Page 140 - DCAP307_PLANNING_AND_MANAGING_IT_INFRASTRUCTURE

Planning and Managing IT Infrastructure

Notes just having a web presence to facilitate buying and selling. “e-Business is exploiting the combined
power of the internet and information technology to fundamentally transform key business
strategies and processes”.
There are three categories of e-business involvement. The first type is what we’re going to call
an e-business enhanced organisation, a traditional organisation that sets up e-business
capabilities, usually e-commerce, while maintaining its traditional structure. Many Fortune 500
type organisations are evolving into e-business using this approach. They use the Internet to
enhance (not to replace) their traditional ways of doing business.

Example: Sears, a traditional bricks-and-mortar retailer with thousands of physical stores
worldwide started an Internet division whose goal is to make Sears “the definitive online
source for the home.”

e-Business Represents

1. A range of online tools and processes that transform a company’s value proposition by
using sophisticated data warehousing to target customers more effectively, networks to
link companies with suppliers, distributors and other business partners; and flexible
organisational infrastructures that adapt to change.
2. A way for companies to participate as part of a larger networked community of providers,
each bringing specialised skills and new levels of performance to an e-market place.
An e-business may 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.

Example: 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. And 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 have made e-business the obvious path. This
trend continues with new technologies, such as Internet-enabled cell phones and PDAs, and the
trend of e-business saturation will most likely continue for some time.

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