Accounts

3. 7.1 Business value chain: End-to-end solution model

The end-to-end solution model Figure … shows the variety of business applications that e-Business can have if applied from suppliers to customers. This model also focuses on the back-office applications in a company that are typically Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) style business applications that house much of a company’s valuable data.

This data is not only valuable for the actual business, but also for suppliers for example, production or inventory information and customers for example, order status or support.

Figure 4 End-to-end solution model

The e-data is not only valuable for the company, but also its suppliers and customers. End-to-end e-Business solutions leverage core business data and are the basis for most e-Business applications today. This is where to start when looking for potential e-Business opportunities.

3.7.2 ERP: Core business applications

ERP packaged software covers the primary back-office functions of a business such as financial systems (General Ledger, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, and so on), inventory management, human resources, planning, procurement management, supply chain management, customer relationship management, and sales force automation. The business data that ERP applications contain is the raw material for many kinds of e-Business applications that leverage into Customer Relationship Management, supply chain management solutions, e-commerce, and other related solutions.

3.7.3 Customer Relationship Management

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) involves supporting, developing, and retaining profitable customers. CRM is central to e-Business. Analyzing customer behavior enables businesses to personalize their offerings and to e-Business customers suppliers.

Doing this successfully means organizations can maintain good customer relationships. This is key to retaining customers, which is something every organization is working hard to do. Gaining a new customer is six times more costly than retaining an existing one.

Creating an e-Business application involves exploring the central theme of CRM: developing solutions that serve customers better. The development of an e-Business application for CRM begins by answering some key questions:

• Which back-end support processes (for example, inventory management, transportation management, product design) are integral to serving customers better? This involves inventorying available data and going through a process to assess the value of that data to customers and then determine which information to supply in which manner.

• How can a Customer Relationship Management initiative to involve or integrate these processes in a manner that results in true performance improvements for customers be deployed? Some examples are to provide better information for example, more accurate, faster, and easier to access or better service for example, 24x7 support, product access, and lower prices.

• Which business processes can be significantly improved by effectively implementing them as e-Business solutions? Typically these involve customer interaction points for example, price lookups, account status, and reports, large distributions of unit for example, promotions, announcements, and newsletters, or data inputs for example, account information, such as an address change.

• What is the relative business value of each independent process and which application will customers value most? There can be many.

• How capable is the IT infrastructure of supporting Customer Relationship Management initiatives to integrate customer-facing or back-end operational processes? Back office systems are opened to customers without a customer service representative as a middle person.

This creates its own unique availability, performance, and usability issues.

An effective Customer Relationship Management system helps businesses be more successful because they can identify and sustain profitable and enduring relationships with their customers. This happens when customers obtain the right information, at the right time, in the right format. It provides value!

4.0 Summary

This unit has introduced the architecture and methodology for building e-Business application using industry standards. Such issues like the tools, application software and management software roles and types were shown. You have seen that e-Business, e-Commerce through customer relationship management business operations and ERP, supply chain management like customers to suppliers vice versa.

5.0 Conclusion

The unit is a precursor to the actual development/building of e-Business.

The unit shows the e-Business cycle and the linkage which are CRM, ERP and SCM. In the next unit we will be looking more on the e-Business chain.

Teacher Marked Assignments 1. Discuss e-Business framework

2. Distinguish IBM application framework for e-Business and the general framework.

3. List and discuss the phases in e-Business cycle.

4. The development of an e-Business application for CRM begins by answering some key questions; list and explain them

7.0 References/Further Reading

JACKSON, P. e-Business Fundamentals (Routledge Textbooks Ine-Business) (Hardcover).

London: Routledge, 2003. 224 p. ISBN 978-0415255943.

RAYNOLDS, J. The Complete E-Commerce Book: Design, Build and Maintain

a Successful Web-Based Business. San Francisco: CMP Books, 2004.

359 p. ISBN 978-1578203123.

SLANINOVÁ, K. Prezentace na internetu - účinný marketingový nástroj. Bratislava:

Ekonóm, 2008. Strana 299 – 305. ISBN 978-80-225-2472-8.

VANĚK, J. Metodologie marketingu vztahů a její postavení v rámci strategického

marketingu a řízení vztahů se zákazníkem (CRM-praktické využití).

Karviná: SU OPF

Karviná, 2007. 250 s. ISBN 978-80-7248-451-5.

VELTE, T. e-Business: A Beginner's Guide. New York: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2000.

480 p. ISBN 978-0072127447.

VYMĚTAL, D. Implementace ERP systému u nadnárodní organizace.

BRNO: CCB, spol.

s r.o., 2007. Strana 41 – 43. ISSN 1802-002X.

http://www.internetworldstats.com [on-line 16.1.2008]

http://www.future.cz/topfuture/sluzby/navratnostitprojektu/CatID2536/

default.aspx

[on/line 31.1.2008]

http://www.adaptic.cz/novy-web/zakladni-analyza.htm [on/line 8.2.2008]

http://www.businessworld.cz/bw.nsf/id/it_infrastruktura_v_moderni_org anizaci

[on/line 16.2.2008]

http://www.nalapnet.com/Sluzby/m_sluzby_strtg.htm [on/line 16.1.2008]

http://www.sitelab.cz/optimalizace-pro-vyhledavace.html [on-line 16.1.2008]

http://seo-optimalizace.info/ [on-line 31.1.2008]

http://www.phpfusion-mod.cz/readarticle.php?article_id=2 [on-line 31.1.2008]

http://www.e-marketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1005231 [on-line 12.2.2008]

http://www.jakpsatweb.cz/seo/konverze.html [on-line 14.2.2008]

http://www.seo-optimalizace.eu/ [on-line 25.2.2008]

UNIT 3: e-Business chain