What are the e-business
options for business?
These are some basic
Internet/Web e-Business transaction models:
The web brochure:
Simple product description web site. Relies on pushing customers to traditional
outlets. Email contact is usually provided for further inquiry.
The enhanced web brochure:
Can take orders by email, fax, phone, including credit card purchases. Product
is shipped. Credit card numbers usually are not secure when passed over the
Internet.
The e-Business mall site
Places your web site on a web mall (host) with other e-Business merchants and
usually includes shopping cart, secure server and credit card processing. A mall
may or may not provide credit card authorization and end to end credit card
transaction processing.
The e-Business host site
Similar to above except you are an independent entity on the web host and have
more control of the setup and software yourself. May or may not provide credit
card authorization and end to end credit card transaction processing.
The in-house site
You do the lot yourself, that is, setup and run the web servers, backup, and
connectivity in-house. You can be as sophisticated as you like with electronic
payment systems and end-to-end secure credit card processing. You need to be
well resourced with technical support staff to ensure reliability and efficacy.
The business to business
extranet
Business to business e-Business is predicted to be the largest value sector of
the industry within a few years. This model may incorporate elements of the EDI
(electronic data interchange) standard and will perhaps use XML (extensible
markup language) as a content description language (XML-EDI).
E-Business extranets are
secure Internet networks, usually with router encryption, over which merchants
and customers can exchange order information and funds securely. Integration
with the administrative backend may also be a feature. That is, order and
financial information will be automatically incorporated into corporate accounts
via the web interface
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