HostsHub

E-BUSINESS
AUTHOR :-
1). SHRIKANT SURESH KULKARNI.
ABSTRACT :- Todayâ??s world needs a fast access of every thing , without leaving his desk . So to fulfill all the requirement of people the need found to start online business i.e. E-business . E-Business can be defined as “Achieving Business objectives through use of electronic communications technology.” This electronic communications technology includes: Internet, e-mail, E-books, database, and mobile phone . Maintaining the customer relationship is one of the important goal in business in e-business the customer relation is maintained with the help customer relationship management (CRM) . E-Business provides supply chain so it removes intermediaries from the company to customer which is beneficial for both company and customer . Success in E-Business is mostly depend on the security in e-business and the Security e-business is mostly depend on network security which involves secure data transfer , proper information provide to customer , protect companies important files from virus etc .
INTRODUCTION:
E-Business means electronic business in which all the transactions from customer to seller and seller to customer are done electronically . Basically e-business happens when financial transaction, buying and selling of merchandise are involved. The â??eâ?? in front simply means electronic where people buy and sell product using Internet connection or even WAP services. WAP is another type of connection where it is normally available in mobile phone . The road to information is via the computer systems. Business has turned into E-Business What is E-Business? When asked the above question, most people reply, “E-Business is just selling your products over the Internet.” While partially correct â?” E-Business usually does use the Internet to sell goods – this definition oversimplifies the basic principle. More accurately, E-Business is a fundamentally new way of conducting business electronically using the latest technologies, such as the Internet. It also involves moving away from conventional business thinking in order to effectively compete in a new and dynamic environment: cyberspace. E-Business is a rich, complex mixture ranging from massive commodity exchanges to auction sites to mom-and-pop shops looking for a low-cost way to increase sales. Electronic business is any information system or application that empowers business processes. Today this is mostly done with web technologies. The E-Business can be useful for different kind of users like:
â?¢ All users of the internet
â?¢ Only the employees on the intranet
â?¢ A specified targeted group of users of an extranet (like customers, partners etc.)

E-BUSINESS – PROVIDE SUPPLY CHAIN :-
E-business removes intermediaries from the supply chain, creating a direct, efficient link from producers to consumers.

Fig 1). Supply Chain in E-Business
In the above diagram , a manufacturer sells directly to customers, increasing profitability while reducing consumer costs by eliminating warehouse and reseller markups. Primary contact for service and support also moves through online channels, reducing overhead and speeding service response. In other cases, E-business introduces an intermediary in order to create a market where none has existed before. Prominent examples of this form of online business include auction houses and online brokerages. By opening their networks to ordinary consumers, these organizations create investing and merchandising opportunities that were previously impossible. E-business supply chains create new opportunities for streamlining business processes, creating a new, expanded customer base, and establishing the agility necessary to react rapidly to new markets and business models. It generates a rapid return on investment through improved data integrity, enhanced systems availability and intensified confidentiality across the online supply chain. E-business creates a secure and confident environment for developing innovative online business opportunities. The use of an operational database will help an E-Business enterprise store detailed data needed to support their process and operations. The kinds of databases found in this setting are human resource databases, customer databases, and inventory databases, etc . This new method of purchasing and receiving is popular for good reason. Online vending can significantly reduce the cost of sales by reducing the number of staff required to service a given account. Orders can route directly to fulfillment, cutting delivery times to the bare minimum. Finally, customers and partners can â??self-helpâ? with web-based databases, video help guides and similar online knowledge transfer technologies.
SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT :
Customers want more quality, design, innovation, choice, convenience and service, and they want to spend less money, effort, time and risk. The supply chain of a company consists of different departments, ranging from procurement of materials to customer service. Supply Chain Management means transforming a companyâ??s “supply chain” into an optimally efficient, customer-satisfying process, where the effectivity of the whole supply chain is more important than the effectivity of each individual department Supply Chain Management allows a company to improve its competitive position by achieving lower costs and accelerating the time to market of new products . Achieving successful chain management requires restructuring the way products are designed , manufactured , and sold . In todayâ??s rapidly changing business environment, ever-greater demands are being placed on business
â?¢ To provide products and services quicker .
â?¢ With greater added value .
â?¢ To the correct location .
â?¢ With no relevant inventory position
USE OF INTERNET IN BUSINESS: -
During the 1970’s and 1980’s , corporate information systems were often centralized and mainframe based . For executives and managers desiring to receive immediate information on inventory, sales, and financial or purchasing data , special programming requests in a computer language such as COBOL had to be written . Further complicating this data output was the fact that this needed information rarely could be provided in real time .
With the emergence of PC based information networks and the development of improved graphical user interfaces in the mid of 1990’s the concept of enterprise information system (EIS) was established warehousing company data through the use of PC based networks , EIS , and company intranets allowed users to collect data by almost any category and , along with online analytical processing (OLAP) , could provide a vital information to a wider range of people in the organization – and often in real time . As a result , organizations could become flatter in their decision – making processes , react more quickly to market changes and reduce the amount of time devoted to administrative . For example by implementing a highly integrated information system’s applications for customer service , inventory , sales , accounting and procurement . By doing so , a company would be more able to focus on servicing customer needs . For example the prospective customer may either call a company’s toll-free line or visit it’s website to order the product .The computer system either through a customer service representative or web screen interface – would then provide the information to the customer on his or her individual accounts , the prices of the individual products to be ordered , and the availability of the product in the stock . Managers at the company would know which product are selling well and see the financial results of their daily operations .

CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT (CRM) IN E-BUSINESS :
The generally accepted purpose of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is to enable organizations to better serve its customers through the introduction of reliable processes and procedures for interacting with those customers. CRM enables a company to provide customer service in real time by focusing on relationship development with each individual customer through the effective use of individual account information .It typically involves three general areas of business. They are a customer service system, a marketing information system and a sales force management system. The marketing information part provides information about the business environment, including competitors and industry trends. The sales force management part automates some of the company’s sales and sales force management functions. It keeps track of customer preferences and buying habits and also sales staff performance. The customer service part automates some service requests, complaints, product returns, and information requests. Successful CRM is defined as an integrated sales , marketing , and service strategy that depends on coordinated actions by all departments within a company rather than being driven or managed by one single , functional department .
IMPROVING CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS :
CRMâ??s are also claimed to be able to improve customer relationships Proponents say this can be done by:
â?¢ CRM technology can track customer interests, needs, and buying habits as they progress through their life cycles, and tailor the marketing effort accordingly. These way customers get exactly what they want as they change.
â?¢ The technology can track customer product use as the product progresses through its life cycle, and tailor the service strategy accordingly. This way customers get what they need as the product ages.
â?¢ In industrial markets, the technology can be used to micro-segment the buying centre and help co-ordinate the conflicting and changing purchase criteria of its members
When any of the technology driven improvements in customer service (mentioned above) contribute to long-term customer satisfaction, they can ensure repeat purchases, improve customer relationships, increase customer loyalty, decrease customer turnover, decrease marketing costs (associated with customer acquisition and customer â??trainingâ?), increase sales revenue, and thereby increase profit margins .
SECURITY IN E-BUSINESS :
Security in E-Business is mainly depend on the secure network . On a superficial level, E-business follows a similar structure to the physical world. A companyâ??s goods and services become online transaction data. Vendors, suppliers and customers connect via the Internet and extranets rather than in person. Inventory becomes data moved between vendors, customers, suppliers and fulfillment houses. Revenue continues to flow in electronic form from the store to banking networks to the home office, and back again. As a result, E-businesses are dependent on an ISP and the Internet backbone itself for availability and convenience . In E-Business the information like customer account number, product name or number which he want to order etc. is encrypted before transferring it over internet . But Encryption only protects data while in transit. It is still at risk before transmission and after it is arrived. Even worse, the encryption stream can be disrupted, corrupting traffic and causing expensive data integrity repairs. Secure E-business delivers increased revenue, maximized profitability and increased customer satisfaction through:
1 . Enhanced data integrity, availability and protection .
2 . Increased employee productivity .
3 . Extended security expertise .
4 . Adaptive security management, measurement and metrics .
5 . Lowered legal liability .
6 . Improved and accelerated corporate portal return on investment .
As E-business uses internet the advantages of using the Internet for business, could be with regards to using applications and features such as email . which is great because it is a quick and cheap way of sending information, combined with the ability to attach files and send them onto another user. However, despite having many advantages of the Internet, there are, unfortunately disadvantages too. For example, Viruses are often spread over the Internet, which can normally be done via email. Even having a virus scanner does not protect your computer/system 100% because they do not always recognize new virus which it does not yet know about . Other disadvantages of the Internet may include hackers being able to access your system and therefore all of the companies secrete files , are lost and this is very dangerous for company performance . E-business is based on the assumption that data integrity is intact and that online systems are always available when needed. Ensuring the availability of these key components is critical to online commercial success. When data is corrupt and systems are under attack, customers take their money elsewhere. In other words, no organization can deliver reliably available E-business systems if it is not actively monitoring the E-business security environment. Information is the basis for competitive and strategic advantage. Therefore, managing the risk of exposure for online information assumes legal importance. Secure E-business should also include E-business insurance to bridge the gap between an achievable security management solution and truly comprehensive protection against business interruption losses. These E-business insurance policies can easily mean the difference between disaster and a quick recovery . Secure E-business follows a simple set of principles:
1. Understand your networks, and the business objectives they support. Some systems and information resources are more valuable than others, and not all of it needs to be protected equally.
2. Develop a thorough and achievable security policy, implement it and update it at regular intervals. Use this process to streamline and automate operations and enhance cross-platform integration and distribution.
3. Enhance point solutions such as firewalls, authentication and encryption with adaptive technology that maximizes effectiveness and helps prevent premature obsolescence.
4. Purchase infrastructure products and assessment tools from different manufacturers. An independent source of assessment products is much more likely to provide an unbiased evaluation of overall E-business security performance.
5. Consider outsourcing some or all security management operations. Doing so allows an organization to focus internal resources more directly on core business competencies.
Firewalls, encryption servers, card keys, VPNs and similar technologies do not eliminate risk so much as they shift it from one part of the network to another. Poorly chosen passwords, borrowed card keys and misconfigured network devices easily foil access control and authentication. One important issue in secure E-Business is to provide a proper information of product to the customer e.g. the information of product is not properly provided on website so the customer not interested in such product. Therefore on the management level of the company , it must ensure that all the information of companies product is properly provided to the customer .

CASE STUDIES :-
1). Case Study -1 :-
American Airlines :-
American Airlines provides an excellent example of online company that was able to increase brand recognition and cement customer loyalty by successfully bringing itâ??s brand online . American Airlines was the first airline to establish a website on May 17 , 1995 . It was grown to be one of the top airline site in terms of unique visitors and awards . As of February 2000, it was logging over 1.9 million visitors per month . It has 2.1 million subscribers to itâ??s weekly NetSAAver Fares e-mail list (the most popular e-mail travel product on the web) . Gross sales were $575 million in the 1999 calendar year . A key to Americanâ??s success is to creating an online brand has been itâ??s ability to differentiate itself from competitors by being first . Examples include the following :
1 First to have a service-oriented website (May 1995) .
2 First to launch the E-mail services of discounted fairs-NetSAAver Fares (March 1996) .
3 First to offer real-time flight information (1996) .
4 First to offer airline reservation system online (June 1997) .
5 First to offer high personalization for consumers (June 1998) .
Finally , with respect to brand recognition , the American site receives high marks for relevancy , distinctiveness , consistency and memorability .
Case Study-2 :-
Monster .Com :-
Monster.com is a great example of an online company that has succeeded by branding itself in both online and offline environments . Monster is a metamarket switchboard that offers employment services to both job seekers , monster aims to serve as a â??lifelong career networkâ? offering not only job and resume postings but also chats message boards and expert advice on career management .
Monster launched in 1994 as 454th website in the world Monster was a true â??early entrant â?? into the commercial world of the internet . According to media matrix it has well over 50 % of the online recruitment advertising market revenue increased from $6.9 million in 1996 to $133.5 million in 1999 . The siteâ??s traffic â?” averaging overall 3.6 million visitors in January 2000 translated into a reach over 5% of all U.S. internet user
SUMMARY :-
The e-business is thus very successful in todayâ??s world , because of the advantages such as high speed, direct approach to customer, cost effective , centralized data storage , quick information availability etc . Also futuristic and reliable techniques involved under E-Business provide a good service to customer .

BIBLIOGRAPHY :-
1). E-COMMERCE – 1). Jeffery F. Rayport
` 2). Bernard J. Jaworski
Tata McGraw-Hill Publication
2). www.google.com
3). www.directessay.com
4). www.bombooweb.com

I am diploma computer engg.
and currently doing B.E. Comp.
All Rights are reserved by shrikant kulkarni .