Perdue School  Offers Electronic Business Program 

SALISBURY, MD---The Franklin P. Perdue School of Business at Salisbury State University is offering a 14-week course on cutting-edge electronic and business know-how that local companies can use to cut costs, increase productivity and enhance revenues. The Electronic Business Program, offered under the umbrella of the Project Management Group (PMG), takes participants through different aspects of e-business and makes them intelligent consumers and decision-makers in the use of e-business.

"They will know how to procure the right services from the right providers and how to configure the e-business activities of their organization," said Dr. Memo Diriker, project management group director. "They will know how to keep themselves up-to-date in this rapidly changing environment."

Topics covered include converting from regular business to e-business; supply-chain management using the Internet; choosing  from Internet service providers; e-commerce, privacy and security issues; electronic funds transfer; managing transactions electronically; database marketing in the connected world; and financial and accounting functions on the Internet and Intranet. The course is offered in two versions; one open to upper division and/or M.B.A. students for course credit, and the other to anyone interested from the community. Community members who successfully complete the course receive a certificate of participation.

Using this technology has become such an increasingly important way of doing business that entities that want to survive, let alone stay competitive, must incorporate it. "Think back a decade or two," Diriker said. "Did you have the option of doing business without having a telephone or fax machine or even a photocopier at your office? Can you think of doing business without them today? I guarantee you 10 years from now doing business in a form other than electronically is going to be equally unthinkable. The genie is out of the bottle."