Summary Introduction to e-business and e- commerce

1.1. Definitions; e-commerce, e-business Electronic commerce  Simply refers to buying and selling using internet  All electronically mediated information exchanges between an organisation and its external stakeholders  Kalokota and Whinston (1997) give a range of definitions based on different perspectives  A communication perspective: the delivery of information, products/services, or payment by electronic means 4Introduction to e-commerce and e-business 1.1. Definitions; e-commerce, e-business  A business perspective: The application of technology towards the automation of business transactions and workflows  A service perspective: Enabling cost cutting at the same time increasing the speed and quality of service delivery  An online perspective: Buying and selling of products and information online 5Introduction to e-commerce and e-business 1.1. Definitions; e-commerce, e-business  Evaluation of e-commerce impact in an organisation is done by identifying opportunities for buy-side and sell-side e-commerce transactions  Buy-side e-commerce  Transactions to procure resources needed by an organisation from its suppliers  Sell-side ecommerce  Transactions involved with selling products to an organization's customers 6Introduction to e-commerce and e-business 1.1. Definitions; e-commerce, e-business Electronic business The transformation of key business processes through the use of internet technologies While e-commerce does not refer to many activities within the organization (e.g. processing of purchasing order), e-business refers to both internal and external transactions Thus, e-commerce is the subset of e-business 7Introduction to e-commerce and e-business 1.2. How significant are e-business and e-commerce