Web applications

In Italy, especially after the so-called 'Internet bubble' burst, there's still some degree of diffidence towards the Internet as a means of direct sales to the users. The smarter businessmen are taking advantage of this diffidence, creating projects that are able to find the right market niches and making substantial gains from a sales channel which drastically reduces distribution costs.

Every product is different from other products, every company is different from other companies. An e-commerce site needs to be tailor-made to the needs and business practices of a company.

The Internet is an ideal sales channel: low start-up costs, low management costs, the possibility of monitoring customers behaviour and adapting selling techniques accordingly. However, some web surfers, especially in Europe, can still have some perplexity over making an on-line purchase with a credit card.

More and more institutions and schools feel the need of overcoming the traditional 'in person' teaching systems to adopt on-line solutions that integrate them or even replace them.

The growing importance of open source software is evident to everyone nowadays. From Firefox, the browser which has successfully attacked Internet Explorer's monopoly, to the GNU/Linux operating systems, which is adopted and advertised by industry giants, to the Open Office suite, which is free but efficient and functional, open source software is everywhere.