Syracuse University Studying Digial Commerce

CNY Business Journal (1996+), Sep 22, 2000 by Dickinson, Casey J

SYRACUSE-The vast realm of digital commerce is fertile ground for Rolf Wigand, director of the Center for Digital Commerce (CDC) at Syracuse University. The professor leads the School of Information Studies' forays into examining the business implications of the Internet.

Founded in 1999, the CDC has been more a virtual presence than a temporal one over its first year of existence, says Wigand. That will change as the center uses a $450,000 state grant to outfit its offices on the SU campus.

The center's work, he says, seeks to explore all aspects of conducting business over the Internet and the medium's effects on business models. His particular area of research focuses on the creation of online markets such as those established by the deregulated power industry.

"The online marketplace is fascinating," Wigand says.

A study he performed over the past year examined a company's possible savings in the online electricity market. The study juxtaposed the business's singlesupplier energy costs with the savings it could have made by buying electricity by the hour in an online market. The results suggested one subject could have saved nearly $100,000 on its $485,000 monthly bill if it had purchased power on the market.

The center has also received a $250,000 grant from the National Science Foundation toward its work in studying the effects of the Internet on the real-estate business. The issues at stake in the industry have been building since the Internet became widely used in the mid1990s, Wigand notes.

The overriding concern for real-estate agents is whether the Internet will ever "disintermediate" property transactions. The question arose, explains Wigand, as home information, once privy only to agents, landed on the Web in an easily searchable format.

Some older agents, he says, have expressed their. doubts at the wisdom of giving away what was an information monopoly. The center's studies explore the possibility that one day the public could buy a house online as easily as a book.

Trends in the auto industry, says Wigand, point to a different conclusion. Though it is possible to buy a car on the Internet, he notes, most people do research on the Web and then go to a dealership.

Major companies such as Wal-Mart, says Wigand, are pursuing this dual nature of digital commerce. The retailer continues to build stores while offering its products online, Customers can shop at either venue but unlike an online-only store, Wal-Mart shoppers can return their unwanted purchases in person rather than mailing them.

The center's study matter may become more compact in the future. A shakeout of dot-com companies is inevitable, just as it is in any other field of commerce, says Wigand.

"What we're observing fight now," he says, "is a sort of Darwinism at work."

Though the boom times may be coming to a close, demand for classes offered by the CDC continues to be high, Wigand states. The center offers classes on electronic commerce, electronic markets, and data mining. Offered during the school year and in summer, the 45-student classes are typically filled on the first day of registration. About onethird of the students are MBA candidates from the School of Management. A waiting list remains all semester long for those who want to take the center's classes, he notes.