Qweb: Fifty and growingQweb, the IQNet certification system for e-business and e-commerce activities is now operating in Argentina, Brazil, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Portugal, Slovenia and Switzerland.
At the end of July 2003 the number of active certified websites passed 50, marking the first important milestone for this new service.
The www.qwebmark.net website has been refurbished and is now ready to become a multi-lingual site in order to be an easy-to-access reference for the e-commerce customers of the certified websites.
In terms of research and development a group of IQNet Qweb partners has set-up a project for a high level post-graduate training course with the purpose of enhancing the knowledge of e-business management. The project partners include three Universities in Europe. The project named “DIGI-Q - Quality and on-line confidence in SMEs e-business processes” has been funded (IST-2001-38157) by the European Commission – Information Society Directorate within the “e-Europe” action plan.
The main aim of DIGI-Q is to increase the SMEs capabilities by being more competitive in the digital economy age. Candidate trainees, currently under selection, are not only graduate student wishing to enhance their knowledge, but also professionals and company personnel desiring to get the right training in order to become “process managers” for a transition towards the e-economy. The first training course is ready to start in the Czech Republic, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Slovenia. It will last one year until July 2004. The course includes practical project works carried out by the trainees under the tutorship of the University teachers. The analysis and development will consist of an e-business process in a real company. We also expect these companies to access the Qweb certification in a privileged way.
IQNet is now enhancing the Qweb system by including a new character: the Qweb Enabler. In the other certification schemes the applicant company needs, in most cases, help from a consultant in order to set-up a certifiable system. After many years of experience consultants are well defined professionals which are partners of both the IQNet certification bodies and the certified companies: they are generally specialised in one or more management systems and their services on the market can be easily found and accessed.
The case of Qweb is different. The set-up of a company website for e-business or e-commerce activities is not in the hand of a defined professional or organisation. We noticed that websites are designed and implemented by a variety of companies and professionals: advertiser, marketing and public relation persons, software companies, just to mention a few. Potential Qweb customers are sometimes in trouble when they decide to enter the world of e-business. For this reason IQNet has implemented a qualification system for providers of Qweb conforming websites: the Qweb Enablers. In fact it is not an actual “certification” in compliance with a defined standard, but just a method to qualify them and give them visibility in the Qweb system. The qualification defined by the IQNet partners is described in the document “Qweb Enablers qualification - edition 1” which may be obtained from the IQNet Secretariat. After the qualification the Qweb Enablers shall be registered in the www.qwebmark.net website. The registration includes the Enabler identification data and a short presentation page. The Enablers shall expose the Qweb Enabler logo on their websites and the validity of the qualification is checked with a mouse click (the same happens for the Qweb certified websites).
Dario Agalbato
Qweb Project Manager
IGQ/CISQ
aga@igq.it