The term E-business was initially used by IBM in 1997. In order to allow more types of business on the web created the term E-Business. But we generally happen to have the term E-Commerce more frequently. Actually, E-commerce is  only one aspect of E-Business. E-business is about using the convenience,  availability and world-wide reach to enhance existing businesses or creating new virtual business. As defined by IBM, “E-Business is a secure, flexible
and integrated approach to deliver differentiated business value by combining the systems and processes that run core business operations with the simplicity and reach made possible by Internet technology. In other words, when the resources of traditional information systems are  combined with the vast reach of the Web and connect critical business  system directly to critical business constituencies – customers, employees  and suppliers via Intranets, Extranets and the Internet.

 E-Business can be divided into three major areas:

* Intranet

* Extranet

* Internet

 The Intranet is used within the organization. It uses Internet  standards for electronic communication, where the people are able to see  organization specific web site. These web sites are separated from the  rest of the world by firewalls and other security measures. Depending on  the security policies of the organization or company, people may be  allowed to connect over the Internet via virtual private networks (VPN)  to the Intranet.
The business-to-business (B2B) deals are done over the Extranet.  The Extranet consists of two Intranets connected via the Internet, whereby the two organizations are allowed to see confidential data of the other. Normally, only some parts of information are made available to the other organization, just enough to enable the business.

 The Internet is referred to as business-to-consumer (B2C) area.  Traditionally this is what most of the people think as E-Commerce; selling products on the web.

E-Business categories:
Electronic business is a super-set of business cases, which have been digitized and work now on the Internet.  An E-Business category is defined by the business case and not by the technology used to implement it. In future more and more types of business will be converted to the business form. The following are the categories for the E-Business made on their proven success on the Internet:

E-Auctioning: has made auctions more democratic allowing everyone with the Internet connection to bid for any good offered. Everyone is able to go to the auction web-site with a click, independent of the physical location. The Internet makes also speeds up the bidding process. Especially in case of live bids, they are over in even a few seconds. Besides the live bid, the larger sites also offer bidding for everyone. The auction sites present the goods, which belong to the individuals and that they want to sell it.

E-Banking: is one of the most successful online businesses. E-Banking allows costumers to access their accounts and execute orders through a simple-to-web site. There is no special software to install other than a web browser and any banks do not charge for this service. E-Banking saves individuals’ and banks’ time and money. With this online service, customers can view their account details, order checks, pay bills, re-order checks and transfer funds.

E-Commerce: as the E-Business is the thought of many people. But it is only a subset. The thought may be true for end user costumers who only deal with companies when buying goods. E-commerce was the first business types to become digitally available. A shop on the Internet is unlimited in space and time. There are no limits in the amount of products a shop can offer. Traditionally, the business organizations use to produce a deliverable, a product, service or information and then employ the 4P’s of marketing (price, product, promotion and placement) as the basis of their effort to sell it.  But the E-Commerce changes these traditional models and is far more strategic. As most business houses consider their product purely in terms of the demand conversion stage, E-Commerce forces them to view the entire sales cycle (market development, demand creation, fulfillment, and customer support and customer retention) as their product.

E-Directories: In telephone directories, the white pages are known for private individual telephone numbers and the yellow pages for businesses. These are very much of importance in locating an individual or business. These two terms have been merged on the Internet and is referred as E-Directory, where the database is located in a single place, providing a centralized functionality, but offering it to anyone at any time, making it a decentralized solution. Nowadays, new directories also provide the web pages of the individuals and businesses and their e-mail addresses.

E-Engineering: Few years back, engineers working on a design needed to be all in the same office to work ffectively. If a design needed  to be sent out to another location, a large prints needed to be made or saved in a floppy disks and were sent via postal service to other location. There the design was refined, checked and processed. All these procedures required a lot of manual work and definitely slow. E-Engineering changed the speed of design. It enabled the process independent of the location of engineers. Anyone in the Internet were able to take part in the design process. New tools for the concurrent development have been developed to support the web application.

E-Franchising: Franchising companies vends their products and brands to resellers who sell exclusively the Products of the franchising company. These resellers are called franchising partners. E-Franchising has made the entire system more simple and easy. Moving digital products, processes and brands is extremely easy over the Internet. The affiliation programs of the large booksellers on the Internet are one of the examples of E-Franchising.

E-Gambling: Despite gambling is illegal in most of the countries, E-Gambling is one of the most profitable business on the Internet. Since the gambling is either illegal or have to pay high taxes, E-Gambling companies has moved to places where gambling is legal and low taxes has to be paid. They launch the gambling sites and are able to operate the full set of games, and anyone in the Internet are able to play it without any restrictions.

E-Learning: is also known as Internet-based training (IBT) which offers a new dimension in digital learning. Instead of receiving an executable file, which is used to explain and test a subject as per the Computer-based training (CBT), the material is presented online. Tests are conducted in real-time together with other participants and also the pupils and the teacher can have the online interaction making it possible to exchange ideas and questions.

E-Mailing: Since communication is basis of all the business, postal services and telecommunication system are nearly replaced by electronic communication, especially E-mail.  It combines the strengths of phone calls and letters. Other than a telephone, e-mails can contain more than just the text, where it is possible to attach files which may contain formatted documents, spread sheets, presentations, images, sounds or movie clips. E-mail also changes the way people communicate. Instead of writing down every aspect in a single letter, thoughts may also be spread over multiple e-mails and acquiring responses in short time interval.

E-Marketing: Previously, traditional markets were focused on target groups and created a positive image for that particular group. Communication in advertising was one way only. The marketing teams were unable to get immediate results on the customers’ reaction. But by the virtue of the Internet, products, strategies, prices, everything depends upon the costumers’ needs. E-Marketing has enabled to bring online surveys, client responses and queries so that the business organization can use them to formulate plans and marketing strategies.

E-Operational Resource Management: Apart from production and sales of goods, companies need to buy operational resources. These are non-production goods and services that are required and managed on a daily basis to run the day-to-day business like capital equipment (computer equipment), maintenance, repair and operating/office supplies, travel services, etc. The process of acquiring the operational resources involves many departments within the company resulting substantial amount of expenditure and often no well organized and well managed. E-Operational Resource Management allows companies to manage operational resources more strategically using the Internet and its connectivity to provide communication infrastructure, where buyers and sellers can work together directly. This makes company to get more control over the expenditure.

E-Supply: Numerous independent companies and customers combine to form a supply chain. Manufacturers, logistics companies, senders, receivers and retailers all work together to co-ordinate the order generation and order taking. All these process are organized through supply chain management. Under E-Supply, the processes and communication via the Internet has proved to be a great potential in linking and managing these organizations. This significantly reduced the cost  for starting up the digital business-to-business communication. The supply management process may be contracted to a third party instead of developing one’s own application and investing in separate system.

E-Trading: refers to buying and selling stocks or shares online. Previous the buying and selling of shares or stocks were restricted to people with access to financial networks. Whereas others could only get the stock quotes in the newspaper. E-Trading revolutionized the way stocks were traded. E-Trading is also often known as E-Brokering which offers the real-time stock prices to anyone throughout the globe. This made people to react in real-time to changes in the stock market. Everyone with an Internet bank account is able to buy and sell stock. Business organization like Prudential ICICI Group provides the facility of E-Trading.

Akhil Mathema
IT Consultant
Shuvaya IT Consult