Untitled Quiz

Chapter 1: The World of E-Business

• E-commerce is the buying and selling of information, products, and services using computer networks, usually the World Wide Web.
• E-business is the conduct of transactions using electronic communications networks, including the internet and/or possibly private networks.
• E-business is more comprehensive than e-commerce, encompassing not just buying and selling but also business processes and interactions with partners, distributors, and suppliers.
• E-commerce types include business-to-consumer (B2C), business-to-business (B2B or e-business), business-to-administration (B2A) and consumer-to-administration (C2A).
• B2B transactions usually account for a significantly larger percentage of overall e-commerce activity than B2C transactions.
• Online business is enabled by the internet, facilitated by large-scale connectivity and global inter-network connections, reaching a vast number of trading partners.
• The world wide web (WWW) is a major component of internet-based e-business, with rapidly increasing company advertising, information searching, buying and selling of various goods (intellectual property, physical goods, and professional services) playing crucial roles.

Complex Definitions

• E-commerce is viewed differently from different perspectives.
• From a business process perspective, it is the use of IT and communications for supporting and automating business transactions and workflows.
• From a service perspective, it is a tool to reduce service costs and improve service quality and speed of delivery.
• From an online perspective, e-commerce facilitates buying, selling, information, goods, and services through the Internet and other online services.

Types of e-Commerce

• Business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce transactions occur between organizations and individual consumers.
• Business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce (also known as e-Business) transactions occur between businesses and accounts for a larger segment of overall e-commerce than B2C.
• Business-to-administration (B2A) e-commerce involves organizations and government agencies.
• Consumer-to-administration (C2A) e-commerce involves individuals and government agencies.

Characteristics of E-Business

• E-business integrates external company processes with internal processes.
• This includes collaborative product development, planning, forecasting, replenishment and order management, and operations and logistics.

Ingredients of an e-Business Solution

• Key components in an e-business solution include customers, knowledge management, web selling, order fulfillment, purchasing, ordering, finance/accounting, production, delivery, distributors, suppliers, and various partners.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Systems

• CRM systems are front-office systems that help the enterprise deal directly with customers.
• CRM systems integrate and automate customer service processes within a company.
• CRM systems contribute to personal information gathering and processing and self-service throughout a company to create value for the customer.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems

• ERP systems are management information systems that integrate and automate many business practices associated with operations and production in a company.
• Includes production (materials requirements planning/manufacturing resource planning and execution), buying a product (procurement processes), sales of products and services (customer order management), costing, paying bills, and collecting (financial/management accounting), and reporting.

Supply Chain Management (SCM)

• Supply chain involves a network of facilities and distribution options that manages the functions of procurement of materials, transformation of materials into products, and distribution of the products to customers.
• Supply chains have three major components: supply, manufacturing and distribution.

Knowledge Management (KM)

• Knowledge management involves collecting and applying knowledge regarding markets, products, processes, technologies, and organizations to business operations.
• This enables business processes to generate profits through planning and controlling actions.

e-Market

• e-Market is an electronic gathering place for multiple buyers and sellers, providing a unified view of goods and services, enabling transactions via automated means.

e-Business Roles and Their Challenges

• Buy-side organizations use e-business facilities for purchasing.
• Typically, this involves spot purchasing or enterprise-wide procurement.
• Sell-side organizations sell products using the e-business transaction mechanisms.
• These businesses manage multiple selling channels and differentiate and customize products and services based on customer needs.

e-Business Requirements

• E-business requirements include identifying and measuring quantifiable business objectives, ensuring organizational flexibility, re-thinking entire company supply chains, reforming companies into process-centric models, defining business processes, understanding security and payment methods, aligning with flexible IT architecture, establishing standards for business processes and enterprise integration technology.

Advantages of Electronic Business

• Improved operational efficiency and productivity
• Reduced operating costs and costs of goods and services
• Improved competitive position
• Penetration into new markets through new channels
• Improved communications, information and knowledge sharing
• Harmonisation and standardization of processes
• Improved internal information access and relationships with suppliers and customer service.

Inhibitors of Electronic Business

• Management/strategy issues: Lack of a defined e-Business strategy, Organizational changes, Management attitudes and inflexibility.
• Cost/financing: implementation costs, return on investment calculation.
• Insufficient security and trust issues
• Legal issues
• Technology concerns: limited interoperability, dependance on proprietary solutions

Chapter 2: e-Business Strategy

• What is an e-business strategy? Plans and objectives that enable electronically mediated communications for corporate strategy.
• Strategic positioning: Establishing goals to deliver value, having a unique value proposition than competitors offer.
• Three levels of e-business strategy: Supply Chain/Industry level, Line of Business/SBU level, Corporate/Enterprise level.
• The changing competitive agenda: Shift from supplier-driven to consumer-driven economy, Mass production to customisation, Producer focus to consumer focus.
• The strategic planning process: Defining situational analysis, target goals, and required path.
• Strategic alignment (IT): Alignment between business and IT that enables infrastructure development and complementary business strategies.
• Consequences: theoretical frameworks such as Porter's five forces model competition, resource-based view (RBV), and transaction cost economics (TCE).
• Implementation: Top-down and bottom-up program, organization, policies, plans, communication, alignment, and change agents.