meet every year during the Bled Conference for the last 5-6 years. Our active participation in the Bled Conference had helped us a lot in exchanging research ideas and developing projects.
4. Good links with national associations that are keen to promote Electronic Commerce (so they partially financed our awareness activities) and the government which consider us as a true partner in initiating various national initiatives in Electronic Commerce.
5. Sectoral focus on almost everything we do, giving special emphasis in retailing, tourism, banking, publishing and government.
6. Coverage of almost all parts of Electronic Commerce from the development aspect up to social implications. This is due to the different expertise of the 3 academics and gives us the opportunity to be very active, at least at the national level.

It is difficult to estimate how much or our operations is funded since we do so many things in our free time concerning Electronic Commerce which we don't take into account. However the main actors that support our activities are : The Greek General Secretariat of R&D, the University, the European Commission, Private Companies which they are looking for innovative applications, Associations (Chambers of Commerce etc) that organize awareness actions, Electronic Commerce vendors that want their products to be fully tested before entering the market. in.