Week 3: F u n d a m e n t a l s o f e - B u s i n e s s

In this week students will have to understand that the Internet continues to open doors for

a myriad of new and previously existing business opportunities with the creation and

implementation of e-Business models. Electronic business (referenced as e-business or Internet

business) refers to digital transactions between an entity and consumers using the World Wide

Web and the Internet to conduct business. “E-business in practical business applications covers

internal processes: production, inventory management, product development; focused on internal

procedures, reducing cost and improves the product efficiency”. E-business is similar to e-

Commerce but entails processes that superseded selling and buying, like enterprise resource

planning, customer relationship, and supply chain management; assisting companies with

operating more effectively and efficiently. E-commerce constitutes an exchange of tangible

services and products between individuals, businesses, and groups, which are essential activities

of any business. Internet & The Web, and function-oriented technology demonstrate the

importance of adaptability and how to achieve it in an e-Business model. In the Age of the

Internet of Things, there is a continual convergence of attributing variables contributing to the

success of the e-Business model: The Big Five, emerging technologies, customer service,

information (big data), and change management. The e-Business concept has a significant

comprehensive structure and interplay. The letter “B” defines the business aspect of understating

the purpose or overall goal of the e-business. The letter “O” determines e-business organizational

structure, internal and external collaborations and milestones. Letter “A” depicts the architectural

or conceptual design focused on abstract automation and IT organization capabilities relating to

e-business systems; letter “T” incorporated the aspect of technology, which provides the

technological details and logic of a particular networked e-business system. In this new age of
technology, an e-business presence directly affects the success or failure of business. “There are

several fundamental principles which apply to e-businesses: high system availability, delivery of

appropriate response times, data confidentiality, reliability and availability, and allow content to

be refreshed quickly and frequently” (Warren, 2000). The e-business model increase sales,

improves communication and accessibility, low cast and reduces marketing cost. Similar to e-

Commerce and e-Marketing, e-Business deal with completed digital networks which comprises

electronic mediums to assist in the digital specialization of business activities. E-businesses are

the basis for classifying network e-business scenarios: parties, objects, and time scopes

dimensions. Classification of a scenario creates the foundation for additional analysis and design.

Classification of a scenario creates the basis for further analysis and design. E-business parties

describe each participating entity engaging in e-business, which consists of the business,

consumer, and government party type. Technology Development and Entrepreneurial E-Business

Description of careers for which concentration prepares students:

This concentration would be appropriate for students interested in careers involving the

development of new businesses based on the use of new technologies and/or e-Business. This

track would also be appropriate for students interested in careers related to the commercialization

of technology, including work in venture capital and product development.

Required for the Concentration (choose three of the following):

GSBA-550ab: Entrepreneurship or BAEP-551: Introduction to New Ventures

BAEP-555: Founder's Dilemmas: Anticipate and Avoid Startup Pitfalls

FBE-527: Entrepreneurial Finance: Financial Management for Developing Firms

MKT-530: Product Development and Marketing Strategies

MKT-556: Internet Marketing

Electives (choose one of the following):

BAEP-557: Technology Commercialization

MOR-542: Strategic Issues for Global Busines

MOR-564: Strategic Innovation: Creating New Markets, Business Models and Growth

Week 4: Business-to-Business E-Business

Description of careers for which concentration prepares students:

This concentration would be appropriate for students interested in careers involving the use of

eCommerce in business-to-business environments. Such careers may include marketing,

information systems, and account management positions within organizations that offer products

and services to other organizations.

Required for the Concentration (choose four of the following):

DSO-510: Business Analytics

DSO-543: Global Business Issues in the Networked Digital Industry

DSO-581: Supply Chain Management

MKT-556: Internet Marketing

MKT-555: Marketing Channels

Trust and security in service-oriented environments

Trust concepts and trust model

Trustworthiness

Trust ontology for service-oriented environment

The fuzzy and dynamic nature of trust

Trustworthiness measure with CCCI

Trustworthiness systems

Reputation concepts and the reputation model

Reputation ontology

Reputation calculation methodologies

Reputation systems

Trust and reputation prediction

Trust and reputation modeling

The vision of trust and reputation technology

SUMMARY

"Trust and Reputation for Service-Oriented Environments is a complete tutorial on how to

provide business intelligence for sellers, service providers, and manufacturers. In an accessible
style, the authors show how the capture of consumer requirements and end-user opinions gives

modern business the competitive advantage."--BOOK JACKET.

e business and Supply Chain Management

Description of careers for which concentration prepares students:

This concentration would be appropriate for students interested in careers involving the use of

eCommerce in the management of supply chains. Such careers may include positions in

operations management, logistics, purchasing, information systems and related functions within

any of a variety of types of organizations.

Required for the Concentration (choose three of the following):

DSO-581: Supply Chain Management

DSO-537: Global Businesses and Markets: Strategies Enabled by Technology

MKT-555: Marketing Channels

Electives (choose one of the following):

ACCT-549: Advanced Enterprise Systems and Technology

DSO-528: Data Warehousing, Business Intelligence, and Data Mining

DSO-543: Global Business Issues in the Networked Digital Industry

Retail E-Business
Description of careers for which concentration prepares students:

This concentration would be appropriate for students interested in careers involving the use of

eCommerce in business-to-consumer environments. Such careers may include marketing,

account management, retailing, and information systems positions within organizations that offer

products and services to consumers.

Required for the Concentration (choose three of the following):

DSO-510: Business Analytics

DSO-543: Global Business Issues in the Networked Digital Industry

MKT-525: Consumer Behavior

MKT-526: Advertising and Promotion Strategy

MKT-555: Marketing Channels

Electives (choose one of the following):

DSO-528: Data Warehousing, Business Intelligence and Data Mining

FBE-554: Trading and Exchanges

High Technology and E-Business Consulting

Description of careers for which concentration prepares students:

This concentration would be appropriate for students interested in careers involving consulting,

related to eBusinesses, high technology, or the use of information technology within a business

environment.

Required for the Concentration:

DSO-510: Business Analytics

MOR-557: Strategy and Organization Consulting

Electives (choose one of the following):

GSBA-556: Business Models for Interactive Digital Media & Services

MOR-559: Strategic Renewal and Transformation

MOR-564: Strategic Innovation: Creating New Markets, Business Models and Growth

MKT-556: Internet Marketing

So what's E-businness ?

 It's the use of electronic means to conduct an organization’s business internally and/or

externally

 Digital enabling of transactions and processes within a firm, involving information systems

under firm’ s control.

 Does not include commercial transactions involving an exchange of value across

organizational boundaries.

And about E-commerce?

 It's a subset of e-business

 i.e. the facilitationof transactions and sellingof productsandservices online

 E-business becomes e-commerce when exchange of value occurs

 Digitally enabled commercial transactions between and among organizations and individuals

Foundations of B2B e-commerce

B2B e-commerce is the part of the economy which deals with Internet-based or Internet-

supported commercial activities between two or more different companies or parts of companies

[19]. Commercial activities are processes like procurement, sales, and transaction services which

include the needed communication (e.g., inquiries, service requests) respectively. The Internet

not only enables supply and sale of products and services but also allows the emergence of much

more complex business structures. Thus, a systematic approach must not only comprise the

classification of products and services and the related business models but also the quite different

dimension of virtual organizations and dynamic networks [6, 34]. Virtual organizations are

networked, locally distributed, or even mobile organizational units which participate in a

coordinated process of value creation. Participating companies achieve a higher level of

resources, competencies, and capacities within the network. They are expected to react much

faster and more flexible on changing customer demands. From the banks´ perspective, virtuality

and networks will change their business processes completely. Therefore, we have to analyze the

general structure and the strategic roles of virtualized value chains.

Week 5: strengthens e-business portfolio

 As part of the overall strategy to enhance its suite of e-business industry solutions, Unisys

Corporation today announced the release of Unisys e-Workflow and Imaging 5.0. Clients can

realize increased productivity through improved document availability and easily modified

workflow processes, easy access to the Web with XML-based forms, and centralized control for

better customer service. Additionally, costs for these operations can be reduced across the

enterprise.

By combining existing product capabilities with Unisys proven vertical industry expertise, the

Business Process Solutions portfolio provides state-of-the-art process management, integrated

software and solution deployment, training and support on a global basis.

As a single-source solutions provider, Unisys offers business process solutions for the

commercial, e-business, financial services and public sector industries. The solutions being

demonstrated in the Unisys booth at Association for Information and Image Management (AIIM)

show in New York this week include:

 Business Process Solutions for government

 Business Process Solutions for e-cards

 Business Process Solutions for loan processing

 Business Process Solutions for secure Internet forms

 Business Process Solutions for case management

 Business Process Solutions for ERP process improvement

 Business Process Solutions for electronic records management

 Business Process Solutions for integrated document management

 Business Process Solutions for tax and revenue

These vertical solution sets allow clients to gain easy access to the Web with XML-based forms,

increase productivity through improved document availability and easily modified workflow

processes, and centralize control for better customer service while reducing the costs of these

operations across the enterprise.

Release 5.0 of the Unisys e-Workflow and Imaging solution provides the ability to integrate --

more quickly than ever -- imaging, workflow, XML-based electronic forms, Web/Internet,

computer output to laser disk (COLD), knowledge management, document management, data

capture and enterprise resource planning (ERP) operations for targeted industries. This release

has been designed for the extended enterprise - enabling customers to cost effectively deploy the

Unisys e-Workflow and Imaging solution not only within their corporate enterprise but to

business partners as well.

Enterprise management capabilities provide full administration from centralized consoles. The

new Client Work Manager has been designed to run either as a traditional LAN client or directly

from a Web browser, allowing customers to choose the most effective deployment method for

their infrastructure. The organizational role model also has been extended, allowing dynamic

configuration of the new Client Work Manager based on the user's role in the enterprise.

Configuration options include the user interface, functions performed by the user, access to

workflow cases and the control over task related script execution at the desktop.

"Release 5.0 brings together the power of e-workflow and imaging to e-business solutions by

streamlining business transactions and by providing process coordination," said Jay DeWalt,

director of strategic marketing for Unisys. "Customers can leverage a workflow-driven e-

business solutions portfolio that is responsive to the industry environment. With all of the
elements necessary to conduct business more efficiently, Unisys e-Workflow and Imaging 5.0

was designed to integrate with existing solutions to create a seamless workflow process."

Week 6: role of e-business

The role of e-business or the use of information and communication technology (ICT) for

business activities in advancing sustainable industrial development is well acknowledged. As one

of the key drivers in manufacturing growth, e-business can potentially enable increased

productivity and industrial competitiveness. The adoption of e-business in remanufacturing, an

emerging strategy in sustainable manufacturing, has been lagging especially among small and

medium enterprises (SMEs) in developing countries. SMEs face challenges in capitalizing on

growth opportunity in remanufacturing, which include demand forecasting and inventory

management. These challenges, if left unaddressed, could pose threats to SMEs business

viability. Exploratory in nature, this study presents the state-of-the-art in e-business for

remanufacturing industries including accounts on the hurdles that contribute to the lack of

adoption. A number of factors have been identified as potential hurdles to adoption include,

among others, knowledge and competencies in e-business and financial support. To address the

issue of lack of adoption, potential strategies are also discussed. Furthermore, a value chain

analysis of a remanufacturing SME is used to provide latest insights into how e-business

applications portfolio could be used to counter aforementioned challenges faced by

remanufacturing SMEs. The Oracle E-Business Suite family of Oracle Projects applications

supports the full lifecycle of project and portfolio management with a single, accurate view of all

project-related activities. Industry leading functionality allows users to select the best portfolio of

initiatives, execute projects in adherence with methodologies, assign the right global resources,
proactively streamline project delivery, and track profitability via accurate budgeting,

forecasting, and billings/chargebacks.

Seamless Integration, Complete Flexibility

Oracle Projects integrates with other Oracle E-Business Suite applications, including Oracle

Financials, Oracle Supply Chain Management, Oracle Human Resources Management, Oracle

Customer Relationship Management, Oracle Sales, Oracle Advanced Procurement and

the Oracle Collaboration Suite to complete end-to-end business processes. Implement one or

several application families—or suites—for the fastest way to achieve success in your project-

driven enterprise.

Unique Industry Needs, Project By Project

The manner in which projects are planned, executed upon, and controlled can vary widely from

organization to organization. Oracle Projects is equipped to address the unique challenges facing

the most project-centric organizations and departments today, including: Engineering and

Construction, Professional Services, Public Sector, Industrial Manufacturing, Communications,

Internal IT and New Product Development. Oracle E-Business Suite is the most comprehensive

suite of integrated, global business applications that enable organizations to make better

decisions, reduce costs, and increase performance.

Why Oracle?

With hundreds of cross-industry capabilities spanning enterprise resource planning, customer

relationship management, and supply chain planning, Oracle E-Business Suite applications help

customers manage the complexities of global business environments no matter if the

organization is small, medium, or large in size. As part of Oracle’s Applications Unlimited

strategy, Oracle E-Business Suite applications will continue to be enhanced, thus protecting and

extending the value of your software investment. Oracle E-Business Suite family of Customer

Relationship Management applications provides a single, global basis of information that ensures

all selling channels are aligned with corporate objectives. Oracle's E-Business Suite Human

Capital Management delivers a robust set of best-in-class human resources functionality that

enables you to increase productivity, accelerate business performance, and lower your cost of

ownership. Oracle E-Business Suite Financials allow you to work smarter, increase efficiency

and reduce back-office costs with standardized processes for shared services, productivity tools,

and integrated performance management. The Oracle E-Business Suite family of Oracle Projects

applications supports the full lifecycle of project and portfolio management with a single,

accurate view of all project-related activities and industry leading functionality allows users to

select the best portfolio of initiatives.

Week 7: E-Delivery of Services

At the other end of the channel, service delivery has been completely automated. In

Inspectech’s case, the delivery of service is through a comprehensive Home Inspection Report

that was traditionally posted to the customer and various intermediaries. This process of getting a

home inspection done and getting the final report typically took 6-8 days.

IQura has completely automated the service delivery of Inspectech by creating systems for

delivering the report directly on the Inspectech website. This is achieved through a complex

enterprise-wide application that IQura developed for Inspectech. Inspectech’s current

information systems generated a home inspection report through Seagate’s Crystal Reports that
was printed out and mailed to the customer, prospective buyer, the home inspector and the real

estate agents involved.

The first component that IQura created is a real-time 24x7 engine that automatically converts

each new Home Inspection Report (as and when it is created by the existing system using Crystal

Reports) into a PDF (Portable Document Format) document that can be delivered electronically.

A second engine constantly monitors new PDF document reports and delivers them via FTP to

the remote web server hosting the Inspectech.com website and creating the necessary linkages

between the website and the report.

During this process, a component sends e-mails to the various entities (prospective buyer, seller,

home inspector, real estate agents) informing them that their report has become available and a

URL where it can be accessed. An account is automatically created for the home inspection

report. On the website, customers only need to login with the unique ID provided to them and

view/print their report. In this manner, Inspectech now is in a position to deliver its service

offering completely online in a time span of a few hours after the actual home inspection.

The E-delivery system successfully integrates the different technologies and bridges the new web

technologies with Inspectech’s existing legacy IS systems. These include a Sybase Enterprise

Server database, Crystal Reports, ActivePDF, FTP and scheduling functions, Visual Basic

components, ASP pages, etc.

Besides developing the applications themselves, IQura has defined the specifications, developed

the strategies for implementation, advised Inspectech on moving their systems to the Internet,

hosting and server configurations and we continue to manage their servers and systems.
E-Service

A burgeoning requirement with OEMs is to provide better after-sales support and service.

Service contracts act as a continuing revenue stream through both support services and sale of

spare parts.

E-service solutions lower service costs, enhance the user experience and increase revenues for

the OEM.

An E-service solution can provide after-sales support services through online searches for spare

part information. Online spare parts catalog can be made available sorted by model numbers.

Price check and current availability features help in the buying process. Finally, the customer can

directly requisition service requests, order parts and track open orders from the website.

A further step can be to track specific model and serial numbers. A customer can login with their

serial number whereby the web service application will retrieve all details about the machine,

warranty, customer details, etc. It can present customized information to the customer about

spare parts for the specific model, new accessories and updated technical information. This area

can also be used to showcase and sell new products and services to existing customers.

An E-service solution is made more effective with the use of a web-based expert system that can

provide both customers and OEM start-up engineers with valuable troubleshooting assistance. to

provide valuable troubleshooting assistance. Makers of complex manufacturing systems rely

heavily on the knowledge of experienced technicians to solve difficult problems. Support

personnel are not usually available around the clock, but the on-line expert systems can provide
24 x 7 service on-line to help guide customers through typical problems. By asking a series of

questions, the expert system guides the customer closer to the source of the problem, then makes

specific suggestions on how to solve the problem. A well-designed expert system can typically

solve 80% of the customer problems without intervention of a service technician, In addition,

OEMs can monitor data on the frequency of customer problems and use this information to

improve product design and reliability.

Traditional E-Business

Support service through technical Support via support website with all technical

manuals, telephone and onsite visits. manuals, wizards, FAQs and walkthroughs.

High-Cost. Cost-effective.

Can track individual machines and customers. Can

Difficult to manage older models,
find all information through model number or serial
small customers.
number.

Expensive to setup 24/7 support. Always Available.

Heavy dependence on technical Upto 80% of customer problems can be solved

manpower. without the intervention of a service technician.

Week 8: E-business services and "lock-in"

 E-business services are the sort of business which can give the opportunity to a supplier

to make a lock-in situation with its customers. When two companies are connected to each other

with information technology systems, will detaching from that system be expensive or

operationally difficult. Lock-in has of course positive network externalities. Companies who are

locked-in have the opportunity to develop trust and loyalty between each other and make

switching to a competitor much more disagreeable. Collaborate According to the interviews the

lock-in situation is a worth striving for. Customers are more and more willing to use electronic

solutions with suppliers. “They are already used to do it with competitors systems.” 10 biggest

printers in Europe mean 65 % of capacity. “We are "married" with all in any case.” One pitfall

can be if Metsä Board is e.g. fifth (5) supplier who offers e-business services, it is not locking in

so much anymore. It was foreseen that Metsä Board services may have differences to our

competitors, easier to use, attractive and practical user interface etc. For example, one of Metsä

Boards customer has their own order processing system, and that interface is not user friendly,

“it should be a model of Apple or Nokia.” Introducing and implementing the system was also

seen as a risk. When launching new software, they should be remaining in use long term. "Then

when you do not need any training, it has gone well". Large and extensive training needs to be

avoided. When some additional services are offered, the expectations towards it are growing

"transparent system is not necessarily better system." 4.5.9 E-business and the meaning of strong

partnership According to the lock-in, there is in the background, a strong partnership between

suppliers and customers. Customer relationship management is a big part of the dealings. In the

board business like any other business-to-business environment there is an aim towards a long-

term partnership. There is no use in reaching for occasional transactions; the goal is for many

years of successful cooperation. Ebusiness services will have a role in this collaboration. We
have to keep in mind that in B2B –environment, the e-business solutions have a support function

in making business.d companies can develop products, services, processes e.g. together in

trusting relationship. With e-business services it is the same, like to get a first order from a new

customer. You can be pretty sure that when she/he starts to do that job and starts to develop the

relationship and when you get to know more about one and another and know each other’s

capabilities, new orders with different products will come along. “If you get this thing up and

running and you can demonstrate that you are good at it, then it makes sense”. To start co-

operation with e-business, you start to probably discuss with people you´ve never been even met

before. 63 In the early days it was seen that it was quite normal to send technical specifications

by email, now the customers are seeking this information from the Internet, no more inquiries

need to be sent. Nowadays customers are much more aware about products and technical details.

They are now professionals in purchasing; today they really know what they need. Sometimes

customers act like they don’t know anything but they have already checked things from the web.

They try to lower prices for example by playing ignorant. “It´s the part of the game, both parties

should make their homework.” In general, customer service activities are the basic stuff, not

rocket science, “it just has to be done.”