Workshop 26 March 1998 in Brussels and

Workshop 19 June 1998 in Utrecht

1. Introduction

Workshops were organised by the European Commission, DG III, and held in Brussels on 26 March and 19 June 1998. Their purpose was to examine the content and nature of existing and new "Centres of Competence" in Electronic Commerce, to understand how these function and to what extent they can provide solutions to SMEs and other organisations in developing a framework for successful and effective exploitation of electronic commerce in the competitive global marketplace.

Over 35 delegates from a wide range of business facilitating organisations in ten member states participated in these events and shared experiences, considered best practice and defined priority issues for the future.

2. Major functionalities of Centres of Competence

The Centres of Competence act either as demonstrators or as information centres of technology and tools for Electronic Commerce. Some act as show windows for the most advanced developments, whilst others allow visitors to discover off the shelf applications through demonstrations, some organise continuous training and simulation sessions and others have created a virtual competence & information centre on the Internet. Their audiences vary from top management and governmental high level representatives to SME management and staff and educational community representatives. Most use the "train the trainers" approach in their activity. They start by making management and opinion leaders aware first, so that these can carry the message on into their organisation and communities, with a better understanding of the benefits and the future perspectives of the Information highways and Electronic Commerce. Many centres are not equipped to go further than demonstrative or informative activities and when a visitor needs technical support to implement Electronic Commerce activities in their own organisation then these Centres send the client back into the open market. Other centres provide more "hands on" support to companies. Most try to operate as neutral parties and allow healthy and normal competition to deploy. More detailed description of the activities of individual Centres of Competence can be found under section 5.

3. Identified needs

The Centres of Competence exist as a response to a need in the society and in the market. But as organisations the Centres of Competence have needs themselves to gear up to their task. Some generic needs were identified during the workshops and are listed below:

• to know what aspects of the Centres of Competence are similar or different in each country, the idea being that they can learn from especially the differences,
• to continuously find new material and information, as well as new ways of presenting these,
• to evolve their own understanding and build a sharing mechanism amongst centres,
• to built a good advisory network which motivated visitors can rely on for implementation support,
• to identify alternatives to IT high tech demos, especially for the smaller customers,
• to identify best practice to reach the mass market once the key players have been made aware,
• to built a list of all existing "Centres of Competence" and their equivalent initiatives,
• to create a permanent and managed forum for the actors of this sector,
• to get better filtered and compacted information from the European Commission and results from its programs,
• to provide feed back from the market into future European policies and programmes

4. Recommended Future Actions

All the participants agreed that these meetings were highly effective and successful in bringing together a wide range of experts dedicated to supporting the opportunities for developing and implementing Electronic Commerce solutions in businesses.

The participants all confirmed that the exchange of information and experience, through presentations, visits of centres and most important of all the direct interaction and discussions were very valuable to each of them, and that these two meetings had already been very enriching.

Some participants expressed the wish to continue these meetings, to keep the group alive, to foster knowledge exchange and also possibly to expand as a recognised forum and network at a European level. A core group of members identified itself.

The group clearly asked all participants if they wanted to team up into a networked organisation, and a majority directly confirmed their interest, some would check with their parent or sponsoring organisation but felt confident the initiative would be accepted.

The group already agreed on two further dates for meetings. One in Lille in September 11th 98 and one in Paris in November (6th? 13^th?)1998.

The group asked if the European Commission would be able to support this action. The representatives of the Commission confirmed that if the group addressed its request to the Commission this would be considered, and the group was informed that proposals for exactly this type of action will be possible in the near future.

It was agreed amongst the participants that a group of them would use the upcoming meeting in Lille in September, to identify and built a common list of needs and a concept for addressing these, with the possibility of submitting a project for a "Network of excellence of Centres of Competence" to all participants and to the European Commission. The November meeting would be a "big" meeting again.

5. Conclusions

It is clear that Centres of Competence are key drivers for changing attitudes and cultures in the field of Electronic Commerce and for assisting SMEs to make the transition from traditional to new working methods.

The European Commission, working in concert with the Centres, is crucial to provide the impetus to business if the predicted take up of Electronic Commerce solutions are to be realised (forecast 8 fold increase in Europe in the period 1998-2002; source Datamonitor) and for European SMEs to play an full and effective role in the market.

As technology based solutions are overcoming the problems of integrating front end customer systems with back end order entry, the larger businesses are moving ahead, but their customers, suppliers and partners (mainly SMEs) must be convinced to adopt Electronic Commerce solutions. This is a critical role for the Centres of Competence supported by the Commission and other facilitating organisations.

It is necessary to have regional, national and pan-European policies which support SME needs in Electronic Commerce and these include advice, training / development, technology support, implementation and networking. The Centres of Competence are important mechanisms for delivering such programmes.

6. The Workshops

Prosperity and even survival for an SME or indeed any business in today’s global economy depends on the ability to respond with speed and competence to the challenges and opportunities that are presented by customers, suppliers and competitors. Hence the importance of electronic communications and particularly electronic commerce in reinforcing new changes in business practice and their supporting information technology strategies.

Against this background the two workshops featured 7 cases studies to provide a clearer picture of competence centres, to define their involvement with SMEs and the business to business sector.

Key theme areas addressed were:-

• How to get SMEs to be aware, understand the potential of and get committed to using Electronic Commerce and electronic supply chains;
• The key business, social and technical issues for building a more active user community;
• The role of Centres of Competence in supporting the management of change at all stages of business and technology development;
• The ability to exchange best practice solutions and collaborations in Europe;
• Reach out to Mediterranean & Eastern Countries;
• What aspects are similar/different across Europe, across groups;
• New business processes getting the message out;
• A global market place;
• Training: adopting Electronic Commerce easy, cost effective and advantageous, material etc.…
• Consultation : what is good advice & guidance;
• Technical support

In addition a significant number of relevant documents from the Commission and participating organisations were made available to all delegates at each workshop.

6.1 Workshop Brussels 28 March 1998 (report by Michael O’Shea)

Following introductions by the participants, Paul Timmers, DGIII, set the scene and focus for the workshop. It was important to understand how Centres of Competence operated, and how they are addressing the key issues in bringing about new changes in Business Practice.

The first presentation by Carles Fradera of CETEMMSA, Spain examined the operation of and outcomes from five Centres of Competence in Catalunya and Andalucia which were aimed at promoting the use of advanced Videotex, EDI, Teleworking and CAD. One Centre was highlighted as being particularly effective (as it is the only surviving one of the the five) and the key factors for its success included:

• Direct participation of enterprises, as shareholders, in the Centre leading to a self sustaining, profit making business;
• Complete range of services including consultancy and telecommunications provided to meet diverse business requirements and to reward the loyalty of the clients;
• Adaptation to a sector (textiles/fashion), clear structure and focus of target; building a thorough understanding of the user business needs.services to the widest territorial area consistent with skills and resources;
• Demonstrating a business, and not only a technology approach, with strong on the ground support to achieve solutions for SMEs;
• Keeping investment levels in step with business growth and user expectations.

The discussion revealed that:

• the direct participation of enterprises, as owners, considerably reduced the need for public intervention.
• specialisation was critical, and sometimes the saviour, to provide a credible and valuable community service.
• a more thorough user needs analysis is critical to solve the correct problems and this requires constant marketing input, it was also made clear that questionnaires aimed at the target group don’t give the information needed.
• making profit is not necessarily the key measure for Centres of Competence; the ability to add value to the local/regional supply chain and to support the growth and sustainability of specific SMEs is of equal importance.
• SMEs fear the global market, exposure can be difficult and it is very important to cluster / network; however, local / sectional innovation can help to achieve successful market / products entry through electronic networks.

The second presentation, by Christian Leeb of ODE - Datenhighway Entwicklungs - Gmbh, Austria examined the key issues to be addressed in an Electronic Commerce Centre of Competence. In particular this presentation used a model of the value chain connections and networks associated with business re-engineering and the impact on SMEs. The seven layer model moved from infrastructure and services through content and application, and also covered the organisational/logistical, judicial/contractual through sociological, organisational and psychological. It was emphasised that the focus on infrastructure and services is too much (and this is leading to insufficient take-up) and the critical areas to highlight involve getting the user/supply culture to change so that more organisations and SMEs look to embracing electronic commerce solutions in their future business strategies.

Therefore this approach needs:

• Centres of Competence in Electronic Commerce which are network driven and provide business solutions which are based on best practice and integration into the mainstream business.
• Centres of Competence which have a clear understanding of Electronic Commerce itself, have a vision and a mission and understand value chain networks.
• A capability to deal with different cultures, mindsets and behaviour with a strong social competence.
• An ability to act as a project initiator and facilitator to support companies to manage change and to bridge the gap between suppliers and customers.
• A business expertise to offer easy and tailored solutions and to achieve quick success.

The discussion examined:

• the role of project management in providing co-ordination for new business cultures which involve business re-engineering and electronic workflow methods.
• how electronic commerce features as part of a fully integrated global and distributed electronic infrastructure.
• the need to be able to manage technology push, globalisation, liberalisation, changes everywhere and problems with management’s ability to absorb.
• the need for the Commission to continue with the provision of support to the key actors involved in making the "information age" more productive for SMEs and other organisations.
• the real meaning of competence and the need to have proper skills and resources (and innovation cultures) which was vitally important to support SMEs whose expectations must be more effectively met.
• the need to consider the time dimension as only a small percentage of SMEs are even now willing to change to electronic solutions.doing tomorrow’s business better and in a more strategic way is a policy worth pursuing.

The third presentation, by Michael Declunder of Kalimedia, Lille, France concentrated on the most effective methods for promoting the use of Electronic Commerce and how to get SMEs involved. The creation of Electronic Commerce communities was seen as a most important first step in awareness and also to provide quick impact, stimulation and involvement of top management. Essential to success is having a strategy of multiple world-wide contacts and networks. It provides a mechanism for getting to know the right people for delivery, facilitators to support, champions to provide case studies of good practice in multiple applications, and maintaining effective networking. The winning formula of REACH, DELIVER, ATTITUDE was articulated in relation to getting SMEs started and into productive use. Key success factors include working on a day-to-day basis with all local bodies at all levels - political, economical and through associations

The discussion explored:

• the outcomes and measures achieved by KALIMEDIA and debated the issues of cost, co-ordination and management.
• plans to establish Lille as a region of excellence in Electronic Commerce as a result of the success of this project
• how the provision of high level, business focused materials to meet the needs of SMEs and others was seen as a high priority to achieve critical mass.
• the plans to create an operational laboratory for Electronic Commerce for SMEs during 1998.

The fourth presentation by Vincent Everts of Media Plaza, The Netherlands (a demonstration centre of the electronic highway situated in the Jaarbeurs, Utrecht) examined some unique and innovative ways of achieving the take up of electronic commerce by all sizes of organisation. In particular, this case study outlined the positioning of the Centre in providing an attraction for management (some of whom have little knowledge or concept of the electronic highway) to get up to speed and understand the business / policy considerations. The Centre provides links into specific industries and companies and seeks to produce partnerships between them.

The key lessons outlined included:

• Using electronic highway to solve society problems (example a "gridlock solution" to promote teleworking using 25 000 people who agree to work at home from 07.30 - 09.30, 4 days / week).
• Supporting the people who are active and successful - use them as the benchmarks
• Keeping the general story simple and interesting; work with external experts for deep knowledge.
• Working on the Network; individuals in organisations, government, education centres, trade organisations, etc.
• Creating excellent presentation and interaction, and programme building, not text of web pages.
• Providing custom made presentations to management.

The discussion explored:

• some of the very unique, innovative and ambitious ways of presenting Electronic Commerce to management and organisations of all sizes.
• product list of Media Plaza and in particular the very focused approach to reach the difference audiences.
• the business involvement and very strong interest in the "management strategy day" and the professional industry programmes.
• how business case studies from different industries have been used to project in a very effective way the benefits of the electronic highway.

General Outcomes of the first Workshop

The workshop discussions were highly focused based on the case study presentations, and at the same time very wide ranging leading to many priority actions. The key element is that companies and SMEs must be more receptive to change and this requires continuing, and new, cultural developments in all sectors to ensure that strategic investment in new electronic working practices yield a highly positive return. The relationship of a company with its customers and suppliers needs continuous review and support and it is fully recognised that these relationships must be partnerships. For this process to be successful it is necessary to have regional, national and pan-European policies which support SME needs in Electronic Commerce and these include advice, training/development, technology support, implementation and networking. Fast and accurate communication is essential not only within a business, but also with all its key trading partners; hence the importance of Electronic Commerce delivery through Centres of Competence.

A number of specific recommendations and observations were stressed:

• Different approaches are needed by different types of Competence Centre based on the real "end market" requirements;
• Capture the best material and publish as case studies;
• Continue with the workshop forum and network at a European level;
• Investigate best means of interconnecting Centres of Competence including a dedicated website;
• Organise a best practice conference at European level in 1998/99;
• Organise further workshops with this forum to highlight best practice in all sectors ;
• Examine the business models discussed, further define and disseminate;
• Bring in other Centres across Europe, build a competency grid and produce a map of Electronic Commerce Centres;
• Making profit is not necessarily the key to measure for Centres of Competence; the ability to add value to the local/regional supply chain and to support the growth and sustainability of specific SMEs is of equal importance;
• The Commission need to continue with the provision of support to the key actors involved in making the "information age" more productive for SMEs and other organisations;
• The provision of high level, business focused materials to meet the needs of SMEs and others was seen as a high priority to achieve critical mass;Electronic Commerce is well supported and represented in the 5th Framework Programme;
• Disseminate the outcomes from this workshop to all relevant organisations in all geographic areas and invite further contributions to ensure maximum coverage in the different Centres.
• Unanimous agreement for the Centres of Competence to continue networking and to meet again in Amsterdam (courtesy of Media Plaza) on 19 June 1998.

6.2 Workshop Utrecht 19 July 1998 (report by Alain Collart)

6.2.1. Introduction

Following introductions by the participants, Marjolijn Van Bodegom, DGIII, representing Paul Timmers and Rosalie Sobel, set the scene and focus for the workshop. The workshop would continue the examination of the content and nature of existing and new "Centres of Competence" in Electronic Commerce, and to understand how these function. With three new cases being presented during the workshop.

6.2.2. Media Plaza : A tour

The day was started by a tour of the Media Plaza, under guidance of our host Vincent Evert and his assistant Maaike Tromp.

As Vincent Evert already presented his case story at the previous workshop, he offered to have all the participants undergo the Media Plaza experience at first hand, and thus the group was shown a one hour accelerated session on awareness about the information highway’s latest developments and the potential market impact of Electronic Commerce.

The centre operates as a show including 8 simulations through which the visitor is led by and under the continuous guidance of a tour guide. The simulations include :

• The tube : leading visitors from the old world into the new world (income).
• The front page : the main access gallery (main hall/reception/facilities)
• The control center : a simulation room for internet/video-conferencing
• The skyroom : an auditorium with the latest interactive video black board technology
• The home : a high tech living room with the latest home video/adsl/dvd/webtv demo
• The private corners : the latest tele working/internet pc models
• The class : with some of the latest PCs and video class conferencing equipment
• The presentation room : a conference room with the latest presentation equipment

All along the tour guide uses the latest technology to convey his information about the evolution and latest developments in electronic commerce and thus demonstrates their potential impact on the market and society. The whole experience is a provocation of the mind and gives each visitor also an opportunity to first hand experiencing.

The Media Plaza was fully booked during the visit and unluckily our group could not test the simulations themselves. But the demonstration by Vincent Evert left no doubt in the participants mind as to the efficiency of this Center of Competence.

As the facts & figures show :

• Initial plan : 1998 to 2000 : 3 years
• Start fund : 12,5 million Guilders, essentially private industry funding
• Target audience : opinion leaders : Elite of Business and Government
• Target numbers : 20.000 to 30.000 visitors per year
• Results : already fully booked for three years, average visitors pays 300 ECUplans being developed for after 2000, for new audiences like SMEs

Initiators are developing a second and bigger center at the harbour of Rotterdam, and plan a third center in the east of the country.

Key comments by the Chairman of the Media Plaza, Prof. Peter Vervest

His key proposal to the work group participants was : "Lets franchise our competence".

6.2.3 The workshop : presentations

The first presentation by Horace Mitchell of Management Technologies Associates, United Kingdom : "Going Online : a roadmap to electronic Commerce". Mr. Mitchell is one of the key players in the European telework developments field and programme director of the ACTS project, European Telework Development. He networks with many other teleworkers and thus they developed a virtual center of competence over the net : "European Telework Online". (www.eto.org.uk)

In his presentation Mr. Mitchell highlighted the fact that there are many ways to get to electronic commerce. That it means many different things and that there is no "best path" for all business.

But there are generic methodologies that can be used to explore the right path.

When meeting a client wishing to explore Electronic Commerce, it all starts by a game of questions. The client has many questions, but the supplier/consultant also has many questions to ask the client.

This is equally valid for SMEs and for big firms, and lets not forget big firms were once small too.

"Online" : what it means/what it doesn’t mean. It is about networking, within the company first, with suppliers next and then with clients and the market. It’s not just putting a brochure on the web.

The presentation included some of the fundamental questions an organisation has to ask itself about its market and business, to make sure it has a proper understanding of its market positions. This is very close to a swot analyses (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.)

It was briefly demonstrated that there are many differences that have to be taken into account when you look at the global market. (economic, social, cultural et…)

So Mr. Mitchell suggested a simple generic model that can be used by any organisation to map the different key aspects and indicators needed to identify a market approach.

He also demonstrated that his virtual network can be called upon as a centre of competence for such survey work, and that SMEs could outsource their requests to them without need for ICT competence or investment internally.

He also challenged the other centres of competence with his model, suggesting some key themes and issues to analyse :

• Which cases should we be looking for as best practice ?
• Given our constraints and expertise, what should be our priorities ?
• Should the priorities be generic for all countries/regions ?
• What are the common things we can/should do together at European level ?
• Are there sub-sets or focuses that sub-groups can/should do ?

The group agreed that such an exercise would be very welcome, but time was to short to do one on the spot.

The discussion revealed that solutions were to be found to :

• share information amongst Centers of Competence.
• generate a common "thoroughly analysed" case repository.

The second presentation by Triona Mc Inerney of Information Age Town Company, Ireland : " Ennis town : Information age" "Competition as an awareness raising action"

Information Age Town Company is a center of competence that was created to handle the deployment of the full set of Information highway tools across the whole town of Ennis after they won a budget through a Telecom Eirean competition set up for the promotion and awareness of Information Highways and new IC Technologies.

This remarkable project, earmarked with a budget of 15 Million £IE is trying to :

• To develop and establish Ennis as a Flagship Town in the Information Age in Ireland and indeed the world.
• To show what can be achieved when all the enabling Information Age Tools are in place.
• To see what might happen when people come to terms with using technology as part of their everyday lives.

To attain their goal they are:

Developing Expertise in three disciplines:

• Lifelong Learning
• Healthcare
• Establishing a cluster of high technology industries in Ennis.
• Establishing Ennis as a test bed for emerging technologies and services
• Establishing Ennis as a centre for raising Information Awareness
• Developing Internet Applications for community use.

The project is reaching its first year of activity, the centre of competence is fully active and organised and some major implementations have already been reached such as:

• September to December 31st 1997 Free Telephone Connection
• January 1998 - Free Voice Mail to all Ennis Residents
• Free connection on new residential lines
• Over 600 applications of Voicemail for all Ennis Homes
• Take up over 75% - highest in Ireland.
• January - March 1998 Computer installation in all 13 Department of Education schools in Ennisfor all 13 Ennis Dept. of Education first and second level schools including special schools.
• Ratio of 1 PC or equivalent per 9 pupils.
• UL has commenced formal training for the 300 Ennis Teachers
• Teachers have formed software evaluation groupsteacher already on trial in some schools
• Official launch of Schools took place in March by An Taoiseach Mr. Bertie Ahern
• March 1998 - Present Almost 4,000 PC applications received to date
• Usage Test Scheduling
• Basic Training Scheduling
• PC Deployment 250 installations a week
• April - Over 2,000 Ennis residents completed their Usage Test with a 90% success rate
• June - Present Over 2,000 places are available for Ennis residents on a computer familiarisation programme

What will happen in the future:

• Local Businesses in EIAT
• Electronic Purse
• Community Groups
• EnnisN

However the Company's emphasis is to remember this project is

• For the People in Ennis
• By the People in Ennis
• Of the People in Ennis

Key themes or issues :

• The Ennis town has identified that it needs to set up an independent information center and it was identified during the workshop that interlinking with other centres of competence and to compare cases and experiences would greatly enhance the success factors of Ennis in developing its own center.discussion revealed that :
• The experience of visiting the Media Plaza centre and meeting with the representatives of the other centers of competence is an experience to repeat as much as possible. All other participants confirmed this action line.
• As one can’t do all, it was also suggested that each center of competence, each town, should focus on a sector, example health, and that there should be a strong sharing of accumulated know-how.

At this stage of the discussion Mr. Horace Mitchell floated the concept of linking with "a European Association of Community Networks". Insisting that there are already a lot of these, therefore also there already is a great wealth of information to share

The third presentation by Dominique Brouchet of Echangeur, France : "The hands-on experience for SMEs ".

Echangeur was Initially founded as a superclub of, by and for some key industry players of the European retail sector, to function as a demonstrator center of ICT, focusing on electronic commerce, covering technologies such as multimedia kiosk, data warehousing, EDI, telesales, internet etc.

At present it has opened up to over 800 companies and organisations, reaching over 8000 people in 25 countries, with a target of annually 10.000 visitors.

Most of their visitors know about internet, but have not much time to use it and explore it, so the center offers a maximum of information in a minimum of time, and thus is very successful towards managers of SMEs and industry.

Key themes or issues :

• All demonstrations are shown as full simulations with actual electronic commerce content. This creates the biggest challenge for the center. To offer new and alternating, attractive demonstration every time over. On focused issues such as "customer loyalty building" for instance.
• The center continuously listens to its visitors and to their needs, and has to respond to these by developing the right demo for the right organisation. They do this by creating close partnerships with their clients and demo partners. The center does not invest in technology, it obtains this from their demopartners. Such Echangeur stays neutral.
• This partnership is obtained by offering shares of the center to the partners, along which the partners have to support the center with content and commit to send their staff to Echangeur for training. (average training cost per visitor 300 ECU).

The discussion revealed that :

• Centers have a continuous need for new material and content, this could potentially be addressed via sharing resources with other centres.
• Centres need strategies for funding and exploitation, and exchange of approaches between centres could be very enriching, also this could become the basis for an information source for new start up centers.

6.2.4 The workshop : brainstorming : mentored by Marjolijn Van Bodegom

During the day the following issues were addressed and touched on,

• Reaching out
• How do you reach your target
• Should we team up as a network
• Training support
• Experience Sharing

but it was clearly felt by all participants that more time should be invested in some focused areas, and very quickly the main issue of this brainstorming became "should we team up as a network. Result is described above in section 4. of this report and constitutes the main conclusion of the two workshops reported here. The group present at the workshop inseminated a :

"A network of excellence of centers of competence"

And if pregnancy is well carried out then it is very feasible that birth of this network will happen in maximum 9 months from now.

Strong commitment to parenthood was registered. And even godfathership responsibilities were highlighted.

"we have to do this together, lets form the core group "

It happened see the commitment result at the address www.mediaplaza.nl:88 select EEC fotos and then look at the minutes 19/7

Alain Collart

22 June 1998