Ecommerce has moved from buzzword to serious business qualification with the launch today of the first independent ecommerce school, the Eacademy.

It is the brain child of husband and wife team, Thomas and Penny Power who realised that few people actually understand ecommerce and that companies are all trying to find where they fit in a fragmented market.

The Ecademy will be an environment where individuals in all areas of business can meet, learn from each other, trade knowledge and skills to become an Ecommerce professional, claimed the couple.

?Suppliers say that the biggest thing holding them back in ecommerce is lack of education,? said Thomas Power who first entered the IT world as Alan Sugar?s personal assistant at Amstrad.

Drawing on the success of the Institute of Marketing, Power wanted to create an environment where individuals can gain all the knowledge needed to implement ecommerce and then gain a recognised qualification.

The Ecademy has established the 12 Ecommandments, such as security, personalisation and network evaluation, to provide the knowledge and framework for understanding the issues, with the aim that they become as fundamental as the ?4 Ps? of marketing.

Within the site there areas to create a community feel for members including daily news, the Eforum offers chat, message boards and information on member events.

The Estore will sell reports and presentations and through a deal with bookseller Amazon, link to recommended books. The Eschool is the learning section where members take the Epprasial to test the knowledge gained.

Membership is free thanks to interest from sponsors Inktomi, Excite, Infobank and Netlogistics.