7 August 1997, Business Wire: Businesses will spend $31 billion on Electronic Commerce-related software, hardware, products and services by the year 2001, according to Bill Burnham, senior research analyst at Piper Jaffray Inc. That's one of the conclusions Burnham draws in "The Electronic Commerce Report" released today. The first comprehensive study of the rapidly emerging Electronic Commerce industry, Burnham's report outlines how this spending threatens to topple many of the existing structures underpinning the economy. The 250-page document provides an in-depth examination of five separate areas of the Electronic Commerce industry: Internet Security, Electronic Payments, Financial Software, Business Commerce Software and Commerce Content (Internet-based retailing). The report includes projections for revenue growth, size of the electronic bill payment industry, number of electronic bill presentments and the number of commerce-oriented Internet sites. Some of the report's most significant findings include: -- Implementation of the Secure Electronic Transaction (SET) standard for Internet credit card transactions may be delayed due to compatibility and processing problems; -- Increasing concentration in the electronic payment sector will lead to the "death" of the current payment system. The Internet increasingly will be used in lieu of payment networks currently run by organizations such as Visa, Mastercard and the Federal Reserve; -- An estimated $228 billion in goods and services will be bought and paid for over the Internet in 2001. The consumer-to- business market will account for $26 billion in purchases while the business-to-business market will account for $202 billion in purchases - eight times larger than the consumer market; -- The Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) industry faces an increasing challenge from a new Internet-based technology called Direct Data Internet (DDI). DDI eventually will battle with the EDI industry for control of the business-to-business market on the Internet; -- Intelligent Agents -- software programs that automatically shop on behalf of consumers -- will eliminate the advantage enjoyed by firms with well known consumer brands; -- Banks and technology firms such as Microsoft and Intuit are heading towards a confrontation over the creation of so-called "Integrator" sites on the Internet. These sites are destined to become a consumers' gateway to the Electronic Commerce industry; -- The Internet security industry will grow from $525 million to $2.7 billion in the next five years. However, this industry will face constant threats from large technology firms such as Microsoft and Cisco Systems, who could destroy the industry by embedding security features into their products. "Too many people have confined the concept of Electronic Commerce to selling trinkets over the Internet," Burnham said. "But Electronic Commerce goes much deeper than that. Over the next few years we will witness a series of battles between firms that hang on to the traditional ways of doing business and those that embrace and capitalize on the rise of Electronic Commerce." Copies of a six-page summary or the entire 250-page report are available upon request. For more information, contact Piper Jaffray at (612) 342-5540. -----