e-SME: Expanding business opportunities in Ilocos Norte through e-commerce

Traditional or physical commerce is not exactly displaced nowadays, but the rising prevalence of electronic commerce as an alternative approach is threatening the popularity of the former. Transactions within traditional commerce involve a direct seller-buyer contact; other potential transactions are constricted because of geographical considerations as in the case of a business center situated in a remote area. With the Internet, e-commerce has created a virtual market place with a business application involving online marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange, automated data collection systems, among others. From recent statistics, large enterprises are outnumbered by their small and medium counterparts with the latter comprising 99.6% of the total business establishments in the country. SMEs also account for 53% of total employment generated and represent around 60% of total exporting firms all over the country. The sector of SMEs is acknowledged as comprising the little giants of the economy and as a catalyst of national economic growth, and with this recognition, the present administration of GMA has refocused economic policies in favor of these enterprises with efforts to expand domestic markets as well as non-traditional markets for their sustained growth and competitiveness. In terms of assets and manpower, most SMEs in Ilocos Norte are micro and a few are medium scale enterprises. Even in extreme business situations such as that involving a cutthroat competition, said enterprises are thriving, yet some conditions forestall their optimum potential, namely, their inability to penetrate the global market, difficulty to access much needed information and scarce assistance and programs to support their growth. The Department of Trade and Industry has a well-defined policy on its stakeholder SMEs, however, the efficient delivery of its services to these establishments is reduced because of the setbacks of its present set-up which relies on traditional techniques and which has been barely transformed. This study focuses on a generic e-commerce system application as a viable option for the utilization of information technology resources in these businesses. The system has three major capabilities: Content Management, Commerce Management and Customer Service Management; specific functionalities are under each which enable the entire system to provide commercial transactions electronically and online. With this innovation, business among the small and medium enterprises is ushered expanded opportunities. The key players in this study are the small and medium enterprises of Ilocos Norte, the Department of Trade and Industry and the buying public