Chapter List

OVERVIEW

E-business can be defined as the use of automation and communications to carry out business transactions without manual or labor-intensive activities. E-commerce consists of the transactions that support e-business. Figure 1.1 gives an overall picture of e-business. On either end you see the customer and supplier. As interfaces you see boxes for Web sites and the system interfaces. Most of the attention in books and articles tends to be focused here. However, the benefits are not here. These areas are the enablers of e-business. The core of e-business is shown in the middle. Here you see customer and supplier information, business processes, technology and systems, goods and services, and organization and infrastructure. It is here where you either make money or lose your shirt in e-business. Surrounding this we have management and measurement. Measurement is crucial because you want to take advantage of the information that e-business provides.

Let's use Figure 1.1 to explore e-business.

Figure 1.1: Overall Picture of E-Business

• Customer and supplier information. E-business can give you billions of bytes of information on how people navigate your Web site. This is nice in academic books and journals, but it is not the real world. If you gather these data, you have to ask if it is worth it. How will...