e business essay

e business essay

The Impact of E-Business on Modern Commerce

1. Introduction to E-Business

Companies engage in e-business to meet or exceed customer expectations, and therefore use e-business as a value-shift management tool. Some companies, however, may have a long learning curve ahead of them. Consequently, strategic planners must ask the right questions while absorbing new knowledge. For example, how do you build an organization that aligns many differing and possibly conflicting beliefs, values, and strategies? How do you leverage an organization’s human capital to boost revenues and enhance employee morale? How do you reclaim an organization’s competitive advantage to maintain sales and market share? To unlock the value of e-business, everything must be centered around the personal relationship, with the technology enhancing the human relationship. The value takes the products or services, and the confidential information on the Internet, to meet the needs of customers’ minds. It pays more attention to the personal relationships, rather than the anonymous relationships based on face-to-face.

As technology enables people to pool information and communicate in unprecedented ways, new interactive and networked global communication technologies are emerging as important components of future businesses. When these communication and information technologies are melded with global telecommunications, they provide the foundation for electronic commerce. The ability to conduct e-business has demanded a reexamination of both business and legal rules and concepts, as well as insight into current trends. Electronic commerce and the establishment of e-business have potential advantages that go above and beyond traditional business advantages by providing an effective understanding of: potential customer profiles, how potential customers prefer to be treated, ways potential customers respond to corporate Internet sites, and the voices of potential customers and employees known to competition.

2. Key Technologies and Tools in E-Business

Key technologies and tools in e-business include those which enable provision of e-services online. E-services are services that are delivered to customers through applications running on the platform of the e-business enterprise, typically through the use of the Internet. These e-services include the provision of access to databases and other information sources, and may also involve search, transaction processing, decision support, relationship management, and other kinds of business support. The development of applications that have these characteristics is made feasible only through the use of a set of basic technologies which enable or enhance the development of the full range of operations required for e-commerce. These range from those which facilitate the provision of access to information about products and services and the supportive other information sources, through to those which enable the completion of online transactions, the delivery of the requested goods and payment for them, all with a high degree of certainty – assurance – that the transaction will be completed successfully. They may also encompass the decision-making processes that occur in the customer or client organization, before and during the course of transactions, and the subsequent management of the business relationship.

3. Challenges and Opportunities in E-Business

In the near future, successful organizations will be ones that are well positioned to embrace e-business as a normal way of running business activities. Companies that have formulated strategies and have begun to implement e-business initiatives also still face significant challenges during their strategies. When e-business benefits companies by providing effective communication with customers and flexible supply chains, regardless of the market size, standing at the opposite poles of the supply chain with regards to the market size, large companies are struggling to get an accurate representation of consumers’ requirements and to provide personalized customer support. Small companies, on the other hand, are finding it hard to exploit the possibilities that e-business provides.

Although e-business can bring benefits to companies, the implementation of e-business in practice is not straightforward and companies have been faced with many challenges. E-business not only means IT, but also means involving people in the company, and may involve changing the way a company operates, which may lead to many managerial and organizational integration issues. The associated business risks in e-business need to be carefully managed. However, a useful e-business strategy will address these challenges and drive the development of the business toward e-business.

E-business is not only about buying or selling goods, it can be seen as an overall strategy that provides businesses with the opportunity to change the way they work. Combining current ‘best business’ practices with the application of e-business technology will bring the extended enterprise benefits in various areas. There are many existing and future opportunities created by e-business, such as improving sales and marketing through personalized communication, changing supply chain relationships, and direct access to customers or suppliers all over the world. In addition, companies can develop new and better products or services to meet customer demands with the help of e-business applications.

4. E-Business Strategies for Success

The second principle of e-business is systems reach and integrate possibilities. The most successful e-business operations extend beyond internal stakeholders (managers, employees, and shareholders) to include a wide and diverse network of external stakeholders. These external stakeholders include customers (channel partners such as wholesalers, retailers, distributors, manufacturers, and service providers), suppliers, and key-node network partners which may include competing and, in certain circumstances, sponsored independent software vendors, logistics service providers, trading partners, and value-added network providers.

First, the unique potential of the electronic exchange (or marketplace) for both direct and indirect goods can only be harnessed once a compatible set of business processes is in place. Simple, transaction-oriented business processes are universally applicable, but e-business presumes the ability to force functions such as marketing logistics (inbound and outbound transportation, warehousing, inventory management, and order fulfillment) as well as product design and development to become forms of self-service for the customers and logistics services for everyone else. This, in turn, means that the enterprise’s IT infrastructure must be flexible, robust, and integrated.

When we talk about building a successful e-business enterprise, we do not speak about a “one-size fits all” methodology. As we have seen, both companies have different business models and markets, and their e-business strategies and investments must be targeted on their unique marketing pressures. However, several guiding principles of e-business are beginning to emerge.

5. Conclusion and Future Trends

As electronic commerce becomes the new driver of the global economy, the synergistic combination of customer orientation, conceptual thinking, and the application of all the new technologies will act as the primary weapon for maximizing companies’ efforts to outclass their present market position. The momentum of electronic commerce at the present time is advancing so fast that all companies will benefit from having agents and partners such as e-business service providers who can guide them through the sales transaction, customers’ preferences, marketing opportunities, technological constraints, and industry dynamics of this new environment. It is better to collaborate with opinion makers, industry leaders, experts, analysts, and academic sages who are focused on contributing to the evolution of electronic commerce and following the trends, adoption patterns, and guiding principles demonstrated by the early business group and partnership behavior pioneers in this burgeoning sector.

Electronic business involves many technologies and business models. The main goal of e-business is to develop or create new business approaches to improve the efficiency and productivity of organizations. The major advantages of e-business are its speed and cost-effectiveness. It creates a new competitive environment and presents both enormous challenges and potential.