E-business Highlighted at San Jose Conference

17 June 1999
More than 50 e-business practitioners congregated in San Jose June 8-10 to discuss how companies can increase productivity, enhance customer service, reduce supplier costs and empower employees at the eBusiness Conference and Expo.

The event featured e-business leaders in an in-depth seminar program covering four tracks: business benefits, technology solutions, real-world case scenarios and the channel.

"Conversation about e-business--how to do it, whose making money, what the obstacles are--is as common in business circles these days as talk about the weather. But the forecast for e-business is less varied and more consistently optimistic," said Monica Vila, managing director of CMP Business Forums, which produced the conference.

Companies must "respond to the rapidly changing competitive environment," said Al Zollar, general manager of eNetworking Software at IBM Corp., Armonk, N.Y., during his keynote speech.

More than 140 E-business vendors of software marketing companies became involved with the expo as either sponsors or exhibitors. Hewlett Packard Company, IBM, Intel and Business Week were just a few of the sponsors.

Much advice was given during the expo by company owners and experts. Tim Furey, chief executive of Oxford Associates, a Bethesda, Md.-based firm that advises companies on E-commerce strategies, said the important thing is to design a total approach that integrates all your existing sales and marketing efforts.

Targeted e-mail marketing is also good method for driving customers to a site. And new methods are ensuring that e-mail can be more targeted than ever before, said Bill Herp, president of E-Dialog Inc., Lexington, Mass.

"The Internet is neither a fad nor a small segment of the market that can be ignored," Zollar said. "Pick a niche, and do it better than anybody else."

There will be a second eBusiness Conference and Expo December 14-16 at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York City.