E-business refers to conducting business electronically and integrating technology like the internet to streamline processes. In the late 1990s, many companies rushed to adopt e-business due to hype, but costs were high and customers were still uncomfortable using the internet. This led to the dot-com crash. Now, internet penetration is higher, costs are lower, and companies have refined their e-business models. E-business allows for speed, convenience, customization and new ways of defining product value compared to traditional business. The key benefits are cost reduction, increased sales, improved customer service and expanded markets.

1. Introduction to e-Business

2. Part I -- How did we get here?Introduction to e-Business

3. What is e-business?Any business carried out in electronic formConnecting electronically to your business stakeholders

4. What is e-business?E-business is the strategic use of technology, particularly the Internet, to integrate and streamline the business processes, enterprise applications, and organizational structure of a business and create a high performance business modelTerm will probably become redundant within 10 years as all businesses will be “e-businesses”

6. Evolution of e-business

7. Evolution of e-business

8. “If you’re not an e-business by 2000, you won’t be in business by the year 2001” – Technology Sales Pitch, 1999

9. In many ways fear of being left behind sparked the “.com gold rush”

14. “If you’re an e-business in 2001, you’re lucky to be alive!” – Technology Sales Pitch, 2001

15. “… For a small fee, we’ll show you how to truly leverage the technology we hyped up and sold to you in 1998.” – Technology Sales Pitch, 2001

16. Why did the Internet market crash?

17. Main reasons for “.com” crashNot enough customers comfortable using the Internet… this meant companies had to spend a disproportionately high percentage of their budgets on marketing (e.g. 40-50% instead of usual 5% for traditional business)Information technology costs very high… many people incorrectly assumed setting up e-commerce sites would be cheap (e.g. virtual inventory, virtual office) This combination was a killer for many businesses (not enough customers and revenues and huge infrastructure costs)

18. How can you separate the hype from reality?!

19. People usually overestimate the short term of impact and underestimate the long term impact of technologyE-Business has really just started…

20. Evolution of e-business

21. What’s different than “.com” timesCustomers now comfortable using the Internet… e.g. 70-80% Internet penetration rate in North America… companies can spend less on marketingInformation technology costs have decreased… instead of using EDI, people are using VPN (virtual private networks). While revenues are still challenging to acquire, it’s a lot better than .com times & companies have fine-tuned their modelsGoogle has figured out how to earn revenues from advertising… Companies that had difficulty with profits such as PayPal have since been acquired by players like eBay with solid revenuesSigns that the “times are a changing” can be seen with these examples from the music industryMadonna’s new contract shows importance of Web-based channelsRadiohead challenges traditional distribution approaches

22. Send/Rcv.Proprietary Format DocumentEDI DocumentEDI Encode /DecodeEDI Encode /DecodeProprietary Format DocumentEDI DocumentSend/Rcv.EDI ProcessProprietaryFormat documentProprietary Format DocumentEDIdocumentDocumentBuyerVANProprietary Format DocumentEDIdocumentVendor

25. Unique attributes of e-businessSpeed... e.g. crackberry addictsConvenience... e.g. FedEx offloading CSR costs... and consumers happy to acceptCustomization... e.g. build your own PC at Dell Redefinitionofproductvalue... e.g. Google docs...free Web-based software supported by ads Mediaflexibility... Madonna’s new deal

26. E-business benefits#1 driver is cost reductionIncreasing salesImproving customer serviceMinimizing competitive pressuresExpanding market reachAddressing user concerns

28. Integrated systemsInfo systems that are joined together in such a way that they can easily share data between themIn past, integration was a key part of e-business development costs (connecting system A to B could cost 4x more than the actual systems cost)Increased trend towards open standards (e.g. XML-based data transfer such as via RSS... Real Simple Syndication)... Integration costs decliningStill really difficult to connect large scale enterprise systems

29. E-commerce vs. E-businessTransaction

30. “Cash register”

31. Smaller scale

32. Your individual projects focuses on e-commerce although there are small scale components of e-business (e.g. Integration with third party websites)