Sunday, December 13, 2009
Skype Available on Apple App StoreNow Skype applications has enable millions of iPhone and iPod users worldwide to take their Skype conversations with them. This invention will surely provide new ways of conversation for more than 400 million people and to stay connected. moreover Skype for iPhone is such an experience that offers the simplicity, ease of use, and the quality every user expect from this facility combined with an elegance of design and richness so is loved by many Apple's customers worldwide.
The Application delivers:
- Free Skype to Skype calls from any Wi-Fi zone to other skype users worldwide
- Can make a call on landline or moblie phones at Skype's great low rates from any wi-fi zone
- Can send or receive instant messages to or from individuals of 3G, Wi-Fi, GPRS or EDGE
- Receive calls to a personal online number on Skype
- See when Skype contacts are online or available to talk
These applications maintains and update presence and send/receive instant messages. Also this will assist in selecting profile picture from within the Skype to iPhone from the existing album or by taking a new album.
Advantages of RFID technology over Barcodes
Radio Frequency Identification Technology is a emerging technology used for transmitting and receiving information without wires. This technology helps businesses in tracking inventory in warehouse and other equipments. It is more beneficial than the Barcodes. The optical nature of the barcodes requires codes to be detected by the lasers which is impractical in business.
Advantages of RFID over Barcodes
- No line of sight is required
- Tag can stand a harsh environment
- long read range
- portable databases
- Multiple tag read/ write
- Tracking people,items, and equipments in real time
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
how to start internet business from scratch-video's
10 must watch videos to understand how to start E-business from scratch and how to proceed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwuH8aN7z8I&feature=related
(must see all the videos)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwuH8aN7z8I&feature=related
(must see all the videos)
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
cASE STUDIES OF BUSINESS MODELS OF DIFFERENT COMPANIES
At a time when 'dot-cons' and 'dot-com doom' are the most commonly used phrases, discussing dot-com successes would be tantamount to burying one's head in the sand and talking. Or is it? Is the Internet revolution really over? According to analysts and the economy soothsayers, No! The Internet has entrenched itself into the economy today. This medium that provides enormous opportunities to any business by removing the twin obstacles of time and distance is here to stay, and thrive.
What lessons can be learnt from those who survived the carnage on the Infobahn? How can you rate a successful e-business?
The outward signs of a robust and thriving business are:
- Revenue increases
- Ability to generate profits
- Success in creating meaningful alliances
- Success in expanding into new markets
- Differentiating itself from other business models
What are the key areas that a profitable web site needs to concentrate on?
- Develop a unique e-business website
- Control the product line
- Introduce new products on a regular basis
- Ensure easy and reliable credit-card payment methods
- Provide customer-friendly policies
- On-time delivery
- Keep promises
- Develop a clever marketing strategy
- Be the best in your field
Being ranked among the top 5 in a search engine is only a part of the e-commerce puzzle, your web site needs to satisfy customers once they get there. With new and nimble competitors springing up by the dozen, it is easy for a customer to opt for a competitor who may be easier to do e-business with. One sure way to avoid this is to adopt new technology. The goal should be to automate all processes as much as possible while maintaining personalized human interaction at the same time. Implementation of technology following conventional time-tested principles like dedication and expertise in an adaptive, dynamic environment is what is required.
Existing business models are of many kinds:
- Advertising - banner and direct marketing
- Subscription sites
- Customer services
- Directory services
- Content providers
- Product sales
Most successful companies pursue several related but different models concurrently. They defy easy categorization by diversifying revenue streams and becoming hybrids in a cost-efficient way.
Let's take a look at some of the top e-businesses in the field today:
EBAY
A company that has emerged unscathed from the recent dot-com bust with profits soaring to almost 400% and revenues doubling in the past one year. It has transformed auctions that were limited to garage sales and flea markets into highly evolved e-marketplaces. Selling just about anything, from antiques and jewelry to computers, automobiles and even auto insurance, it has 29.7 million registered users today.
Adopting an amazing and unique culture, where buyers and sellers of all items are allowed to post their comments online, where credit-card payment facilities are secure and easy, the company projects a trustworthy and reliable image.
Apart from bidding, certain high quality goods can be sold at prices fixed by the seller. This site also offers professional services for all kinds of business needs. A widespread global reach makes its easy for a buyer in Hong Kong to bid and buy a product from a seller in Paris while the regional sites in North America are able to offer hard-to-ship merchandise.
Person-to-person trading and a barter economy have established the company on a secure B2B and B2C platform. Other companies like Yahoo! and Excite have been quick to catch on and incorporate auctions into their sites. Priceline.com, a site that offers airline tickets on discount has begun experimenting quite successfully with this business model.
To summarize, their business model can be elucidated thus:
- Automation of traditional methods of selling unique items
- Reliability in mode of payments
- Customer friendly company
- Professional services in addition to just plain selling of goods
- Global reach
- Regional diversification
- Successful advertising
HOMESTORE.COM
Statistics have revealed that realty sites account for about 9.6% of all online visitors. Homestore.com is a company that has dominated the real estate field with 3.28 million customers in January 2001 and is listed among the Fortune top e-50. It registered a growth of 252% at one stage.
Homestore.com's internet business model allows prospective buyers to review properties before buying. Is that all? No, they also offer financial advice, online loans, and buyer's guides to homes and household items, home improvement tips, remodeling, and safety and security aspects. Useful advice when moving home and tips on resettling has ensured user satisfaction to the core.
Their main revenue came in from subscriptions (52%) and the remaining from advertising. As a subscription site they picked a specific topic which a segment of the population would be passionate about and marketed their services through strategic advertising.
Subscription sites that allow users access to a regularly updated online database of any kind for a fee are fast evolving into healthy and strong e-businesses. Why have they become so popular? Yes, free stuff is available anywhere on the Internet, but most of it tends to be disorganized and chaotic. This makes customized information worth paying for.
Useful tips for a wannabe subscription site:
Pick a specific target that niche users may be passionate about
Market the site through banner ads and direct marketing (newsletters and e-mail) that offer a few tantalizing freebies regularly
ORACLE
This software and service provider entered the digitized world only in 1998, and metamorphosed into a digital pioneer in the span of two years. Innovative products and services and integration of these services have brought them into the forefront of web innovation today.
Internet business models like the Biz Online Initiative that deliver simple and complete online services and a host of other tools that customers require in setting up an e-business model, have made them a one stop shop for e-businesses today. Their built-in self-service system for customers, employees and suppliers improved productivity and accuracy and brought down costs by 100's of millions of dollars. Consulting services with major firms like Sun Professional Systems have established their reliability with customers.
Their business formula:
- Innovative products and packages
- Integration of internal processes
- Exemplary customer service - a user friendly web site that connects customers easily
- Fast online e-business services
- Expert consultancy service
Another company using a similar business model is Exodus Communications, an Internet data center that offers a range of web hosting services, bandwidth on demand, security monitoring. Their servers host leading web sites like Yahoo!, e-Bay and Merril Lynch. They allow these firms to deliver content and applications online round the clock without fail.
35% of their revenue comes from a very successful e-business consulting firm whom they have partnered with (Sapient). They are expanding from 19 data centers to 34 data centers this year.
CISCOCisco develops switches and routers for Local Area Networks (LAN) and Wireless Area Networks (WAN) and the related software. They have become the worldwide leaders in networking for the Internet today.
90% of their sales are conducted over the Internet. They offer expertise in planning and executing Internet enabled solutions.
The company has grown in the past 7 years with 71 acquisitions to its credit, the latest being its investments in an optical equipment company and speech recognition software makers. Their business model could be termed an acquisition one!
The customer is King here! Amazon pampers their customers, tracks their tastes and uses this information to create a unique customer experience. This e-tailer cultivates relationships that lead to customers liking and trusting them. This kind of service surpasses the most brilliant technology in use today. Amazon brought in the world of successful one-to-one marketing, a personal touch from another era.
Recently though, they have suffered heavy losses, proving that any successful e-business strategy will survive provided it is based on a solid brick and mortar foundation, a la Barnes and Noble, another famous online bookseller. Although barnesandnoble.com and Barnes the Noble Ltd. are run separately, a customer tends to associate trust and comfort in a known and established brand.
To summarize, exemplary customer service, successful online advertising and special discounted offers made Amazon and books synonymous terms today.
DOUBLECLICK.COMThis Fortune e-50 company offers a collection of premium sites for custom ad-buys and sponsorships in various fields - Business, automobiles, entertainment, technology, travel and health. They help markets build brands, increase sales, maximize revenue and build one-to-one relationships with their customers. They offer agencies plans to manage online campaigns.
Their direct marketing strategies use customer data to refine marketing messages and increase investment returns. One of their divisions, Abacus is one of the largest databases of buyer behavior in about 90 million households in the United States itself. Another division, www.diameter.net conducts online research to evaluate and understand online campaigns and strategies. Some of their clients include www.macromedia.com, www.nasdaq.com, www.networldsolutions.com and www.palm.net.
The web has proven to be an amazing vehicle for advertising and reaching millions without spending a dime on postage and printing. Stu Heinecke Services, an advertising solutions company used personalized cartoon direct mail and achieved response rates as high as 100%.
Online ads possess tremendous communication powers. Banner ads placed on sites like CNN, Lycos, CompuServe, Pathfinder and The New York Times showed that:
- appropriate placement of the ad on specific targeted sites,
- using a search component or a woman's face in a banner ad,
- using odd-shaped attention grabbing banners,
- including trading links with other sites, and
- hosting online chat are a sure fire way to get a response. Online advertising is international advertising that gets a 24X7 exposure for much lesser costs.
The "operating system" of the net and a site for evolving search engines, free news and information services, online ads, banner ads, sports and news, video and audio, clubs and auction stores has become the most popular directory in the web. The value of this successful business model lies in its unique and easy categorization of all pages and subjects - a completely professional looking web site in all.
But, a BPI (Buying Power Index) report reveals that more online buying and popularity of a site don't go hand in hand. Other search engines like Altavista, Excite and Juno seem to have raked in more profits recently.
Online advertising was the main revenue for Yahoo!, but they didn't really check on what kind of ads worked online. Immediate success stopped them from evolving and developing other important aspects of e-business. As a result, this year they have been forced to cut budgets and ads, showing that generalized media doesn't work compared to specialized media. Also, all of Yahoo's content is owned by other sites and only licensed for their use.
Among the other successful dot-coms, trends revealed that online e-brokers offer the best economic models among consumer-centered Internet companies. Instead of spending on physical infrastructure they concentrated in increasing the volume of transactions.
1-800Flowers.com blended telephone and Internet technologies, Reflect.com, a beauty customization site outlasted other higher profile e-tailers in the business, thus proving that the basic B2C business model is valid.
So, what we have seen is that a combination of strategies, smart thinking, brilliant business plans, great and innovative promotional ideas are an integral part of any e-success. There is no doubt that in the near future, an average person anywhere in the world will surf the Internet more often than he or she watches television or uses the telephone. As a result, it makes sense for entrepreneurs of all kinds to come up with ideas of generating income by marketing their products or services to these surfers. Competition in cyberspace may become even fiercer in the future and therefore the right business plan is what will eventually ensure long-term success.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
10 Best Reasons For switching to e-business
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It's cheap. There is no more inexpensive way to open a business than to mount a Web site. While you could spend up to many millions of dollars to get started, low-budget Web sites (started with as little as $100) remain viable businesses.
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You cut your order fulfillment costs. Handling orders by phone is expensive. Ditto for incoming mail orders. There's no more efficient--cheap, fast, accurate--way to process orders than via a Web site.
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Your catalog is always current. A print catalog can cost big bucks, and nobody wants to order a reprint just to change one price or to correct a few typos. A Web site can be updated in minutes.
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High printing and mailing costs are history. Your customers can download any information you want them to have from your Web site. Sure, you'll still want to print some materials, but lots can now be distributed via the Web.
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You cut staffing costs. A Web site can be a low-manpower operation.
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You can stay open 24 hours daily. And you'll still get your sleep because your site will be open even when your eyes are closed.
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You're in front of a global audience. Watch your site log, and you'll see visitors streaming in from Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Malaysia--wherever there are computers and phone lines.
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There are no city permits and no hassles. It could change, but in most parts of the country, small Web businesses can be run without permits and with little government involvement. As you expand and add employees, you'll start to bump into laws and regulations, but it's certainly nice to be able to kick off a business without first filling out reams of city and state forms.
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There are no angry customers in your face. You can't ignore unhappy customers in any business; in fact, how well you deliver customer service will go far toward determining how successful you are. But at least with a Web business you'll never have to stand eyeball-to-eyeball with a screamer.
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It's easy to get your message out. Between your Web site and your smart use of e-mail, you'll have complete control over when and how your message goes out. You can't beat a Web site for its immediacy, and when a site is done well, it's hard to top its ability to grab and hold the attention of potential customers
Types of E-Business Models and Markets
Types of E-Business Models and Markets
In the past two years, e-business seems to have permeated every aspect of daily life. In just a short time, both individuals and organizations have embraced Internet technologies to enhance productivity, maximize convenience, and improve communications globally. From banking to shopping to entertaining, the Internet has become integral to daily activities. For example, just 23 years ago, most individuals went into a financial institution and spoke with a human being to conduct regular banking transactions. Ten years later, individuals began to embrace the ATM machine, which made banking activities more convenient. Today, millions of individuals rely on online banking services to complete a large percentage of their transactions.
The rapid growth and acceptance of Internet technologies has led some to wonder why the e-business phenomenon did not occur decades ago. The short answer is: it was not possible. In the past, the necessary infrastructure did not exist to support e-business. Most businesses ran large mainframe computers with proprietary data formats. Even if it had been achievable to transfer data from these large machines into homes, the home computer was not yet a commodity, so there were few terminals outside of business to receive information. As PCs became more popular, especially in the home, the ability to conduct e-business was still restricted because of the infrastructure required to support it, including backend customer and supplier interaction along with credit card processing systems.
To set up an e-business even eight years ago would have required an individual organization to assume the burden of developing the entire technology infrastructure, as well as its own business and marketing strategies. Today, the challenge of e-business is integration. There are industry-leading companies that have solved the difficult task of developing individual Internet-based products and services that handle many of the issues surrounding customer and supplier interactions. However, the ability to integrate these technologies and services based on sound business and marketing strategies, operating on a real-time basis, can be a monumental undertaking.
As e-business continues to be fueled by both organizations and consumers who have access to the Internet from their homes and offices, the excitement grows and the potential for success increases. But explosive growth of the Internet has also led to a growing number of integration challenges for e-businesses of all sizes and types.
In phase one of building an e-business, companies scrambled to get an e-commerce Web site up quickly. The operative word was “quickly,” because usually there was little or no regard given to how scalable or reliable the site needed to be—or even how captivating the content. It was just a matter of beating the competition. These first-to-market consumer sites were rarely integrated with the manufacturing side of the business, which was establishing its own Internet-based relationships with suppliers. This lack of integration has proved to be a significant challenge for many organizations as the customer base has grown, real-time order status has been requested, and products have been returned.
In phase two of building an e-business, having an e-commerce site is now a commodity, not a way to differentiate a business. Customer and supplier expectations are rising, forcing organizations to start thinking about backend integration and real-time transaction processing. Businesses must actually maintain complete customer and supplier relationships using Internet-based technologies and tie those systems to the interpersonal aspects of the business transaction when required. Organizations that realize the promise of e-business are the ones that have begun to address the complete business cycle and are leveraging Internet technologies.
It is no secret that today’s e-business has the potential to transform the business landscape. Whereas in the past, a company’s business model was the primary determination of its value, today, a company is valued on its strategy, business model, and ability to market. With technology driving new competition, a Fortune 500 stalwart that once seemed unstoppable is now challenged by a start-up that uses Internet technologies and integrates their systems and processes more effectively. By capitalizing on a sustained business proposition and correctly applying technology, these start-ups are able to significantly reduce the barriers to entry while dramatically increasing their market reach. For e-businesses, the premise “first to market equals first to success” is often the case; however, the foundation needs to be laid carefully. A disciplined approach to evaluating the business opportunity, and correctly assessing how a competitive advantage may be gained using Internet technologies combined with leveraging the existing investment, is key to a successful e-business.
ALSO
An e-business model is simply the approach a company takes to become a profitable business on the Internet. There are many buzzwords that define aspects of electronic business, and there are subgroups as well, such as content providers, auction sites, and pure-play Internet retailers in the business-to-consumer space.
Many Internet firms witnessed a meteoric rise in their stock values in the late 1990s, only to crash in 2000. For instance, Drkoop.com Inc. in Austin, Texas, announced its initial public offering at $9 per share in June of 1999. The price rose to more than $30 per share, but then plummeted to less than $1 per share.
Given the carnage among dot-com stocks recently, what type of online business models are expected to succeed in the future? Businesses need to make more money than they spend. The new model is the old model, but technology is essential to maintain a competitive advantage, and cash flow is more important than ever.
For example, Yahoo Inc. in Santa Clara, California, has always operated a successful portal site, providing content and an Internet search engine. However, many portal sites, such as Go.com, MSN.com, and AltaVista.com, have fallen on hard times.
The idea behind portals is the same as that behind television advertising: aggregating eyeballs and directing them toward advertisements. But, television viewers are passive, and people need to wait through the ads to see the shows they want to watch.
However, the Web doesn’t work that way. Content presentation is not serial. Viewers are active, not passive. There are always millions of places to go. No Web advertisement can match a 20-second TV spot.
When First-to-Market Fails
Many of the failing companies were operating on a first-to-market strategy. Their hope was that by getting their ideas out ahead of the market, consumers would develop brand loyalty before competitors arrived.
For example, Priceline.com Inc. in Norwalk, Connecticut, is a good example of a company that attempted this strategy, with its name-your-own-price scheme for buying airline tickets and other goods. However, the closing of Priceline.com Inc.’s Greenwich, Connecticut-based WebHouse Group licensee (which applied the same model to groceries and gasoline), combined with increased competition from airlines and other travel sites, led Wall Street to trade Priceline.com’s stock down to less than $3 per share in December 2000, from a high of $104.25 in March 2000.
First-to-market as a business model has always been risky. You are vulnerable because you have nothing proprietary, need vast funding, and rely on rapid deployment.
So why did investors and venture capitalists get caught in such speculative and irrational investments? Investors felt they were investing in technology, when they were really investing in retailers and distributors. These companies have small profit margins. They couldn’t justify their valuations in typical price/earnings ratios. When does it turn profitable? Companies such as Amazon.com have yet to answer that.
One segment of the business-to-consumer world that’s thriving is niche markets. For example, RedEnvelope Gifts Inc., which launched in 1997 as 911gifts.com, began as a last-minute gift site, but now markets more than 5,000 items that are unique to the site. Customers seem willing to pay a premium for RedEnvelope-edited selection and enhanced customer service. The company has $70 million in sales, with a 57-point profit margin.
There needs to be a quick path to profitability. And, the ultimate metric is margin. There are three levers to achieving margin: edited selection, customer service, and inspirational branding.
The B2B Way
Is the model buyer- or seller-centric? What is the driving force of the business?
The greatest strength of the Internet is its ability to bring together people, governments, and businesses and facilitate the flow of information among them. This is one of the main reasons why business models for business-to-business online marketplaces are expected to succeed.
It’s clear that the Internet is a viable platform for B2B trade. According to Forrester Research Inc. in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a projected $4.9 trillion in business-to-business (B2B) transactions will be made online by 2004.
But private marketplaces being formed by industry leaders represent a more successful model. These real-time supply chains and e-business design systems are phasing out the more expensive and inflexible electronic data interchange networks.
The real surprise here is how hard it is to become profitable. The cost of branding technology is so high that consumers still use a catalog. A Web site is just another channel.
The emerging e-business market affords companies of all sizes and types the opportunity to leverage their existing assets, employees, technology infrastructure, and information to gain or maintain marketshare. For example, in the telecommunications industry, service, rather than technology, is now the key differentiator. With lower barriers to entry, new competitors are rapidly entering the market offering new services, such as online bill presentment and payment, and leveraging their unique digital assets.
Information technology research analysts agree that e-business is any net-enabled business activity that transforms internal and external relationships to create value and exploit market opportunities driven by new rules of the connected economy. However, today’s e-business requires more. Industry analysts further point out that e-business involves the continuous optimization of an organization’s value proposition and value-chain position through the adoption of digital technology.
The challenge for an organization is to turn the vision and the market opportunity into a viable business. Developing the marketing strategy and plans and designing and deploying the business solution is key. Those who successfully architect, develop, and deploy e-business solutions will need to formulate and adopt a comprehensive business plan. Because of the critical role of Internet technologies and integration requirements, it is recommended that organizations need a comprehensive planning framework—an actual e-business model. This structured planning approach enables the organization to assess, plan for, and implement the multiple aspects of an e-business.
Building an e-business (an integrated value chain) that leverages the Internet’s communications capabilities is a complex undertaking. The complex integration requirements of the business solutions, all performing at extremely high levels of availability and scalability, require an e-business model architectural approach. The value chain (comprised of the traditional supply chain management functions, planning, procurement, and inventory management, coupled with the customer-facing functions, typically referred to as customer relationship management) has integration and performance demands that exceed the requirements seen in traditional businesses. In a successful e-business, all of these areas are tightly integrated to provide an organization the ability to quickly and efficiently sell, manufacture, and deliver products or services.
Furthermore, in a successful e-business, this value chain rests on a foundation that leverages the organization’s existing core operational business systems, as well as meets the new business-critical operational requirements for reliability, scalability, flexibility, and 24 × 7 × 365 availability in a highly volatile, electronic marketplace.
Customer relationships are becoming a more important factor in differentiating one business from another. In order to stay competitive, e-businesses in every industry have begun to analyze these relationships with customers using CRM solutions.
In the past, customers would place an order via the telephone and wait until the company’s purchasing department processed and shipped the order. Today’s customers place an order electronically and then demand to be able to check the status of their order within minutes.
CRM enables an organization to adopt a comprehensive view of the customer and maximize this relationship. These CRM systems enable a business to identify, attract, retain, and support customs centers, direct mail, and retail facilities. In an efficient e-business, there are CRM processes in place to handle:
Analytical CRM: The analysis of data created on the operational side of the CRM equation for the purpose of business performance management; utilizing data warehousing technologies and leveraging data marts
Customer interactions: Sales, marketing, and customer service (call center, field service) via multiple, interconnected delivery channels and integration between front office and back office
Operational CRM: The automation of horizontally integrated business processes involving “front office” customer touch points
Personalization: The use of new and traditional groupware/Web technologies to facilitate customer and business partner communications
Supply Chain Management
Integration of the SCM functions is emerging as one of the greatest challenges facing today’s e-businesses. SCM is the integration of business processes from end user through to original supplier. The goal of SCM is to create an end-to-end system that automates all the business processes between suppliers, distribution partners, and trading partners. The new mantra for this process, according to industry analysts, is “replacing inventory with information.” In an effective e-business, the following SCM independent processes must be highly integrated
Demand management: These are shared functions, including demand planning, supply planning, manufacturing planning, and sales and operations planning.
Inbound/outbound logistics: These include transportation management, distribution management, and warehouse management.
Summary
To be successful, e-businesses must have a continuous optimization business strategy, solid knowledge management practices, and integrated business process domains. No matter what the business, the e-business model processes are the same.
The e-business market affords organizations of all sizes and types the opportunity to leverage their existing assets, employees, technology infrastructure, and information to gain or maintain marketshare. However, the challenge for the organization is to turn the vision and the market opportunity into a sustainable e-business.
Finally, the need for an integrated value chain challenges the e-business to optimize its intellectual assets and its investments in core business systems in order to deliver its products and services to an unpredictable market. It is this unpredictable nature that challenges the IT organization to deliver the highly scalable and available infrastructure. Additional challenges include the unique nature of an e-business and the tight linking of the business operations to a technical infrastructure. A disciplined and architected approach based on an e-business model provides the framework needed to build complex business processes and technical infrastructures that the market is increasingly demanding.
In the past two years, e-business seems to have permeated every aspect of daily life. In just a short time, both individuals and organizations have embraced Internet technologies to enhance productivity, maximize convenience, and improve communications globally. From banking to shopping to entertaining, the Internet has become integral to daily activities. For example, just 23 years ago, most individuals went into a financial institution and spoke with a human being to conduct regular banking transactions. Ten years later, individuals began to embrace the ATM machine, which made banking activities more convenient. Today, millions of individuals rely on online banking services to complete a large percentage of their transactions.
The rapid growth and acceptance of Internet technologies has led some to wonder why the e-business phenomenon did not occur decades ago. The short answer is: it was not possible. In the past, the necessary infrastructure did not exist to support e-business. Most businesses ran large mainframe computers with proprietary data formats. Even if it had been achievable to transfer data from these large machines into homes, the home computer was not yet a commodity, so there were few terminals outside of business to receive information. As PCs became more popular, especially in the home, the ability to conduct e-business was still restricted because of the infrastructure required to support it, including backend customer and supplier interaction along with credit card processing systems.
To set up an e-business even eight years ago would have required an individual organization to assume the burden of developing the entire technology infrastructure, as well as its own business and marketing strategies. Today, the challenge of e-business is integration. There are industry-leading companies that have solved the difficult task of developing individual Internet-based products and services that handle many of the issues surrounding customer and supplier interactions. However, the ability to integrate these technologies and services based on sound business and marketing strategies, operating on a real-time basis, can be a monumental undertaking.
As e-business continues to be fueled by both organizations and consumers who have access to the Internet from their homes and offices, the excitement grows and the potential for success increases. But explosive growth of the Internet has also led to a growing number of integration challenges for e-businesses of all sizes and types.
In phase one of building an e-business, companies scrambled to get an e-commerce Web site up quickly. The operative word was “quickly,” because usually there was little or no regard given to how scalable or reliable the site needed to be—or even how captivating the content. It was just a matter of beating the competition. These first-to-market consumer sites were rarely integrated with the manufacturing side of the business, which was establishing its own Internet-based relationships with suppliers. This lack of integration has proved to be a significant challenge for many organizations as the customer base has grown, real-time order status has been requested, and products have been returned.
In phase two of building an e-business, having an e-commerce site is now a commodity, not a way to differentiate a business. Customer and supplier expectations are rising, forcing organizations to start thinking about backend integration and real-time transaction processing. Businesses must actually maintain complete customer and supplier relationships using Internet-based technologies and tie those systems to the interpersonal aspects of the business transaction when required. Organizations that realize the promise of e-business are the ones that have begun to address the complete business cycle and are leveraging Internet technologies.
It is no secret that today’s e-business has the potential to transform the business landscape. Whereas in the past, a company’s business model was the primary determination of its value, today, a company is valued on its strategy, business model, and ability to market. With technology driving new competition, a Fortune 500 stalwart that once seemed unstoppable is now challenged by a start-up that uses Internet technologies and integrates their systems and processes more effectively. By capitalizing on a sustained business proposition and correctly applying technology, these start-ups are able to significantly reduce the barriers to entry while dramatically increasing their market reach. For e-businesses, the premise “first to market equals first to success” is often the case; however, the foundation needs to be laid carefully. A disciplined approach to evaluating the business opportunity, and correctly assessing how a competitive advantage may be gained using Internet technologies combined with leveraging the existing investment, is key to a successful e-business.
ALSO
An e-business model is simply the approach a company takes to become a profitable business on the Internet. There are many buzzwords that define aspects of electronic business, and there are subgroups as well, such as content providers, auction sites, and pure-play Internet retailers in the business-to-consumer space.
Many Internet firms witnessed a meteoric rise in their stock values in the late 1990s, only to crash in 2000. For instance, Drkoop.com Inc. in Austin, Texas, announced its initial public offering at $9 per share in June of 1999. The price rose to more than $30 per share, but then plummeted to less than $1 per share.
Given the carnage among dot-com stocks recently, what type of online business models are expected to succeed in the future? Businesses need to make more money than they spend. The new model is the old model, but technology is essential to maintain a competitive advantage, and cash flow is more important than ever.
For example, Yahoo Inc. in Santa Clara, California, has always operated a successful portal site, providing content and an Internet search engine. However, many portal sites, such as Go.com, MSN.com, and AltaVista.com, have fallen on hard times.
The idea behind portals is the same as that behind television advertising: aggregating eyeballs and directing them toward advertisements. But, television viewers are passive, and people need to wait through the ads to see the shows they want to watch.
However, the Web doesn’t work that way. Content presentation is not serial. Viewers are active, not passive. There are always millions of places to go. No Web advertisement can match a 20-second TV spot.
When First-to-Market Fails
Many of the failing companies were operating on a first-to-market strategy. Their hope was that by getting their ideas out ahead of the market, consumers would develop brand loyalty before competitors arrived.
For example, Priceline.com Inc. in Norwalk, Connecticut, is a good example of a company that attempted this strategy, with its name-your-own-price scheme for buying airline tickets and other goods. However, the closing of Priceline.com Inc.’s Greenwich, Connecticut-based WebHouse Group licensee (which applied the same model to groceries and gasoline), combined with increased competition from airlines and other travel sites, led Wall Street to trade Priceline.com’s stock down to less than $3 per share in December 2000, from a high of $104.25 in March 2000.
First-to-market as a business model has always been risky. You are vulnerable because you have nothing proprietary, need vast funding, and rely on rapid deployment.
So why did investors and venture capitalists get caught in such speculative and irrational investments? Investors felt they were investing in technology, when they were really investing in retailers and distributors. These companies have small profit margins. They couldn’t justify their valuations in typical price/earnings ratios. When does it turn profitable? Companies such as Amazon.com have yet to answer that.
One segment of the business-to-consumer world that’s thriving is niche markets. For example, RedEnvelope Gifts Inc., which launched in 1997 as 911gifts.com, began as a last-minute gift site, but now markets more than 5,000 items that are unique to the site. Customers seem willing to pay a premium for RedEnvelope-edited selection and enhanced customer service. The company has $70 million in sales, with a 57-point profit margin.
There needs to be a quick path to profitability. And, the ultimate metric is margin. There are three levers to achieving margin: edited selection, customer service, and inspirational branding.
The B2B Way
Is the model buyer- or seller-centric? What is the driving force of the business?
The greatest strength of the Internet is its ability to bring together people, governments, and businesses and facilitate the flow of information among them. This is one of the main reasons why business models for business-to-business online marketplaces are expected to succeed.
It’s clear that the Internet is a viable platform for B2B trade. According to Forrester Research Inc. in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a projected $4.9 trillion in business-to-business (B2B) transactions will be made online by 2004.
But private marketplaces being formed by industry leaders represent a more successful model. These real-time supply chains and e-business design systems are phasing out the more expensive and inflexible electronic data interchange networks.
The real surprise here is how hard it is to become profitable. The cost of branding technology is so high that consumers still use a catalog. A Web site is just another channel.
The emerging e-business market affords companies of all sizes and types the opportunity to leverage their existing assets, employees, technology infrastructure, and information to gain or maintain marketshare. For example, in the telecommunications industry, service, rather than technology, is now the key differentiator. With lower barriers to entry, new competitors are rapidly entering the market offering new services, such as online bill presentment and payment, and leveraging their unique digital assets.
Information technology research analysts agree that e-business is any net-enabled business activity that transforms internal and external relationships to create value and exploit market opportunities driven by new rules of the connected economy. However, today’s e-business requires more. Industry analysts further point out that e-business involves the continuous optimization of an organization’s value proposition and value-chain position through the adoption of digital technology.
The challenge for an organization is to turn the vision and the market opportunity into a viable business. Developing the marketing strategy and plans and designing and deploying the business solution is key. Those who successfully architect, develop, and deploy e-business solutions will need to formulate and adopt a comprehensive business plan. Because of the critical role of Internet technologies and integration requirements, it is recommended that organizations need a comprehensive planning framework—an actual e-business model. This structured planning approach enables the organization to assess, plan for, and implement the multiple aspects of an e-business.
Building an e-business (an integrated value chain) that leverages the Internet’s communications capabilities is a complex undertaking. The complex integration requirements of the business solutions, all performing at extremely high levels of availability and scalability, require an e-business model architectural approach. The value chain (comprised of the traditional supply chain management functions, planning, procurement, and inventory management, coupled with the customer-facing functions, typically referred to as customer relationship management) has integration and performance demands that exceed the requirements seen in traditional businesses. In a successful e-business, all of these areas are tightly integrated to provide an organization the ability to quickly and efficiently sell, manufacture, and deliver products or services.
Furthermore, in a successful e-business, this value chain rests on a foundation that leverages the organization’s existing core operational business systems, as well as meets the new business-critical operational requirements for reliability, scalability, flexibility, and 24 × 7 × 365 availability in a highly volatile, electronic marketplace.
- Solid strategies
- Knowledge management techniques applied to a company’s information and intellectual assets
- Effective e-business processes typically grouped in the customer relationship management (CRM), supply chain management (SCM), and core business operations domains
Customer relationships are becoming a more important factor in differentiating one business from another. In order to stay competitive, e-businesses in every industry have begun to analyze these relationships with customers using CRM solutions.
In the past, customers would place an order via the telephone and wait until the company’s purchasing department processed and shipped the order. Today’s customers place an order electronically and then demand to be able to check the status of their order within minutes.
CRM enables an organization to adopt a comprehensive view of the customer and maximize this relationship. These CRM systems enable a business to identify, attract, retain, and support customs centers, direct mail, and retail facilities. In an efficient e-business, there are CRM processes in place to handle:
Analytical CRM: The analysis of data created on the operational side of the CRM equation for the purpose of business performance management; utilizing data warehousing technologies and leveraging data marts
Customer interactions: Sales, marketing, and customer service (call center, field service) via multiple, interconnected delivery channels and integration between front office and back office
Operational CRM: The automation of horizontally integrated business processes involving “front office” customer touch points
Personalization: The use of new and traditional groupware/Web technologies to facilitate customer and business partner communications
Supply Chain Management
Integration of the SCM functions is emerging as one of the greatest challenges facing today’s e-businesses. SCM is the integration of business processes from end user through to original supplier. The goal of SCM is to create an end-to-end system that automates all the business processes between suppliers, distribution partners, and trading partners. The new mantra for this process, according to industry analysts, is “replacing inventory with information.” In an effective e-business, the following SCM independent processes must be highly integrated
Demand management: These are shared functions, including demand planning, supply planning, manufacturing planning, and sales and operations planning.
Inbound/outbound logistics: These include transportation management, distribution management, and warehouse management.
Summary
To be successful, e-businesses must have a continuous optimization business strategy, solid knowledge management practices, and integrated business process domains. No matter what the business, the e-business model processes are the same.
The e-business market affords organizations of all sizes and types the opportunity to leverage their existing assets, employees, technology infrastructure, and information to gain or maintain marketshare. However, the challenge for the organization is to turn the vision and the market opportunity into a sustainable e-business.
Finally, the need for an integrated value chain challenges the e-business to optimize its intellectual assets and its investments in core business systems in order to deliver its products and services to an unpredictable market. It is this unpredictable nature that challenges the IT organization to deliver the highly scalable and available infrastructure. Additional challenges include the unique nature of an e-business and the tight linking of the business operations to a technical infrastructure. A disciplined and architected approach based on an e-business model provides the framework needed to build complex business processes and technical infrastructures that the market is increasingly demanding.
To Start business online
Internet has become a source of information in every aspect of business as well as life. Many people makes money on internet and many other wants to join them in this race. But not all of them get success. The most common reason for loosing money on internet is to get involved in " Get rich quick" schemes which promises large profits by spending few dollars. The only way to earn money on internet is to honestly sell valuable product or service to proper audience. One must decide " What to sell" properly.One needs not be a professional web designer to run business successfully on internet. The only thing required is to plan business actions carefully. Selling of a product online is limited by target market customer's size and selling of service online is limited by the amount of time one can devote to it. If any difficulty comes in doing business one can make changes in product lines from daily basis experience.
Saturday, October 24, 2009
why e-Business
Advances in TechnologyTechnology is becoming more accessible and cheaper these days.Sophisticated security systems are providing higher levels of protection.Access to important business activities are readily available.Broadband telecommunications has made businesses to bemore competitive by providing online access to the internet while being able to speedily exchange important information between trading partners.
Changes in customers needs and preferences
Customers prefer products and services that are easier and faster to access.
E-business isn’t simply a better way to do business. It’s a better way to
manage business.
Times have changed...............
Globally all companies are embracing online technology,using its opportunities and achieving success in markets than ever before. This technology is a leading wireless service provider.With this serviec both business and consumer can select products or equipments from huge a catalogue of options.This B2E world of web sales,service needs enables potential customers to quickly find,configure and purchase the right product at the right place and at the right time.
Monday, September 28, 2009
About E-business
Electronic Business, commonly referred to as " eBusiness " or " e-Business" ,may be defined as the utilization of information and communication technologies (ICT) in support of all the activities of business.
Electronic business methods enable companies to link their internal and external data processing systems more efficiently and flexibly, to work more closely with suppliers and partners, and to better satisfy the needs and expectations of their customers.
E-business involves business processes spanning the entire value chain : electronic purchasing and supply chain management, processing orders electronically,handling customer service, and cooperating with business partners.Special technical standards for e-business facilitate the exchange of data btween companies. E-business software solutions allow the integration of intra and inter firm business processes.E-business can be conducted using the web,the internet,intranets,extranets,or some combination of these.E-business has contributed a lot to the global market successfully.
Most big ERP rollouts fall foul of E-business failures
ERP project delays due to problems with e-business system rollouts are costing somemanufacturers more than 1 million dollars per month.
However,problems also arises for manufacturers not in the super big bracket,with nearly 85% of the companies surveyed claiming to have experienced delays in ERP rollouts due to the same problems.
Key findings include that 65% of respondents are performing inadequate testing of B2B prior to new ERP launches,47% expand the scope of their B2B efforts during ERP projects 79% have a greater than 1% error rate for B2B and 57% have experienced a production outage due to lack of B2B connectivity.
Importantly, the AMR Research survey also found more than a third (34%) of data in ERP systems originates from outside the enterprise demonstrating the transactions and data with ERP systems.
Says Steve Keifer, vice president of product and industry marketing at GXS:"The symbiotic nature of B2B and ERP is often overlooked,as many manufacturing companies tend to focus design,development and testing efforts on business processes within the four walls of their enterprise."
And he adds, " Project leaders often forget the critical supply chain links and external data flows needed to power ERP applications.Too many companies get half way through a new ERP rollout to discover that they are not staffed to support the massive mapping,testing and trading partner management activities necessary for ERP upgrades."
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