This talk will discuss some of the major trends in electronic commerce and the practical issues software research challenges they raise. The explosive growth of electronic commerce and of new business models presents many opportunities for experimentation and success.
New structures are forming, new ways of interacting are now possible and are likely to be essential.
Complex marketplaces will replace simple web sites, multiparty negotiations and ad hoc groupings will replace simple catalog sales, efficient specialists will flourish. Business processes will be more widely distributed and their associations will be more dynamic. Businesses will cross borders and time zones routinely, and many more activities will be automated. As a result, software will be central to the new enterprise. Even today some e-commerce companies are little more than software and a web of legal contracts.