Introduction to e-Business

It is widely acknowledged today that new technologies, in particular access to the Internet, tend to modify communication between the different players in the professional world, notably:

relationships between the enterprise and its clients, the internal functioning of the enterprise, including enterprise-employee relationships,

the relationship of the enterprise with its different partners and suppliers.

The term "e-Business" therefore refers to the integration, within the company, of tools based on information and communication technologies (generally referred to as business software) to improve their functioning in order to create value for the enterprise, its clients, and its partners. E-Business no longer only applies to virtual companies (called click and mortar) all of whose activities are based on the Net, but also to traditional companies (called brick and mortar). The term e-Commerce (also called Electronic commerce), which is frequently mixed up with the term e-Business, as a matter of fact, only covers one aspect of e-Business, i.e. the use of an electronic support for the commercial relationship between a company and individuals. The purpose of this document is to present the different underlying "technologies" (in reality, organizational modes based on information and communication technologies) and their associated acronyms.

Creation of value
The goal of any e-Business project is to create value. Value can be created in different manners:

As a result of an increase in margins, i.e. a reduction in production costs or an increase in profits. E-Business makes it possible to achieve this in a number of different ways:

Positioning on new markets

Increasing the quality of products or services Prospecting new clients Increasing customer loyalty Increasing the efficiency of internal functioning

As a result of increased staff motivation. The transition from a traditional activity to an e-Business activity ideally makes it possible to motivate associates to the extent that:

The overall strategy is more visible for the employees and favors a common culture

The mode of functioning implies that the players assume responsibilities Teamwork favors improvement of competences

As a result of customer satisfaction. As a matter of fact, e-Business favors:

a drop in prices in connection with an increase in productivity improved listening to clients products and services that are suitable for the clients' needs a mode of functioning that is transparent for the user

As a result of privileged relationships with the partners. The creation of communication channels with the suppliers permits:

Increased familiarity with each other Increased responsiveness Improved anticipation capacities Sharing of resources that is beneficial for both parties

An e-Business project can therefore only work as soon as it adds value to the company, but also to its staff, its clients, and partners.

Time to Market
"Time To Market" is the time that is necessary to bring a product on the market from a time an idea was put forward. Worldwide, new technologies provide an incredible source of inspiration to formalize ideas while making Time-To-Market even more critical because of the rapid flow of information and speedy competition.

Reduction of costs and ROI

The use of new technologies for the functioning of an enterprise makes it possible to reduce the costs on the different levels of its organization in time. Nonetheless, implementation of such a project is generally very costly and necessarily leads to organizational changes, which may cause upheaval in the practices of its employees. It is therefore essential to determine the return on investment (ROI) of such a project, i.e. the difference between the expected profits and the required overall investment, taking into account the cost of human resources mobilized.

Characterization of the e-Business

A company can be viewed as an entity providing products or services to clients with the support of products or services of partners in a constantly changing environment. The functioning of an enterprise can be roughly modeled in accordance with a set of interacting functions, which are commonly classified in three categories:

Performance functions, which represent the core of its activity (core business), i.e. the production of goods or services. They pertain to activities of production, stock management, and purchasing (purchasing function);

The management functions, which cover all strategic functions of management of the company; they cover general management of the company, the human resources (HR) management functions as well as the financial and accounting management functions;

The support functions, which support the performance functions to ensure proper functioning of the enterprise. Support functions convert all activities related with sales (in certain cases, they are part of the core business) as well as all activities that are transversal to the organization, such as management of technological infrastructures (IT, Information Technology function).

Enterprises are generally characterized by the type of commercial relationships they maintain. Dedicated terms therefore exist to quality this type of relationship:

B To B (Business To Business, sometimes written B2B) means a commercial relationship business to business based on the use of a numerical support for the exchange of information.

B To C (Business To Consumer, sometimes written B2C) means a relationship between a company and the public at large (individuals). This is called electronic commerce, whose definition is not limited to sales, but rather covers all possible exchanges between a company and its clients, from the request for an estimate to after-sales service;

B To A (Business to Administration, sometimes written B2A) means a relationship between a company and the public sector (tax administration, etc.) based on

numerical exchange mechanisms (teleprocedures, electronic forms, etc.). As an extension of these concepts, the term B to E (Business to Employees, sometimes written B2E) has also emerged to refer to the relationship between a

company and its employees, in particular through the provision of forms directed at them for managing their career, vacation, or their relationship with the company committee.

Front Office/Back Office

The terms Front Office and Back Office are generally used to describe the parts of the company (or of its information system) that are dedicated, respectively, to the direct relationship with the client and proper management of the company. The Front-Office (sometimes also called Front line) refers to the front part of the enterpriser that is visible to the clients. In turn, Back Office refers to all parts of the information system to which the final user does not have access. The term therefore covers all internal processes within the enterprise (production, logistics, warehousing, sales, accounting, human resources management, etc.)

Presentation of the different concepts

Implementing an e-Business project necessarily involves the deployment of an enterprise network through which enterprise-specific services are accessible in clientserver mode, generally via a web interface which can be queried by using a simple navigator. Nonetheless, the implementation of computer tools is not sufficient. It is therefore believed that an enterprise only actually implements an e-Business project as soon as it implements a new organization based on new technologies.

The concept of e-Business is nonetheless very flexible and covers all possible uses of information and communication technologies (ICT) for any and all of the following activities:

Making the relationships between the enterprise and its clients and different partners (suppliers, authorities, etc.) more efficient

Developing new business opportunities Facilitating the internal flow of information Controlling the different processes of the enterprise (production, warehousing, purchasing, and sales, human resources, etc.)

The goal is therefore to create privileged communication channels between the enterprise and its environment and link them with its internal processes to better control internal and external costs. The goal of this document is to present the main market technologies, including:

Intranet / Extranet Groupware; Management of business processes; e-Commerce; Enterprise portals; Enterprise application integration (EAI); Electronic data interchange (EDI); Client relationship management (CRM); Knowledge management (KM); Supply chain management (SCM); Integrated management software (IMS), also called ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning); Business Intelligence (BI).

Ecommerce (e-commerce) or electronic commerce, a subset of ebusiness is the purchasing, selling, and exchanging of goods and services over computer networks (such as the Internet) through which transactions or terms of sale are performed electronically. Contrary to popular belief, ecommerce is not just on the Web. In fact, ecommerce was alive and well in business to business transactions before the Web back in the 70s via EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) through VANs (Value-Added Networks). Ecommerce can be broken into four main categories: B2B, B2C, C2B, and C2C.
B2B (Business-to-Business) Companies doing business with each other such as manufacturers selling to distributors and wholesalers selling to retailers. Pricing is based on quantity of order and is often negotiable. B2C (Business-to-Consumer) Businesses selling to the general public typically through catalogs utilizing shopping cart software. By dollar volume, B2B takes the prize, however B2C is really what the average Joe has in mind with regards to ecommerce as a whole. Having a hard time finding a book? Need to purchase a custom, high-end computer system? How about a first class, all-inclusive trip to a tropical island? With the advent ecommerce, all three things can be purchased literally in minutes without human interaction. Oh how far we've come! C2B (Consumer-to-Business) A consumer posts his project with a set budget online and within hours companies review the consumer's requirements and bid on the project. The consumer reviews the bids and selects the company that will complete the project. Enlace empowers consumers around the world by providing the meeting ground and platform for such transactions. C2C (Consumer-to-Consumer) There are many sites offering free classifieds, auctions, and forums where individuals can buy and sell thanks to online payment systems like PayPal where people can send and receive money online with ease. EBays auction service is a great example of where person-to-person transactions take place every day since 1995.

Companies using internal networks to offer their employees products and services online--not necessarily online on the Web--are engaging in B2E (Business-to-Employee) ecommerce. G2G (Government-to-Government), G2E (Government-to-Employee), G2B (Government-to-Business), B2G (Business-to-Government), G2C (Government-to-Citizen), C2G (Citizen-to-Government) are other forms of ecommerce that involve transactions with the government--from procurement to filing taxes to business registrations to renewing licenses.

There are other categories of ecommerce out there, but they tend to be superfluous.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN E-COMMERCE AND E-BUSINESS There is a debate among consultants and academics about the meaning and limitations of both ecommerce and e-business. Some argue that e-commerce encompasses the entire world of electronically based organizational activities that support a firms market exchangesincluding a firms entire information systems infrastructure (Rayport and Jaworksi, 2003). Others argue, on the other hand, that e-business encompasses the entire world of internal and external electronically based activities, including e-commerce (Kalakota and Robinson, 2003).e-commerce the use of the Internet and the Web to transact business. More formally, digitally enabled commercial transactions between and among organizations and individuals

We think that it is important to make a working distinction between e-commerce and ebusiness because we believe they refer to different phenomena. For purposes of this text, we will use the term e-business to refer primarily to the digital enablement of transactions and processes within a firm, involving information systems under the control of the firm. For the most part, in our view, e-business does not include commercial transactions involving an exchange of value across organizational boundaries. For example, a companys online inventory control mechanisms are a component of e-business, but such internal processes do not directly generate revenue for the firm from outside businesses or consumers, as e-commerce, by definition, does. It is true, however, that a firms e-business infrastructure provides support for online ecommerce exchanges; the same infrastructure and skill sets are involved in both ebusiness and e-commerce. Ecommerce and e-business systems blur together at the business firm boundary, at the point where internal business systems link up with suppliers or customers, for instance. E-business applications turn into e-commerce precisely when an exchange of value occurs.