CommerceNet Will Spin Off For-Profit Consulting Unit

CommerceNet, the multi-industry consortium that promotes Internet commerce, is about to make its first spinoff of a for-profit company.

The spinoff, CommerceNet Services, will offer individualized consulting and other assistance to the parent organization's more than 200 members. The unit will be headed by CommerceNet executive director Asim Abdullah.

"Primarily, it will be doing specific projects to test out electronic commerce applications on an individualized basis," said Randall C. Whiting, CommerceNet's president and chief executive officer. He said he learned while head of Hewlett-Packard Co.'s Internet services division that running a commerce-oriented Web site can be more complicated than it appears.

On another front, Palo Alto, Calif.-based CommerceNet hopes to take an active role as an industry advocate. In collaboration with the Washington- based Information Technology Association of America and its member organizations, CommerceNet will support an extensive print and broadcast advertising campaign to raise awareness about the value of electronic commerce.

"We want people to know what it is, what it can do, and that it can work," said Mr. Whiting, likening its tone to the dairy industry's "Drink milk" campaign.

"Many of our members want our help in learning how to optimize participation in industry initiatives," said Mr. Whiting, who joined CommerceNet last fall. The initiatives include digital certificate development for secure Web purchases and promoting a standard payment negotiation protocol for the Internet.

Mr. Whiting dismissed suggestions that electronic commerce hasn't lived up to expectations simply because technology stocks are not the hot item they were nine months to a year ago.

"Many companies are getting better information" about their customers through electronic means than ever before, Mr. Whiting said. He cited CommerceNet's recent survey with Nielsen Media Research indicating that 73% of consumers conducting on-line transactions use the Web for some form of comparison shopping.

"The World Wide Web is not all things to all people," he said. "It all really boils down to relationships. The companies that have been successful have been building relationships that emulate the off-line shopping experience."

Similar on-line relationships with suppliers are being emulated by companies as diverse as Marshall Industries, Federal Express Corp. and Fruit of the Loom, said Mr. Whiting.

"If you are one of their suppliers, you can have access to their information over the Internet. This is using the Web site not as a brochure, but as a fundamental mechanism to facilitate commerce," he said.

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