IS 3120 : E-BUSINESS TECHNOLOGIES LECTURE 2: E-BUSINESS: SCOPE AND STRATEGY BY LUAY ASSIDMI

BUSINESS VS E-BUSINESS BasisTraditional BusinessE-Business FormationDifficultSimple and easy Physical PresenceNecessaryNot required Cost of setting upHighLow Dealing timeLongShort (immediate settlement) Inter personal touchHighLow Global reachLowHigh Transaction riskLowHigh

WHAT IS NOT E-BUSINESS? Not just e-commerce Not just transactions, but all front/back end systems Not just technology, but operational strategy and process Not just B2C, but B2B and internal Not just the Internet (but increasingly leveraging Internet technologies - why?

E-BUSINESS VS E-COMMERCE E-BusinessE-Commerce Buying and selling products and services on the internet Servicing consumers Integration of application Collaborating with business partners (B2B), distributors, suppliers, and customers. Share in-depth business intelligence Link internal and external processes Buying and selling products & services on the internet.

E-BUSINESS GOALS Collaborative product development - integration to reduce cost (financial, time and human) Planning/forecasting - integration of databases to enable understanding of firm-wide trends Procurement and order management - widgets in and out (still important) Operations - quick, efficient information processing and validation

E-BUSINESS ELEMENTS CRM ERP SCM KM/OL EDI and e-markets

E-BUSINESS REQUIREMENTS Measurement Flexibility Reengineering supply chains Process-centered Security Standardization and interoperability

POTENTIAL BENEFITS Increased productivity (at least now - IT productivity paradox example) Reduced operating and end costs Improved learning/knowledge sharing Improved supplier/customer relations Standardization and harmonization

POTENTIAL INHIBITORS Strategic error or incompatibility Organizational changes & cultural hostility Cost of implementation and ROI Security, trust and shifting loyalties Legal and international issues Technology concerns

E-BUSINESS STRATEGY Strategy - future direction and action - role and function of organization as whole E-business strategy - deliberate integration (or exclusion) of electronic communication to facilitate strategic decisions Related strategies - SCM, marketing, IS Broadly, all business strategies are “e-business” - e.g., choice of order system drives many choices Broadly, “…e-business is about communication.”

INTERNET-DRIVEN CHANGES Consumer focus vs. massification Links with suppliers and customers Globalization Pervasiveness Knowledge exchange Simplicity Open-source

RESOURCE AND TRANSACTION COST Resource-centered approach - raw inputs (material and intellectual) are key, especially when unique and irreplaceable (e.g., Google?) Transaction models - cost reduction (financial and otherwise) in actual and potential transactions - influence outsourcing, globalization (e.g., eBay

STRATEGIC PLANNING Right goals Value propositions Distinctive value chain Trade-offs Systemic perspective Continuity of direction

PLANNING PROCESS Mission statement creation Analysis of strategy options Analysis of strategy choices Implementation and quality control Feedback, contingency and emergent strategic planning

LEVELS Direct supply chain (supply/demand of consumers) Strategic (competition on differentiation, cost, scope and focus) Enterprise (efficiency and effectiveness - also things like innovation, ethics, morale, image?)

SYSTEM COHESION/ALIGNMENT Various levels should operate from the same page (or at least not at cross purposes) - buy- in and general agreement essential Locked-down system order might not be best - emergent systems require feedback to improve and revolutionize systems destined to fail.

“AN ILL-STRUCTURED PROBLEM” …like all good problems, there’s no right or universal answer - too many variables and contingent factors Not all objectives known, tradeoff consequences unknown, uncontrolled or unforeseen variables, relations among variables can be vague Communication and cohesion important as well - complexity hard to negotiate if communication is poor or cohesion is weak - but that alone is no guarantee for success

PROJECT MANAGEMENT “Plans are nothing, planning is everything” (Eisenhower) Planning in phases with iterative loops to influence changes in direction important Communication and alignment are central to program management success Leveraging change agents also important - technological, facilitation, advocacy