"Click Here to Buy".

• Position: Brief Article

Bridgman, Anne

American School Board Journal, April 2000, pp. 46-51.

This article examines the effect of e-commerce on school purchasing. According to one estimate, schools spend as much as $85 billion, including intangibles such as insurance and services, on purchasing. It is not surprising, therefore, that schools are interested in replicating the savings that private enterprises have captured through on-line purchasing. While experts predict that a majority of school officials may be making their purchases on-line within 10 years, the initial move is taking place slowly. A number of factors explain this deliberate pace. First, for a variety of reasons, school purchasing officials tend to be more conservative than their counterparts in other industries. Second, because schools are publicly financed, they must deal with layers of bureaucracy to ensure accountability. One implication is that school officials do not have school credit cards, a necessity for buying on-line. Third, on-line purchasing requires that administrative officials have both...