E-Business Applications

E-Business Applications can be divided into three categories as follows :

1. Internal business systems :

 Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
 Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
 Document management System(DMS)
 Human Resources Management (HRM)
2. Enterprise communication and collaboration :
 VoIP
 Content Management System
 E-mail
 Voice mail
 Web Conferencing
 Digital work flows (or business process management)
3. Electronic Commerce – business – to business electronic commerce (B2B) or
business-to consumer electronic commerce (B2C)
 Internet chain management
 Online marketing
 Offline marketing

Features of E-Business (Business through Internet)

1. The interactive nature : Interactive nature of Internet marketing in terms of instant

response with results is the unique quality of the medium
2. 24 hour open store fronts: Internet business is conducted 24 hour in a day. A buyer
can wish to buy a product or avail a service whenever he/she wants at any time of
the day
3. Non –bound selling or service area: Due the virtual shops and distribution centers
there is no restriction in the size or appearance of actual selling spot. One can only
warehouse or godown to store goods.
4. Wide Span of market: Using Internet one can gain access to any marketplace in the
world and hence it has got larger reach.
5. Flexibility of market place: One can access different market places easily using
Internet.
6. Updated information: Internet can provide updated market and this is very useful in
tracing product availability and assessing prices at a particular time.
7. Knowing competitors: Using Internet one can easily know other vendors those are
selling similar goods or providing similar services.
8. Urgency in solving customer needs: A vendor upon getting order or query can
immediate respond to his/her needs wasting no time.
9. Requirement of computer knowledge: A customer or supplier should have basic
knowledge of using computer, browsing Internet and other electronic transaction
methods related to business.
10. Several choices to decide upon: A comparison among the products or services
manufactured or rendered by different companies or commercial establishment’s
he/she is going to buy.
11. Ease of Assessing: As customers are not physically communicating to the seller at
the price, at the time of buying activity they free to assess quality, available size,
quantities, price, packing method, special features, et. of the product they are going
to purchase.
12. Involvement of manual dispatch: Internet business can successfully complete all
selling and buying activities related to money and financial document transactions
but actual dispatch, transportation of goods and rendering of has to be carried out
manually.
13. Low cast process: Once basic hardware and software needs are fulfilled one can
readily conduct business through internet without requirement of a physical shop in
the core of a market place in a city. One can save money because of a reduced need
for a sales force.
14. Online reservations, bookings: People can reserve a bus, railway or airplane ticket
or book a place in a cricket stadium or film theatre by sitting at theatre home
through Internet.
15. Scope for expansion: Internet marketing can help expand from a local market to
national and international marketing places.
16. Liberal return policy: It is an industry standard for e- commerce vendors to have
liberal return policies and in store pick up services to reassure customers regarding
defect in products or services.
17. Substituting of monetary form: Traditional business involves transaction of
currency notes, one can cheques, demand drafts, debit/credit card, In a semi-
electronic business process one can use these for making payments to other party.
But fully automated Internet business involves digital money transaction.
18. New opportunities of Earnings: Due to the involvement of digitized data
organizations are now able to provide earning opportunities to the people right at
their home. For e.g. data entry, transcription, BPO, KPO related work.
19. Use of other media for promotions: Web based marketing uses other media such as
news paper and Television for launching and promoting commercial websites.

Categories of Supply Chain

 i. Physical Supply Chain: The basic physical chain contains movement
of entities of supply chain from point-of-origin to point-of
consumption. E.g. : Extraction of Coal- Power generation from thermal
plant-Power supply to consumer
ii. Vertical Supply Chain

Creation of a Web site- attracting the customers-lining the orders to sales

organization

The vertical supply chain contains an interfacing web site that communicates
with the suppliers for raw material through which procurement begins. The
finished goods are also displayed with all the necessary details and price tags
which the customer can buy using shopping cart.

Benefits of supply chain management

1. the supply chain management assure the reach the destiny at optimum cost and
at right time.
2. Inventory level can be kept a minimum and still better customer service can be
provided.
3. ACM actually removes the bottlenecks that are present in the supplying process
by making the products flow smooth and to choose the right path.
4. Value added services provide improved customer relation and may get better
feed backs in terms of product design, price, quality, etc. factors.

Value Chain

The concept of value was popularized by Michael Porter in the early 1980s. It is the
way an enterprise produces value for its customers. Value Chain identifies the
primary activities as inbound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, marketing
and sales, and services. It also recognizes the support activities of infrastructure,
human resources, technology, and procurement.

Value Chain Integration

Value Chain integration is the way of viding close band and coordination between
the elements of supply chain so that the flow of goods through the supply chain is
well controlled, visible, swiftly moving so that the end user gets satisfied service. It
is more than just moving the good in the supply chain. The modern supply chain
management consists of value adding, optimizing the use of all resources, materials,
people and technology and information for the benefit of the end customer.
(1) EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) system: It is a system that exchanges
commercial trading in platform independent and universally acceptable format
between the trading partners. EDI dramatically improves the speed of
communication between shippers, receivers. Transactions are done in real time,
and all parties can be kept updated without human intermediaries.
(2) Bar code and radio frequency technology (RFID): these are electronic
identification and tracking techniques used to identify and track the goods in
the supply chain stage.
(3)Intelligent transportation planning systems: These are improved logistic
services that transit the goods quickly to the destiny.
(4)Satellite tracking : This is latest technology to track the carries and goods to
locate their position. The good is visible to the manufacture until it teachers the
customer.

Corporate purchasing

Corporate Purchasing is also referred as industrial procurement. It is an act of

buying goods and services often in huge quantities. Corporate purchasing involves
non personal purchasing and is a collective activity. The purchase is made by a frim
or organization to produce goods or services whose cost runs in lakhs or crores. The
procurement process generally passes through following steps :

(1) Purchase planning.

(2) Standards determination.
(3) Specifications development.
(4) Supplier research and selection.
(5) Value analysis.
(6) Financing.
(7) Price negotiation.
(8) Making the purchase.
(9) Supply control administration.
(10) Inventory control and stores.
(11) Disposals and other related functions.

Obstacles in adopting E-business applications

While adopting E-business applications following obstacles or issues to be

considered:

 Security
E-Business considers digital data exchange between trading partners. Hence
E-Business systems naturally have greater security risks than traditional
 business systems. Therefore it is important for e-business systems to be fully
protected against the risks of hacking and unauthorized access.
 Privacy and confidentiality
Individual’s privacy is the E-business as data could be downloaded from
various sites. It is important to maintain privacy of once business data and
provide intellection must remain secure and only be accessible to the
intended recipient.
 Authenticity
E-business transactions pose greater challenges for establishing authenticity
because the electronic information may be altered and copied easily. Hance
the trading parties in an e-business transaction want to have the assurance
that the other party is who they claim to be.
 Data integrity
Data integrity is the assurance that the message received is identical to the
message sent. A business needs to be confident that data is not changed in
transit, whether deliberately or by accident.
 Non- repudiation
This non- repudiation concern deals with existence of proof in transaction. A
business must have assurance that receiving party or purchaser cannot deny
that a transaction.
 Availability
This concern is specifically pertinent to a business; customers as certain
information must be available when customers need it.
 Physical security
Despite e-business being business done online , there are still physical
security measures that can be taken to protect the business as a whole
especially the hardware part.
 Data storage
Storing data in a secure manner is very important to all businesses, but
especially to e-businesses where most of the data is stored in an electronic
manner.
E-business Security solutions
 Encryption
Encryption, which is actually a part of cryptography, involves transforming
texts or messages into a code which is unreadable. These message have to be
decrypted in order to be understandable or usable for some one. There a key
that identifies the data to a certain person or company.
 Digital certificates
 The point of digital certificate is to identify the owner of document. This way
the receiver knows that it is an authentic document. Companies can use
certificates in several different ways.
 Digital signatures
Digital signature is also one of the ways to secure online information without
being detected. That way if it is edited, it may be adjusted for reliability after
the fact.
‘E-business Strategy’ is essential for the organizations that are involved in E-
Business i.e. conduction business over the Internet. E-Business strategy
defines both the short- term and long-term e-business goals and involves
careful and skilled planning E-Business strategy is part of the corporate
strategy and business plan.
Strategy involves the following
1. E-Risk management and condingency planning.
2. Web site technology, applications, infrastructure, security, resources and
budget.
3. Web site content -Information architecture, customer experience, design,
branding and marketing.
4. Marketing planning and budgeting.
5. E-Commerce planning.
6. Re-engineering.
7. Change management strategy.

E-Strategy

Simply ‘strategy’ is a plan of action designed to define the long term goals and
objectives of the firm and then provide a means to achieve them. ‘E-Strategy’
is an interactive process to create or modify an organization’s business model
for E-Business.

Virtual Supply Chain

Virtual supply chain is a modern, flexible and information based supply chain
system that used latest computer and communication technology to acquire
raw materials, manufacture products and distribute them to end users.

Advantages of Virtual Chains

 Building strong alliances between customers and manufacturers, advertising

products and services selectively with effects of audio, video, and graphics,
and saving time and money in efficiently processing customer orders and
enquiries.
 Offers flexibility in option pricing and customization of products and service,
by reducing the constraints of time and space because of e-Commerce.
 Virtual supply chain systems are designed for flexibility, complexity and speed
in managing networks of suppliers, manufacturers, distributors and
warehousing agents virtually.
E-Business Project Planning
1. Identify potential e-business initiatives: the first step is to identify the
prospective e-business initiatives. It reveals about the benefits of
implementing e-business to a firm
2. Analyze the functional scope of e-business initiatives: The second step
a detailed analysis of functional scope of the e-business iniatives are taken
up.
3. Analyze the sustainability of benefits from e-business initiatives : In
the third step the sustainability of benefits received from the initiatives of
e-business are analyzed.
4. Prioritize e-business initiatives : Since several e-business proposals
may well be under consideration at the same time, perhaps by different
groups or units within the same organization, executives must be able to
choose among them.