Snapshot of E-Commerce's Opportunities and Threats

E-commerce offers opportunities to change the way of doing business. However fully utilizing these opportunities and overcoming the bottlenecks, requires more than just getting online. The currently low Internet trade volumes confirm this. This paper gives a snapshot of opportunities and bottlenecks for e-commerce, regarding the internal organization as well as the organization within a larger business network. How should organizations integrate e-commerce into their current business processes? Which strategies should be followed to be successful on electronic markets? Which roles within the business network should and can be played utilizing e-commerce? Apparently new business models and strategies are required, but the engineering question is open for the future. The identified bottlenecks and opportunities, placed in a research framework of analysis, can serve as a handle in these re-engineering projects.