Saturday, October 27, 2001

Coles Together president: E-commerce will eventually change lives

BY SHARON HARGIS
Staff Writer
   MATTOON -Although the future of e-commerce via the Internet seems assured, it's going to be more of an evolution rather than a revolution, said Coles Together President Bill Rowland. 
   "It's going to be changing and growing over a period of time because of the inherent advantages it offers to businesses, especially rural businesses, that use it," Rowland told participants in an e-business workshop sponsored by the Lumpkin College of Business and Applied Services at Eastern Illinois University Friday. He was one of four speakers on how companies are using the Internet to compete in the global market.
    Rowland, of First Mid- Illinois Bank & Trust, presented a program on IPartner- SHIP, an east-central Illinois project to create an e-commerce distribution center for the United States based on a feasibility study completed last year by logistics based in Green Bay, Wis. The project is sponsored by Coles Together , the city of Effingham and Agracel Inc., the Effingham- based development group "owned by Jack Schultz.
    "I have to admit at first even I thought it sounded like a pipe dream, but the more I reviewed the study the more I realized that this is realistic for us," he said. "We are centrally located, we have an available work force, and we can provide fast and cost-efficient delivery."
'" The feasibility study compared east -central Illinois with six cities - Indianapolis; Memphis, Tenn.;. Nashville, Tenn.; Louisville, Ky.;  Columbus, Ohio; and Reno, Nev. The proposed distribution center in east-central Illinois could operate from $5.2 million
 to $38.5 million cheaper than , the cities in the study. 
    "We are within 500 miles, or a one-day drive, to 24 percent of the country's other cities and 1,000 miles, or a two-day drive, to 67 percent of the rest of the country ," Rowland said.
    Some Internet ventures are not successful. Rowland cited an effort by BankOne, the largest bank in the country, to create an e-commerce bank site it called Wingspan.
    "While at first it met with some success, it never got the critical mass it needed to succeed. About six months ago, Wingspan very quietly merged with BankOne. We're learning that you can't base everything around the Internet, those projects have not been successful," Rowland said.
   But, he said, companies that use the Internet to support an established customer base and business are doing pretty well.
   "While the predictions were off on when it was going to I happen, it seems that the Internet will ultimately change our lives," Rowland said.
   Richard Palmer, a Lumpkin distinguished professor of business at EIU, cited information from a recent study that indicates buyers like e-procurement technology , or the automated acquisition of goods and services by businesses using the Internet.
    In the study of 168 respondents, more than half of which were large or Fortune 500 companies, only 25 percent indicated they were investing in e-business  while the remaining 75 percent indicated they were taking a "wait and see" approach before making a commitment or investment in a Web site.
   "But 86 percent indicated they were buying on the Internet already," Palmer said.
   Some of the challenges for businesses using the Internet, he explained, is integrating it with current supplier systems and a lack of suppliers willing to invest in e-catalogs.
   Rowland cited figures that indicated that in 2002 e-com- fierce will be at $60 billion and more than $100 billion in 2003.
   The proposed distribution center for east -central Illinois could serve a number of businesses and not just one company, Rowland said in an earlier story. The center, handling 50,000 orders per day, would create an estimated 900 jobs.
   The IPartner-SHIP.com project received two grants in May, a $50,000 grant from Illinois FIRST and a $50,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, to keep it moving ahead.
      "Currently we've been developing some consistent, low-cost public relations material for our Web site. And we're hoping to attract some e- commerce businesses, " Rowland said.
     A slowing economy and problems with some of the dot-com companies have hampered the project's progress.
     "Certainly the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11 (have) slowed the economy even more, but we believe that over the long term, it will grow. " 

Contact Sharon Hargis at shargis@jg-tc.com.

Coles Together President Bill Rowland addresses the audience Friday at Eastern Illinois University's Lumpkin Hall during an e-business workshop sponsored by the Lumpkin College of Business and applied Services.