Ecommerce in Greece (2001-2007): From a business and a consumer perspective

It is common knowledge among Greek information and communication technology professionals and business people that despite the considerable growth of internet users' population to levels comparable to the rest of the digitally developed European Union counties, eCommerce activity is at a standstill at almost just over the 0 level. The results of the various surveys conducted locally are quite interesting statistically but do not explain the reasons Greece is not progressing towards the digital economy through the growth of eCommerce activity. This research is an attempt to break the norm in an effort to provide some insightful information about what is going wrong in Greece in relation not to internet penetration but to eCommerce activity. For this purpose on one hand business, marketing and technology executives were asked to share their understanding on certain qualitative issues related to the utilization of the technology and their strategic approach towards it through structured interviews with them. Additionally the web sites of a quite significant number of local medium and large size companies were evaluated based on a certain template designed for this purpose in an effort to compare executives' thoughts with actual deeds. On the other hand, everyday consumers, not particularly internet users, were conveniently sampled to express their concerns about eCommerce practice and reveal the reasons behind their hesitation to actively get involved with it. The results point to disappointing low investments in technology and poor organization of eCommerce strategies or completely lack of it despite the fact that professionals are fully aware and appreciative of the benefits such an undertaking would have if done properly. This was also verified by a number of the local web site designers interviewed during the study. As of the consumers, it verified their negative attitude towards eCommerce and provided the reasons behind this reality. There is a certain gap to be bridged between business people and the consumers which the study identifies while suggesting possible solutions to the problem

ICT developments and utilization in the Omani banking sector

While adopting information and communication technologies (ICT) has become inevitable, the next-level challenge to organizations is how well they are utilizing this technology asset. Almost two decades earlier, which is not a noticeable span of time of the human history, the research focus was on how beneficial adopting technology by organizations was. Nowadays, the focus of the research is shifted primarily to how well the technology should be managed and tuned to achieve the business strategic goals and attain its competitive advantage or secure survival at minimum. This study takes the commercial banking sector in Oman as a sample of a highly ICT-infused sector in the service industry. Its aims to assess the efficiency and effectiveness of managing the information systems run by a sector closely linked to its performance. The performance is the determinant of the competitiveness/surviving level of any organization; banks are no exception. The research methodology comprises of a self-administered questionnaire and an interview. The study was conducted over 6 months. The exploratory nature of this research and the relevant type of data collected (categorical and ordinal) has led to use the descriptive statistics including central-tendency measures. The interviews have triangulated and confirmed the quantitative data collected. The study finds that the selected sector has adopted latest ICT infrastructure in conducting both back-office and front-office business which are adopted by common competitors worldwide. However, the study finds that while the IT infrastructure follows the latest technologies in the field, there is still room to optimize the utilization of this infrastructure by improving its administrative as well as technical management of it. KEYWORDS: ICT infrastructure, ICT management, banking sector, management I