November 6, 2000
PENN STATE LAUNCHES E-BUSINESS INITIATIVE
UNIVERSITY PARK, PA--Businesses around the globe are exploring the opportunities and challenges of transforming themselves through the emerging technologies of the Internet. Firms around the globe can now gain access to leading-edge thinking and research on e-business at Penn State.
The University is marking its role in shaping the new economy and e-commerce with an "e-Business Dedication Day" on Wednesday, December 13, 2000.
Graham Spanier, president of Penn State, will deliver the keynote address at the ceremony. Representatives from IBM, Unisys, Xerox, AT&T Wireless, Delphi Ventures and Cigna Group Insurance will take part in the event, which is scheduled to start at 10:30 a.m. in Deans Hall II at the Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel. The event is free and open to the public.
"The new tools of e-business-most notably the World Wide Web-are creating new opportunities, competition, questions and issues for all businesses. The need for new knowledge, talent, insights, and tools in e-business is clear and becoming critical for both the business and academic communities," said Spanier.
The University is taking a leadership role in shaping the future of e-business and e-commerce with its eBusiness Research Center, which is headed by Executive Director Nirmal Pal. Penn State's Smeal College of Business Administration and the School of Information Sciences and Technology joined together to form the eBusiness Research Center (eBRC).
The Smeal College of Business Administration has a special focus on the impact of information technology and the emergence of e-business on strategy, logistics, operations, and the exchange process. Working with a network of firms exploring e-business, the Smeal College has an active research and educational agenda in e-business. The School of Information Sciences and Technology opened its doors in 1999. Developed from the ground up, with many new courses on the realities of the business world in the twenty-first century, the program helps students learn general communication and business skills and promotes the use of those skills to develop specific areas of information-based expertise.
"E-business means we are living in a global community linked by the Internet and playing by new rules that are defined by speed. Businesses once took months or years to research new products, order components and ship out new product lines. The Internet has compressed that timetable into weeks," says Pal.
That can be uncomfortable, especially as technological advances continue to erode the pillars of decades-old business practices. Informing businesses how to take advantage of the new opportunities is the goal of the Penn State eBusiness Research Center.
The eBRC promotes research by academics and practitioners on various aspects of e-business, with emphasis on governance and execution issues. The primary mission of eBRC is to foster, expand, and disseminate theoretical, empirical and applied research in e-business and to bring research insights to our supporting members and help them with e-business practice.
"Our goal is to be an expert resource and information clearinghouse for e-business decision-makers in industry, academia, government and the Penn State community," says Pal.
The eBRC is housed in Smeal College's Business Administration Building, where it conducts research on how businesses strategize, operate, market, and manage in the realm of e-business. Its corporate sponsors are IBM, Unisys, Xerox, AT&T Wireless, Delphi Ventures and Cigna Group Insurance. The sponsors have access to the first fruits of the Center's research and development.
"They will gain special insight, participate in educational activities, and build a powerful network with other leading edge firms," says Pal. The eBRC will actively support research with funding, data access, and networks to leading scholars in e-business worldwide. The eBRC offers modular programs of instruction in e-business and can deliver programs targeted to senior executives or professional focused on e-business, as well as to broader, management audiences. The eBRC hosts various working consortia on e-business topics for a network or business and academic partners. The eBusiness Research Center recently hosted the "e-Scholars Retreat," with hopes of building a community of practice in e-business research. This university-wide retreat was the first of its kind at the campus.
"This was an important milestone in building a community of practice in e-business research at the University," says Arvind Rangaswamy, eBRC Research Director. The e-Scholars Retreat, Rangaswamy explains, helped identify other areas for collaboration, such as funding sources and research sites. Its goal was to formalize research affiliations between Penn State faculty and the eBRC, and to identify areas for collaborative research in the e-business space
"We are striving to develop the first University-wide research portal, which would allow flexible, custom, searchable access to all e-initiatives," says Pal. "In the future, the research portal will link competencies and capacities of Penn State e-Scholars in addressing e-business issues, training needs, possible collaborations and support request from Pennsylvania businesses."-EBRC-Editors: For more information on the event or for press credentials, contact Steve Infanti of the Smeal College External Relations Office at 814-863-3798 or [email protected]. For additional information on the eBRC, contact Nirmal Pal at 814-865-5670. For additional information on the IST, contact Charles DuBois of the IST External Relations Office at 814-865-4458.
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