Views
5 years ago

The fundamentals of e-business

Published :

Updated :

The internet is so dynamic that its features change every day. Platforms using the internet tend to be aware of these changes. Such changes can affect e-commerce and e-businesses.

It is believed that an e-business becomes successful as soon as it becomes a technology-driven organisation. Simply put, Electronic Business is the administration of conducting business via the Internet.

E-business is different from e-commerce as it goes beyond the simple buying and selling of products and services through online platforms. E-business refers to the use of the web, internet, intranets, extranets or some combination thereof that is used to conduct business. E-business includes a wider range of businesses processes, such as supply chain management, electronic order processing and customer relationship management.

The evolution of e-business is entwined with the internet. Online shopping only became possible after the internet was opened to the public in 1991. Since then, e-business went through the following phases over the years.

EARLY ONLINE SALES-With the advent of the secured socket layer, developed by Netscape in 1994, websites developed the ability to encrypt sessions, thus making credit card transactions over the internet safer. Through an encrypted connection between a company's server and a client's computer, credit numbers could be masked so they could not be intercepted by a third party, thus making theft of card information less likely. This security led to an increased number of businesses offering products for sale via the web.

MODERN WEB SALES - Developments in server technology, including the ability to build websites from product databases, resulted in creation of large internet-only businesses. Earlier, on e-commerce website, each product had to be manually posted on the web page. With database-driven sites, companies could use web-page templates to display tens of thousands of products on-the-fly. With the number of available products on the rise, traffic and sales on these websites also increased.

CURRENT STATE OF E-BUSINESS - Currently, e-business ranges from simple sites providing corporate information to sites offering goods and services for sale online. E-businesses include innovative use for new voice and video communication technologies like online language tutoring. The number of large commercial information repositories is increasing. Online sale from web-based storefronts continues to grow. Sales of digital information, in the form of eBooks and digital music files, are few of the more recent offerings by e-businesses.

E-businesses are easy to set up as there are no geographical boundaries. These are cheaper than traditional business, have flexible business hours and its marketing and promotion requires smaller budget than actual businesses.

The functioning of an e-business can be roughly modelled in accordance with a set of interacting functions, commonly classified in three categories: performance functions, management functions, and support functions.

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

Management functions cover all strategic functions of management of the company.  Finally support functions group all activities related to sales as well as all activities that are transversal to the organisation, such as management of technological infrastructures.

There are a number of issues related to security and integrity as far as e-businesses are concerned.

In e-businesses, personal touch and rapport is absent as buyers and sellers do not meet.

Unlike direct transactions, where the product or services is handed over upon payment of the agreed amount, there is a transaction risk in online businesses.

Successful e-businesses rely on swift, secure online transactions. Even something as simple as a bad web hosting service creates a financial risk for these companies. Crashed servers and insufficient bandwidth can lead to persistent website downtime and customer dissatisfaction. So e-business companies must invest in well-known, reliable hosting providers.

Taslim Ahammad is an Assistant Professor at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Science and Technology University, Gopalganj, Bangladesh.

[email protected]

 

Share this news