Internet, ECommerce, EBusiness - Essay Example

Internet, E-Commerce, E-Business Table of contents Introduction 2. History of Internet 3. Internet & E-Commerce 4. E-Strategies in Businesses 5. Conclusion 1. "The Internet has revolutionized the computer and communications world like nothing before. The invention of the telegraph, telephone, radio, and computer set the stage for this unprecedented integration of capabilities" (A Brief History of the Internet, 2003). The idea that the Internet plays a very important role in our live and modern business is very tightly connected with the Internet and its business strategies and cannot manage without it is an interesting one. This issue is increasingly important in this age of information technologies development and Internet prevalence in all spheres of our life. Many people believe that there is no need in wide use of up-to-date Internet strategies and technologies for business development, but these people overlook the fact that the Internet proposes wide range of methods and means of e-commerce, marketing and management strategies for successful business conducting. "The Internet is at once a world-wide broadcasting capability, a mechanism for information dissemination, and a medium for collaboration and interaction between individuals and their computers without regard for geographic location" (A Brief History of the Internet, 2003). Furthermore, some kind of businesses cannot manage without the Internet technologies and e-commerce. This paper will argue that it is impossible to imagine modern business without the Internet and its opportunities. To develop this idea, history of the Internet, the role of e-commerce and e-strategies in business development will be examined. 2. The Internet began as the ARPANET during the cold war in 1969. It was developed by the U.S. Department of Defence's (DOD) in conjunction with a number of military contractors and universities to explore the possibility of a communication network that could survive a nuclear attack" (The Internet Economy Indicators, 2005). But the precondition of the story began earlier. "The first recorded description of the social interactions that could be enabled through networking was a series of memos written by J.C.R. Licklider of MIT in August 1962 discussing his "Galactic Network" concept" (A Brief History of the Internet, 2003). He proposed to make a global informational computer network which could provide everybody's access to numerous data from websites. In 1965 in California the first dial-up connecting computer system was created. "The result of this experiment was the realization that the time-shared computers could work well together, running programs and retrieving data as necessary on the remote machine, but that the circuit switched telephone system was totally inadequate for the job" (A Brief History of the Internet, 2003). This was the first result of the new system. The next step was made in 1969, when "four host computers were connected together into the initial ARPANET, and the budding Internet was off the ground" (A Brief History of the Internet, 2003). The first public demonstration of the new networking system was organized in 1972: "In October 1972 Kahn organized a large, very successful demonstration of the ARPANET at the International Computer Communication Conference (ICCC). This was the first public demonstration of this new network technology to the public" (A Brief History of the Internet, 2003). This demonstration played a very important role for that time imaginations of information transmission. In that time the following concept was developed: "Internet was based on the idea that there would be multiple independent networks of rather arbitrary design, beginning with the ARPANET as the pioneering packet switching network, but soon to include packet satellite networks, ground-based packet radio networks and other networks" (A Brief History of the Internet, 2003). Later, this concept was changed into more convenient one. "By 1985, Internet was already well established as a technology supporting a broad community of researchers and developers, and was beginning to be used by other communities for daily computer communications" (A Brief History of the Internet, 2003). E-mail advantages were estimated by customers as one of the most convenient ways of information transmission: "Electronic mail was being used broadly across several communities, often with different systems, but interconnection between different mail systems was demonstrating the utility of broad based electronic communications between people" (A Brief History of the Internet, 2003). The network development caused its use for different purposes. Soon, it began to be used for communication and commercial purposes. "Starting in the early 1980's and continuing to this day, the Internet grew beyond its primarily research roots to include both a broad user community and increased commercial activity. Increased attention was paid to making the process open and fair" (A Brief History of the Internet, 2003). The Internet became the global communication system. One could say about a special new technological and informational community: "This coupled with a recognized need for community support of the Internet eventually led to the formation of the Internet Society in 1991, under the auspices of Kahn's Corporation for National Research Initiatives (CNRI) and the leadership of Cerf, then with CNRI" (A Brief History of the Internet, 2003). The Internet development led to the necessity of one more organization, The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C): "Initially led from MIT's Laboratory for Computer Science by Tim Berners-Lee (the inventor of the WWW) and Al Vezza, W3C has taken on the responsibility for evolving the various protocols and standards associated with the Web" (A Brief History of the Internet, 2003). So, the structure and technological features of the Internet has been changed. To improve the network function some new protocols were introduced. "Several protocols...were proposed, including Simple Network Management Protocol or SNMP (designed, as its name would suggest, for simplicity, and derived from an earlier proposal called SGMP), HEMS (a more complex design from the research community) and CMIP (from the OSI community)" (A Brief History of the Internet, 2003). In last decade the Internet has been commercialized very much. A lot of websites are dedicated to different commercial information and advertisement. "The Internet has now become almost a "commodity" service...This has been tremendously accelerated by the widespread and rapid adoption of browsers and the World Wide Web technology, allowing users easy access to information linked throughout the globe" (A Brief History of the Internet, 2003). The official term "Internet" was introduced in 1995 when a resolution was passed. "This definition was developed in consultation with members of the internet and intellectual property rights communities" (A Brief History of the Internet, 2003). Since 1962 a very long and complicated way of the Internet development has been passed. Products and services are sold and bought independently of the place a customer lives. Information technologies development has no boundaries now. The Internet development has not changed yet. This is the process which can never be finished. "It will, indeed it must, continue to change and evolve at the speed of the computer industry if it is to remain relevant. It is now changing to provide such new services as real time transport, in order to support, for example, audio and video streams" (A Brief History of the Internet, 2003). The new age of technologies is being touching the Internet too. "This evolution will bring us new applications - Internet telephone and, slightly further out, Internet television. It is evolving to permit more sophisticated forms of pricing and cost recovery, a perhaps painful requirement in this commercial world" (A Brief History of the Internet, 2003). A lot of new forms of assess appeared today. These forms are very convenient commercially for customers of different products and services. "New modes of access and new forms of service will spawn new applications, which in turn will drive further evolution of the net itself" (A Brief History of the Internet, 2003). The main issue now is financial and intellectual investment in new informational technologies for the Internet development. "If the Internet stumbles, it will not be because we lack for technology, vision, or motivation. It will be because we cannot set a direction and march collectively into the future" (A Brief History of the Internet, 2003). As was already mentioned before, the main feature of the Internet development today is commercialization. The network proposes great deal of services and technologies for business development. 3. "Business is everywhere on the Internet. Small companies and large are making their presence felt. According to a recent survey done by Jupiter Communications, a research firm in New York, 132 million dollars US was the total business transacted directly on the Internet during 1995" (Business Growing On The Net). A lot of money is involved in e-commerce today. There are millions of websites dedicated to e-commerce. These sites are rather different, but they have some similar features. The main aim of these sites is potential customer attention paying through attractive website design. "As in any business, first impressions mean a lot, and how your product or services appear will determine your success. A well organized presentation, done professionally, will attract the clientele you want" (Business Growing On The Net). But behind an attractive website presence a company must have a range of convenient products or services which are able to satisfy the customers' demand. "A Web site is like an iceberg. What you see looks small and simple, but below it you have infrastructure integration issues with maybe 40 or 50 databases. So building a Web infrastructure can be a pretty serious risk for older companies" (Wilder, 1998). To attract potential customers and buyers to the commercial website, a seller must apply appropriate marketing technologies to enlarge the whole amount of website visitors and customers. "For business-to-consumer online efforts, doing E-commerce well starts with driving traffic to your site. Many early sites did a good job harnessing Web technology, but those efforts languished because not enough shoppers came calling" (Wilder, 1998). But for successful business it is not appropriate to use only web opportunities. There are many other useful means for good business functioning, such as TV and other media resources, because people get used to watch TV programs, listen to radio, read newspapers and magazines: "And equally if not more important, the companies began to advertise their E-commerce capabilities in traditional media. "Let's face it: People still watch TV and read magazines," says Laube. "Building a site is just one piece of the puzzle" (Wilder, 1998). One of the main advantages of e-commerce is relative cheapness, especially for small firms and companies which do business in the Internet. But firms proposing products and services also outside the Web must spend large sums of money for their business promotion. "Business-oriented commerce server software, such as Microsoft Site Server Commerce Edition, may start as low as $5,000, but that's just the first building block in a complex undertaking. Companies spend an average of $750,000 just for the baseline technology, according to a Gartner Group survey of 100 commerce sites" (Wilder, 1998). A great deal of famous companies uses e-commerce for their income growth. Their investments in e-commerce are paid off rather quickly. "Amazon's marketing expenses grew from $11 million in the first quarter to $26.5 million in the second quarter to $37.5 million in the third--more than it spent on technology... Its revenue for the first nine months of 1998 was $357.1 million" (Wilder, 1998). But for their success increase companies must use mass marketing means. E-commerce growth doesn't mean the end of mass marketing. "Mass marketing is also a necessity for the captains of online industry. Dell isn't the largest online PC seller only because of execution; it also heavily markets its direct-selling approach--on prime-time TV and elsewhere" (Wilder, 1998). But in spite of these features the whole amount of e-commerce revenue constantly grows. "By the year 2000, less than 4 years from now, the amount will top 4 billion dollars US annually. Not only are computer-related businesses going on-line to advertise and sell their wares, but such mail-order giants as L.L. Bean and Eddie Bauer Corporation" (Business Growing On The Net). The products and services of these and many other companies can be found and ordered in the Internet. They can use many technological novelties constantly appearing in our age. "Already, in a few selected sites, is a new protocol called Hot Java, which will allow for audio and moving video clips to enhance your presentation. Imagine a TV ad aimed at your potential customer, when he is actually watching" (Business on the Net). Potential of the Internet as the global system for sales promotion and access to informational data is very high and has been growing every year. "At last count there were 10 million users on the Internet, and that is expected to increase to well over 100 million in the next five years, and to 200 million by 2005. That is a lot of potential customers" (Business on the Net). The whole amount increasing of the Internet users leads to the growth of e-commerce products and services. E-strategies in business are getting great importance for successful business running. 4. "Electronic commerce is gaining momentum like a runaway truck heading down a mountain pass. The most eye-popping prediction we've seen lately comes from Forrester Research Inc., which projects as much as $3.2 trillion in worldwide sales over the Internet by 2003" (Jeetu Patel et al. 1998). The figures of such sales amount say that e-strategies for business today play a very important role in the whole sales amount of the world. There are some significant key-point e-strategies for business which can help both the Internet-oriented business and many kinds of businesses using the Internet as additional resource for sales promotion. "The primary purpose of sell-side applications is revenue generation. Sell-side applications follow the classic E-commerce model: enabling an organization to sell products or services to multiple buyers, usually outside the organization" (Jeetu Patel et al. 1998). A company must propose an appropriate range of website services for delivering goods to customers independently where they are. For example, "if you're an auto-parts manufacturer, you'll want your E-commerce application to integrate with your inventory system and your production scheduling systems. If you're an online publisher selling content over the Web, you'll need special features to ensure successful delivery of the product" (Jeetu Patel et al. 1998). There are some effective guidelines necessary for business oriented to the Internet. "Communications planning is based on clearly identified marketing communications objectives" (Interactive Marketing Communications). Effective planning is one of the most effective parts of e-commerce. A company also must determine customer segments and audience mostly appropriated to the products and services offered. "Internet marketing involves the full range of target audiences. The full range of target audiences is the customer segments plus employees, shareholders and suppliers" (Interactive Marketing Communications). A company must also pay appropriate attention to the management tools of all necessary sides of e-commerce provided by the website. "Internet marketing should involve management of all forms of contact, this includes both management of both outbound communications such as banner advertising or direct e-mail and inbound communications such as e-mail enquiries" (Interactive Marketing Communications). As was already mentioned before, e-commerce marketing for business should include other means outside the Internet for attracting determined amount of potential customers of the website. "A range of media should be used to deliver the message about the web site. Marketing managers need to consider the most effective mix of media to drive traffic to their web site... Many of these techniques can also be used to drive customers to a site for retention" (Interactive Marketing Communications). E-commerce company must use some effective online promotion techniques which always help to attract potential customers. One of these techniques is banner advertising. It is commonly used in many countries. "In the UK, 58% of marketers use email marketing and 50% participate in targeted banner advertising. In Spain, 54% of marketers engaging in email marketing and 37% engaging in targeted banner advertising. France is the only country citing higher usage of targeted banner advertising (10%) vs. email marketing (9%)" (Interactive Marketing Communications). Another technique for traffic increase is direct e-mail marketing. "Email has proven to be a popular medium for direct marketers, in large part because of its relatively low cost, but also because customer responses can be generated rapidly... Email marketing can be an effective communication vehicle" (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia). But there is no need to abuse direct e-mail marketing, otherwise it can be spam. The strategies and techniques necessary for e-commerce business can help firms and companies engaged in e-commerce business and all kinds of businesses connected with the Internet. 5. I have argued that it is impossible to imagine modern business without the Internet and its opportunities. The Internet technologies and e-commerce became the integral part of our life. "It has become possible to get information on your destination, book hotel reservations, and a flight; then notify your relatives of your arrival time, all on-line. Oh yes, don't forget to make reservations at a nice restaurant" (Business Growing On The Net). This view will become increasingly dominant in the coming century, because we all are witnesses of huge technologies development growth. Many of these issues can never be resolved to everybody's satisfaction, but in the long run, promoting the fact that the Internet can change our life and our attitude to business and information. More and more people use the Internet in the U.S. and in the world: "In 1993, 3 million people were connected to the Internet. In 1999, 80 million Americans are connected and approximately 200 million people worldwide. (U.S. Department of Commerce)" (The Internet Economy Indicators, 2005). It will lead to the betterment of all involved. "I look forward to the day, not far off, when I can enjoy my coffee at home, and do my days work without having to leave my house. For many people, Huxley's prediction of a brave new society without work in the traditional sense is not far off" (Business on the Net). Finally, wide development of the Internet and e-commerce increases global cooperation and cultural understanding among countries and peoples. References All about the Internet. (version 3.32. Last revised 10 Dec 2003). (http://www.isoc.org/internet/history/brief.shtml) Business Growing On The Net. PETE'S HOME PAGE ARTICLE #16 (http://www.igs.net/whisper/art16.htm) Business on the Net. PETE'S HOME PAGE ARTICLE #6. (http://www.igs.net/whisper/art06.htm) Clinton Wilder. Myths And Realities. (December 7, 1998). Information Week Online. News in review. (http://www.informationweek.com/712/12iumyt.htm) Direct marketing. (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_marketing) Jeetu Patel et al. Tools For Growth In E-Commerce. (December 7, 1998). Information Week Online. News in review. (http://www.informationweek.com/712/12oltoo.htm) Interactive Marketing Communications. (http://www.marketing-online.co.uk/ch8.pdf) The Internet Economy Indicators. Facts & Figures. (Wednesday, 13, 2005 July 13, 2005) (http://www.internetindicators.com/facts.html) Read More