Bell ActiMedia, a global leader in print and web-based directories, chose Telepresence to develop their e-retail initiative, The Virtual Market Place. VMP is an aggregation of third party websites, listed and categorized to provide a convenient service to Canadian Internet shoppers. Recognizing that communications technologies present new opportunities for all businesses, Bell ActiMedia sought to develop a website that would bring together thousands of Canadian e-commerce retailers in a single online directory. Prior to the development of The Virtual Market Place and its French counterpart Marche Virtuel, Canadian shoppers wanting to purchase products online were limited to conducting searches through US-based search engines and e-retail directories. Finding Canadian e-retailers through this approach was hit-and-miss. Levering Telepresence's expertise in the area of business-to-business e-commerce, a service which provides shoppers with a uniquely Canadian online shopping experience was developed. Shoppers now have an invaluable resource for finding Canadian e-merchants and for purchasing their products and services online. The solution was built using Microsoft NT, Microsoft IIS, Site Server, and SQL Server with scripting in ASP and HTML. The site consists of searchable databases and merchant directory listings. Features include key applications which allow administrators to quickly and easily process merchant listing requests and to display weekly specials of preferred merchants.