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Achieving Ebusiness Success
| In the past two years,
Ebusiness seems to have been linked with every aspect of daily life. In just a short time, both individuals and
organizations have embraced Internet technologies to enhance productivity, maximize convenience and improve
communications globally. From banking to shopping to entertaining, the Internet has become integral to daily activities. For example, just twenty
years ago, most individuals went into a financial institution and spoke with a human being to conduct regular
banking transactions. Ten years later, individuals began to embrace the ATM machine, which made banking
activities more convenient. Today, thousands of individuals rely on online banking services to complete
a large percentage of their transactions. The rapid growth and acceptance of Internet technologies has
led some to wonder why the Ebusiness phenomenon did not occur decades ago. The short answer is: it was
not possible. In the past, the necessary infrastructure did not exist to support
Ebusiness.
Most businesses ran large mainframe computers with proprietary data formats. Even if it had been achievable
to transfer data from these large machines into homes, the home computer was not yet a commodity, so there
were few terminals outside of business to receive information. As PCs became more popular, especially in
the home, the ability to conduct Ebusiness
was still restricted because of the infrastructure required to support it, including back-end customer
and supplier interaction along with credit card processing systems. To set up an Ebusiness even five
years ago would have required an individual organization to assume the burden of developing the entire
technology infrastructure, as well as its own business and marketing strategies. Today, the challenge
of Ebusiness is integration. There are industry leading companies that have solved the difficult
task of developing individual Internet-based products and services that handle many of the issues
surrounding customer and supplier interactions. However, the ability to integrate these technologies
and services based on sound business and marketing strategies, operating on a real-time basis can be
a monumental undertaking. As Ebusiness continues to be fueled by both organizations and consumers who
have access to the Internet from their homes and offices, the excitement grows and the potential for
success increases. But explosive growth of the Internet has also led to a growing number of integration
challenges for Ebusinesses of all sizes and types.
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| In phase one of building an Ebusiness, companies scrambled
to get an Ecommerce Website up quickly. The operative word
was “quickly” because usually there was little or no regard given to how scalable or reliable the site
needed to be — or even how captivating the content. It was just a matter of beating the competition.
These first-to-market consumer sites were rarely integrated with the manufacturing side of the business,
which was establishing its own Internet-based relationships with suppliers. This lack of integration has
proved to be a significant challenge for many organizations as the customer base has grown, real-time
orders status requested and products returned.
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| In phase two of building an Ebusiness, having an Ecommerce site
is now a commodity, not a way to differentiate a business. Customer and supplier expectations are rising, forcing
organizations to start thinking about back-end integration and real-time transaction processing. Businesses must
actually maintain complete customer and supplier relationships using Internet-based technologies and tie those
systems to the interpersonal aspects of the
e-business transaction when required.
Organizations that realize the promise of Ebusiness are the ones that have begun to address the complete business
cycle and are leveraging Internet technologies. It is no secret that today’s Ebusiness has the potential to
transform the business landscape. Where in the past, a company’s business model was the primary determination
of its value; today a company is valued on its strategy, business model and ability to market. With technology
driving new competition, a Fortune 500 stalwart that once seemed unstoppable is now challenged by a startup that
uses Internet technologies and integrates their systems and processes more effectively. By capitalizing on a
sustained business proposition and correctly applying technology, these start-ups are able to significantly
reduce the barriers to entry while dramatically increasing their market reach. For Ebusinesses, the premise
"first to market equals first to success" is often the case; however the foundation needs to be laid carefully.
A disciplined approach to evaluating the business opportunity, correctly assessing how a competitive advantage
may be gained using Internet technologies combined with leveraging the existing investment is key to a successful
Ebusiness. It is just such an approach that we will define as the Ebusiness model.
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