Electronic Business (Paperback)  | Released: 16 May 2008

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:?? 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 � IndexAbout 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.