The World E-Commerce Exchange is ready to put big bucks and expertise into the set up of an electronic network for doing business on the Internet, according to one of the founding principals, Oven Digital (www.oven.com).

The New York-based company aims to tackle one of the main constraints of the project -- the worldwide shortage of computer information technology (IT) workers.

Oven Digital representatives Leon Stiel and Harris Salat said the company will begin training Bermudians as soon as Parliament approves the private bill to set up the project, eventually expected to involve an investment of $500 million.

He said the company, and by implication Bermuda, is in what consultancy McKinsey and Co. labelled a "war for talent''.

The World E-Commerce Exchange is being set up as a "contracts exchange'' to facilitate business-to-business transactions over the Internet.

"How many people are you going to train?'' I ask.

"As many as are available,'' Mr. Stiel said. "You pick a number. We are competing for talented young people rather than chasing the business.

It's an inverted economics. We have to find the people to meet the demand.

We're going to need creative people. We'll train musicians, artists -- anyone who is creative, who can develop graphics, who is computer literate. We're going to need young people. We're going to need older people. We are going to need project managers and client managers.'' The Exchange will involve the set up of servers and networks and the training of Internet professionals. They are talking about setting a training centre on the baselands. The company also plans on developing a curriculum at Bermuda College for Internet training. Mr. Stiel and Mr. Salat are bullish on Bermuda.

"This is going to be a very major centre,'' Mr. Salat said. "It will need resources, marketing and training. We are going to create a technology incubator.'' Mr. Stiel said the first generation of business involved what he called a "free-for-all'', a Wild West of new companies, with few resources and little seed money. It was an experimental time. The real money is coming to the Web.

"Now, you have to do it right the first time,'' he said. "We are establishing a solid architecture which requires a different resource allocation.'' Where companies once needed $5 million to do business on the Web, the average is moving towards $20 or so million. Hence the $500 million figure for a series of Web sites envisaged by the Exchange.

He points to the boo.com site being financed by Benetton at about $200 million. The site at boo.com is still under construction. The key for such established companies is learning how to migrate current business on the Internet, Mr. Salat said.

Oven Digital's original business grew out of developing Internet Web sites.

The company's first job was The Museum of Modern Art of New York. It has since worked with IBM, Gateway 2000, AT&T and PriceWaterhouseCoopers. What's really interesting is its current work with Intel, where Mr. Salat said the company is "working to define what the next generation of the Internet will look like''.

What sparked my interest was his demonstration of what is being called "visual browsing''. Instead of this continual clicking through pages to get to information, you basically stay on what looks like a single page and the information comes to you.

The technology uses Macromedia Flash software, which allows you to stay on the same Web page. By pointing to various paths the viewer gets a pop up window to bring the information and graphics on to the same page. The technology cuts down on the time to download information. Check out what such a site looks like at macromedia.com.

A survey by Total Marketing & Communications Ltd. about the information technology industry in Bermuda has produced an interesting snapshot of the local market.

The survey of 200 businesses was commissioned by Applied Computer Technologies (ACT). General manager Richard Parker said the survey was meant to be independent and was of a wide range of international and local business which may or may not be customers of the company.

He estimates that the Bermuda IT market is worth about $45 to $50 million a year in products and services and has been growing at 15 to 20 percent a year over the past four years.

As the business has grown, so has the competition. Hence ACT's decision to commission the study through Total Marketing. He didn't release any findings that were more pertinent to ACT and its strategy in the market, but some general findings were: Eight out of 10 IT specialists said they preferred to purchase products locally; Eight out of ten companies said technical competence of service personnel was critically important in choosing an IT service, while three-quarters said speed of response was critically important; Bermuda faces e-challenges The critical factors in order of importance in choosing an IT provider was technical competence, speed of response, timely delivery of product or service, accessibility of personnel, stability of organisation and cost; and Despite widespread use of the Internet and E-mail, less than half of those responding said they had a security system in place.

Preference for purchasing in the local market gives rise to the next question: Why don't they? I guess the answer is the same reason many people shop overseas. You give the answers and send them to techtattle ygazette.newsmedia.bm.

Mr. Parker said the "scariest'' finding of the survey was the number of businesses without a security system in place. The other interesting finding was that Bermuda companies generally have a much higher percentage of their workforce dedicated to providing IT service when compared to businesses in the US, the UK and Canada.

The reasons could be the need for self-sufficiency on a small Island. The implication, Mr. Parker said, is the cost of providing IT service is a lot higher than in other places. The trend elsewhere is toward outsourcing IT work.

Here, immigration controls make it difficult to bring in the necessary expertise from overseas quickly and so businesses tend to hire permanent staff.