e-Business

e-Business (sometimes eBusiness) is a term to indicate electronic business, i.e. the using of information and communication technologies (ICT) and the benefits of the Internet in an entrepreneurship. The term is associated with the commencement of the so-called “new economy” in the 80ths and 90ths of the last century, which brought massive development of enterprise information systems and the Internet. The expression “e-business” was first used by IBM in the marketing campaign in 1996. The concept is actively used up to now. The aim of e-Business is to improve business processes or service quality or customers thanks to the use of ICT and the Internet. e-Business includes improved communication between businesses and communication with customers, suppliers, banks or public administration. It also indicates solutions to increase efficiency operation of enterprises themselves, thus improving the administration of the organization, improving their processes, sales, purchase, financial management, human resources and other.

What are the benefits and drawbacks of e-business?

e-Business benefits are information-technology and internet enabedI, it can significantly straighten various processes and create entirely new communication and sales channels with high availability (e.g. 24 hours a day), exchange of information and communication and new methods of payment. Most processes in enterprises, thanks to e-business solutions are greatly accelerated and simplified. A big development of e-Business even created new markets and business opportunities (e.g.,Internet marketing). The whole marketing concept was significantly changed. The traditional paper-based transactions were replaced with the electronic form (electronic invoicing, online banking, warehouse management, searching for GPS positioning, electronic reporting and other). The entire wave of a new economy caused a huge increase in the ICT sector, which is an important part of GDP of many countries.

e-Business negatives often consist in the enormous costs of some solutions but do not match their actual benefits.

What is the difference between e-business and e-commerce?

e-Business is the broadest term for the use of ICT in business. It is often confused with the term e-Commerce , which is narrower meaning only for electronic commerce. E-Business is the general term for different ICT usage, which are usually denoted with the letter “e”:

e-Banking
e-Commerce (electronic commerce)
e-Sales, e-Retailing (sale of products and services through Internet sales portals)
Electronic Data Interchange, EDI
e-Customs
e-Invoicing
e-Learning (electronic learning for employees)
e-Government
e-Procurement (purchasing goods and services)
e-Human Resources (Human Resources Management and Organizational management)
CRM Solutions - Customer relationship management through new communication channels, including e-commerce solution
SCM solutions - Supply chain management through new communication channels, including e-commerce solution
MIS - Management Information Systems and Data Warehouses
Intranet and Extranet (internal corporate communication)
Online communication such as Instant messaging, groupware, email and other
e-Project management - project management, using tools and software
Internet as an information source

e-Business does not change fundamentally the basic business relationships, but by using e-Business solutions the ways and channels are changed, as business relationships are realized. To express business relations following abbreviations are used: