THE BENEFITS OF EC
Few innovations in human history encompass as many potential benefits as E-Commerce does. The global nature of the technology, low cost, opportunity to reach hundreds of million of people (projected within 10 years), interactive nature, variety of possibilities and resourcefulness and rapid growth of the supporting infrastructures (especially the Web) results in many potential benefits to organizations, individuals, and society. The benefits are just starting to materialize, but they will increase significantly as EC expands. It is not surprising that some maintain that the EC revolution is just ''as profound as the change that came with the industrial revolution" (Clinton and Gore 1997).
BENEFITS TO ORGANIZATIONS
? Electronic commerce expands the marketplace to national and international markets. With minimal capital outlay, a company can easily and quickly locate more customers, the best suppliers, and the most suitable business partners worldwide. For example, in 1997, Boeing Corporation reported a savings of 20 percent after a request for a proposal to manufacture a subsystem was posted on the Internet. A small vendor in Hungary answered the request and won the electronic bid. Not only was the subsystem cheaper, but it was delivered quickly.
? Electronic commerce decreases the cost of creating, processing, distributing, storing, and retrieving paper-based information. For example, by introducing an electronic procurement system, companies can cut the purchasing administrative costs by as much as 85 percent. Another example is benefit payments. For the U.S. federal government, the cost of issuing a paper check is 43 cents. The cost of electronic payment is 2 cents (more than 95 perce ...