What do we
mean by e-business?
The term
"electronic business" has evolved from its meager notion of electronic shopping
to mean all aspects of business and market processes enabled by the Internet and
the World Wide Web technologies.
Electronic Business as Online Selling. Narrowly defined, electronic
business means doing business online, or selling and buying products and
services through Web storefronts. Products being traded may be physical
products, such as used cars or services (e.g. arranging trips, online medical
consultation, and remote education). Increasingly, they include digital
products, such as news, audio and video, database, software and all types of
knowledge-based products. It appears then electronic business is similar to
catalog shopping or home shopping on cable TV.
Electronic Business as a Market.
Electronic business is not limited to buying and selling products online. For
example, a neighborhood store can open a Web store and find the world at its
door step. But, along with customers, it will also find its suppliers,
accountants, payment services, government agencies and competitors online. These
online partners' demands change the way we do business from production to
consumption, and they will affect companies who might think they are not part of
electronic business. Electronic business will lead to significant changes in the
way products are customized, distributed and exchanged, and in the way consumers
search, bargain and consume products and services.
In short, in the electronic business
revolution, the greatest effects are on processes. Process-oriented definition
of electronic business offers a broader view of what electronic business is.
Within-business processes (e.g. manufacturing, inventorying, corporate financial
management, operation), and business-to-business processes (e.g. supply-chain
management, bidding) are affected by the same technology and network as are
business-to-consumer processes. Even government functions, education and social
and political processes undergo changes
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