FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

IBM Institute for Advanced Commerce - Fact Sheet, March 1998

The IBM Institute for Advanced Commerce began operations on January 1, 1998, and is dedicated to exploring the impact of emerging technologies on the future of business and commerce. Its inaugural roster of advanced commerce research projects has initial funding commitment of more than $10 million and is supported by more than 50 scientists from IBM Research. These projects include a diverse mix of near-, mid- and long-term research efforts designed to overcome current barriers to robust and widespread electronic commerce, and are primarily focused on complex business-to-business applications.

Director
Stuart Feldman (Senior Manager of IBM's worldwide research activities for Internet technologies)

Advisory Board

  • Douglas Dunn, Dean of the Graduate School of Industrial Administration, Carnegie-Mellon University
  • Jay M. Tenenbaum, Chief Executive Officer, CommerceNet
  • Dennis Walsh, Chief Information Technology Officer, General Motors
  • Michael Winch, Information Director, Safeway Plc
  • Irving Wladawsky-Berger, General Manager, Internet Division, IBM Corporation

Areas of Focus

  • Privacy -- addressing corporate and individual concerns regarding privacy
  • Variable Pricing and Negotiated Deals -- the impact of technology on future pricing models
  • The Evolving Marketplace -- the restructuring of industries and economies worldwide, and the impact of increasing online and automated transactions
  • Dynamic Business-to-Business Relationships -- The advent of rapidly formed and dissolved business relationships
  • Managing the End Customer -- Identifying ways to enhance relationships for better service and higher revenues
  • System Foundations for Advanced Commerce -- Short- and long-term technological challenges to support e-business

Current Projects

  • Information Economies
  • Cyber Auctions
  • Internet EDI
  • Micro-Payments
  • E-checks
  • Electronic Vaults
  • E-coupons

Other Institute Activities

  • Major Industry Conferences
  • Co-sponsorship of CEME98 (Conference on Electronic Marketplaces and Economics) -- February 16-17, Austin, TX (Feldman keynote)
  • Chairs of DARE '98 (IEEE Conference on Dependable and Real Time E-Commerce Systems -- June
  • Keynote at Third USENIX Workshop on Electronic Commerce -- September
  • Co-sponsorship of CICE '98 (Conference on Information and Computation Economies) -- October 25-28, Charleston
  • Executive Conferences
  • Invitation-only conference on Privacy in late April for 200 CIO-level executives
  • Customer/University Consultations
  • Customers range from financial institutions to petroleum companies
  • Five university presentations to date
  • Papers, Publications and Presentations
  • Paper on Cyber Auctions for presentation at INET '98
  • Paper on Information Economies accepted for presentation at CIME '98
  • Scholarships and Fellowships
  • Best E-Commerce Thesis Proposal Contest to be announced this month, offering one-year fellowship

Web Site

The Institute's web site is located at http://www.ibm.com/iac/.

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