IBM Canada President and
CEO John Wetmore this week announced the membership and first meeting of the
e-business Acceleration Team, a blue-ribbon panel of industry leaders and a
follow-on activity for the Canadian E-business Opportunities Roundtable.
The e-business Acceleration Team has taken on the mission of creating a
sense of awareness and urgency for Canadian companies to adopt e-business by
reengineering their business models to compete effectively in a networked
world.
“Canada has not embraced e-business at the rate we’re seeing in the United
States, which means that the Canadian economy may miss many of the benefits
of this economic driver,” said Wetmore, who is also chairman of the E-business
Acceleration Team.
“Canada’s share of global electronic commerce was about seven percent at the
beginning of last year but is projected to drop to four percent in 2003
unless Canadian businesses move quickly and implement e-business models.”
According to the January, 2000 Report of the Canadian E-business
Roundtable, if Canada embraces e-business, its Internet-based economy
could climb to $156-billion in revenues and create 180,000 incremental high
value jobs by 2003, substantially increasing national productivity and
international competitiveness.
“There’s a significant amount of work that has to take place over the next
year if Canadian business is going to close the gap with the U.S. and get
our share of this opportunity,” said Wetmore.
“With the E-business Acceleration Team, we are well positioned to move
toward the goal line.”
The E-business Acceleration Team, which is comprised of 21 senior level
corporate executives and trade association directors, is a working group of
the Canadian e-business Opportunities Roundtable.
