Overview

The primary purpose of ICX (International Commerce Exchange) is to facilitate and promote secure electronic commerce between small and medium sized enterprises in Europe, by working to remove all barriers and providing a forum for communication between industry, governments and individuals.

ICX's objective is also to remove the technical, security, legal, regulatory, commercial, financial, educational and business best practice barriers to secure electronic commerce.

Working together, ICX aims to provide the knowledge and techniques to implement secure electronic commerce -- creating trust and confidence for the benefit of all.

ICX is a forum for businesses by businesses who take part in electronic commerce over any network and who need confidence in its security.

ICX operates on a not-for-profit basis. As an organisation, it provides an open forum enabling business to participate in the Global Electronic Marketplace. Working with other associations with similar objectives, ICX promotes and supports all open measures that enable secure electronic commerce over open networks, unhindered by individual, corporation or government.

ICX's roots are within a European Commission project, one of the main objectives of which was to develop a Secure Electronic Commerce Model (SECCOM) for European businesses. A knowledge base providing a one-stop-shop approach to a vast interactive, business blueprint, website, library and much more. SECCOM has been tested and successfully exploited by several major multinational organisations and is available on-line to ICX members.

Without a doubt, electronic commerce is changing the way we do business. It enables us to trade and exchange information faster, more directly and effectively, with the potential to trade globally over the Internet.

However, without standards, technical and legal regulatory guidelines, and a proper security infrastructure, trading electronically presents its own challenges. For governments and organisations to agree and enforce common standards represents, perhaps, the biggest challenge of all. It is, primarily, for this reason that ICX believes that self-regulation is the way forward.