Threads - - WebBusiness Magazine November 1, 1999

Sloan runs its e-admissions program through GradAdvantage (www.gradadvantage.org), which handles online applications for more than 40 other schools. Applicants simply set up a password-protected folder on the site, filling out forms over time. They can cut and paste essays and other supporting materials into templates, then submit everything with a click.

Even at MIT, though, the process isn't yet 100 percent electronic. Transcripts and recommendation letters still arrive on paper. And the school creates a hard-copy file for each student—just in case.

Skeptics question whether digitizing the process creates new hurdles for low-income applicants, who typically don't own computers. MIT says most MBA applicants are working professionals or students with Web access through work, school or libraries; the school considers requests for exemption on a case-by-case basis. And, Garcia points out, overseas students often find it cheaper and easier to apply online than to deal with expensive, often sluggish international mail.

There's plenty of evidence suggesting students prefer taking their college quests online. The University of Dayton credits its optional online admissions process with prompting a record 7,173 applications for this year's freshman class. Fully half the hopefuls applied through the school's Web site, up from 28 percent the previous year. Another major player, Embark.com (www. embark.com, formerly CollegeEdge), which handles e-applications for more than 300 schools, processed more than 500,000 applications for the current school year. Online application projections for next year: 3 million. —Anne Stuart

Not Fade Away
The Internet promises to upend a lot of industries, but surprisingly pulp and paper isn't one of them. That's the conclusion of a study by The Boston Consulting Group Inc. (www.bcg.com) entitled "Paper and the Electronic Media: Creating Value From Uncertainty." Instead of eroding the use of paper, the Internet and other digital media will actually increase the consumption of some kinds of paper.

That's not to say that some sectors of the industry will be unscathed. The study concludes that newsprint will take the biggest hit by 2003, with demand in the United States down 15 percent from 1997 levels. The growth of online classified ads and Internet-based news services will be the main reasons for plummeting newsprint demand. Another lagging sector will be envelopes as increased e-mail use trims demand by 1 million tons by 2003.

Despite the misfortunes of newsprint and envelopes, overall paper consumption worldwide is projected to rise, as growth in most sectors outstrips losses. With consumption expected to double from 1996 to 2003, office paper consumption will be the big winner. Paper producers can thank individual printing both at home and in the office for their rosy future. —Megan Santosus

Nontechnical Support
WITH A HISTORY STRETCHING BACK 89 YEARS, the National Retail Federation (www.nrf.com) has helped retailers both large and small navigate shifting trends such as the introduction of discount stores and the development of megamalls. Now as retailing on the Internet reaches a fever pitch, the Washington-based trade association has launched three initiatives aimed at helping its members weather the online storm.

Within the past year, the NRF established the Internet Retailing Advisory Council (IRAC), a group of executives from the ranks of NRF's membership (The Home Depot Inc., Sears, Roebuck and Co. and Starbucks Corp. among them) that examines such issues as online marketing, merchandising and privacy. The goal of IRAC is to boost online retailing efforts while simultaneously improving the shopping experience for online consumers.

In July, the NRF paired with Forrester Research Inc. to create the NRF/Forrester Online Research Index, a quarterly survey-based service designed to track online retailing trends. The joint effort will establish metrics among participating retailers for conversion rates, order information, visitor information and revenues by product category. And not to leave vendors out of the mix, in August the NRF started the Internet Commerce Council (ICC), a group composed of executives from established IT vendors such as IBM Corp., Intel Corp. and Oracle Corp. as well as smaller e-commerce outfits like Netcentives Inc., eGain Communications Corp. and Be Free Inc. The goal of the ICC, says Scott Silverman, the National Retail Foundation's director of Internet retailing, is to help IRAC members evaluate e-commerce tools and technology.

In addition to the standing groups, the NRF sponsors conferences, seminars and conference calls. And what are the biggest challenges facing NRF's members? For brick-and-mortar stores, it's fully integrating the Internet into their existing retail channels, according to Silverman. For Internet-only shops, the thorniest issue is order fulfillment. —Megan Santosus

Uninformed Consent
FORRESTER RESEARCH INC., the popular analyst of e-business trends, ordinarily advises businesses how to exploit the Internet economy. But the recommendation of the recent report on privacy policies is directed not at business but at the Federal Trade Commission. The report, which found that nine out of 10 Web sites fail to conform to the privacy policy guidelines issued by government and industry, recommends that the FTC urge companies get with it, force companies to open profiles to users and pressure third-party privacy companies to respect the guidelines. In July, the FTC issued a report that claimed that corporate self-regulation of privacy policies was working. —Art Jahnke

Money Walks
WHERE WILL FOO223XXX5V GO NEXT? That's part of the serial number on a $1 bill I exchanged for a Diet Coke one Friday afternoon this past summer in Framingham, Mass. But before I spent that dollar, I registered it at Where's George (www.wheres george.com), a strangely addictive little site that literally tracks where your money goes.

Here's how it works: Users set up accounts at the site, then simply register the serial number on bills they want to track. (Singles are the most common currency, but any U.S. denomination will do.)

Users see only partial serial numbers, like the one above, to prevent people from "cheating" by repeatedly registering the same bills. If you log a bill that's already registered, Where's George automatically generates a report on its previous travels. (One bill, for instance, traveled from a Waffle House in Atlanta to a Columbus, Ind., convenience store to a grade-school cafeteria in Covington, Ky., over nine days in August and September.) If you're the first to register the bill, Where's George lets you know—in your Web account or, if you prefer, by e-mail—where it turns up after it leaves your wallet.

Database architect Hank Eskin of Brookline, Mass., created the bill-tracking site "for fun and because it had not been done yet." Participation is free; Eskin supports the site by selling ad space and Where's George rubber stamps that participants can use to mark registered bills. (Eskin says writing on currency is legal as long as it doesn't render the money "unfit for circulation," the federal definition of defacement.)

As of mid-September, more than 38,000 Where's George users had registered 537,000 serial numbers. The most traveled bill to date, a 1995 dollar, showed up six times in four months in Kansas and Oklahoma.

So far, F00223XXX5V hasn't resurfaced since I spent it. If you see it, let me know. —Anne Stuart

Small Spenders
IF YOUR COMPANY HAS YET TO MAKE A BIG-BUCKS commitment to e-business, you're not alone. Stamford, Conn.-based Meta Group Inc. found that 65 percent of the 357 companies polled spend less than $1 million a year on e-business. The survey, which tapped companies in the financial services, retail, transportation, utilities and telecommunications sectors, found that e-business investment does not correlate with company size. Rather, those low levels of spending reflect the fact that most companies don't have a serious, enterprisewide e-business effort, says Kirk Reiss, senior vice president of Meta Group Consulting. "Right now there's just been a lot of stopgap [initiatives]," he says. The study also found that most companies view e-business as primarily a sales channel—a huge mistake, he says. "If you look at it as just another channel to take orders, you may be missing a whole opportunity to create [new] business models and to compete in a totally different way," Reiss says.

Companies that really get e-business spend at least $5 million a year on it, have a top executive overseeing e-commerce or e-business and strong support from the CEO, develop customer and intra-enterprise systems, and view e-business as a new business or a new model for their existing business. What's hot on the horizon for e-business development over the next three years? Bringing e-business to the supply chain. —Sari Kalin

B-to-Bs Bring in the Bucks
Who's really making money on the Web? Apparently, the oldest business-to-business e-commerce sites.

Forty-two percent of b-to-b ventures that are online for at least three years report profitability, according to a survey by ActivMedia Research LLC. Even some newcomers are doing well. Of b-to-b ventures online for less than one year, 27 percent say they're making money (see "Strictly Business" below).

And what money they're making, especially over time. While first-year sites averaged a modest $94,000 in e-commerce revenues, veterans averaged $30 million in business after three years. "In time, we expect that e-commerce between businesses will far surpass that of consumer-oriented sites," says Chris Anne Wheeler, vice president of information services for the Peterborough, N.H.-based market research company.

ActivMedia surveyed 193 b-to-b electronic commerce ventures in the United States and Canada. For more information on the report, "Real Numbers Behind the Online B-to-B Industry," visit www.activmedia.com. —Anne Stuart

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