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12/20/2003

A Look Ahead: eCommerce Trends in 2004
by Timothy Lee, Associate Extension Specialist, UALR Lead Center

As a year ends, one often wonders what the new year will bring. Here's a peek at some of the buzz words and acronymns you'll be hearing more often in 2004.

GIS - Geographical information systems, long the domain of government planners and scientists, is starting to catch fire among businesses. Low cost GIS software now enables small businessess to create custom maps showing locations of customers and suppliers, optimum driving routes, and sales area demographics. GIS offers lots of opportunities to provide GIS services to existing businesses. To take future advantage of GIS, consider "geocoding" your existing customer database with the decimal latitude and longitude of each customer's address. You'll be glad you did.
http://www.esri.com/software/arcexplorer
http://www.travelgis.com/geocode

OSS - Open source software has recently become a viable alternative for small businesses, thanks to recent changes in license agreements and large price increases by major software companies. Open source software, like OpenOffice, now competes toe-to-toe with name brand software and saves small businesses hundreds of dollars per computer. Sites like SourceForge provide centralized cataloging and access to thousands of programs.
http://www.openoffice.org
http://sourceforge.net

RSS - Really Simple Syndication allows businesses to easily provide "feeds" of frequently changing information such as news releases. Free RSS aggregator software, like Awasu, now allow consumers to collect and aggregate RSS feeds for easy access. Consider a resolution to add an RSS feed to your website.
http://www.awasu.com
http://www.syndic8.com

RFID - Radio Frequency Identification, also known as "smart tags", has just kicked into high gear thanks to recent announcements by both Wal-Mart and the US Government. Several third parties, such as Zebra, now offer standard size RFID-enabled labels ready to be printed with existing barcodes and inventory information. Consider subscribing to an RFID email newsletter, like RFID Journal, to keep up with this hot field.
http://www.rfid.zebra.com
http://www.rfidjournal.com

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The Arkansas Small Business and Technology Development Center is funded in part through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration through a partnership with the University of Arkansas at Little Rock College of Business and other institutions of higher education. All opinions, conclusions or recommendations expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the SBA. It is the goal of UALR to eliminate discriminatory harassment and to promote equal opportunity regardless of race, gender, color, national origin, sexual orientation, age, religion, veteran's status, or disability.