The Beginnings of a Postal E-Marketplace: Innovation or Natural Evolution? The Corprocure Story

Abstract

This e-business case study of the corProcure enterprise is instructive as it reflects three recurrent themes of the dot-com period: 1. First, the seemingly powerful but unstable corProcure’s business model was created between a number of large corporate institutions in response to the corporate pressure to enter the dot-com world. 2. The quick revelation that the initial business model was incompatible for the founding corporate partners. 3. The buyout of the venture by one of the partners, Australia Post, and re-engineering the direction of corProcure for a more workable e-marketplace business direction. This was considered to be the way forward. This evolution, learning curve, and redirection of the e-purchasing cartel was in one way just a snapshot at the macro-level of what happened to many ventures during the dot-com boom. At the micro-level, the change in direction was reflective of a more pragmatic business sense approach, when all the late 1990s hype was stripped away from the initial e-business model. The new business model incorporating an e-marketplace also reflected the need for the new owner to diversify into non-traditional products as part of new e-business and e-logistic strategies. These strategies were being examined globally by Postal Authorities.