Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Cain Evans
To cite this article: Cain Evans (2001) An E-Strategy for Online E-Business, Information Systems
Management, 18:4, 8-21, DOI: 10.1201/1078/43198.18.4.20010901/31461.2
Download by: [Wilfrid Laurier University] Date: 21 November 2016, At: 13:00
E-BUSINESS
AN E-STRATEGY FOR
ONLINE E-BUSINESS
Cain Evans
Both new E-business start-ups and current businesses that are investigating the pos-
sibility of migrating to an E-business system need to have an E-strategy. However, the
potential E-business needs to decide on whether it will be focused on business
processes or whether it will force action on the real business needs to sustain long-
term longevity. To stay competitive today, businesses must realize that the customer
is becoming more and more important. Hence the market has developed into a cus-
tomer-driven market, with businesses becoming customer-centric, if they are not
already, and not purely business-centric as in the past. This article investigates and
develops a comprehensive E-strategy to enable a review of an E-businesss needs.
Issues that are addressed here will have an impact on how businesses achieve their
desired goals. By following guidelines outlined in this article, which highlight both
critical success factors and potential problems, an E-business will be able to evaluate
whether it is ready to move forward and commit wholeheartedly to the new channel of
business.
ITH THE EVER-INCREASING NEED op its internal functions and then to integrate
W for efficiency in a business and with
the shift from business-centricity
these aligned functions with the developing
yet profitable E-markets to achieve market
toward customer-centricity, it is dominance.
important to first review all of the Business vision is vitally necessary for
businesss internal functions to determine developing an E-business strategy because
where processes or structure can be the structure and the components of this strat-
improved. Conducting such a review will egy determine where the business is today
uncover certain shortcomings within the busi- and where the business will be in the future.
ness functions. One key application for In this article on E-business strategy, a
improving efficiency would be to harmonize framework has been developed to help busi-
CAIN EVANS is an IT internal business functions. However, this nesses fully appreciate these factors and learn
consultant and an
MIS lecturer at the
component requires integration into the E- how to view centricity in the new E-markets.
Asian University of business strategy. With the information in this article, business-
Science and It is important that a potential E-business es can enhance their approach to E-strategy
Technology, Chon focuses on developing a comprehensive E- and gain the most from analyzing the require-
Buri, Thailand. His strategy to enable the business to fulfill its ments and the outcomes. The article assumes
current research
involves investigating
future expectations. Before an E-business can that businesses are looking to move from the
the strategic role and achieve any great impact on the rich new traditional bricks and mortar structure to a
importance of technol- markets that are continuing to emerge day by more open, efficient, and profitable E-busi-
ogy in E-business. day, it is necessary for the business to devel- ness venture.
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The second part of the bill deals with the Asia. Nevertheless, the region has achieved
issues of electronic signatures being admissi- some milestones such as achieving $20.8M in
ble in court. Current technology provides elec- revenue in 1998, more than double the previ-
tronic signatures, which can seal an e-mail or ous year, according to IDC, 2000.
other electronic document so that the recipient
can both check that the document has not INFONET AND E-BUSINESS
B usinesses been tampered with and see exactly where the
mail has come from.
The following definition is given to highlight
the difficulty of defining an E-business.
are looking to The third part of the bill covers protected An E-business is the electronic integration of all
move from the electronic data and deals with policing and operations within a business that link with cus-
security of information related to national tomers, suppliers, partners, and employees. In
traditional addition to these components the definition also
security as well as to business security. The includes marketing, order entry, lead identifica-
bricks and purpose is to have thorough access to any tion, stock tracking, order fulfillment, distribution,
mortar electronic keys, encryption and decryption and sales support.
systems, necessary to apprehend either abuse
structure to a
or criminal activity over the Internet. E-Business InfoNet
more open, However, as depicted in Exhibit 1, there An E-business InfoNet (information network)
efficient, and has developed a five-tier development cycle provides uniformity in terms of connectivity of
for the growth of E-business and Internet com-
profitable infrastructure for companies to electronically
merce over the last few years. This develop- connect with both internal and external oper-
E-business ment cycle relates to the stages at which each ations. An E-business InfoNet can make the
venture. group of countries have focused on Internet transition from a traditional company to an
commerce, as highlighted by IDC and integrated business containing means to per-
Forrester Research. form tasks more efficiently and effectively giv-
However, this focus, or refocus, on the ing the company competitive advantage in the
needs of Internet Commerce is currently E-market. The E-business InfoNet not only
developing at a slower rate than elsewhere in supports business processes (e.g., marketing,
the developed world. Although, the Asia order entry, and stock tracking) but can make
Pacific region is receiving considerable invest- the process more efficient (e.g, Amazon.com
ment by overseas companies that are looking and Dell.com).
to compete and develop markets such as Dell.com in particular has taken advantage
Yahoo.com in China, and Microsoft and of Internet commerce by integrating B2B
Oracle in all of Asia, this investment will con- E-commerce into its business process. Dells
tinue to develop for the next three years at the main advantage over its competitors is its
same pace, according to Forrester, including development of Premier Page program. The
the recent influx of venture capitalists (VCs) in
E-BRM Extranets
New
Technologies E-Commerce
E-Business
InfoNet
Intranets E-SCM
Infrastructure
both internally
and externally
Network Network
Hardware Software
PRM ERP
E-CRM
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Premier Page system, which serves more than well as a lack of anticipation of needs of the
5,000 U.S. companies, enables each customer InfoNet services.
to purchase, configure, and track delivery sta- There is also an important aspect to an
tus, hence improving business process effi- InfoNet its scalability. An E-business
ciency, cost reduction, and error reduction of InfoNet needs to be highly scalable, and the
E
is a
-commerce
purchases.
E-Environment
E-Culture E-Resource
E-Customer
Cost Needs Mobility E- E-Customer
Processes Channeling Behavior
Efficiency
E-Risk Functions
E-Delivery Person-
alization E-CCMS
Short/Long Competi-
Benefits Technology
Term tiveness
E-Business E-Business
Goals Opportunities
Focus E-Customer
Benefits
E-Business
E-Marketing E-Life Cycle
Goals
E-Business E- E-Business
Impact Management Opportunities
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Level of Importance
Where are we now? What is our situation?
Where do we want to go?
Businesses we want to be in and market
positions we want to stake out
Buyer needs and groups we want to serve
Automation Focused Outcomes we want to achieve
How will we get there?
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Marketing Yes
Sales Yes
Pre-sales Yes
Sub-contracts Yes
Procurement Yes
Accounting Yes
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E-Clock
EXHIBIT 8 E-Customer Centricity Model The E-business is always open for business, as
depicted by the British sitcom Open All
Hours with its catchphrase are you being
Personalization
served.... Since the E-business is essentially
based on bits and bytes, there are no sleeping
patterns that must be adhered to. The E-busi-
E-Customer
Security
Needs ness is essentially open 24 hours a day, 7 days
a week, 365 days a year without having to
take a day off.
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E-Customer
E-Personal E-Personal
Advisor Advisor
E-Personal E-Personal
Advisor Advisor
E-Customer
Communications Link
becoming an invaluable tool and asset in customer on both products and services, and
reducing inefficiencies within CSM, in improv- in the E-world of bits and bytes, trust between
ing SCM for closer cooperation between sup- the E-business and its customers. For all
pliers, and most importantly, in providing intents and purposes, E-customers want to use
knowledge that the E-business needs to imple- the best channel for purchasing what they
ment to achieve this goal. If, and only if, an E- want; E-Businesses need to organize how they
business can implement a new approach to will achieve a successful E-channel.
business today does it have a good opportu-
nity to improve its presence in the future. E-Channelling
The traditional method of distributing goods is
Improving E-Customer Behavior physical such as post, expensive trailers, ship-
Businesses that are in the process of imple- ments to other parts of the world, and so on.
menting an E-strategy need to address how Now, businesses no longer need to rely on
this change will improve the customer rela- these methods of transporting goods. E-busi-
tionship. Traditionally, customers look for ness can use the added opportunity to deliver
quality in a product and indeed a service, the goods through a new and more efficient chan-
value of the service, range of products an E- nel, and that is the Internet (see Exhibit 11).
business has, information available to the E-
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borne in mind and are of concern to the server, firewall technology to protect informa-
business. tion within the organization, transaction pro-
Important factors to consider with holistic cessing authority (e.g., Visa and MasterCard),
planning are: and certifying authority to protect information
High or uncertain costs of implementation arriving at the organization. Exhibit 13 is a tax-
of E-business and lack of proven benefits in onomy of products and examples of products
industry relating to each category.
Low use of E-business by customers and
low use of credit cards CONCLUSION
Lack of budget and E-business planning We have seen an increase in businesses want-
Lack of standards and systems needed for ing to embark on a journey into the E-world;
full integration however, upon arrival they are faced with
Internal control and compliance issues of many difficulties. The primary reason is poor
global business analysis of what is required to sustain identity,
Potential risks of E-business and it cannot be viewed as a wait-and-see sit-
Lack of security and privacy and lack of uation. The success of any E-business depends
enforceable laws on whether it has an E-strategy that focuses on
Legalities of doing business in another coun- two important issues: (1) preparing business
try processes to become customer-centric and (2)
Different tax laws in different countries acquiring the right technology at the right time.
Concerns over intellectual property rights Businesses need to address specific issues
before even beginning to implement an
E-business such as: (a) what is our business
E-Business Opportunities
vision, (b) what are our expectations, (c) who
Many online businesses have taken full advan-
and where are our customers, and (d) what
tage of global presence by aligning themselves
impact will E-business have on our current
with partners that are within their own sphere
business functions and processes.
of business. Exhibit 12 highlights some of the
Only after a thorough analysis of the entire
golden opportunities to compete in this ever-
process, i.e., looking inward and then looking
increasing competitive world.
outward, can a successful implementation take
place. The success entirely depends on senior
Opportunity Technologies
managements understanding of the needs of
With the ongoing development of an E-strate-
the E-business and the reevaluation of the
gy, one of the core components is technology.
businesss internal systems.
Technology initiatives need to address the
Finally a note on E-business process. It is
method of network communication, type of
of great importance to the E-business that the
protocol to be implemented, and whether to
systems are defined in a way that enables
implement ATM or ISDN depending on the size
redefinition, reprogramming, reprocess orien-
of the business. Within the E-strategy, it is also
tation, and remanagement of internal business
necessary to implement connectivity equip-
systems. The purpose here is to actually
ment server hardware and software, e-mail
acknowledge that the online systems will need
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Internet servers Serves browser requests IIS, Oracle WebServer, Linux, Apache
MSOffice plug-in Added feature for Web Jiti Builder for Microsoft V1.0.
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