E-Business

ACCA P5 Advance Performance Management

E-Business: Electronic business means administrating and conducting business processes using electronic technologies basically via internet, extranet and intranet.

Stages of e business Michael Earl’s Analysis

Ø  Web presence: Communicates existence of organisation via web page

Ø  Intranet: Electronic communication between branches and divisions via intranet

Ø  E-Commerce: Simply selling of goods via internet by receiving inquiries, providing product details and receiving orders

Ø  Integrated E-Commerce: Real time active selling by integrating different process by availability of stock, e-payment, delivery time, delivery means……

Ø  E-business: Integrated e-commerce with intranet and other integrated business processes

Ø  E-enterprise: Facilitates management process and business process redesign and redevelopment. E.g. manages integrated e-business by adjusting production with sales in real time

Ø  Transformation: New business and management models for new economy are embedded. E.g. iTunes, mobile-banking

Categories of e-business functions

Ø  B2B – systems for order placement for suppliers - Upward SCM programs

Ø  B2C – sites created by business to sell their own inventory: amazon.com

Ø  C2B – sites which facilitates comparison between different products – farecompare.com  

Ø  C2C – auction sites where customer can buy and sell their products  - ebay.com

Benefit of E-business: Increase revenue, Cost reduction, Enhance customer service, Better information for control, Improved marketing, Market penetration, Increase visibility, Competitive advantage

Barriers of E-business: Technophobia of management, set up costs, running cost, security (information and transaction), lack of customer interest

The self-serve economy (an abstract from ACCA Article)

E-mail and websites are as easily, and readily, accessible as telephones and faxes. As a result, consumers are becoming more confident in the use of electronic media to conduct all kinds of transactions, from transferring money between bank accounts, to reserving film or theatre tickets, to ordering books online. The willingness of consumers to help themselves, and to make new technologies part of their daily lives, bypassing the shop assistant and customer service representative, is the principal characteristic of the self-serve economy. Self-serve characteristics, valued and required from an e-commerce service include availability, reliability, choice, speed, and convenience. ………………

ACCA Article: E-commerce