All set for KPMG e-commerce conference

Electronic Commerce - using new technologies such as the internet to conduct business - is here to stay. It represents a new way of doing business that will, over the next few years, have a dramatic impact on existing delivery channels and routes to markets, as well as on an organisation's product and service offerings.

According to research carried out, many directors are failing to understand the impact of technology, believing that conducting business over the Internet is "someone else's job". This situation creates a knock-on effect on those who have embraced technology as a way of doing business. The research shows the European businesses, as a whole, are integrating internet technologies as part of their business model at such a rapid rate, that the region has the potential to become the e-business centre of the world.

With e-commerce channels radically reshaping the retail financial services market, the key to future success will be an understanding of how technology can help companies build customer value. The growth of internet and digital television as channels to market will fundamentally change the financial services market.

Preparations by KPMG Consulting Limited to host an international conference in Malta on e-commerce are now well under way. Speaking about the conference, Joseph C. Schembri, managing partner at KPMG, said: "This international conference brings together leading speakers, all experts in their respective fields, to explore the key issues that organisations must address to ensure success in tomorrow's global marketplace, through the use of e-commerce." The organisers will also be presenting the findings of a research report into the use of electronic commerce by major companies, in the first pan-European study undertaken by KPMG Management Consulting, covering over 500 European companies. The firm has extended its research to Europe to gain a better understanding of the impact of electronic commerce across the major trading nations in Europe.