The Impact of E-Commerce on the Role of the IS Professional: an exploratory study

This paper describes findings from a case research study that examined the impact of e- Commerce on the role of an IS professional. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with fifteen participants from a variety of public and private organisations. All participants had previous background and experience in one particular area of IS and are currently participating or had participated in e-Commerce projects. A classification scheme that divides the role of an IS professional into four competency domains – technical, business, relationship and conceptual – was used as a guide during the analysis of research data. The findings of the study indicate that IS professionals need to change the ‘relationship’ and ‘conceptual’ domains of their role in order to perform more effectively in the e-Commerce environment. Implications of the findings for practice and research are discussed