Media Release
Wednesday, June 30 2004
How to succeed in e-business enterprise
The boom and bust of the dot com industry created worldwide concern about the stability of e-business, but for two leading academics in the field, it was just one small glitch in the information revolution.
This evening, Wednesday June 30 from 6pm - 7.30pm, UniSA lecturers Professors Paula and Paul Swatman will discuss important trends in the information age, looking at the adoption of innovative technologies.
Their lecture New technology innovation: From promise to impact, the last in the Intelligent Technologies public lecture series, will also reveal their research into building a computer system that gives strategic advice to businesses looking to expand into the online world.
“Our project aims to see whether a particular system, called multiple agent simulation technology, can provide advice for small to medium enterprises investing in the online area,” says Prof Paula Swatman.
To develop the intelligent system, the study has been looking at how European online news and online music companies are surviving in this rapidly changing world.
“When we started looking at newspapers we asked how their traditional business models, such as advertising and subscription, held up online and we noticed quite significant changes,” Prof Swatman said.
“We’re seeing how regional newspapers are forming new partnerships with advertisers, the local supermarkets and stores. One of the newspapers went into business with a big Internet Service Provider (ISP) and offered favourable deals for advertising in return for setting up and running local business websites. So they had their own captive pool of advertisers.
“Then they offered special deals for advertising in the online version of the newspaper, allowing readers to click on the adverts and go straight through to a business’ website.
“They had developed a complex and multilevel model for attracting advertisers. The papers were still using advertising and subscription models but they were no longer as simple as they used to be offline.”
Prof Swatman says their business model analysis will help individual companies or whole sectors come to terms with changing business patterns. She also says the system is being set up to help businesses that can’t afford expensive consultants.
Newcomers to Adelaide, the IT couple hope the public lecture provides an opportunity to link up with business and industry across South Australia — from organisations endeavouring to sell and market communication technology to those wishing to facilitate their effective adoption.
“If there is a difference in what we do, I tend to look at how companies use technology to aid their business processes. Paul tends to look more at how individuals interact with technology,” says Prof Swatman.
“Technologies are not failing. Things have changed in ways people didn’t expect. Whole sectors of industries expected that things would be the same online as they were offline. And they’ve begun to realise that it’s not the same.
“Our research is about finding how we can broadly apply the lessons we’re learning from industries making successful and unsuccessful forays into e-business. We don’t believe organisations need to learn lessons over and over again, we think that we can apply quite a lot of what we’ve learned — to many industries and organisations.”
Paula Swatman is Professor of Information Systems and Paul Swatman is Professor of Computer and Information Science — both at the University of South Australia.
Before a recent three year stint in Germany, Paula and Paul had extensive academic careers in Australia.
Most recently, Paula was the foundation Innovation Professor of eCommerce at RMIT University, where she also established Australia’s first commercial Reality Centre; and Paul was Professor and Head of the School of MIS at Deakin University.
New technology innovation: From promise to impact
Wednesday June 30
6.00pm to 7.30pm
General Purpose Building, Mawson Lakes
More information about UniSA’s free lecture series Intelligent Technologies: Creativity in innovation technology, engineering and systems is available at http://www.unisa.edu.au/itee/news/LecSem/Ser1_04/default.asp
Contact details
Professor Paula Swatman, UniSA 0423 783 071 or (08) 8302 0238, email: paula.swatman@unisa.edu.au
Professor Paul Swatman, UniSA 0423 783 175 or (08) 8302 5262, email: paul.swatman@unisa.edu.au
Media contact
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Emma Masters, Media Officer, UniSA (08) 8302 0096 or 0403 007 723, email: emma.masters@unisa.edu.au