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Making e-Biz Work - a White Paper from the Canadian Chamber of Commerce
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Small-business operators face tough challenges while chasing e-commerce opportunities.
Small business in Canada may be getting wired but it's not staying competitive, according to a White Paper from the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.
"This report gives the business community the opportunity to speak up and say what it needs in order to leverage the Internet and new information technology as innovative business tools," said Nancy Hughes Anthony, president of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.
Education and information dissemination, lack of resources, costs and security are key challenges faced by small and medium-sized businesses in accelerating e-business, said the study.
According to IBM Canada's CEO John Wetmore, who chairs the chamber's e-Business roundtable, the paper shows a clear majority of businesses have Internet access.
"However, few are investing resources to explore more sophisticated e-business applications," said Wetmore.
The Canadian Federation of Indendent Business's chief economist, Ted Mallett, applauds the chamber's study but thinks it's impossible to make broad generalizations about small business in the new economy.
"Many small businesses are very aware. Some are taking new approaches -- others are reacting. Some discover that customers are asking for business to be done in a certain way and others are scrambling to react to their competitors."
Released Thursday, the chamber's report is based on findings from regional meetings of SMEs this year in Halifax, Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg and Edmonton.
Recommendations include:
- Continue information seminars and practical workshops.
- Develop an internship program for recent graduates to help small business leverage the
Internet as a business tool.
- Create accessible one-stop information/business resources for SMEs.
- Provide a time limited economic incentive (two years) aimed at driving e-business deployment throughout the economy.
There's work to be done!
"We are making progress however there remains a lot more to be done," said Wetmore.
A recent Deloitte & Touche survey scrutinized small-business Web sites, polled Canadian consumers and e-tailers and provided a reminder of what success and profitability hinge on.
"No matter what the category, it pays to have a well-planned and executed Internet strategy," said Richard Kitney, senior manager at Deloitte & Touche.
All Web shoppers have visited and revisited sites where inventory is never updated and errors remain online. "It's an investment that requires time, money and knowledge," said Wetmore.
"Canadians are demanding sites that are easy to navigate, are visually engaging and backed up by excellent customer service," said Michael Eubanks of Retail Council of Canada.
Meantime, the federal government is saying any small business can improve customer service online by providing new avenues for promotion and distribution, by responding more quickly to orders and by offering more responsive after- sales service.
"You can cut costs and save time by improving the quality of supply chain management, by integrating back-end production and logistics with front-end marketing and sales and by letting the computer and software do most of the work in controlling inventory," says Industry Canada's Electronic Commerce Info-Guide.
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