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KEY AREAS OF e-BUSINESS
e-Commerce - (also increasingly known as Business to Consumer, or B2C)
Many organisations are using the internet to advertise their products to the
public, as well as encouraging them to purchase the products using credit cards.
Financial organisations are also offering banking and other financial services
in a similar way. Research indicates that this market will increase
significantly in the near future. However there are some concerns over security
of payment and delivery mechanisms.
Business 2 Business (B2B) The automation of the procurement life cycle
and the automation of the business processes that e-commerce solutions can
deliver has led to a growth of e-commerce applications. These are known as
Business 2 Business (B2B) applications. These applications also provide
additional opportunities for businesses to trade with other businesses over the
Internet. Benefits that can be made from B2B include:
- Ability to place orders online
- Receive online support
- Track orders online, in real time
- Display invoices, or bills, online
- Deliver reports on, for example, quality of service to clients in real
time.
Migrators are currently working on major B2B projects for clients, which
involves using Selectica and Silknet (Kana Services) complex commerce
applications.
Business to Consumer (B2C) Due to the world wide growth of the Internet,
many companies are selling their products and services directly to customers
using Business to Consumer (B2C) applications. B2C is currently in rapid growth,
with no indications of this trend changing over the next two years as more and
more companies use the B2C model to sell direct to customers. A good example of
B2C website is Amazon in the USA and Harper Collins in the UK, both selling
books online. Migrators have delivered a number of B2C projects for major
clients in Finance, Telecommunications and Media business sectors.
E-commerce Trading Regulations When trading with B2C worldwide, the B2C
applications business processes must be able to identify if there any local laws
and regulations for trading via e-commerce in country where the purchase was
initiated, these include:
- Accreditation / trading licenses
- Statutory financial reporting to central bank for each country on cross
border transactions
If any special e-commerce regulations are identified, local processes may
need to developed to take account of the regulations, in order to ensure trading
remains within local legislation
Fulfillment The major benefits that business to consumer electronic
commerce has delivered by trading over the Internet include; lower purchasing
costs; improved supplier chain management; reduced time to market and to deliver
improved customer service services, with the introduction of client relationship
management (CRM). However, in order to deliver the products ordered over the
Internet business, must have a fulfillment strategy in place to insure that the
customers orders get delivered within the agreed timescale. The strategy should
include business processes for order tracking and a returns of unwanted or
damaged products.
Complex Commerce Major corporations often need more complex e-business
solution for the automation of their corporate and global sales. As a result, a
new breed of complex commerce application have been developed. These complex
commerce applications enable the online sales configurations of products such as
the sale of routers, cars and holidays, as opposed to the sale of books, paper
and spares. Although no single complex commerce tool fulfils the complete range
of requirements needed by business, they are mature enough for mission critical
implementations and have been used to develop complex commerce solutions by BMW,
Sony, GE, Amdahl, Cisco and 3com. The benefits of implementing the complex
commerce technology include:
- Eliminating the failure costs associated with incorrectly configured
orders
- Using high performance rules engines to automate sales processes
- Development of fully portable solutions within an Internet based
architecture
- Providing a wide range of sophisticated modeling tools
- Integrating into current business architecture, including legacy
applications
Migrators are currently working with a major telecommunication company to
implement a number of e-sales projects which involve the complete automation of
Lan and Wan sales using a complex commerce application.
Mobile Communications - (also increasingly known as m-business, or
similar variations) With the introduction of the current generation of WAP
mobile telephones, it is now possible to provide e-mail and Internet services
including travel services, news, flight information, restaurant bookings and
checking account balances on e-bank accounts. There are plans for much wider
range of WAP Internet services, but, the services that can be offered are
limited by the speed of the current GPRS mobile network, which currently
delivers 9.6 kbit /sec.
The introduction of the 3rd generation mobile telephones network GPRS3,
towards the end of 2001, will see the introduction of a wider range of services,
GPRS3 (G3) will deliver 64 kbits / sec allowing for the delivery to WAP enabled
devices of wide range of services that are only available currently on the
Internet via fixed telephone line.
Migrators have successfully completed an m-commerce project that involved the
development and delivery of European strategy for the integration of B2C
websites for selling WAP mobile telephones across Europe, for a major mobile
telecommunications company.
e-CRM - The provision of Client Relationship Management services (CRM)
which
utilise the Internet. These comprise a variety of services, including the
provision of databases containing customer and purchase related information, as
well as data tracking the production and history of goods and services. The
systems can be used to improve products and their delivery, or encourage
increased sales.
In order for any organisation to enter the world of e-business, it must
ensure that the most appropriate components are available. This should include
ensuring that an e-business strategy is developed correctly and in line with
business objectives. Time and budget must also be available for the preparation,
development and implementation of the e-business systems. The various e-business
components and systems must integrate with the existing processes with in the
organisation. There must also be a clear path and mechanism for updating and
improving the e-business elements.
Migrators have been involved with supporting the development of e-Business,
and related elements. Migrators have also been associated with organisations
from a number of different industrial sectors, and nations. Migrators are aware
of the developing needs of e-Business and their successful integration into the
organisation. Migrators provide consultancy and advice on a wide range of
matters relating to e-Business and its support requirements.
Migrators prepare papers for
presentation at conferences concerned with e-business, its environment and the
management of change necessary. Migrators also prepare a variety of White Papers,
covering specific issues concerned with the management of change and its
environment. Papers currently are available to download, for free,
from the Papers & Presentations
area of this web site.
Research Focus from Migrators
provides a, free, web based information resource for data relating to a
variety of current topics concerned with the management of change, its
preparations, implementation and integration. Migrators undertakes
various types of research and analysis to provide an up to date view of the
Research Focus topics. Each
Research Focus topic provides guidance, research and other information on
the selected issue and its environment. Some of the
particular issues concerning e-business and relationship management in the telecoms
industry are
described in the Customer
Care in Telecoms topic of the Migrators Research Focus part of the web site.
Migrators provide a variety of consultancy services
aimed at supporting the transition of organisations and the changes needed
to ensure the transformation is completed smoothly and efficiently. Details
of these services can be found on various web pages including:
Management of Change
Relationship Management
Communications
Business Support
Corporate Culture
Migrators also provide a variety of consultancy services
aimed at supporting the transition of organisations towards e-business,
including Relationship
Management and the associated new Corporate Culture.
Details of these services can be found on the
appropriate web pages.
Migrators also provide a variety of research services,
aimed at ensuring the most appropriate relationship management
techniques are used by organisations. Details
of these services can be found on the Business
Research web page
Migrators also provide a variety of training courses,
designed to improve the change to e-business operations. Further
information can be found on the Training
web page.
Some examples of the e-business related work undertaken by Migrators are shown in the
Assignments web
pages. Specifically, these include:
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