Term Paper [part 02]

INTRODUCTION E-business is a term used to describe businesses run on the Internet, or utilizing Internet technologies to improve the productivity or profitability of a business. In a more general sense, the term may be used to describe any form of electronic business that is to say, any business, which utilizes a computer. This usage is somewhat archaic, however, in most contexts; E-Business refers exclusively to Internet businesses. The most common implementation of E-Business is as an additional, or in some cases primary, storefront. By selling products and services online, an EBusiness is able to reach a much wider consumer base than any traditional brick and mortar store could ever hope. This function of E-Business is referred to as E-Commerce, and the terms are occasionally used interchangeably. An E-Business may also use the Internet to acquire wholesale products or supplies for in-house production. This facet of E-Business is sometimes referred to as E-Procurement, and may offer businesses the opportunity to cut their costs dramatically. Even many E-Businesses, which operate without an electronic storefront now use E-Procurement as a way to better track and manage their purchasing. In addition to buying and selling products, E-business may also handle other traditional business aspects. The use of electronic chat as a form of technical and customer support is an excellent example of this. An E-Business, which uses chat to supplement its traditional phone support, finds a system, which saves incredible amounts of time while providing opportunities unavailable through traditional support. By using virtual computer systems, for example, technical support operators can remotely access a customer's computer and assist them in correcting a problem. With the download of a small program, all pertinent information about the hardware and software specifications for a user's computer may be relayed to the support operator directly, without having to walk a customer through personally collecting the data. Using email and private websites as a method for dispensing internal memos and white sheets is another use of the Internet by E-Business rather than producing time-intensive and costly physical copies for each employee, a central server or email list can serve as an efficient method for distributing necessary information. In the past few years, virtually all businesses have become, to some degree or another, an E-Business. The pervasiveness of Internet technology, readily available solutions, and the repeatedly demonstrated benefits of electronic technology has made E-Business the obvious path. This trend continues with new technologies, such as Internet-enabled cell phones and PAD(s), and the trend of E-Business saturation will most likely continue for some time. [Source: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-e-business.htm]

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BACKGROUND “eBiz4Teens” is going to be the first to document the history of EBusiness, which we believe all started with Amazon.com. Amazon.com opened their virtual doors in July of 1995. Their mission was to "use the Internet to offer products that educate, inform, and inspire". Therefore, they built their website, an online store that is customer friendly and easy to navigate. Oh yeah, and it currently offers 4.7 million, books, CDs, audio books, DVDs, computer games, and more. Now, headquarters of Amazon.com are in Seattle, Washington, and it is currently a public-traded company (NASDAQ: AMZN). The Revolution of Business on the Internet first came up the wild idea of selling things on the Internet such as books, garden supplies, shoes, cars, etc. All these are from the privacy of one’s home. Therefore, many have this great idea, and they come up with a name, logo, and slogan. They stake their "dot com" property, and then they have a brand new E-Business. If they have an EBusiness that sells a service, such as web or graphic design, we can eliminate the need for a brick and mortar storefront. What is "brick and mortar"? Many of us do not know. Therefore, that means, we can even eliminate the need to know what "brick and mortar" means. This is why the Internet is so fast. Selling products that needed to be shipped to the client can prove to be more of a challenge then providing an online or digital service. Amazon.com set up warehouses, so that books could be shipped more efficiently. Garden.com talked to many different businesses and collaborated with them to create the ultimate in buying garden supplies. E-Business brings out the true, creative entrepreneur in one. Being able to start a business for a small price or even free is very exciting. [Source: http://library.thinkquest.org/28188/history.htm]

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USE OF APPLICATION Applications can be divided into three categories: 1. Internal business systems: o

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

o

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

o

Employee Information Portals

o

Knowledge Management

o

Workflow Management

o

Document Management Systems (EDMS), also known as: Content Management Systems

o

Human Resources Management

o

Process Control

o

Internal Transaction Processing

2. Enterprise communication and collaboration o

Content Management System

o

E-mail

o

Voice mail

o

Discussion forums

o

Chat systems

o

Data conferencing

o

Collaborative work systems

3. Electronic commerce - Business-to-business electronic commerce or business-to-consumer electronic commerce o

Electronic funds transfer

o

Supply chain management

o

E-marketing

o

Online marketing

o

online transaction processing

[Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/electronic_business.htm]

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DIFFERENT SECTORS RETAIL SECTOR "The Retail sector contains per definition of all activities that can be connected with selling consumer goods for personal or domestic use.” [Source: Grondslagen van de Marketing, Verhage] In the retail trade, the focus or target group is the private person. Consumers tend to spend much at the retail trade and local market. Looking at the retail sector, we can also distinguish several sub-sectors that can use ECommerce these are: -Food sector -Do-It-Yourself shops sector -Domestic articles/toys sector -Textile sector -Living sector -Electronic sector -Specific expertise and hobby sector -Garden sector -Home shop sector -Others In the other retail sub-sectors, E-Commerce is not directly implementing able. Usually these sub-sectors operate on the local market, and therefore it is hard to make E-Commerce work for them. When we look at Business-2Business it can be attractive to cooperate for all sub-sectors, think of online ordering goods at wholesale trades. From the above-mentioned points, it is clear that the retail sector is suited for the use of E-Commerce applications. This can partly be explained by the general developments in this sector. Products are tangible and can therefore be presented better using the Internet than services.

BUSINESS SERVICES SECTOR "The Business service’s delivers services aimed on the business execution of the business life. This group consists of professional services on the area of law, accountancy, accounting and administration, recruitment, marketing, 4

computer sector and technical services such as architects and engineers, real estate market and rental companies in several sectors. In other words: all companies that do not deliver touchable materials but deliver services to other companies.” [Source: http://www.mkbnet.nl/mkbnederland/projecten/zakdverl.shtml] Many companies started with E-Commerce, but they also admit the activities only started in the past 3 years. For new entrants, the advantage of being an early adopter is therefore lost and advantages now lie in cost reduction and improved service delivery, rather than gaining a reputation as a market leader. In the business services sector an information aspect can be found in all of the sub-sectors. Starting an information based E-Commerce initiative is always possible. However, when we are talking about true E-Commerce, there are some sub-sectors where it can be better integrated than others are. Think of the real estate sector and the market research & information management sector. Several E-Commerce applications are already running in these sectors. The business services sector is a sector where many E-Commerce applications will be used and will be extended in the future. It is a sector where many companies compete with each other and where they fill up each other. Think of the real estate sector, almost every real estate agent has an ECommerce application running. Differentiation within the business services sector might give some new opportunities. Joining several services can create extra value for the online customers. The services can be offered to more people calculating mortgages and insurance. Using E-Commerce applications customers can: a) Get a direct global offer or b) Get a personalized offer. Customers do not have to have a personal conversation and they are not dependable on the opening-hours. Internationally seen this sector is not very suitable for a worldwide operation in the near future because of the different juridical systems.

TRANSPORTATION SECTOR “Logistics concerns all business activities which add value to products and services using the dimensions place, time and quality. Logistics realizes their extra value concerning products and services, which are processed using the primary production process of a company. Logistics is responsible for the realization of products and services at the right place, on the right time and in the correct quantity from the starting point of the workflow until the end of the workflow to the customer (and even beyond).” [Source: http://www.eur.nl/fbkstudieinfo97-98/LM-03.htm]

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Within the transportation sector there can be thought of a wider foreign market reach. This partly depends on the customers and locations the company is referring. Within this sector, companies are less dependable on the actual location than in the other described sectors. Starting E-Commerce offers several possibilities to reach a wider foreign market. The transportation sector does not have to invest as much in marketing as the other sectors. Customers are mainly companies in the same sector. Within the transportation sector, there are possibilities in connecting the website to the back office. In many companies, there is a seamless connection between the already existing office automation, and the E-commerce application. Connections have to be created with existing clearance programmers, sales etc. It is possible for customers to look online at already existing office automation files. A clear result is the cut back in costs and time expenditures.

PROSPECTIVE OF E-BUSINESS IN BANGLADESH

EFFECTS OF E-BUSINESS With the emergence of E-Business and other fast-moving business technologies, the efficient and successful development of information systems that support e-business has become increasingly critical. E-Business provides a high-level introduction and understanding of an architectural approach to building IT solutions, in particular those that support E-Business. Specific topics covered include: • • • • • • •

E-Business effects on architectural IS solution building Object-oriented methods and architectural solution building Critical success factors for large-scale and narrow-scope projects Aligning the IS solution with business objectives The importance of simplicity and elegance, conceptual integrity, and intellectual manageability in solution building Guidelines for business-driven and technology-driven IS strategies Defining architecture models and supporting IT infrastructure

[Source: http://www.cashncarrion.co.uk/products/6969/286/]

CUSTOMER ATTITUDE TOWARD THE E-BUSINESS E-Business is Maturing. Where once it seemed enough to put an "e" in front of a product or a company name or to append a ".com" to just about anything, now it is recognized that E-Business success requires something more. At the most fundamental level, successful E-Businesses recognize that EBusiness is a business issue. Business strategies lead to E-Business strategies. Once an E-Business strategy has been developed, business practices and 6

supporting technology must be defined and implemented. And E-Business requires a long-term commitment to a perpetual process of market awareness, product and strategy development, implementation, and execution. Inflated market capitalizations might happen overnight, but E-Business success does not. E-business, it turns out, is just as subject to economic laws as any other industry. Another sign of E-Business's increasing maturity is the growing promise of E-Business. Early E-Business opportunities were fairly discrete: a Web store front, an intranet human resources application, or a utility function like E-Billing, for example. These days we're talking about fully integrated E-Businesses, with customers, suppliers, and internal operations linked seamlessly through the power of the Web. In this fully integrated world, the opportunities – and the challenges – often affect the entire business, making E-Business that much more compelling – and more dangerous. [Source: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0SMG/is_6_20/ai_69412608]

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LIMITATIONS: The paper work was very pleasant for us, and we tried our best to conclude the research successfully. However, we had some limitation to complete the research paper as followings:  This paper was our opening experience of a term paper.  Internet contains limited information about the E-Business in Bangladesh.  We found a little information about E-Business from the library.  The paper work started and ended with a short period.

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RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS:

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CONCLUSION: E-Business is not just about E-Commerce or exchanging information about goods and services between one and customers, and one and suppliers. It is about using the Internet for the transfer of information between employees using your in-house systems, between branch offices, remote users, and between business partners, customers, suppliers and the public. E-Business is also about automation. One can automate many of his or her in-house procedures using new sources of information. One is freed up so he or she can use information and technology to let his or her work at business rather ignore that business. The benefits of E-Business have spawned a huge range of related products and services. One’s challenge to understand what E-Business can provide for his or her business and then match requirements to what is available.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY:

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