Citation
McGaughey, R.E. (2006), "Internet editorial", Benchmarking: An International Journal, Vol. 13 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/bij.2006.13113fag.001
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2006, Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Internet editorial
The editorial staff of Benchmarking: An International Journal is committed to helping those working at a senior level in industry, the public sector, consultancy, or academic institutions, to stay current on developments in the areas of quality, technology and benchmarking. The focus of the journal is on “topics that have substantial management content, rather than being primarily technical in nature.” The internet editorials will center on sites with a similar focus. I examine sites believed to be of interest to BIJ readers, and I attempt to be fair and objective in reviewing them. This editorial focuses on mobile commerce (M-commerce). I have identified sites to help BIJ readers learn more about this important new frontier for business as well as help practitioners and researchers to identify emerging best practices. M-commerce is a relatively new phenomenon, and this is likely the reason that I found no sites devoted exclusively to benchmarking M-commerce. I did, however, find sites with information that could be useful in identifying candidate areas for benchmarking and in establishing specific benchmarks. Numerous sites highlighted herein focus on standards. Since M-commerce is an emerging business phenomenon, and since standards are critical to its development, that the industry is focused on standards seems appropriate. It likewise seemed appropriate to include such sites in this editorial.
M-Commerce includes activities and processes, aimed at short run or long run economic gain, conducted over a wireless telecommunication network in a mobile context. PDAs, cell phones, smart phones and pagers are just some of the devices used by M-commerce consumers. The challenge of M-commerce today is to discover or create user needs that can be met by goods and services sold/delivered in a mobile wireless context. The state of M-commerce today is reminiscent of the state of the worldwide web and E-commerce in the mid 1990s. We knew then that the web had commercial potential, but we really did not know what to do with it, or how to do it. In the late nineties and into the twenty-first century we learned to market existing products and services over the web, and the web spawned whole new businesses. Who could have imagined that something like E-bay would have become the commercial success it is today, or Google, E-Trade, or Match.com. Who would have imagined that when a consumer shopped for a used car, that they would shop a used car market online that stretched from coast to coast, and even continent to continent. The web has changed the way consumers shop, what they shop for, and how they pay. It has changed how they bank, it has changed how they live, and it has in many ways changed how they think and how they view the world. Many believe that M-commerce is poised to have a similar impact on business and consumers. Commonly accepted standards developed much more quickly for the worldwide web than they have for the world of mobile wireless. There is still much jockeying for position among key mobile wireless players, each wanting to position its wireless infrastructure/service at the forefront. The wireless infrastructure (hardware, software, standards, protocols, etc.) is an essential element of M-commerce, marketing know-how is critical, and so are service reliability, security, and affordability. Let us not forget value – M-commerce must offer consumers something of value. “Always on” internet service and location-based services sound great, but what must be done to move them from good idea to commercial success. Such is the challenge of M-commerce. The purpose of this editorial is to explore sites devoted to M-commerce with emphasis on those that offer something of value to readers interested in learning about M-commerce, and especially to those interested in establishing performance metrics and benchmarks for use in this exciting new area. It is my hope that resources available on the sites showcased herein will be helpful to our BIJ readers interested in seeing M-commerce improve the lives of consumers, the profits of business, and perhaps even the efficiency of government.
The searches
As has been the case for my more recent editorials, I used Google and one other search engine to conduct the searches for this editorial. I used the following four search phrases for this editorial: “M-commerce performance,” “benchmarking mobile commerce,” “benchmarking M-commerce,” and “M-commerce best practice.” My Google searches produced 328,000, 3,500,000, 74,900 and 147,000, respectively. I also used Kartoo, a meta search engine that produces results in the form of a map. I discovered Kartoo while doing another editorial and I found it helpful. I was able to examine many relevant sites using Kartoo, but Kartoo does not provide the number of sites found with each search. I found sites included herein using both Google and Kartoo, and my search results produced much overlap – sites found using Google were also found using Kartoo, and vice versa.
The sites included herein and others on the web should be useful to BIJ readers wanting to learn more about M-commerce. For those interested in M-commerce benchmarking and best practice these sites are a modest start and reflect the current state of M-commerce – it is in its infancy. As M-commerce matures one would expect to see more sites focused on M-commerce benchmarking and best practice. One may prefer to conduct one's own searches using a wider variety of search phrases and or different search engines. I would offer this advice to those of you who would conduct similar searches. Use “m-commerce” rather than “mobile commerce” in your searches, or at least hyphenate “mobile-commerce.” When you use the word pair “mobile commerce,” your hit lists will be much, much longer and contain many more sites that have nothing at all to do with mobile-commerce as defined herein. As always, inclusion of sites in this editorial should not be considered an endorsement of the goods or services of the entities that own or sponsor them.
Benchmarking and best practice in M-commerce
W3C Mobile Web Best Practices Working Group
The W3C Mobile Web Best Practices Working Group (BPWG) is a working group of the WorldWide Web Consortium, the governing body of the worldwide web. It is one of several working groups associated with the Consortiums Mobile Web Initiative. The Mobile Web Initiative is dedicated to making web access from mobile devices as simple, easy and convenient as web access from a desktop computer. The mission of the BPWG is to “develop a set of technical best practices and associated materials in support of development of web sites that provide an appropriate user experience on mobile devices.” The group released the first draft of “Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0” on October 17, 2005, so it is very current. A “scope document” and the “Best Practices document” can be viewed on the BPWG web page (links named accordingly). These documents are worthy of the attention of practitioners and researchers interested in M-commerce best practice, or more specifically best practice as it pertains to the web over mobile wireless devices – that is not all there is to M-commerce, but it is certainly an important piece of the M-commerce puzzle. This site is new and has little content at present, but I expect this site to become much richer in content as time passes. I recommend anyone interested in M-commerce best practice and/or benchmarking take a look at the site.
Cellular Online
Cellular Online (COL) is a mobile portal. The site is loaded with information on all aspects of mobile technology including regulations, services, providers, mobile statistics, products, forums, and more. This site has something for all mobile constituencies (users, providers, regulators). I was particularly impressed with the depth and breadth of mobile statistics on the site. The statistics are found on the lower left-hand side of the COL homepage under the heading of “Global Mobile Stats” and they are indeed global. One can find statistics on the market share of key players in the mobile industry, stats on mobile penetration in various countries, mobile cell traffic, text messaging traffic and much, much more. The assemblage of statistics on this site is the most impressive I have seen anywhere – on the web, or published. The statistics alone would make this site valuable to practitioners and researchers interested in M-commerce generally or M-commerce best practice and M-commerce benchmarking specifically. Most statistics are available from articles, reports and such from other sites. The links on COL make the many statistics easy to find and access. The “News” items posted on the COL homepage are interesting as they relate to very current events/developments in the mobile industry. They should be helpful to managers wishing to stay abreast of developments in the industry and in discovering best practice in M-commerce.
The main navigation bar on the COL homepage has far too many links to discuss in detail, but some that are particularly noteworthy are the GSM Guide, GSM Technical, 3G Mobile, M-commerce, and the Mobile Phone Guide. Each of these links accesses a page with links to reports, articles, and more that describe the topic (i.e. GSM) and developments in the area. The Mobile Phone Guide page showcases mobile phones and is a good place to find out about current developments in cell phone technology. I would think these links and others would be of interest to practitioners and researchers. A search feature is available on the COL homepage and it makes finding targeted information easy – without having to browse this vast site. I did searches on benchmarking and best practice and found numerous articles that pertained to M-commerce benchmarking and best practice. I recommend the search to anyone interested in finding specific information on the site – it is a time saver. While this site is certainly one that would be of interest to practitioners and researchers, it is a site that offers value to consumers also. Information accessible via this portal can help consumers to know what product choices are available, and it can assist in evaluating product/service alternatives. An informed consumer is a smart consumer. This is one of the most information rich sites I discovered in researching sites for this editorial. I would rate it a must see for anyone interested in M-commerce, consumers included.
Mobile Marketing Association
The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) is a UK based but global industry trade association for companies involved in mobile marketing and associated technologies. The association:
... represents the interests of agencies, marketers, media owners, hand held device manufacturers, carriers and operators, software providers and service providers, and any other companies or individuals focused on the development of marketing via mobile devices.
MMA and its members promote the growth of wireless marketing through a voluntary code of conduct, standards, and dissemination of best practice. In short, MMA is all about mobile marketing.
To learn more about what exactly is mobile marketing, there is a link on the main navigation bar (top of home page) called “Mobile Marketing” that accesses a page that describes and explains mobile marketing and its importance/value to organizations. One can examine the MMA code of conduct by following the “Code of Conduct” link. The code of conduct page has a general description of the code of conduct and its purpose, but the 29 page PDF document itself is downloadable via the “click here” link. MMA believes ethical conduct will benefit all wireless stakeholders. I examined the “Case Studies” link and found numerous case studies about things like location-based services, media interactivity, loyalty marketing, mobile coupons and more. While the case studies did provide some potentially valuable information for those interested in benchmarking and/or best practice, they were a bit sketchy. Perhaps, members of MMA have access to more detailed versions of the case studies, but that was unclear to me. I examined the “membership” link and the membership pricing structure. Membership was not particularly pricey compared to other similarly focused associations. Member benefits include participation in forums and seminars, access to proprietary research, white papers and educational training, and more. There is a link to MMA initiatives, but I found little of interest posted on that page. There is a “News” link that accesses a page with links to MMA news, but not to news items on other sites, so it is somewhat limited. It would seem that the primary benefits of this site accrue to members and not to non-members. The site might be of interest to those interested in joining with other firms to work toward developing benchmarks and promoting best practice in mobile marketing, but it is not a site I recommend to anyone not interested in joining the MMA.
Liberty Alliance Project
The Liberty Alliance (LA) is a consortium of organizations from around the world. Created in 2001, LA was formed to address technical, business and policy challenges related to identity and identity-based web services. Identity-based web services are expected to be an important to M-commerce growth and success. LA members work to:
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build open standard-based specifications for federated identity and identity-based web services;
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drive global identity theft solutions;
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provide interoperability testing;
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offer a formal certification program for products utilizing liberty specifications;
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establish best practices, rules, liabilities, and business guidelines;
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collaborate with other standards bodies, privacy advocates, and government policy groups; and
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address end-user privacy and confidentiality issues.
Five LA expert groups address issues pertaining to technology, public policy, business and marketing, conformance and services, and work together to define LA projects that keep with its purpose and goals. Companies can join LA by downloading the membership form available through a link (“Join Liberty”) on the LA homepage.
LA offers a variety of resources to members and non-members. Whitepapers, guidelines, presentations, case studies, and a FAQs page are among the resources accessible via links on the LA homepage. The Whitepapers page provides links to numerous documents covering topics like “A Web Services Framework,” “Privacy and Security Best Practices,” and “Helping Operators Mobilize the Internet.” The Guidelines page (accessible through the “Guidelines” link on the right navigation bar) has links to many documents describing LA guidelines on security, ID-SIS personal profiles, and more. The case studies page provided access to case studies of AOL, Bluewin, General Motors and more in areas dealing with communications, standards and the likes. Specifications and a wide variety of related web services are available on the site through the “Specifications” link. A “Press Room” link (on left navigation bar) affords visitors access to a page with current and past LA press releases, including announcements about important developments in the area of wireless standards. While the site is not likely to be of interest to one with just a casual interest in M-commerce benchmarking, industry practitioners would be well advised to examine this site.
Mobile Data Association
The Mobile Data Association (MDA), founded in 1994, is a global non-profit comprised of vendors and users of mobile data, as well as their advisors. MDA describes itself as the “online forum for the mobile data industry.” MDA facilitates communication among industry participants regarding technical and business issues pertaining to mobile data. The stated goals of MDA include:
promoting growth of the overall mobile data market; promoting mobile/wireless data as an effective solution to business needs; providing a credible point of contact for press and end-users seeking further sources of information; connecting end-users with solutions which match their strategic and operational needs; encouraging VAR/system integrators to provide mobile/wireless data solutions as part of their product portfolios; maintaining an informal dialogue with appropriate government/regulatory bodies (DTI, RCA); and promoting industry initiatives.
One can examine the benefits of membership and one can join MDA using the “Member Benefits” link and the “Apply Online” links found on the MDA homepage. While membership is a bit pricey, the many benefits afforded members might make membership worthwhile for practitioners. For those interested in M-commerce benchmarking and/or best practice, the resources centre is likely to be of value. Resources available through the links organized under the heading of “Resource Centre” include publications, market forecasts, news (one can sign up to receive it or read it online), hot topics of interest, an encyclopedia, a training directory and more. Various free reports are available such as the following from Deloitte Research: “Creating a Mobile Enterprise in the United States,” “Mobile Data Adoption in Japan,” “Enterprise Mobile Data Adoption-A Global Evaluation,” and “Mobilizing the Enterprise – Unlocking the Real Value of Wireless.” MDA publications include the “Mobile Data Mini Directories,” and reference handbooks on other topics like “Mobile Messaging,” and “Mobile Broadband.” Some documents are available only to members, or for a price, but most are free for the downloading (in PDF format). One of the most useful resources in the centre is the Links page (see “Related Links” on left navigation bar under Resource Centre). The Links page has links to many other sites including market analysts, sites with “Free resources,” the sites of Associations and Government departments, and more. The links page is a valuable resource for any visitor with an interest in M-commerce generally, or in M-commerce best practice and benchmarking specifically. I found no linkrot in following links found on the links page. The links alone make this site worth the visit. I discovered a couple of sites featured in this editorial on the MDA links page. This is a good site and one sure to be of interest to practitioners, and likely to be of interest to researchers interested in M-commerce.
GSM World
The GSM Association (GSMA), founded in 1987, has played a key role in the development of the GSM platform and the broader global wireless industry. GSMA is a trade association that promotes, protects and enhances the interests of GSM mobile operators worldwide. As of September 2003, the association consisted of some 680 2G and 3G mobile operators and 160+ manufacturers and suppliers serving some 1.57 billion customers worldwide. GSM is a living and evolving wireless communications standard (includes GSM, GPRS, EDGE and 3GSM) for voice and data services. The GSMA site well reflects the mission of the association which is to promote GSM.
As with most association sponsored sites, the GSMA site has an area where one can learn more about and join the association (see the “About GSM Association” link). The “GSMA Brochure” link accesses a 20 page PDF document that describes the association in great detail while the “Membership Benefits” link summarizes benefits in a short table. It would seem that membership would be most appropriate for companies rather than researchers. A quite valuable aspect of the site is the information found thereon. A link on the main navigation bar at the top of the homepage entitled “The GSM Family” accesses a page with very good primers for relevant services (GSM, GRRS, EDGE and 3GSM) with links to articles, books and products pertaining to each. Some materials about best practice can be found in articles and books found by following those links. Some of the products and services showcased on those pages reflect best practice in the form of the “best” and “latest” technology available. This area would certainly be of interest to practitioners with an interest in best practice and benchmarking. A “Using GSM” link, also on the main navigation bar, displays links to pages that explain/describe issues and the GSMA position on public policy, spectrum allocation, and mobile content. It is the GSM World News and GSMA Events links on the main navigation that would likely be of greatest interest to practitioners and researchers interested in M-commerce benchmarking and best practice. The GSM world news link exposes a menu of links to press releases, statistics, articles, reports, books and more. Information pertaining to best practice and benchmarking can be found in some of the many books and articles accessible via these links. On the GSMA Events link menu of choices, it is the GSMA Awards that are of particular interest. GSMA offers awards for innovative contributions in the area of mobile entertainment, marketing and promotion, network products and solutions, handsets and devices, and more. This is an area that offers great potential for practitioners and researchers attempting to search out best practice in the very new, but fast growing mobile wireless industry. The GSMA site was tastefully designed, well maintained and easy to navigate. A feature that would have made it even better is a site search. I believe I could have found materials and identified sections of the site pertaining to benchmarking and best practice much faster with a site search tool. All things considered, this is a site worth the visit, particularly for practitioners.
Wireless Knowledgebase
The Wireless Knowledgebase is part of the IT Toolbox. The Toolbox was featured in previous editorials, but it seemed appropriate to include it in this editorial because of its potential value to the wireless community – most notably, the Wireless Knowledgebase. ITtoolbox brings together millions of IT experts and provides access to information from thousands of top sources. The Wireless ITToolbox (WTB) homepage houses numerous features that might be of value to BIJ readers interested in M-commerce best practice and/or benchmarking. Visitors will find blogs, interest groups, news and press releases, white papers and more. Blogs offer tips and advice in areas related to wireless technology, news and views, reviews, and the opportunity for wireless practitioners to share experiences. A wireless WIKI offers definitions, FAQs, HOWTOs and code. Of course one can join the ITToolbox, and it is noteworthy that ITToolbox supports Knowledgebases for networking, project management, security, ERP, business intelligence and more. It cost nothing to register and it takes less than a minute to do so. One can associate oneself with strategy and planning subgroups, vendor selection groups, numerous technical and functional groups (many of which pertain to wireless technology), as well as career groups. A search feature on the site makes it easy to search for information on topics of interest. I conducted searches on “M-commerce best practice” and “benchmarking M-commerce,” but found little of interest. I believe that the best this site has to offer is interaction with other professionals. The blogs, WIKIs, and special interest groups offer those with an interest in M-commerce best practice and benchmarking the opportunity to interact with like minded professionals. Like all ITToolbox sites, the Wireless Knowledgebase site is well maintained. While it is a bit cluttered, the site is relatively well organized and easy to navigate.
Fierce Wireless
While the site itself offers little information, the service should be of interest to practitioners and researchers interested in M-commerce generally, and M-commerce best practice and benchmarking specifically. One can sign up for this E-mail news service for free by visiting this site. Fierce Wireless bills itself as “the wireless industry's daily monitor.” Subscribers that read the Fierce Wireless E-mail briefing delivered every business day can stay informed about developments in the wireless and mobile internet market. Topics covered in the Fierce Wireless news include WiFi, SMS, MMS, M-commerce, wireless carriers, wireless internet, enterprise apps, 3G, J2ME, bluetooth and more. There are two site features researchers and practitioners interested in best practice and benchmarking might find particularly useful. First, an easy to miss link entitled “Links” at the bottom of the homepage accesses a well organized page with links to many related sites. One must look close at the bottom of the Fierce Wireless homepage to find this link. The links page houses many useful links to wireless related news services, industry associations, and more. Second, the “Top 15” list should certainly be useful to anyone interested in best practice. Each year Fierce Wireless singles out top “emerging” companies in the wireless industry. This seems a good place to find “best practice” in action. This site is worth a visit even if one does not sign up for the service.
3GToday
Sponsored by QUALCOMM, the 3GToday site highlights commercial Third-Generation Code Division Multiple Access (3G CDMA) wireless services and products, as defined by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), from around the world. All services and products featured on the site are commercially available for purchase. This site is a good place to go to examine the products, the services and the competition in 3G wireless. 3G CDMA is what many regard as state of the art wireless technology.
Site visitors will find a “Technology” link that accesses a page that describes 3G CDMA in general terms, the merits of 3G CDMA, and the key requirements for 3G wireless services. A “3G Operators” link accesses a page that tracks the scope of 3G in terms of providers and countries. As of November 15, 2005 there were some 163 commercial 3G providers in 73 countries. New entrants are listed on the page (2005 entrants) and one can select links that provide summary statistics for each of the categories of 3G, including CDMA 1X, CDMA 2000 1xEV-DO, and WCDMA. It appears that these statistics are updated each day. Another link entitled “3G Subscribers” similarly tracks the number of subscribers in total and by the above mentioned categories. A “3G Devices” link displays a page housing various current 3G devices. A search feature on the page allows one to search for a particular device by category or by key word. This would seem a good place to examine devices in search of best practice and devices against which a company's own devices might be benchmarked in terms of features, capabilities, etc. Other aspects of this site would likely be of interest, especially to practitioners. The 3G CDMA site is not just a good one for practitioners, and it is a good site for anyone wanting to know more about 3G and the significant role it plays in the wireless mobile world.
CTIA: The Wireless Association
CTIA: The Wireless Association, is an international nonprofit organization that represents the various sectors of wireless communications, including cellular, personal communication services, and enhanced specialized mobile radio, in dealing with policy makers in the Executive Branch, the FCC, Congress, and on the state, regulatory, and legislative levels. CTIA attempts to disseminate timely, factual and reliable information to relevant wireless stakeholders. CTIA's industry committees are involved in important matters like spectrum allocation, homeland security, taxation, safety and technology, and they coordinate industry efforts to “be responsible and responsive to concerns about wireless health and product usage issues, while operating an equipment testing and certification program to ensure high quality and reliability for consumers.” All CTIA activities are directed at fulfilling its mission of “expanding the wireless frontier.”
The CTIA site is one that should be of particular interest to practitioners. Membership information is available via the “Membership” link. Membership is available to wireless carriers and suppliers (two different memberships with dues based on company revenues) and a special membership is available to others as “Associate” members. Associate membership is for consultants, resellers, academics, engineers, law firms and others working with the wireless industry. Links are available to inform members about the benefits of membership, as well as requirements. There is more to joining CTIA than just filling out a short form on the site, so it seems fair to say that membership is really for serious practitioners with a significant stake in the industry. As far as information on the site, there are four links that should be of particular interest to visitors interested in best practice and benchmarking M-commerce; the “Research and Statistics” link, the “Wireless Resources” link, the “Wireless News” link and the and the “Industry Topics” link. The Research and Statistics Center (RSC), accessible through the same named link, contains some potentially valuable studies, most of which are not free. One can find international research reports, market research, and reports on manufacturing devices, networks, infrastructure and software applications. CTIA does an annual wireless industry survey which produces some interesting statistics, a limited number of which are available for free. The survey was started in 1985, so various statistics are available covering a 20 year period. The complete reports are available, but like other reports on the site, they are a bit pricey. The Wireless Resources link affords access to some interesting documents like “How wireless works” and a “Wireless Glossary of Terms.” Also accessible through wireless resources is the CTIA Industry Directory which seems to be a great resource. One can search by company name, business classification, or product to find information of potential value in identifying best practice or setting benchmarks. The industry topics page uses a handy index to allow one to find topics of interest, and here too, there seems to be much information of potential value in benchmarking M-commerce. When one displays information on a topic, links appear at the bottom of the topics page to speeches and presentations, press releases, regulatory activity, recommendations, guidelines and more. This seems indeed to be a valuable resource. Last, the “Wireless News” link accesses wireless news releases, CTIA news releases and others. Some of these news items could be of interest to visitors interested in M-Commerce benchmarking and/or best practice as they relate to current developments in the industry. The CITA site is well organized, well maintained, and easy to navigate. I would characterize this as a practitioner site as it seems particularly well suited to serving CITA members and attracting new members. For anyone interest in wireless technology and M-commerce, the site is well worth the short time it takes to peruse it.
Informa Telecoms & Media
Informa Telecoms & Media (IT&M) is a UK consultancy specializing in business intelligence and strategic services for the global telecoms and media markets. They strive to help their customers gain strategic advantage by providing business critical information via powerful channels and using innovative formats, and in creating and serving communities to share best practice, solve problems, and stimulate innovation. As a consultancy, one would expect charges for services and that is the case with this site as with the sites of other for-profit companies. That said, there are resources available on this site that should be of interest to anyone interested in M-commerce best practice and benchmarking. Certainly companies should find the site interesting as it offers them a glimpse of what competitors are doing in the way of high-tech goods and services. Products available include databases providing extensive quantitative market data for telecoms and media markets. Among the database offerings (follow the “Market Data” link in the left navigation bar to the Databases page) are a broadband subscriber database, world cellular handset tracker, world cellular data metrics and more. Of course these databases are not free, but often good reliable information is not free. The “Reports” link and the “Research” link, both also found on the left navigation bar, access pages listing reports and research documents on such topics as mobile entertainment, global mobile market growth, and opportunities available in various regions of the world. The IT&M products and services are rather pricey, but that does not mean they would not be a bargain in they proved to be very valuable. News letters are likewise available from IT&M and they can be sampled for free (a free trial is available).
The IT&M site was pleasing to the eye and well organized. Many of the products and services might be useful to one interested in M-commerce benchmarking and best practice – I used the search feature and found conferences, reports, seminars, books and more related to best practice and benchmarking. Because IT&M is a consultancy, one should expect to find little information for free. That said, the site still seems to be a worth while destination, especially for practitioners serious about their benchmarking program and striving for success in M-commerce.
The European Telecommunications Standards Institute
The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) is an independent, non-profit organization based in France, whose mission is to produce telecommunications standards for today and for the future. ETSI, officially recognized by the European Commission and comprised of some 688 members from 55 countries in and outside of Europe, is responsible for standardization of Information and Communication Technologies (telecommunications, broadcasting and related areas such as intelligent transportation and medical electronics) in Europe. While I found the site to be very tastefully designed, I recommend that visitors use the site map or the ETSI Portal (links to each appear in the top navigation bar on the ETSI homepage) for fast navigation of the site. The site map is divided into “Want to Know about ETSI,” “On ETSI's radar,” “Services and Products,” and “ETSI's galaxy.” The first area is primarily information about the ETSI, like what it does, how one can become a member, and more. The “ETSI's radar” area has links to the ETSI press room and hot new press topics (press releases by ETSI, etc.), events, workshops, literature, new technologies and more. Most of these links access information about existing or developing standards. The services and products area and the ETSI's galaxy area are likewise rich with links to information about standards.
The ETSI portal is the most impressive aspect of the ETSI site. From the portal one has access to volumes and volumes of information via links to materials on the ETSI site and elsewhere on the Web. One need only select a topic of interest from the many topics available atop the portal page and one will see the latest news on that topic, meeting announcements, draft documents and more. The portal is so vast that it would require an entire editorial to do it justice. A couple of portal features warrant special mention. First, the Guide (see dropdown list so-named at top of portal page) has links to terms and definitions, document drafting rules, a guide for establishing partnerships to draft and promote standards, a Listserve and more. While the Guide is certainly helpful, the way to quickly find information pertaining to best practice and benchmarking M-commerce is the search feature on the ETSI Portal page. One can search the portal, the ETSI web, 3GPP (a 3G initiative of which ETSI is a part), and the Docbox. The search feature was quite sophisticated in that one could select categories, and refine searches to make them more productive (produce less junk to sift through). I did portal searches on M-commerce, best practice and benchmarking and each search produced numerous hits (links to materials on and off the site). I highly recommend using the search to find information on the ETSI site. It will save one much time and effort. That said, visitors may wish to simply explore the ETSI site through the Portal. I was quite impressed with the way the portal was organized and with the way it worked. This is one of the best portals I have seen with regard to its function in facilitating access to targeted information. This site is worth a visit, if for no other reason than to examine the impressive portal. If one is interested in benchmarking performance in the area of standards adoption, development and use, this site is a must see.
The focus of BIJ is on “topics that have substantial management content, rather than being primarily technical in nature.” The content of this internet editorial is consistent with that focus. M-commerce is an evolving area of business that is expected to dramatically affect the lives of consumers in the near future and to be important to business and government. At present, M-commerce is in it infancy, so there are not many sites devoted exclusively to M-commerce generally, or M-commerce benchmarking and best practice specifically. It is noteworthy that many of the sites included herein pertain to standards. That is fitting because standards development and implementation are critical to the success of M-commerce. Standards will shape the evolution of M-commerce and dramatically impact the time it takes for the many potential benefits of M-commerce to accrue to consumers, business, government, and other institutions. As M-commerce grows, I would expect to find more sites devoted to M-commerce benchmarking and promoting best practice in this evolving area of commerce. I will likely revisit this topic in the next year or two to highlight new sites and re-examine some of the sites featured herein to see what progress has been made. For now, the twelve sites included in this editorial should help readers learn more about M-commerce generally as well as M-commerce best practice and benchmarking.
I strive to prepare editorials that best meet the needs of BIJ readers. Your views are important to me and will influence the format and content of future editorials. Any assistance you can provide to help me achieve that goal is appreciated. If you have a site or know of a site that you would like to see featured in future editorials, please E-mail me your suggestions. Send your comments and suggestions to Ronald McGaughey at: ronmc@uca.edu
Ronald E. McGaugheyInternet Editor