Minister announces fifth annual e-commerce awards

Only 20 percent of middle market companies in the UK have done nothing in the area of e-business, according to a research report, but a similar proportion are already transacting online, writes David Sumner Smith. Fear, fashion and the pursuit of improved competitiveness have driven two-thirds of businesses to establish websites, but very few firms have fully integrated online activity with other operational elements.

The 'e-business prospects' report for the Economic and Social Research Council and UK online for business suggests failures often result from 'ill-specified objectives, lack of evaluation, difficulties of making change and missed opportunities'. "E-business involves a systemic understanding of people, process, organisation, culture, business models and technology," says the report. "It involves changes in all these areas, and the outcomes of these changes need to be congruent."

Since 1999 the UK online for business / InterForum E-Commerce Awards have been recognising and rewarding UK companies making such changes and transforming their business. Ireland Freight Services (IFS) of County Antrim, a finalist in 2000, is one such company. Having begun 34 years ago from the first air cargo office at Belfast Airport, IFS began by sending goods by air from Northern Ireland to Britain. But e-business has transformed the firm into a global logistics company, with a web-based vendor managed inventory hub providing e-commerce solutions throughout the supply chain.

IFS Global Logistics is currently ranked 32 in the top 200 exporting freight companies in the UK and has become the fastest growing air freight company in the UK's top 50 firms. The company currently represents 64 percent of all imports through Belfast International Airport, resulting in a turnover of around £30m.

Graeme Hanna, group managing director of IFS says: "We felt e-commerce was something that we had to be a part of. Without a successful web application we would limit the potential of our business."

Some small companies have grown rapidly through use of e-business strategies. The diving school Simply Scuba, another winner in 2000, established a website in 1998 as an online brochure site. It went on, however, to adopt new technologies to provide a fuller facility to the diving community by introducing trading online and back office systems.

Simply Scuba is now the only dive store that offers its complete shopping system and fulfillment service as a franchise. Simply Scuba now acts as an application service provider (ASP) for scuba diving related websites providing them with a turnkey scuba shop, supply chain and fulfillment service, enabling them to focus on their core business.

E-business has completely transformed Simply Scuba. Two years ago it struggled to achieve sales of £250,000, but last year the company achieved online sales in excess of £1m. Now the company is planning a move into Europe, to maximise on the global opportunities of e-business.

Managing director Gerrard Dennis says: "Technology has enhanced our credibility, dramatically increased turnover and given us a lead position in our field. Anything is possible with the Internet and in the next three years my main objective is to record a turnover of £5million."

IFS and Simply Scuba are just two of the previous winners of the awards, run by UK online for business and InterForum, the organisation that helps UK companies conduct their business electronically. Free to enter, the awards are sponsored nationally by the Royal Bank of Scotland Group and Cisco Systems. Over the last four years, InterForum has raised over £1.9 million in sponsorship for the awards - the only government-backed e-technology awards programme in the UK - which has helped to recognise similar achievements from hundreds of small and medium companies that have transformed their business through internet, information and communication technologies. Entry numbers have grown from 236 in 1999 to 1,683 last year, and are expected to increase again this year.

More than 800 companies had already pre-registered or been nominated at www.ecommerce-awards.co.uk before the e-commerce minister Stephen Timms opened the 2003 E-Commerce Awards last Thursday (13 March). Total prizes of £182,000 - including £40,000 for the outright national winner - are available to small and medium sized businesses, with less than 250 employees, across the UK who can demonstrate having used technology to do something different to really transform their business. As one of the main sponsors, The Sunday Times Enterprise Network will be covering the competition throughout the year, including a case study on the national winner when the national awards are presented in early October.