What E-Business Offers Now

There are two primary options for organizations that are reviewing their e-business strategies: use e-business to concentrate on core businesses and use e-business to develop new competencies.

Using E-Business to Concentrate on Core Businesses

Electronic technologies offer ways to dramatically streamline business processes, improve operational efficiencies, and reduce purchasing costs. Incorporating e-business into a company’s infrastructure eliminates a lot of routine work and provides renewed concentration on core activities such as customer service. Some companies even redefined what their core business is. Nike , for example, has used e-business technology to help it refocus on sales and marketing. IBM has shifted its corporate focus from selling computers to providing e-business services.

Using E-Business to Develop New Competencies

E-business offers ways to create new markets and even new lines of business. Business Service Providers (BSPs), for instance, develop or purchase new technologies and then package them to sell to niche markets. Some BSPs have taken a different path, leaving the context (the specific market application) to others, while they provide technologies (financial applications, human resource systems, etc.) widely used in every business organization.

Whichever broad direction is chosen (or if a combination of both seems best), there are key issues that need to be addressed in the early stages of deciding on an e-business strategy. The first is to clarify the terminology so everyone is speaking the same language.

For example, “e-business” has been defined as “a technology-enabled application environment to facilitate the exchange of business information and automate commercial transactions”^[1]. At its broadest level, e-business refers to just about any business activity done using the Internet. In a narrower sense, a true e-business process means that everything is done electronically (from the time it is initiated until the process cycle is complete) with no human interaction needed until a decision must be made.

Next, “e-commerce” refers to commercial transactions conducted online. In its more popular sense, e-commerce refers to retailing on the Internet—selling directly to consumers through a Web site. But, a broader understanding of e-commerce must include business-to-business commercial applications: using the Internet for procurement and distribution and employing e-business technologies to streamline supply chain operations.

On the other hand, an “e-service” is a service delivered over the Internet. It is an e-business solution to a specific need—often a Web site or group of Web sites. For example, the “Apply Here” button on a job recruitment Web site that allows anyone to apply for an open position is an e-service. This also includes the delivery of financial data in a format that helps the recipient use analytics to automatically slice and dice the data and create charts and presentation materials.

Finally, “360-degree e-business” is the ultimate goal of e-business strategies. It means that information flows from decision maker to decision maker, and business processes can be initiated and completed online. The 360-degree e-business supply chain solutions, for instance, let procurement professionals input requisition information, solicit and receive bids for contract and noncontract items, check pricing, verify and accept delivery, receive invoices, and authorize payment and electronically pay—all online. The benefits include reduced purchasing costs, streamlined operations, and improved relationships with vendors. The 360-degree e-business requires open access to information and analytical capabilities that are both sophisticated and easy-to-use.

The difference between “Web-deployable” and “Web-addressable” is also significant (see sidebar, “Web-Addressable Versus Web-Deployable”). Web-deployable simply means that specific applications can be delivered or accessed over the Internet. Web-addressable means that virtually any business activity can be done on the Internet through server-based logic that can be referenced and executed via a URL.

Once the terminology is clear, the other issues that need to be addressed in an e-business strategy depend on the type of organization. Some companies need to prioritize security or financial data management, whereas others need to focus on Human Resources (HR) applications such as empowering employees to self-manage their own basic HR information. Still others will find the greatest advantages in using e-business is to streamline purchasing operations or to distribute information more efficiently across multiple locations.

Web-Addressable Versus Web-Deployable

Web-deployable refers to applications that can be delivered or accessed over the Internet. Web-deployable applications render their user interface in a browser.

For example, some applications have distinct business objects that can be deployed via Web-related standards and protocols. These business objects support end users who access various systems occasionally, thus providing a standard presentation and common navigation process via a browser.

Web-addressable refers to server-based application logic that can be referenced and executed via a URL. Web-addressability means an application can be “remote controlled” via standard HTTP commands (and/or Java remote method invocation). In other words, this means that all applications here are Web-addressable. For example, an HTTP call could allow the user to change the address of the customer, extend their credit limit, or change their main corporate contact, all from a browser, without a third party reentering data into the system.

Benefits of Web-Addressability

The following are the benefits of Web-addressability:

• Access standard objects simply by entering a URL address.

• Simplify administration of applications by the Web-addressable solution utilizing the same business logic as your core business management system.

• Simplify deployment of applications to remote users via browser-based access.

• Manage one set of business objects.

• Separate objects that do not have to be accessed with an embedded parameter to access your back office data^[1].