Technology continues to change the way we do business, with more companies relying on electronic tools to perform an increasing array of functions. IT professionals play a crucial role in this new commercial landscape, and their skills are pivotal to success of many organizations. Electronic Business explores the principles and practices associated with e-business and e-commerce, helping you to exploit electronic opportunities to their full potential

Key areas covered include·Business Process Re-Engineering (BPR)·Outsourcing·Software·E-Tailing·Improving B2B efficiencies·Business-to-Government trading ·Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

About Author:

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Acknowledgments • Abbreviations • Preface • Introduction Scope and assumptions • Bubble and reality • E-business recovers • The importance of opinion • A learning process • B2C, B2B, B2G • Business process re-engineering • Abandoning preconceptions • Ambiguity, secrecy and unpredictability • User-centred versus supplier-driven • The need for soft skills • A professional basis • E-business is business • IT and the structure of the economy The move to outsourcing • Disaggregation • What to produce how? • Supply and demand • An invisible hand • Positives and negatives of business • Coase’s theory of the firm • Transaction costs • Coase and IT • Startups become buy-ups • The virtual organization • Control versus trust • Firms as tools • E-commerce strategies A case study • Amazon is founded • Amazon’s initial business model • The online book-buying experience • Getting physical • Get Big Fast • Technology lock-in • Do lock-ins exist? • First versus best • Elusive profits • Different performance measures • Diversification • Different kinds of retailing • Experience goods • Tight margins • Alliances • Intermediation and disintermediation • Confusion of terms • Increasing liquidity • Clicks and mortar versus pure play • The technology provider role • Conclusion • E-business and the institutions of society Institutional barriers • Wealth, poverty and social institutions • Digital signatures • Public key infrastructure • Fulfilment • Gaps in the law • The law of contract • Trademarks and search engine rankings • Intellectual property • The patent system breaking down • Responsibility for public comment • The problem of trust • Fraud • Law, IT, and philosophy of mind • Erosion of privacy • The public awakes • Consumer ratings • Site certification services • Winning hearts and minds • Jurisdiction, regulation, taxation E-commerce across frontiers • The E-Commerce Directive • A Framework for Global Electronic Commerce • Increased e-business regulation • Security standards • Disability discrimination • Conflicting ideals • The Nazi memorabilia case • Preserving national cultures • The Hague Convention • Compliance becomes an IT issue • Costs of compliance • Authority haggles with business • Taxation • Tax neutrality • A tax-free zone? • Does IT matter? An axiom questioned • Elusive productivity gains • Installation period and deployment period • Productivity is not the same as profitability • The hunt for competitive advantage • Computing power does not equal strategic significance • IT needs to become ordinary • Contrary opinions • Software as a service • SaaS and smaller companies • The importance of small firms • How far will SaaS spread? • Shifting to an intangible economy Intangible goods and assets • Capital assets versus products • Injuring the invisible hand • Intangibles are economically odd • New ideas about economic growth • Economy of abundance • Reweighting the value chain • Massively multi-player online games • How MMOs work • Growing populations • MMOs as business locations • Real economies in virtual worlds • Virtual marketing • Turning customers into co-designers • Economics as an experimental science • Are MMOs being over-hyped? • Intangibles here to stay • Enterprise resource planning Blurred definitions • The vision • The core ERP functions • Linking information islands • BMW Hams Hall • Changing company culture • The other side of the picture • Usability and expense • Reforming business practices • Political problems • The danger of over-centralisation • Oracle advances and retreats • Freezing business evolution • The evidence of business process patents • A shift to punctuated equilibria? • Political fallout • A temporary truce • Marketing and customer relationships What marketing is Like it or not • The four Ps • Multinational marketing • Customer relationship management • CRM under a cloud • CRM revives • Marketing to individuals • The Tesco Clubcard • How Clubcard data is used • Advertising and Web 2.0 Two-way versus one-way publicity • Online advertising • Advertising via search engines • Increasing selectivity • Online advertising booms • Ethical dilemmas for Google • Hidden persuaders • Search engine optimization • The concept of virtual communities • Virtual communities as a marketing tool • B2B marketplaces •Web 2.0 • Corporate blogging • How generalisable is Microsoft’s approach? • E-marketing is marketing • Diverse enterprise applications Further application genres • Business intelligence • Historical v. real-time analysis • Data-mining • Constraints on data-mining deployment • Knowledge management • Uses of business intelligence • Web analytics • Workflow management • Slow penetration • Supply chain management • The bullwhip effect • Queuing theory • Human v. automatic supply-chain optimization • Extending influence along the supply chain • Lean manufacturing • Exploiting RFID data • RFID for managing assets • An avalanche of data • RFID in the retail arena • e-Procurement • Online B2B auctions • Too many genres to list • Web services A new buzzword • Limitations of electronic data interchange • A web-service example • Why not just use the web? • Machine shall speak unto machine • Loose couplings • What is happening now • Unsolved problems • An optimistic consensus • Evolutionary computing meets e-business • Levels of prior agreement • Formal languages and business innovation • Disposable applications • The open source movement Naive or world-changing? • A parting of the ways • The free software foundation • ‘Open source’, ‘proprietary’, ‘free’ • Technical and economic issues • Technical feasibility • What does proprietary buy us? • Manufacture or service? • sequences of manufacture delusion • Programming for money or love • The breakthrough to credibility • Opposition from Microsoft • Open source in government computing • Adoption by the private sector • Proprietary software is opened • The other point of view • How good a precedent is Linux? • Security flaws emerge • Matching effort to needs • Leadership and organization • Will the ‘bazaar’ model survive? • Not whether, but what • Microsoft returns to the fray • A mixed economy • Into the future A speculative conclusion • Mobile computing • The hypermobility myth • Regulation of the profession • Unstructured data • The need for better techniques • Envoi • References • Index

About the Author Geoffrey Sampson was educated at Cambridge and Yale Universities. He has taught at LSE, Lancaster and Leeds Universities and worked as a consultant in the private sector. He is currently a professor of computer science at Sussex where he teaches e-business.