One hundred years is a long time by everyday standards, although to readers of Tradelink Talk it may indicate only the passage of a certain amount of time. However, for a company to be able to look back on a century-long history and still look ahead to celebrating its next centenary is a goal that entrepreneurs have long tried their best to achieve.

One of the companies to have attained this level of success is British American Tobacco (BAT), and it is all based on a simple belief: never fear to embrace change.

Founded in 1902, BAT manufactures and markets tobacco products, including cigarettes, pipe tobacco, cigars and snuff. Its products consist of some 250 different brands that are sold in 180 markets around the world and generated GBP25.7 billion in revenue for the group in fiscal year 2001.

Nothing is permanent ... except change
With such a scale of operation and market stature, it would be easy to imagine that BAT could glide into its next century by conducting business in a traditional way and adhering to long-established practices. Not so. Some two and a half years ago, BAT China started to look into e-commerce and how to incorporate this new technology into its everyday operations. "Like most organisations, two years ago, we were aware of the rapid growth of e-commerce and the investment being made in Internet start-ups and we wanted a clearer understanding of what the hype was all about!" says Mick Bolton, e-Commerce Programme Manager at BAT (China), half-jokingly. "Seriously, the real reason behind our attraction to e-commerce was our desire to explore the real value this new business model could add to our organisation, hence our commitment of resources to this investigation."

Rather than creating a stand-alone Internet venture, BAT China began its e-commerce programme by implementing a series of small, internal projects that revolved around the "e" theme. For example, administrative processes were reviewed and plans were developed to move some operations online, and new online procurement routines (e.g. for non-trade procurement) were developed. "We initiated the e-commerce strategy internally first because we wanted to make sure this model worked for us. If information technology and e-commerce could indeed add value to our internal operations, then we would have a solid base on which to build external e-commerce plans," Mick explains.

Over the years, the development of these different projects matured and BAT China merged them into a cross-company initiative. Currently, BAT China conducts all its non-trade procurement (such as office supplies) online; has executed a series of "e-forums" aimed at raising the internal awareness of e-commerce and its associated benefits; has developed an Intranet Portal where employees can exchange ideas, catch up on company and social news, and take a virtual tour of the office from their desktops; and has provided secure desktop Internet access for business purposes. "The idea behind these initiatives was to raise the awareness of Internet-based technology, create a secure platform for the deployment of web-based solutions and to remove some of the paper-based administration that existed. By moving some of these everyday processes online, we increased transparency and helped create an environment to support the sharing - virtually - of best practices within the company," Mick notes.

Another objective of this strategy was to improve operational efficiencyand work towards identifying and freeing up islands of knowledge that exist around the organisation in order to make that knowledge widespread. BAT's focus is to enchance workers' abilities to make informed decisions, which in turn will increase their effectiveness.

During the implementation of BAT's e-commerce strategy, the biggest challenge came from the fact that e-commerce was such a new entity. As Mick recalls: "The first step was to sell the concept of e-commerce to the organisation and, in the early days, I was an internal salesman. Basically, with the introduction of our e-commerce strategy, we needed to instill in the minds of our colleagues that this was the way BAT was heading, and that the organisation would be adopting the new practices." He confesses that changing mindsets is always a daunting task, but notes that it helps when the company embraces change as its principal doctrine. As he acknowledges, "It's always a challenge to start the wheels of a new concept turning when colleagues are focused on the pressure of daily business, but the process was made much easier through the full support of the senior management."

Security: it's not about keeping secrets ...
As news about hackers and computer viruses wreaking havoc on IT networks looms large, one of the greatest concerns for companies is undoubtedly the security of their IT infrastructure. To tackle this problem, BAT China brought in Tony Judge, Regional Security Manager, to take charge of the various security issues concerning its e-commerce strategy. For Tony, maintaining security in the IT world is no different from performing the same task in the "real" world. "Actually, IT security is not about keeping secrets. One of the purposes of security maintenance is to enable a company to provide the right information to the right user at the right time. So the crux of the security problem for us is to make as much information as we can as widely available as possible, while securing the access to the more sensitive information. It's about enabling people (with information), not restricting them," says Tony.

In order to create a secure IT architecture and prevent unauthorised access to their system, BAT China is planning to adopt digital certificate technology. Each user of the BAT network will be issued with a digital certificate, which authenticates the user's identity when he/she logs on to the system. With this procedure in place, unapproved entry into the BAT system will be kept to a minimum. The model under active consideration is the digital certificate technology developed by Digi-Sign, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tradelink. Responsibility for certificate management would be undertaken by Digi-Sign, enabling BAT to outsource much of the administrative work required, and also to take advantage of the e-commerce expertise and facilities provided by Digi-Sign and Tradelink.

Maintaining a secure system is, however, only half of the story. As BAT China exchanges data with business partners through its own network, it is equally important for the other companies to have a secure IT infrastructure. Otherwise, a breach in any part of this information chain would expose the whole group to risk. Although, as Tony notes, it is not possible for BAT to demand that all their business partners adhere to the level of security that BAT has achieved, BAT China has adopted open-standard technologies that allow an easier assimilation of platforms when other companies employ technologies that support a similar protocol.

Eyeing the future
A company does not exist for 100 years by standing still, as witnessed by BAT's timely adoption of information technology and e-commerce strategies. Judging by the way BAT has adapted to an ever-changing business environment, it seems that the company is already well on course to celebrate its next centenary - in about 100 years' time.