Managing E-Business - Concepts and Cases

Article by -  Vivek Gupta,
Faculty Member,ICMR Case Studies and Management Resources.

Organizations today face major challenges of constantly reducing their costs, introducing new and innovative products on a regular basis and satisfying increasing customer demands. Customers are demanding lower prices, more product options and customization, improved level of services and personalized treatment. To meet all these challenges, the top management at most organizations is examining their enterprises operations in the context of e-business opportunities.
 

The top management at most corporates is now recognizing that e-business is one of the biggest transitions for businesses. They are worried that if they do not handle this transition in the right manner, it could mean losing significant business in the short term or even going out of business in the longer term. To manage this e-business transition successfully, requires developing effective e-business strategies by the top management including the three 'Os' (CEOs, CIOs and CFOs) of all organizations.

Divided into four sections, this book provides insights on how both new as well as established brick and mortar organizations, by following a systematic approach can transform their business into e-business. It focuses on a wide range of issues including understanding the true scope of e-business, defining the evolutionary path for e-business initiatives and formulating e-business strategies. The book also provides detailed perspectives about the present and emerging e-business technologies and their benefits to brick and mortar organizations. Finally, the book covers case studies on how leading corporations have implemented e-business strategies.

E-Strategies - An Introduction

Though e-business offers several benefits to companies, there is a lot brick and mortar organizations need to be aware of before they invest in any e-business initiatives. In the late 1990s, many organizations during the dotcom boom era had made significant investments in e-business without understanding the consumer and economic implications of their decisions. In the majority of cases, these investments had realized negligible returns.

Traditional brick and mortar organizations must seriously consider about the impact of embracing e-business on their existing business. Before venturing into e-business companies must analyze the key opportunities offered by it. This section will provide an understanding about the need for embracing e-business. It will also provide insights on how to test the relevance of any e-business initiative.

Organizations have to perform a strategic assessment of the options available to them. A well-planned e-business strategy involves a strategic assessment of the following questions:

• Is the company ready to enter new businesses and exit existing ones?

• Which business processes have to be reshaped by the company?

• Whether the company's scale of operations is large enough to bear additional e-business related expenditures?

• What core competencies are most important in the e-business environment and which of them does the company has to acquire?

• What threats and opportunities does e-business offer to the company's business?

• What is the timing and intensity of the company's response to the above threats and opportunities based on the consumer's willingness to purchase the company's offerings online?

While developing an e-business strategy, the assessment of current state of affairs in the organization is very important. This involves understanding the impact of the Internet on the organization's products, assessing the online demand for the organization's products and services, understanding the organization's preparation to deliver its offerings online and analyzing the impact of shifting an organization's delivery systems online.

To identify major e-business opportunities and develop an e-business strategy that enhances its competitive position the organization has to systematically define company/industry related processes and analyze the economic relevance of e-business on each of these processes. Then the organizations must rank these processes according to their strategic importance and the costs involved. The most economical and strategically relevant process should be digitized first and accordingly appropriate resources must be allocated to it.

Last but not the least, organizations have to analyze that by digitizing their businesses will they be offering customers better value proposition. Following questions can be asked to do the analysis:

• Will it help in serving the customers more effectively?

• Will it enable customers to do business more conveniently?

• Will it expand offerings for the current customers or allow reaching new customers?

• Will it help in collaborating more effectively with the company's business partners?

2004, ICMR Case Studies and Management Resources. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, used in a spreadsheet, or transmitted in any form or by any means - electronic or mechanical, without permission.