The (R)evolution Rediscovers ROI
(April 11-12, 2002) (Sixth Conference)

Annual University of Minnesota Electronic Commerce Conference Series

The sixth annual conference in this series was held at the Carlson School in April. Over 200 people attended this event. The conference was sponsored by the following III Member companies: Born, Cargill, Guidant, Sprint PCS, Syntegra, and Unisys. “The (R)evolution Rediscovers ROI” conference theme was very much in keeping with the renewed focus of the US economy and the IT industry in general. The combined burst of the dot-com bubble along with significant excess IT spending for Y2K has brought both reduced IT spending and a more critical analysis of that value of IT investments.

Conference Chair Les Wanninger welcomed participants and summarized the ideas behind the “The (R) evolution Rediscovers ROI” theme. Peter Samson, Vice President and General Manager of Unisys gave the opening keynote presentation on “Returns on IT Investment, and Those Who Claim It” to set the tone for the two-day conference. Other keynote presentations focused on the ROI theme along with the necessity of focusing on the customer to build and integrate e-commerce channels with existing channels of communication and distribution. These keynote presentations were:

• Barry Judge - Vice President, Best Buy “The Evolution of Best Buy’s Web Strategy - and Results”
• Allen Weiner - Publisher & Editor in Chief, Convergence Publishing Group “Sorting ROI from the Hype in Emerging Technologies”
• Thom Winninger - CEO, The Winninger Institute “Customers Bring Profits - Cultivate Them”

Speakers were a mix of academics and key individuals from industry leaders that are adopting e-commerce as an additional channel of communication with customers and suppliers. Presentations were organized in Theme Sessions with Session Chairs and Speakers as follows:

• “ROI and Productivity from e-commerce”, Prof. Robert Kauffman, Carlson School - Panel Moderator with panelists Peter Samson, Unisys, Prof. Jean Kinsey, Retail Food Center Director, University of Minnesota and Prof. Barrie Nault, University of Calgary
• “Case Studies in Application Server Business Choices”, Bill Rohde, Unisys - Session Chair with speakers Todd Van Nurden, Magenic Technologies, Ed Ferrara - Architecture Director, Unisys Global Industries and Curt Wicklund - Technology Manager, Unisys Global Industries
• “Electronic Payments”, James Mirick, US Bank

Corporation - Session Chair with speakers Mirick, Michael Yakel, Visa USA and Mark Coronna, Marks and Crown LLC

• “Productivity from XML Applications”, Bill Rohde, Unisys - Session Chair with speaker R.T. Crowley, Senior Vice President, Research Triangle “ XML for B-to-B Messaging, or EDI on Steroids”
• “Supply Chain and ROI”, Prof. Fred Beier, Carlson School - Session Chair with speakers Peter Bolstorff, Pragmatek Consulting Group, Mark Marsh, Director National eBusiness-Supply Chain practice, Born and Cal Otto, Born
• “The True Value of Mobile Applications”, Gary Anderson, Syntegra USA and Prof. Shashi Shekhar, Computer Science and Engineering - Session Chairs with speakers Tom Charland, CEO- Digital Cyclone “Moving from Good Idea to High Value/High Utility”, Ken Deakman, Syntegra “A Mobile Route Management Solution for Distributors of Energy Drinks”, and Todd Irey, Cogent Software “Sales Force Automation”
• Data Analytics for Electronic Commerce, Prof. Jaideep Srivastava, Computer Science and Engineering - Session Chair with speakers Srivastava “Customer Relationship Management in the Internet Age – Case Study from Amazon.com”, Terry J. Woodfield, Ph.D., Statistical Services Specialist   SAS, Inc., “Data Mining for Profit – A SAS Perspective”
• Effective Marketing, Advertising and Sales in e-Commerce, Craig Evans, Best Buy - Session Chair with speakers Bettina Hanna, Best Buy Co., Inc. “How to use the Web in Retailing” and Kevin Hanson, ShopNBC “TV and the Web”
• “Personalization and CRM”, Prof. Alok Gupta, Carlson School - Session Chair with speaker Mike Larson, Profit Solutions
• “Wireless Applications.  What Has Value and What is Just Glitz?”, Gary Anderson, Syntegra USA - Session Chair with speakers Stephen Bruce, Syntegra USA.  “Profitable Applications”, Charles Lukaszewski, Ubiquio.  Mobile Devices and Form Factors” and Les Wanninger, Carlson School.  “Wireless Infrastructure Application Platforms”
• “Research Study Findings - Building Community and ROI”, Prof. Laura Gurak - Session Chair with speakers Prof. Alina Chircu, U Texas at Austin ”B2B ROI Research Results” and Gurak, “Building Community with Electronic Commerce”

We featured the PhD Research Poster Session again this year. The Magnet project presented by a team from Computer Science and Engineering was judged best overall by the panel of industry judges led by John Curtin of Unisys. Presenters were:

• John Collins (Comp. Sci.) — MAGNET: A Multi-Agent Negotiation Testbed
• Yoris A. Au (IDSc) — An Analytical Framework of the Rational Expectations Perspective on E-Commerce Technology Adoption        
• Jaideep Chandrasekar & Zhenhai Duan (Comp. Science) — SOI: Service Oriented Internet
• Qizhi Dai (IDSc) — To Be OR Not To B2B? An Evaluative Model For E-Procurement Channel Adoption
• Kunsoo Han (IDSc) — Incomplete Contracts and Interorganizational Systems: A Theory-Based Analysis of Ownership Structures in Interorganizational Information Systems
• Jungpil Hahn (IDSc)
• Albena Iossifova (OMS) — Adoption and Diffusion of Interorganizational Standards  - Collaborative Planning Forecasting and Replenishment (CPFR)
• Bin Wang (IDSc) — When Internet Companies Morph:  Understanding Organizational Strategy Changes in the ‘New’ New Economy
• W. Parker Whitley (Appl. Econ.) — A Conceptual Economic Foundation for Internet Market Ownership and Choice

A Carlson School team of undergraduate and MBA students demonstrated three biometrics technologies: iris scanning, fingerprint scanning, and facial recognition as part of a research project on biometric Iris Scanning. Unisys sponsored this project with a grant and supported it with personnel from their research lab. Amanda Verhey, Carlson School Club MIS Business Events Coordinator, led the student team.