New, Targeted Online Marketing Service to Boost Global Business-to-Business e-Commerce E-Club Offered By World Chambers Network Helps Ensure that Buyers and Sellers <>
November 20, 1998
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PARIS, Nov. 19 /PRNewswire/ via NewsEdge Corporation -- The World Chambers Network broke new ground today by introducing e-Club, an interactive online marketing service that helps provide chamber members with global e-commerce opportunities that always reach their target.
The service enables subscribing chamber members to e-mail a business opportunity automatically to potential customers anywhere in the world who have already said they want to know about business opportunities in selected categories. Subscribers also can verify with whom they are dealing.
e-Club's approach to e-commerce helps ensure that buyers or sellers of goods and services focus precisely where potential business exists in the vastness of cyberspace.
e-Club is a special feature of the World Chambers Network (WCN), an Internet service built on the world Chambers of Commerce movement, which traces its roots to the trade guilds of Renaissance Europe. WCN already offers an extensive business opportunities database, the Global Business eXchange, the Chambers of Commerce Registry (the most complete on the Internet) and a trade resource library.
Four-Member WCN Consortium, with Support from IBM
The consortium running WCN consists of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the Trade Information Network of the UN/G77 Conference of Chambers of Commerce, the Paris Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the International Business Network for World Commerce & Industry Ltd. (I*B NET). The e-Club application and Global Business eXchange were developed and will be supported by IBM Global Services over the IBM Global Network.
Details of any product or service offered by an e-Club member are instantly e-mailed to other members with matching needs. Members can be buyers and sellers at the same time. For instance, a company that manufactures radios can actively offer them to prospective buyers while also receiving offers from component manufacturers.
Other examples might include a prospective purchaser of goods or of legal, accounting or other professional services. Or perhaps an investor seeking to buy a business or enter a partnership. With e-Club, this can be done so easily because they only need to enter an e-Club buying "advertisement" and it is automatically routed to all interested suppliers of the desired product, service or opportunity who are in a position to immediately respond. WCN provides a digital electronic certificate to each member while IBM employs the latest encryption and other security technology to help keep vital business information secure and confidential.
"e-Club provides what advertisers have dreamed for years -- the ability to reach only the people who are interested in their message," said Myrna Z. Weiss, Chief Executive Officer of I*B NET, WCN's Managing Partner.
"With e-Club, the recipient of the business opportunity now has the ability to respond to the advertisement with one click of a button, all for about USD1.00 a day. And the recipient can view the company profile before responding. It is interactive rather than the traditional passive advertising, " Ms. Weiss added.
A further advantage is that buyer and seller are both assured that they are dealing with legitimate businesses because chambers of commerce have validated the company membership applications. Confidentiality also is protected. e-Club and all other WCN services may be accessed on the Internet at www.worldchambers.com.
Any Company's Gateway to Global Business Partners
Maria Livanos Cattaui, Secretary General of ICC -- the world's leading business organization and a founding member of the WCN consortium -- said: "The Internet is the great leveler. By joining e-Club, any company, whatever its size and financial resources, can start to find and evaluate business partners on a global basis."
"ICC is backing the project because an increasingly important part of our job is to help companies to use the Internet to expand their business," Mrs. Cattaui said.
"IBM is excited to be hosting and supporting this new online service and believes it will provide a unique value to chamber members around the world, " said Neil Isford, vice president, e-commerce services, IBM Global Services. "Only IBM provides the breadth of hardware, software and services to enable the global deployment of an application like e-Club."
About IBM Global Services
With 1997 revenues of approximately $26 billion, IBM Global Services is the world's largest information technology services provider. IBM's fastest growing business segment has an unsurpassed breadth of capabilities, and more than 118,000 professionals helping companies of all sizes solve real business problems and create new business opportunities. For more information on IBM Global Services, visit www.ibm.com/services.
SOURCE I*B NET Limited
/CONTACT: Christian Serres, Director of Finance, Personnel and
Administration of ICC, 33-1-49-53-29-60, fax, 33-1-49-53-28-96, or
christian.serres@iccwbo.org; Myrna Z. Weiss, President and CEO of I*B NET
Limited, 212-398-4666, fax, 212-398-4670, or mzweiss@ibnet.com; or Rusty
Carpenter, Media Relations of IBM Global Services, 813-253-2449, fax, call
253-2449 first, or rcarpen@us.ibm.com/
/Web site: ibm.com
/Web site: worldchambers.com
[Copyright 1998, PR Newswire]
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