Speeches

Rapid Response in an e-World

Lightning speed.

That's generally the description given for how rapidly changes in technology occur -- changes that are reshaping how we live, work, learn and do business.

At Penn State we are attempting to answer the challenges presented by these changes with the same lightning speed. It is fitting that we hold this e-Business Dedication Day to celebrate not only the many contributions Penn State has already made to the world of e-commerce, but also the role we have played and will continue to play in the advancement of the digital age.

Several years ago at Penn State, we recognized the great power and potential of technology for creating new economies, educating more people and rewriting history. Our researchers in a broad cross-section of disciplines are gaining insight into this technological revolution and discovering ways to not only use these converging technologies, but to help businesses take full advantage of the transformative powers of the Internet.

Growth of the e-World

Since 1995, information technology has accounted for more than a third of the economic growth in the United States alone, according to the Commerce Department. It has been estimated that by 2002, Internet-related businesses will create 10 million jobs across the globe.

By the year 2002, 490 million people around the world will have Internet access. Over the next three years, the use of high-speed Internet connections will grow six-fold as broadband subscribers increase from about 5.4 million to 32 million.

Every day, more and more Americans are going online to conduct day-to-day activities such as business transactions, personal correspondence, education and research and information gathering.

This rapid surge in e-power, which has made the Internet an integral part of our daily lives, requires equally rapid responses for digital solutions from universities -- the most wired community on the Web.

As proof of our connectivity, at Penn State this year 115,000 access accounts have been assigned to students, faculty and staff. We process 2.7 million e-mail messages a day, up considerably from the 300,000 handled just five years ago, and we have one of the largest numbers of active online users of any university in the nation.

In a recently released study of first-year students and seniors at 276 colleges and universities across the nation, Penn State scored considerably higher than the national average on items related to the use of technology, such as using e-mail to communicate with an instructor or to complete an assignment.

Penn State's Role in the New Economy

These statistics are not surprising, considering that from the early beginnings of the Internet, Penn State has been involved. We were a driving force in the creation of Internet 2, the high-speed research and education network that is 45,000 times faster than the average modem connection and 10 times faster than the original Internet. As a founding member of the consortium overseeing Internet 2 development, we are extremely active in the continuing efforts of this project, including the latest work to create a national, high-resolution digital-video network for higher education that would greatly enhance teaching and research capabilities.

Other forays into technology have positioned Penn State as a leader in the United States in our ability to connect people and maximize new opportunities. Not only was Penn State one of the first institutions to take advantage of emerging technologies and create a virtual university that now provides anytime, anywhere learning -- already to more than 3,000 current students across the globe -- but we hope to play a significant role in the near future in educating thousands of members of the U.S. military.

The launch last year of our School of Information Sciences and Technology may have been the fastest deployment of a new academic school or college in the history of American higher education. The school, already serving more than 1,300 students at 19 locations across the state, is developing the leadership Pennsylvania and the nation will need in this new digital, international economy.

e-Business Explosion

Recent reports have estimated that business-to-business online trading will grow to more than $6 trillion by 2005. That's a 20-fold growth rate over the next five years. On the e-tailing end of things, it is estimated that 6.3 million Americans will spend the majority of their budget this holiday season shopping online -- a three-fold increase over 1999.

At Penn State, we are experienced in business-to-business commerce, using technology for salary transactions with banks, purchasing card transactions, and electronic payments to vendors. Altogether, Penn State's business-to business commerce involves hundreds of millions of dollars in transactions each year. We know Web technologies hold even more potential for increasing efficiency.

Penn State also offers many e-services that less than a decade ago were only part of futuristic musings. Students are able to apply for admission, check course availability, register for classes, audit their own degree progress, check grades, review schedules, visit the Library, be considered for housing, request transcripts, purchase computers and consult an adviser, all through the power of new technologies. In October alone, more than 1,500 prospective Penn State students submittedadmissions applications via the Web.

But our e-initiatives do not stop with our internal efforts to transform our own business and administrative functions. Our College of Agricultural Sciences has constructed a Web site to provide dairy farmers with up-to-date information on pricing, market data, dairy forecasting models, links to resources and finance tools. Students across the university are using new technologies to provide them with training that will ensure their success in an e-world. In the Smeal College of Business Administration, students can experience a Wall Street trading room environment through the use of online real-time data feeds and software that allows them to simulate trading transactions. In March, Penn State Harrisburg opened an E-Commerce Center in cooperation with the state and corporate partners to equip Pennsylvania businesses with the skills necessary to compete successfully in the new digital arena.

And today's official dedication of an eBusiness Research Center at Penn State marks another important milestone in our history as an engaged university that is working to provide ready answers to some of our nation's most pressing needs.

The eBRC

The eBusiness Research Center, a joint effort between The Smeal College of Business Administration and the School of Information Sciences and Technology, is a home for preeminent research involving e-commerce, and an essential resource for industry, academe and government. Thanks to the generous support of our corporate sponsors, who you will be introduced to shortly, this innovative center can help open doors for new business models.

In an era when being digitally connected is critical to the economic and educational advancement of both our state and nation, institutions such as Penn State must deliver on their promise to provide a skilled and educated workforce, as well as to help businesses remain viable and vital. Cooperation will be the key to future growth of e-business.

At Penn State, we have and will continue to provide expert advice and leadership as we pair with corporate partners to help them thrive in this highly interactive and borderless economy. The information technology field is fertile ground for collaboration with business and industry, which is why I am so pleased to have the support of corporations like IBM, Unisys, Xerox, AT&T Wireless, Delphi Ventures and SAP. Such partnerships support educational activities, open up markets for programs and services, provide equipment, and offer opportunities to investigate these revolutionary tools. Research into new technologies is one area that has been identified as critical to any e-initiative.

In a 1998 national report, President Clinton's Information Technology Advisory Committee recognized that federal support for research in information technology was "dangerously inadequate." The report went on to state that more spending on research was necessary to protect the nation from "catastrophic failures" of transportation, military, business and health-care systems.

Who is more prepared to help answer the looming challenges posed by the e-world and provide solid, substantial research into promising technologies than an institution like Penn State that has been an active player in ushering in the digital age?

The Internet and other technologies are essential tools that businesses must know how to use efficiently and effectively in order to remain competitive in the next century. From the hotel that takes reservations via the Internet to authors who release their literary works online -- information technology is providing business solutions that will deliver tangible business results. Penn State's eBusiness Research Center will help shape these promising e-business practices. Part of the center will involve an eBusiness Incubator Laboratory that will look at emerging e-business models that could prove useful to a number of industries.

eBusiness Future

At Penn State, we want businesses in the Commonwealth to be in the vanguard of this migration from today's manual, paper-based solutions to tomorrow's digital strategies that are driving down the cost of doing business.

Take the banking industry as an example. It costs the bank $1.07 to use a teller for a transaction. It costs the bank just 27 cents for the same transaction on an ATM or automated teller machine. Many of those transactions are now made on the Internet, and cost the bank just a penny. That's a serious cost savings for any business.

But businesses must be able to envision how new technology can move them forward and they must be willing to embrace technological change, as the story I am about to relay illustrates well.

From 1900 to 1967, the Swiss were the leading watchmakers in the world. In 1967, when digital technology was patented by the Swiss, they rejected it in favor of the traditional ball bearings, gears and mainsprings they had been using for decades to make watches. But the world was ready for this advance, and Seiko, a Japanese company, picked up the digital patent and, almost overnight, became the leading watch manufacturer in the world.

Fifty thousand of the 67,000 Swiss watchmakers went out of business because they refused to embrace this new technology. It was not until years later that the Swiss caught up and regained their position in the marketplace.

Corporations across the globe are being forced to remake themselves in the wake of the Internet's neck-snapping growth and because of the extraordinary pace of change in technology itself. These changes are presenting major challenges -- challenges that can and will be overcome through research and knowledge. This is what the eBusiness Research Center is all about -- overcoming obstacles and moving into the future. I was once told that technology is like a steamroller. If you are not on the steamroller, then you are destined to become part of the road.

I believe the eBusiness Research Center at Penn State is a monumental step that will help business and industry remain in the driver's seat.