DATE: Friday, October 17, 1997              TAG: 9710170658

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY CHRISTOPHER DINSMORE, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NEWPORT NEWS                      LENGTH:   86 lines

CNU TO CREATE TECH CENTER CHRISTOPHER NEWPORT UNIVERSITY'S ENDEAVOR WILL SET THE STANDARDS FOR ELECTRONIC COMMERCE

With a $500,000 grant from a Northern Virginia technology firm, Christopher Newport University will establish the Virginia Electronic Commerce Technology Center to help Virginia companies learn to conduct business electronically.

Taking advantage of Virginia's unique position as a hotbed of Internet activity, Christopher Newport University wants to establish a center that will help set the standards for electronic commerce.

Announced Thursday, the tech center, or VECTEC as it will be called, will build on the Newport News college's success with SEVAnet, an Internet access program for businesses.

VECTEC is expected to be up and running by Jan. 1, said Bill Winter, chairman of the SEVAnet Council.

``The mission of VECTEC is to advance the use of electronic commerce throughout the Commonwealth,'' said Paul Trible, president of the university and a former U.S. senator from Virginia.

BTG Inc., a Fairfax-based technology company, is giving the university $500,000 to establish VECTEC. It is the largest corporate gift the school has received in its 37-year history, Trible said.

``Electronic commerce is revolutionizing the way the world does business,'' said Randall C. Fuerst, BTG's senior vice president and general manager. ``With VECTEC, Virginia will be leading that revolution. We will set standards for electronic commerce, so business and governments will turn to us for guidance. That means new business and new jobs for Virginia.''

VECTEC will not only help businesses learn to conduct transactions electronically, but provide training for students and others to fill rapidly growing demand for highly skilled technology workers.

``Virginia's challenge is to seize the opportunity to become pioneers and leaders in the new era of electronic commerce,'' said Robert G. Templin Jr., president of Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology. ``The epicenter of that strategy is here at Christopher Newport University.''

In less than three years, commerce over the Internet is expected to grow from $8 billion to $200 billion annually, Templin said. Technological advances such as Internet 2, which is being developed, could make data transmission 1,000 times faster than today's standards, Templin said.

``The ability to move information from one place to another in real-time creates a whole new scenario for businesses,'' Templin said. ``If people do not know how to harness this, they simply will be bystanders as this technology passes them by.''

Templin compared VECTEC to the Agricultural Extension Service of 100 years ago because it will link the research and training being done in universities to the businesses that can use it.

``Virginia has a temporary competitive advantage in the dawning of a new technological era for business,'' Templin said.

Among the state's advantages are that the Internet was created in Virginia, three of the largest service providers are headquartered in the state, half of all Internet traffic flows through the state, the Internet Society is based here, the group that assigns addresses is here and the state has a strong fiber-optic network, Templin said.

Another challenge for Virginia is to train the workers needed to manage this technological revolution, Templin said. There are 19,000 jobs paying an average of $47,000 a year that are going begging right now for lack of skilled technology workers, he said.

Templin's Center for Innovative Technology and Newport News Shipbuilding provided significant funding for the research that led to the establishment of VECTEC, Trible said.

``As a technology leader in Virginia and the United States, we are well aware of the benefits that can be derived from electronic commerce,'' said Steve Hogan, chief information officer for Newport News Shipbuilding.

While the shipyard is set up for electronic commerce, many of its vendors are not, said Kenny Roberts, another shipyard representative. VECTEC will be able to help those companies handle electronic procurement requests from the yard, he said.

And that's just a first step. As electronic commerce benefits from further advances, the yard will be able to transmit designs to partners like Electric Boat in Groton, Conn., with whom it is building four New Attack Submarines for the Navy, Roberts said.

The first step to establishing VECTEC is to develop the business plan, SEVAnet's Winter said. SEVAnet will become part of VECTEC.

``I think there's going to be a substantial investment in a new lab for us,'' Winter said.

VECTEC will be financed through corporate gifts and dues paid by corporate members, he said. ILLUSTRATION: VECTEC

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