C Change - Brief Article

JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT THE letter E had taken over the business world--eCRM, eprocurement, erecruitment, eCFO -- along comes another trendy prefix for public relations firms to flog.

Over the past few months, the letter C--as in c-commerce--has started showing up on press releases from software makers, ERP vendors, and ecommerce integrators. Meaning collaborative, the C-section includes any Web-enabled product that connects a company with suppliers and customers, usually via a secure extranet.

A number of European companies have already jumped on the C bandwagon. Alfa Laval AB, the $1.5 billion-in-revenues Swedish conglomerate, is one such jumper. The company, which operates some 80 local companies in 50 countries around the world, rolled out a pilot c-commerce project in June. Called eStore, the system enables engineers on board ship to order shipping, power generation, and general marine equipment from Alfa Laval via the Internet and pick it up at the next port of call.

Robert Claren, global ecommerce project manager at Alfa Laval, says eStore is revolutionizing the supply chain at the industrial equipment specialist. What was previously a four-stage process--orders were sent from the ship to its owner, to the local company, and then to the distribution center--is being pared to a single step. "This is an important milestone for our company," Claren says. "It's a whole new way of thinking."

Alfa Laval won't put a figure on the savings it expects from eStore. According to Claren, the real motivation behind the initiative is to improve the level of customer service. "It's about opening up the company to our customers," he explains. Experts say that savings on order processing and administration could be in the neighborhood of 30 percent, however.

Despite the cost-cutting possibilities--and its obvious PR potential-c-commerce still has a way to go. In fact, Simon Pollard, Richmond, U.K.-based vice-president of European Research at AMR, the Boston IT research firm, estimates that only around 5 percent of companies on the continent are currently engaged in c-commerce initiatives. The reason? Pollard believes most corporate managers are still reluctant to share information with customers and suppliers. "There's a real lack of trust, he says. "People like to play their this case, their C chest.

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