Page 60 - DMGT505_MANAGEMENT_INFORMATION_SYSTEM

Unit 4: Electronic Commerce and the Digital Organization

According to World Trade Organization (WTO): “E-commerce as a commercial process includes Notes
production, distribution, marketing, sale or delivery of goods and services electronically.”
E-commerce is used everywhere in everyday life. It ranges from credit/debit card authorization,
travel reservation over a phone/network, wire fund transfers across the globe, point of sale
(pas) transactions in retailing, electronic banking, electronic insurance, fund raising, political
Campaigning, on-line education and training, on-line auctioneering, on-line lottery and so on.

!
Caution Many people use the term e-commerce and e-business interchangeably, which is
factually wrong.

Task Discuss the meaning of e-commerce.

Self Assessment

Fill in the blanks:
1. .................................. is defined as a systematic and organized network for the exchange of
goods between produces and consumers.
2. E-commerce includes .................................. trading of both goods and electronic material.

4.2 Digital Organization

Given the wish of some designers to be able to digitally express form and to integrate their
expressions into a process of analysis, what then happens to these design intentions in the
context of office practice? One would expect creative design practices to exploit emerging digital
technologies in imaginative ways that support the realization of their design visions. On the
other hand, it is evident that offices of a more corporate nature are more readily influenced by
administrative diktat and managerial doctrine and guidance. Sir Michael Latham’s report,
Constructing the Team, aimed to provide guidelines for the organization of the construction
industry in the United Kingdom. If defined the responsibilities of designers, clients and
contractors in terms of deliverable outcomes. The report also commented upon patient issues in
the construction industry ranging from the role of clients through to tendering procedures,
contracts, and resolving disputes, particularly in relation to payments. At various points in the
report, comments in turn led to firmer recommendations on specific topics. It is evident that the
Latham Report has already had a significant effect on working practices in the UK construction
industry. A favour of its effect on design practice can be gleaned by looking at some of its
observations and aspirations in more details.
Once a prospective client has decided that a project should proceed in principle, and roughly
how much risk and direct involvement to accept, the project and design briefs can be prepared.
The client who knows exactly what is required can instruct the intended provider. That may
involve appointing a Project Manager, or a client’s representative to liaise with the designers, or
a lead designer, or a contractor for direct design and build procurement.

It could be argued that clients today have a better appreciation of quality than they may have
had prior to the Latham Report. Some clients realize that the panache of projects is invariably
design driven, and see architects as capable of managing projects themselves. Do project managers
inhibit this design impetus?

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