Internet technology has been increasingly used to enhance the global competitiveness of various business applications through the widespread electronic commerce (EC) functions. Many Internet-based systems have been designed and developed for supply chain management (SCM) in various areas such as computer, garment, and publishing industries, which mainly center on communication infrastructure, coordination between production and distribution, and procurement functions with security mechanisms. However, EC is not a panacea. On many occasions, participants (including buyers, sellers, and enablers) face various risks and overhead during the deployment of a new technology. In this article, we present the impact of EC on procurement processes in supply chains, highlighting the issues of buyers, sellers, and the transaction processes involved. The procurement processes are classified into preprocurement (sourcing), procurement (quotation, negotiation, order placement, and transaction), and postprocurement (delivery). Moreover, a four-phase migration model of procurement onto the Internet is introduced to illustrate the technical, security, and financial requirements in the deployment process of EC. The migration model not only gives a development guideline of procurement functions, but also provides an evaluation framework of e-procurement. An industrial example is used to illustrate the corresponding evolution as a result of EC deployment. The paper concludes with a summary of EC impact and future research directions.

Background:We aimed to investigate neurological outcomes in elderly patients with multiple trauma, and to review their clinical outcomes following neurosurgical operations.Patients and Methods:The study was conducted in a regional trauma center in Hong Kong. We collected prospective data on consecutive trauma patients from January 2001 to December 2008. Patients with multiple trauma (as defined by Injury Severity Score of 15 or more), with both head injury and extracranial injury, were included for analysis.Results:Age over 65 years, admission Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS), and Injury Severity Score were significantly poor prognostic factors in logistic regression analysis. Eleven (32%) of the 34 patients aged over 65 who underwent neurosurgical operations attained favorable neurological outcomes (GCS 4-5) at 6 months.Conclusions:Age was an important prognostic factor in multiple trauma patients requiring neurosurgical operations. Future randomized controlled clinical trials should be designed to recruit elderly patients (such as age between 65 and 75 years) at clinical equipoise for traumatic hematoma (such as subdural hematoma or traumatic intracerebral hematoma) evacuation and assess the quality of life, neurological, and cognitive outcomes.

It has been an increasing trend for companies to migrate their businesses onto or publicize themselves on the Internet. Business process reengineering (BPR) is applied to migrate the business processes of the supply chain onto the Web. Such migration may cause some of the processes merged together, minimized or transformed into other processes within a supply chain. Therefore, careful planning for such migration with technical requirements is necessary. This paper starts with the review of related research on BPR, migration of supply chain onto the Internet, and the impact analysis of the migration. A thorough overview of how BPR can change each process of the supply chain onto the Internet is discussed. The main contribution of this paper is a framework of the electronic commerce (EC) impact on the supply chain and the measurement of impact. An industrial example is used to illustrate the evaluation as a result of EC deployment.

Internet technology has been increasingly used to enhance the global competitiveness of various business applications through the widespread electronic commerce (EC) functions. Many Internet-based systems have been designed and developed for supply chain management (SCM) in various areas such as computer, garment, and publishing industries, which mainly center on communication infrastructure, coordination between production and distribution, and procurement functions with security mechanisms. However, EC is not a panacea. On many occasions, participants (including buyers, sellers, and enablers) face various risks and overhead during the deployment of a new technology. In this article, we present the impact of EC on procurement processes in supply chains, highlighting the issues of buyers, sellers, and the transaction processes involved. The procurement processes are classified into preprocurement (sourcing), procurement (quotation, negotiation, order placement, and transaction), and postprocurement (delivery). Moreover, a four-phase migration model of procurement onto the Internet is introduced to illustrate the technical, security, and financial requirements in the deployment process of EC. The migration model not only gives a development guideline of procurement functions, but also provides an evaluation framework of e-procurement. An industrial example is used to illustrate the corresponding evolution as a result of EC deployment. The paper concludes with a summary of EC impact and future research directions.

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