BuddeBlog

Telstra’s involvement in the Telstra Visa and the Qantas Telstra Visa (QTV) cards with the ANZ bank has been the largest of its kind, but in March 2002, Telstra announced that it was scaling down its participation in these schemes.

As from mid-June 2002, the one million QTV members would have their rewards points converted to the Qantas Frequent Flyer scheme. Prior to this, members have been able to store and save reward points for up to two years in an ANZ account, with reward points redeemable for Telstra products and services. With the changes in June, the QVT card will become the Qantas ANZ Visa card. Telstra is also extracting itself from the Telstra Visa card programs it has with the ANZ. This will start in April 2002 when the ANZ will take over management of the cards.

Telstra’s moves out of the sector are reportedly to cut costs. There was also speculation that it will reduce its involvement in smart cards schemes, particularly its interest in Keycorp. Telstra denied this and also denied that it had ambitions to directly compete with financial services providers. This latter prospect becomes possible when the Reserve Bank implements its recommendations following its 2001 investigation into the credit card market.

See also:
Telstra Corporation – E-commerce and Multimedia;
Australia – Electronic Purses (Smart Cards).

Tourist Vision is a national network of some 50 interactive tourism information kiosks owned and operated by POSMedia. In August 2002, POSMedia announced that the Tourist Vision product would be expanded and upgraded. The existing delivery platform was already being migrated to NCR Internet equipment as a result of POSMedia’s agreements with NCR. Additional functionality was being added to the devices such as printing and telephony services. The existing kiosks were to be replaced on a staged basis in parallel with commencement of new sites.

See also: Australia – EFTPOS, ATMs.

The Supa-Juke Media System is a multi-faceted delivery platform focused on the storage, management and distribution of creative digital assets, mainly music, but also video and advertising/media messages. The system consists of database management, transmission management and a variety of end products that are able to remotely manage, deliver and present digital media content to end users. The system has been fully developed and implemented in South Africa since 2000, and has undergone pilots in Australia and other overseas markets.

An example of the platform’s application in 2002 was the Digital Supa-Jukebox, whereby compressed and encrypted music content is stored on a central server, and remotely delivered to sites where the Supa-Juke hardware product is installed. This project has the support of international music content owners, who have recognized the value of the Supa-Juke as a legitimate tool for the responsible distribution of digital music.

POSMedia was looking at Super-Juke Australia Pty Ltd back in 2000 and finally acquired the company in mid-2002.

See also: Australia – EFTPOS, ATMs.

A national survey conducted by Dun & Bradstreet in January 2002 revealed 50% of firms said they have their own website and that it was ‘an integral part’ of the way they do business. This was up from 43% a year ago. However, 34% said a website was ‘not important’ to their business and that they didn’t own one. This figure has risen from 22% in January 2001.

Moreover, only 16% plan to have a website ‘in the near future’, less than half the 35% who were in this same position a year ago.

It appeared that executives were now divided into two camps. There are those making the Internet an important part of their business activities and those who have rejected the concept outright.

See also:
Australia – E-commerce – B2B Overview and Statistics;
Australia – E-commerce – B2B Projects, E-Procurement and Analysis;
Australia – Business Market Statistics;
Australia – Market reports – Business Market by Segment;
Global – E-commerce – B2B Market.

In August 2002 Setel published a report on SME E-commerce. It includes a number of recommendations addressing the perceived barriers to up-take of e-commerce by SMEs. The need for an SME e-commerce forum was based on the perception that a significant number of SMEs, and the majority of micro businesses, were ‘failing’ to adopt e-commerce.

The report identifies four key elements in seeking to determine what was necessary to achieve faster uptake of e-commerce by SMEs. These were De-mystification, Simplification, Leadership and promotion.

Key findings in the report were:
E-commerce for most SMEs should be an extension of their existing business methods (not a replacement).
The SME sector needs substantial encouragement to become productively involved in e-commerce at all but the basic levels, such as e-mail.
Efforts to adopt e-commerce should not erode the core business activities of an SME.
Associations can play a role in facilitating the uptake of e-commerce by SMEs via education and training and peer influence.
Suppliers must contribute to the simplification of products and services offered to SMEs.
Governments and industry have a role in de-mystifying e-commerce for SMEs.
SMEs need to accept more responsibility for the adoption of e-commerce within their businesses if they want individually tailored solutions.
Training (in both technology and management) is the most significant component of this element.

See also:
Australia – E-commerce – B2B Overview and Statistics;
Australia – E-commerce – B2B Projects, E-Procurement and Analysis;
Australia – Business Market Statistics;
Australia – Market reports – Business Market by Segment;
Global – E-commerce – B2B Market.