Our topic this month for our Trends and Changes in ICT Series. is "e-business Readiness in the SME Community in Atlantic Canada" by Daniel Doiron, Acting Director of Electronic Commerce Centre - UNBSJ. Today we need to know the differences between e-business and e-commerce, and understand the principles behind business value on the Internet. How has e-business been used successfully in New Brunswick .How do you move your business online.

In 2004 and 2005 the Electronic Commerce Research and Training Centre at the University of New Brunswick in Saint John performed two benchmark research studies in an attempt to understand the readiness of SME’s in New Brunswick and Atlantic Canada

respectively, to utilize e-business solutions within their businesses.

Dan will share the learning from this research and discuss subsequent training initiatives designed to help this sector evolve into an e-readiness state. He will also share some learnings from case studies of successful e-business stories in the Atlantic SME

community.

Dan is a founding partner of Encite Inc. a marketing distribution company that serves the Canadian telecommunications and video gaming markets. He is also a full time member of the Faculty of Business at UNB in Saint John. He teaches in the areas of new venture development, small business management, management of information systems, competitive strategy and managing innovation. His current research interests lie in the field of broad based innovation management. He also performs the duties as the Director of the Electronic Commerce Research and Training Centre for the University of New Brunswick in Saint John.

Prior to forming Encite and joining UNB, Dan was involved in founding two high technology companies for a large corporate investor. The first, NBI, a software company, founded in 1992, grew to become a key provider of real time billing and prepaid calling solutions to the cellular telephone market. In 1998 this software was successfully sold to Nortel. In 1999, Dan founded Prexar LLC, a northern New England based internet and broadband services provider. Within two short years Prexar grow to be Maine’s largest regional Internet Services Provider. It was sold in May of 2003.

Dan began his 19 year career in the telecommunications and internet industries when he

joined NBTel in 1984 following his graduation from the University of New Brunswick where he received a Bachelor degree in Electrical Engineering. In 1991, Dan received a Masters Degree in the Management of Technology from the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Dan resides in Saint John with his wife Jackie and their three boys.

The University of New Brunswick in Saint John established the Electronic Commerce Centre (ECC) in 1997 to foster the growth of e-commerce and e-business practices. This unique alliance of the public and private sectors was founded through a partnership that included NBTel, Sun Microsystems, Nortel Networks, Scotiabank, the Province of New Brunswick , and DMR Consulting. This alliance recognized that a key priority for the successful adoption of e-commerce and e-business is ‘human capital' qualified to manage and lead in the new economy, and defined the ECC's mission accordingly.

12:00: Registration

12:10: Luncheon

12:15: Speaker

1:00: Adjournment

Please register for this event by Noon on Tuesday, October 24th , 2006. This allows us to notify the Union Club of the number of meals required by at least the day before. You may register Online at http://www.cips.ca/loyalist or by email Loyalist@CIPS.CA. or by phone 657-6707.