Tools for E-Businesses - Research Paper Example

?TOOLS FOR E-BUSINESSES E-business is doing business either over the Internet or dedicated proprietary networks with e-commerce as a part of e-business which is mostly buying and selling transactions. The process of establishing an e-business is risky and requires many changes in business process and strategy to be successful. The intent of an e-business is to generate income, strengthen service and limit price by expanding using the Internet. The prospects of online trading have substantial revenue and its realized when the services perform for the business. E-business has evolved and is continually changing to accommodate new technology, inventions and innovations. Since the first website appeared online, organizations, companies and institutions have gone on a rush. It is not enough to be on-line with a domain name and a simple website. A useful and well-designed website is an important factor to consider. Website statics are a major concern for the management who want to realize a return on investment for their money1. Despite the overrated chants for this new-age business concept that has suddenly become the goal of many commercial organizations, not much has changed in the traditional way of handling various business processes. E-business maintains the same principles of business operation as traditional commerce: people, both sellers and buyers, come together to exchange commodities and services over a network of computers. Ordering, buying, bidding, selling, customer services, inquiries and virtually all the business processes still uphold the underlying principles of commerce. E-commerce is a subset of the overall e-business strategy. It chiefly seeks to improve the buy-sell transaction activities in a business; as a result it increases the revenue. In a way e-commerce covers a range of on-line business activities for services and products, both businesses to customer and business to business on the Internet as a platform. E-commerce breaks the process of online business into showing the scope activities and information that is provided to the customer to conduct business and online shopping. Multiple and different functions go into the requirements of e-businesses. For instance, there are some basic functional necessities that cover the sort of specialized that perform the functions that run on the e-business mode. There are also other functions that cover the software and hardware requirements to carry out the same services. An analysis of how e-businesses verity credit, process an order and how they fulfill the order as well as how they verity shipments and all or any post sales process needs to be considered while assessing the performance of an e-business. Functionality, both technical and non-technical, is fundamental for an e-business2. Technical functionality refers to the information processing capability of the e-business systems. It points to the server requirements, Internet speed requirement etc. These functional requirements are the foundations and platforms of the e-businesses. The nature that makes business processes virtual in e-business is supported by these systems. Many stakeholders control the entire system and as such an e-businesses smooth operation especially when operating online is controlled by many other people or organizations. Additionally, e-businesses need other functionality such as security, scalability and reliability to be in place. This may make or break a venture and essentially are what keeps any e-business venture in operation. Without security, performing reliable business functions will not be with trust on the end of the consumer. Consumer trust is vital just like with a traditional store. Building consumer confidence in your system is in this case a good sign of growing business. Order processing needs the transaction processing and database information mining. Speed and efficiency are factors that are considered in evaluating the usability of a system supporting e-business. Payment methods include credit cards, electronic checking and digital cash. The e-business system has to verity the credit and get the approval through a credit card. Payment gateways that route payments through existing financial support systems are required to purposely authorize credit cards or make settlements as required3. World Wide Web allows the customers to track their shipments to the very specific item. The customer has to sign up an account with these companies and once their shipment is ready, they can conveniently track it. Tracking follows the stage of fulfilling an order as promised to the customer. It is not sensible for a company to offer products to the general public if the time for completing an order is longer than that of a rival company. In the business world, there existed a distinction between the different fields of production, management, sales and marketing. In this era of technology, all these areas have merged and been given short descriptions and abbreviations like CRM, ERP etc. It all has to do with the availability and integration of information and the road to information is through computer systems. Gathering information and acting on it is primal and it is largely from the available data that custom made solutions are developed4. E-businesses are highly dependent on these systems since they seek to consolidate the business process into one streamlined processes or short and easy to do tasks. For an e-business, the interface provided must provide customer service, sales and marketing, payment systems etc. This in one aspect that cuts down on the personnel and the bureaucratic process of buying and selling but in another perspective it makes the system complex to develop and prone to errors. A layman’s understanding of e-business is ‘Just selling products over the Internet’. While that is partially correct – E-Business uses the Internet to sell goods – the description oversimplifies the basic principle. In a more precise definition, E-Business is a fundamentally new way of conducting business electronically using the latest technologies, the Internet as an example. E-Business calls for a paradigm shift from the conventional business thinking with the intent of effective competition in a new and dynamic environment: The Cyberspace. Customer empowerment is a soft tool for e-business administration. This idea shifts the emphasis towards getting the customers more deeply involved in the business process. With the development of a single interface with an online help desk, the services are more automated with significantly less paperwork and waiting times. The business owner is able to extend the personal customer relationship to providing after sale services with a lot of efficiency. The premise set by excellent service delivery is an advertising point since the satisfied customers are willing to attract more of their friends to the website. E-Businesses have processes that direct how sales and products flow. Many processes required for an e-business deal with shipping of purchases to customers and the inventory. Implementing direct to customer shipping has to be effective since its one of the very foundations of e-business. On that issue customers of an online store buy goods that they have no physical attachment rather evidence of. They make their decisions based on price and delivery; delivering the goods to them fast and in time is of much essence. Inventory maintenance in e-business is at the center of operations and control. It has to be increased to ensure that products are in stock for the e-business customers. The way that inventories are produced would need to be analyzed to verify that the vendors can maintain the supply with the demand of the products sold on the Internet. The increased inventory could require more space for storing. It is necessary to implement a certain process to ensure that the correct order is sent to the correct customer. Transactions are made electronically versus in person; consequently, the business has to put in place an electronic payment system. There are some other changes to be introduced: a) the collection of accounting information on a timely basis to ensure that information is accurate; b) the implementation of customer service lines for questions and complaints about the site; c) the determination of the site construction and maintenance. Several advantages exist for using the Internet for business activities. It is possible to achieve faster communications to vendors and customers. Shopping during non-business and business hours is availed to the customers. This provides the ability to reach more customers and expands the client base. Implementing e-business comes with flexibility to the business process. The flexibility is squarely on the customer interaction and a platform to reach them. Using the Internet gives the e-business owner a global reach and a global market. Economic benefits of e-business are a key part of the success and why many companies run towards that direction. First, transmitting information is done fast and quickly. This has the capability of reaching, more quickly and completely, a broader group of buyers and sellers. Additionally, it broadens the scope of particular markets or the exchange of services and goods. The aforementioned changes in which the companies compete bring about the efficiencies of reduced costs and supply and demand consolidation. Buyers are able to get better information about quality, price and terms of trade. On the suppliers end, they have better information about the lower costs and their buyers from automating transactions. Next, operational efficiency. Improving the efficiency of service delivery is vital for business operation. In e-business operation, the company is able to move resources towards a more efficient and productive direction. This could be inventing new products and bringing them online to the customers or improving an existing part of the business and ensuring, for example, the product manufacturing is timely and of quality. In implementing an e-business sales people no longer need to hand deliver confidential product information, since the company legal and human resource department is in direct control of the small numbers of staff. Potential sales are enormous because of the increasing clientele base; this puts the company in the advantageous position. Then comes distinctive strategic positioning of the business in the value chain. In building an e-business, it is essential to consider an on-line relationship with direct customers and vendors. Management, procurement, sales and marketing chains have different informational needs. It is essential to build customized websites within customer accounts and vendor accounts. Delivering personalized information on-line allows an e-business to support multiple levels of customer organization in a manner that the individual’s needs are best met. On a larger scale, it makes it easier for each customer to conduct individual research and take appropriate action. In recent years E-business systems have evolved at an alarmingly high rate due to the substantial increase in the Internet usage. This change has encouraged more and more people and commercial organizations to move to e-business. As the technology evolves there are new ways of doing things being devised and upgrades are a constituent part of the e-business. In the normal businesses run on the ground with all personnel and managers they also have to change according to economic times and future sales projection. E-business can perform with the right amount of effort dedication improving the profit base on the pricing strategies. E-businesses have different pricing strategies. They have adopted several types of pricing strategies in order to generate revenue competitively and satisfy customers in the long run. Predominantly they follow: dynamic pricing, static pricing and reverse pricing. In dynamic pricing, products prices are updated in real time according to various customers and various markets that the e-business reaches. The business may adjust prices depending upon the customers, where they shift their prices according to business customers and individual customers based on purchasing history. Dynamic price shifts may also depend on various situations and conditions on the pricing a particular product. Lastly, the competitors pricing tends to influence the dynamic price change as a company is trying to keep abreast and in range of the reasonable price to make sales. Market segmentation exists due to the similar needs of a certain set of consumers for the products they consume. E-business, similar to the traditional business systems, has to take care of the existing market segments, decide the section to target and promote business in that section. With the three-tier systems that encompass requests, transaction processing and data mining, e-businesses are able to personalize their service. A particular media article, message etc. could be sent to the set of customers so that they are informed of what is happening around their local area or around the globe. An e-business must aim to reduce the rate of customer defection. It depends on technical and quality management team since when it comes to online business, physical presence is not readily available. Carefully managing detailed information about individual customer of a company and all customer contact points can help maximize customer loyalty with the company5. Works Cited Rhee, Hyuk and David, Sprague. (2004). “Information Technology and E-commerce Strategy of Entrepreneurial Ventures: A contingency approach based on information–processing theory”. Journal of E-Business, 4, no. 1 (2004): 80. James, Lee. (2011). “Information Resources Management Association”. International Journal of E-Business Research, 6, no. 4 (2011): 44. Jianfeng, Wang. (2010). “A study of the Impact of Individual Differences on Online Shopping”. International Journal of E-Business Research, 6, no. 4 (2010): 52-67. Read More