THE EMERGENCE OF THE E-BUSINESS ON DEMAND ENTERPRISE Since the earliest days of business, it has been possible to boil the process down to a few fundamental elements: -
Identifying or creating a market for an offering. -
Creating the offering. -
Supplying it to the customer. -
Getting paid for it, and managing the customer relationship. -
Repeating the process. These fundamental business principles haven't changed in hundreds of years—not even recently with the false dawn of the dot-com era and the so called "new economy"—and those companies that remain focused on them will survive through all market conditions. Over the past decade, however, the changing economic perspective has had a profound effect on how companies do business and how they compete. Among the factors are the following: -
The Internet and related network technologies have ushered in new business models. -
Certain industries, such as financial services, telecommunications, transportation and utilities, have deregulated worldwide, throwing open the doors to new competition and consolidation. -
Globalization and other initiatives, such as the Euro and NAFTA, have impacted how we do business with the rest of the world. It is the advent of those new business models that has brought us to the cusp of a major shift in business design and management thinking: the emergence of the e-business on demand enterprise. The promise of e-business on demand is that companies or institutions can respond dynamically to whatever business challenges arise. They can provide products and services "on demand," in real time. They can adapt their cost structures and business processes to reduce risk and drive business performance. They can optimize their IT infrastructures and resources to cut costs and boost productivity. And they can be flexible—prepared for whatever challenges may arise. |
