E-Business Development

E-Business Development

The advent of the Internet allowed previously unseen interaction. People all over the world are now able to instantly communicate, despite divergences in location or life paths.

E-business relies on Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to carry out its operations throughout the value chain. In his work concerning Business Process Redesign (BPR), Phan (2003) enumerates conventional forms of e-business:

•     Business to Business (B2B)
•     Business to Consumer (B2C)
•     Consumer to Business (C2B)
•     Consumer to Consumer (C2C)
•     People to People (P2P)
•     Government to Citizen (G2C)
•     Citizen to Government (C2G)
•     Exchange to Exchange (E2E)
•     Intra-Business (Organization Unit to Organization Unit)

Globalization and ICT altered the business landscape forever. An encyclopaedia (Lee, 2010) discusses Teams of Leaders (ToL), a term originating in the US Army in the aftermath of the Cold War. ToL can be transposed to business development promoting actionable understanding and restoring cohesiveness. ToL and High Performing Leader Teams (HPLTs) share information and knowledge.

Communication basics teach one that information travels horizontally (e.g. among colleagues) and vertically (top down and from subordinates up). Transparency and confidence are valued to say the least in today’s business environment, and ToL enhances trust and contributes to business growth by developing expertise, insight and multiorganizational outlook.

Three major elements of corporate strategy are customer relations, supply and management (Suchanek, 2008). E-business activity is facilitated by Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). Dubbing the concept system modularity, the author talks about expanding on what is already in place. He also describes the paid Search Engine Optimization (SEO) service and Pay-Per-Click (PPC) links as a wise investment. A campaign of the like would result in the business being easier to find as well as securing greater market share.

Letters in the Sky - Michel love. Photo by Elena

E-businesses must ensure that financial transactions take place securely and that personal information remains protected. User interface is also pivotal. As for any other form of business, investment and profits go together.

The dot-com bubble, sometimes referred to as the IT or TMT bubble, took place in the ending years of the last millennium. Like all speculative bubbles, it was characterized by increasing trading activity and then bursting, leading to price deflation. Phan (2003) presents a case study of e-business of the Intel Corporation. Intel experienced outstanding success and after its initial e-business deployment, in 1998, made an astonishing $1 billion each month. Despite the repercussions of the dot-com bubble and the recession, the processor technology and silicon innovation company has managed to thrive.

References:

•     Lee, I. ed. Encyclopaedia of E-Business development and management in the global economy: Volume II. Business Science Reference. Hershey, NY: 2010.
•     Phan, D. D. (2003). E-business development for competitive advantages: A case study. Information & Management, 40; 581-590.
•     Suchanek, P. (2008). E-business development key areas. Proceedings of the 5th International Symposium on Business Administration, 537-543.