Web Browser: In Support of E-commerce

The Financial Services sector has always been on the leading edge in the adoption of information technology. In the last decade, the focus has been on the development and implementation of customer-focused Financial solutions with increased integration across various product lines. In the past few years, there's been an emphasis on strengthening business continuity practices.

Over the last couple of years (and arguably for probably the next decade), the focus will be more and more on E-commerce initiatives. While E-commerce is huge (and beyond a one-page column to cover), the emphasis should be on meeting customer needs and starting small.

If innovative E-commerce pilot projects focused on meeting customer needs and reducing operating costs are not on your current IT project plans, then rethinking the organization's priorities is in order.

The featured Web site this month is an E-commerce information portal hosted by the Federal Electronic Commerce Program Office.

The Federal Electronic Commerce Program at http://www.ec.fed.gov coordinates, monitors, and reports on the development of E-commerce within the U.S. Federal Government. Their mission is to develop a policy framework to support EC, help government agencies find and use the best EC tools, and spread the most promising ideas across government. The site contains information on a host of EC topics and a comprehensive set of links to other EC-related sites.

The featured report this month highlights an ongoing research effort on Best Practices in E-commerce Security.

One of the fundamental requirements of E-commerce is effective security. ISACA (Information Systems Audit & Control Assocation) International, through its Research Foundation, is completing a "Best Practices" study on E-commerce security. This multi-volume study (led by Deloitte and Touche) will assist organizations in addressing the many security challenges facing E-commerce initiatives.

The initial report, "E-commerce Security: A Global Status Report", is currently available at http://www.isaca.org for a nominal cost. It completes the first stage of a four-phase research project intended to define best practices and evaluate the role, status and implementation of E-commerce security measures. The new report helps link business management initiatives with information systems security.

NOTABLE WEB SITES

E-commerce: www.commerce.net www.ec.fed.gov www.ecommerce.gov/ www2000.ogsm.Vanderbilt.edu/ ecommerce.internet.com e-conomy.berkeley.edu/ e.Gov Information Portal: egov.govtech.net/ egov.govtech.net/associations.phtml IT Policy On-Ramp: www.itpolicy.gsa.gov/ Controllership: www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/CMO_MFC/contents.htm Finance: www.financenet.gov/financenet www.financenet.gov/financenet/fed/cfo/cfo.htm SITES SUPPORTING I.T. & I.M. EFFORTS Improving IT Management Practices and Results: www.cio-dpi.gc.ca/home_e.html www.cio-dpi.gc.ca/emf/EMFIndex_e.html Project Management: www.pmi.org IT Governance: www.itgovernance.org www.isaca.org Working Smarter for Better Results: www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/CMO_MFC/publications.htm What Do You Recommend? Remember, Web Browser is always interested in your feedback. Please e-mail Dan Swanson with your recommendations for reports and Web sites of interest to IT executives.

Dan Swanson is a management consultant with LGS Group Inc. in Winnipeg. He specializes in audit and management consulting and can be reached at dswanson@lgs.ca.

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