eBUSINESS SCHEME FOR ENGINEERING CONSULTING SERVICES

Despite the availability of ICT tools and infrastructures, civil engineers and design consultants still don't take full advantage in their daily activities of the eBusiness scheme which may open the door of the global market to providers of specialized consulting services. This perspective may allow even small consulting offices to get in contact with potential clients located in any part of the world widening enormously their commercial possibilities. Legal and contractual problems at present still hinder such perspective. The outcome of the combined effort of eLEGAL and ISTforCE projects (both funded by the European Commission under the IST programme), contributed to solve the problems due to lack of infrastructures for remote consulting and legally sound remote business relationships. The concepts and developments resulting from these two projects, which are going to be applied by Geodeco for its specialized consulting services to be offered on-line, are discussed in this paper.