A PROJECT REPORT SUBMITTED ON

“E-BUSINESS STRATEGIES”

POST GRADUATE DIPLOMA IN MANAGEMENT –

(INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY)
Approved by AICTE
2009-11

(Equivalent to MBA)

Submitted To: Submitted By:

PROF. AVADHESH GUPTA RAGHVENDRA SINGH (09160)

SHRADDHA SUMAN(09202)
AMIT KUMAR SINHA(09029)
CONTENT:-

1.Introduction
2.Market strategy
3.E-Business Architecture
4.E-business Infrastructure Objective
5.E-business Application
6.E-Business Model
7.E-business intelligence as E-business strategy
8.The purpose of E-business Intelligence
9.E-marketing Strategy
10.Architectural Component
11.Architecture Security
12.E-commerce Software
INTRODUCTION:

Electronics Business commonly referred to as "eBusiness" or "e-business", may be defined as

the application of information and communication technologies in support of all the activities of
business. Commerce constitutes the exchange of products and services between businesses,
groups and individuals and can be seen as one of the essential activities of any business.
Electronic commerce focuses on the use of ICT to enable the external activities and relationships
of the business with individuals, groups and other businesses .

Louis Gerstner, the former CEO of IBM, in his book, Who Says Elephants Can't Dance?
attributes the term "e-Business" to IBM's marketing and Internet teams in 1996.

Electronic business methods enable companies to link their internal and external data processing
systems more efficiently and flexibly, to work more closely with suppliers and partners, and to
better satisfy the needs and expectations of their customers.

In practice, e-business is more than just e-commerce. While e-business refers to more strategic
focus with an emphasis on the functions that occur using electronic capabilities, e-commerce is a
subset of an overall e-business strategy. E-commerce seeks to add revenue streams using the
World Wide Web or the Internet to build and enhance relationships with clients and partners and
to improve efficiency using the Empty Vessel strategy. Often, e-commerce involves the
application of knowledge management systems.

E-business involves business processes spanning the entire value chain : electronic purchasing
and supply chain management , processing orders electronically, handling customer service, and
cooperating with business partners. Special technical standards for e-business facilitate the
exchange of data between companies. E-business software solutions allow the integration of intra
and inter firm business processes. E-business can be conducted using the Web , the Internet,
intranets, extranets, or some combination of these.

Basically, electronic commerce (EC) is the process of buying, transferring, or exchanging

products, services, and/or information via computer networks, including the internet. EC can also
be benefited from many perspective including business process, service, learning, collaborative,
community. EC is often confused with e-business.

MARKETING STRATEGY:

Marketing strategy is a method of focusing an organization's energies and resources on a course

of action which can lead to increased sales and dominance of a targeted market niche. A
marketing strategy combines product development, promotion, distribution, pricing, relationship
management and other elements; identifies the firm's marketing goals, and explains how they
will be achieved, ideally within a stated timeframe. Marketing strategy determines the choice of
target market segments, positioning, marketing mix, and allocation of resources. It is most
effective when it is an integral component of overall firm strategy, defining how the organization
will successfully engage customers, prospects, and competitors in the market arena. Corporate
Strategies, corporate missions, and corporate goals. As the customer constitutes the source of a
company's revenue, marketing strategy is closely linked with sales. A key component of
marketing strategy is often to keep marketing in line with a company's overarching mission
strategies.

Basic theory:

1. Target Audience
2. Proposition/Key Element
3. Implementation
E-BUSINESS ARCHITECTURE:

Few in business today are unaware of the power of e-business to transform whole organizations.
Yet any organization hoping to exploit its potential must develop an infrastructure that can cope
with the demands of e-business. Are you prepared? Many e-Business opportunities fail due to
inadequate infrastructure. With Building the e-Business Infrastructure
Put simply, e-business is the application of sound business principles via modern, global,
technology-based communications media. As such, it reaches far and wide, affecting everyone
from staff to management, players to competitors. e-Business must address business models,
values, operational dynamics and include both audience and enterprise.
Infrastructure determines how easily corporations can respond to the increasingly urgent
demands of its executives, how they can respond to the 'fast-food' data requirements of modern
business, and the competitive nature of a global marketplace.
The technical infrastructural elements of e-business consist of Internet and server technologies,
hardware and software. That is, the Internet, intranets, extranets, networks, security solutions and
a myriad of applications promoting customer relationship management, knowledge management,
business intelligence, integrated supply chain management and many others. However,
infrastructure is much more than technology. It is the dynamic interaction and management of
strategy, skilled people, tools and processes. – It drives and must be driven by e-business.
Infrastructure is a major issue today as it is the crucial determinant of how easily corporations
can respond to the increasingly urgent demands of their executives. ‘We need it now’ is an e-
business mantra. IT directors can only deliver if they have an appropriate infrastructure. This
Report illustrates how companies are setting about meeting the challenge of building the e-
business infrastructure.
We view infrastructure not only in terms of technology but also in the wider context of:
 Various sources of supply of technology platform services
 Expertise and skills required to deliver infrastructure technology
 Processes required to manage them
 Complementary investments required to enable IT infrastructure to deliver appropriate e-
business solutions.
The Report will resonate most with senior IT executives but is in fact highly relevant to senior
business executives – technology is merely the context for what is essentially an organizational
and management issue.

E-BUSINES INFRASTRUCTURE OBJECTIVE:

Comprehensive integration of enterprise partners to streamline business processes and to develop
effective collaboration amongst them for utilizing the extended trading network to add value.
‘For effective collaboration, interoperability is the theme for standardization.’

Interoperability
 Technical interoperability consists of the common methods and shared services for the
communication, storage, processing and presentation of data.
 Semantic or business interoperability includes discovery and collaboration aspects,
including work flow and decision-making transactions.
 Process interoperability is a prerequisite for devices and platforms that ‘talk to one
another’ and services that are ‘portable from platform to platform’.

Standardisation
 To enhance the deployment of services that are interoperable and platform-independent.
 To make e-business interactions more secure.
 To facilitate e-business solutions that are adaptable to user needs.

We divided the E-business Infrastructure development for application into four different parts
that is :
1. A shared digital business infrastructure, including digital production and distribution
technologies (broadband/wireless networks, content creation technologies and
information management systems), which will allow business participants to create and
utilize network economies of scale and scope;
2. A sophisticated model for operations, including integrated value chains-both supply
chains and buy chains;
3. An e-business management model, consisting of business teams and/or partnerships; and
 4. Policy, regulatory and social systems-i.e., business policies consistent with e-business
laws, teleworking/virtual work, distance learning, incentive schemes, among others.
Computer Networks, Hardware and Software
Network and Hardware Perspective; Internet readiness
A closely related requirement to the software and websites’ requirements is the existence of a
network or hardware infrastructure. This may include the routers, fiber optics or wireless
communication channels, firewalls, etc. Since both (software and hardware perspectives) may
include hardware and software elements, we will distinguish them through the location. This
perspective represents any requirements outside the user machine.

The mature e-business site is multi-tiered, with several hardware components, including:
 Firewalls and routers
 Load balancers
 Web servers/front ends
 Application servers
 Database servers
 File servers
 Storage hardware
The software environment that runs on this hardware can be equally complex, and may include:
 Operating system software
 Web/application server software
 Database software and applications
 Storage management software (backup/recovery, clustering and failover, etc.)
E-BUSINESS APPLICATION
Software Perspective
How to build an infrastructure for a trusted e-business websites:
This section will focus on the software, websites requirements to implement e-services or
business. In most e-business infrastructures to secure access to e-business websites, we should
include two basic components in order to allow users to securely perform online transactions:

 Digital certificates for web servers, providing guarantees of authentication, privacy and
data integrity through encryption. Digital certificates can be issued by mediators called
Certificate Authorities (CAs) to authenticate the seller to the buyer and vice versa.
 Secure e-payment system and management, to allow e-business sites to secure and
automatically accept, manage and process online payments. This can be usually organized
with owners’ banks. Websites will be securely connected to the buyers’ bank accounts. Once
an online transaction is secured executed, the money should be directly transferred from the
seller to the buyer account. This process should be performed in a fast, reliable and secure
way. Those 3 elements (i.e. reliability, performance and security) are vital to the success of
any e-business website.

Electronic business is any information system or application that empowers business processes.
Today this is mostly done with web technologies.

E-business applications can be divided into three categories:

1. Internal business systems:

 Customer relationship management
 Enterprise resource planning
 Employee information portals
 Knowledge management
 Workflow management
 Document management system
  Human resource management
 Process control
 Internal transaction processing

2. Enterprise communication and collaboration:

 E-mail
 Voice mail
 Discussion forums
 Chat systems
 Data conferencing
 Collaborative work systems

3. Electronic commerce:
(Business-to-business electronic commerce or business-to-consumer electronic commerce)
 Electronic funds transfer
 Supply chain management
 E-marketing
 Online transaction processing.
E-BUSINESS MANAGEMENT MODEL

E-Business Model
A company can be viewed as an entity providing products or services to clients with the support
of products or services of partners in a constantly changing environment. The functioning of an
enterprise can be roughly modelled in accordance with a set of interacting functions, which are
commonly classified in three categories:
 Performance functions, which represent the core of its activity (core business), i.e. the
production of goods or services. They pertain to activities of production, stock
management, and purchasing (purchasing function);
 The management functions, which cover all strategic functions of management of the
company; they cover general management of the company, the human resources (HR)
management functions as well as the financial and accounting management functions;
 The support functions, which support the performance functions to ensure proper
functioning of the enterprise. Support functions cover all activities related with sales (in
certain cases, they are part of the core business) as well as all activities that are
transversal to the organization, such as management of technological infrastructures (IT,
Information Technology function).
Enterprises are generally characterized by the type of commercial relationships they maintain.
Dedicated terms therefore exist to quality this type of relationship:
 B To B (Business To Business, sometimes written B2B) means a commercial relationship
business to business based on the use of a numerical support for the exchange of
information.
 B To C (Business To Consumer, sometimes written B2C) means a relationship between a
company and the public at large (individuals). This is called electronic commerce, whose
definition is not limited to sales, but rather covers all possible exchanges between a
company and its clients, from the request for an estimate to after-sales service;
 B To A (Business To Administration, sometimes written B2A) means a relationship
between a company and the public sector (tax administration, etc.) based on numerical
exchange mechanisms (tele-procedures, electronic forms, etc.).
As an extension of these concepts, the term B To E (Business To Employees, sometimes written
B2E) has also emerged to refer to the relationship between a company and its employees, in
particular through the provision of forms directed at them for managing their career, vacation, or
their relationship with the company committee.
Front Office/Back Office
These terms are generally used to describe the parts of the company (its information system) that
are dedicated, respectively, to the direct relationship with the client and proper management of
the company.
The Front-Office (sometimes also called Front line) refers to the front part of the enterpriser that
is visible to the clients.
In turn, Back Office refers to all parts of the information system to which the final user does not
have access. The term therefore covers all internal processes within the enterprise (production,
logistics, warehousing, sales, accounting, human resources management, etc.

1. SOPHISTICATED MODEL FOR OPERATIONS

It is widely acknowledged today that new technologies, in particular access to the Internet, tend
to modify communication between the different players in the professional world, notably:
 relationships between the enterprise and its clients,
 the internal functioning of the enterprise, including enterprise-employee relationships,
 The relationship of the enterprise with its different partners and suppliers.

E-BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE AS COMPETITIVE E—BUSINESS STRATEGY

E-business intelligence gives critical Internet market feedback to an enterprise.  It is an

enterprises method for measuring and managing return on investment (ROI).  However, the
biggest oversight about determining Internet ROI is the inadequacy of meaningful metrics to
measure it.  Current metrics are limited to web site effectiveness, not the impact of the entire
Internet on the business.  They answer the what? But not the how or why of what happened on
the Internet.  They suffer from limited availability, coverage, and effectiveness.  As an example,
real world measurements exist for down time, system reliability, quick ratios, and cycle time; but
not for advertising effectiveness, site comprehensiveness, or audience satisfaction.  Enterprises
are missing windows of opportunity by not capturing and monitoring the appropriate metrics. 
E-business intelligence is driven by answering key questions such as:  

�        How can our site maximize its traffic?

�        Does our company/site have the right Internet affiliations?

�        How are our companies products being distributed on the Internet?

�        Are other companies leveraging my business to drive their business?

�        Are my affiliates complying with set guidelines?

  The answer to these types of questions becomes the fuel for future business strategies/models. 
Then upon implementation, these strategies are monitored for their impact and effectiveness on
ROI.

   New Revenue Generating E-business Models

Proactive enterprises are capitalizing on Internet opportunities using new E-business models. 
These models are: 

�        Advertising revenue generated from web site hits or eyeballs

�        E-retailing revenue derived from direct Internet sales

�        Channel revenue produced from maintenance of current channel integrity

�        Affiliate revenue made from paid marketing alliances

�        Franchise revenue created from authorized agents

�        Subscription revenue derived from payment for content access

The Pervasive Effect and Reach of the Internet  

The Internet affects all areas of your online and offline enterprise.  These areas include: 

�        Legal Are sites cybersquatting or infringing on copyright, trademark, patents or logos
belonging to your company?  Profiting from slight differences in domain names or peddling
counterfeit wares means outright lost sales.  It also conditions the public to accept piracy as a
legitimate distribution channel and sets a precedent that your content is free. 

�        Corporate Communications Are sites involved with cyber smearing?  Increased Internet
usage could mean added exposure to attacks on your companies good name.  For example,
are sites promulgating untruths or rumours about your products/services or ruining corporate
reputation by associating your communications with pornography?  Unsavoury
communications of this nature can offend potential or current customers. 

�        Infrastructure Are sites incorporating the optimal technologies?  Don’t be the first to
adopt bleeding technology, but then again, don’t be the last either.  Interface design, applets,
and cutting edge applications/tools can become the stuff of great web sites. 

�        Interactive Are sites doing what it takes to attract and keep customers?  There is first
mover advantage when signing with the best affiliates but are they respecting exclusive,
noncompeting clauses and other guidelines and not diverting traffic?  Are sites wrongfully
implying or claiming a relationship with your business?  The inability to control how your
brand or services are characterized on unauthorized sites has the potential of negatively
affecting your bottom line while improving theirs. 

�        Strategy Are sites aware of what their partners are doing?  Relationships that work in the
conventional offline world may not be advantageous in the online world where geographical
boundaries are non-existent.  This produces additional issues concerning product pricing,
supplier relationships, management, and distribution channels.

 
 THE PURPOSE OF E-BUSINESS INTELLEGENCE:

Monitoring the Internet for nefarious activities against your enterprise is ineffective because the
Internet is too large to find all the violators.  Instead, use E-business intelligence to implement a
process that combats the worse Internet violations perpetrated against your business.   

This 4-step process consists of: 

�        Understanding the scope the Internet represents.  The Internet changes every second of
every day.  It is growing exponentially from its estimated 800 million pages with no end in
sight.   This is not a matter for guessing.  It is critical that you have the correct answers to
questions such as:

What is our exposure on the Internet?

Do we have adequate tracking and trending information?

What issues will affect the bottom line today and in the future?

How do we position for growth?

Putting together numbers, contingencies, and scenarios that simulate or project possible
outcomes can help baseline what types of trends can and should be tracked over time. 

�        Developing policies and procedures.  All web sites are not created equal.  This justifies
applying different consequences and treatment for those that violate your business. 
Depending upon the offensiveness and offense, appropriate responses from your business
come from official corporate policies and procedures.  For example, unsanctioned web sites
can be divided into four categories.  Those that are unprofitable are ignored by your business;
those that are positive can be either exploited or sanctioned by you; those that are negative
require correction and monitoring to ensure continued compliance; those that are illegal must
 be eliminated. 

�        Implementing proactive measures that are both repeatable and sustainable.  Your
business responsiveness is predicated on E-business criteria.  For example, offenses
perpetrated by fan clubs might justify notification to desist by registered mail while
commercial ventures make their case in court.  Begin with actions/behaviors that truly affect
your bottom line business and then be consistent and persistent about how they are
remedied. 

 Being decisive.  Business is a competitive business.  The addition of E-business makes it

even more so.  Whether your enterprise is the eater or the eaten is a matter of being
attentive to the eyeballs.  Either affiliate to drive people to your site or cut bait because
time costs you in competitors.

E-Marketing Strategy

In general terms, an e-marketing strategy consists of the steps taken and procedures followed for
marketing a brand through the web. The centre of attraction in any e-marketing strategy is the
website of the company to which Internet users are to be attracted for increasing sales. But
firstly, the company's website needs to be in a proper design, format, attractive, and one that will
have a good impression on prospective buyers.

Read more on:

 Internet Marketing Strategy

 Best Internet Marketing Strategies
 Internet Marketing and Advertising

Components of a Good Internet Marketing Strategy

Search Engine Optimization

A study conducted shows that around 90% of Americans use the Internet daily, with over 2/3rd
of purchases being researched on the Internet. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a procedure
that relates to attracting Internet traffic to your website as much as possible. SEO is crucial for
online marketing success of your business. It includes optimizing your website in such a way that
your site would be ranked on the initial pages of the search, so that the web users can visit your
website for the contents they are in search of. This is done using keyword phrases that the users
generally put in the Internet search engines for searching a particular product or service.

Email Marketing Strategy

Another important component of an effective e-marketing strategy is email marketing which is
all about sending information of the product and services to the potential customers using email.
This is a proven effective method of using online marketing as an efficient tool for business
generation. It is also a very good business marketing technique for building good business
relations with potential customers, as well as prospective clients.

Online Advertising
Online advertising is a marketing method, that has a very substantial Return On Investment
(ROI) value. It consists of placing advertisements of products and services on the company
website, sites which are ranking on the first pages of the search engine, and sites which are
getting a considerable amount of traffic from Internet users. Internet affiliate marketing is a very
good example of online advertising, which relates to paying your company's product advertiser
as per the sales generation.

Online Newsletters
You can even think of online newsletters as a decent way to pass on product information for
promoting your product and services. Businesses generally issue online newsletters to regular
customers for letting them know what new introductory offers are available and which new
products are likely to be launched. Unlike email marketing, these online newsletters are issued at
regular time intervals.
Media News Rooms
A media news room is a facility on the web that includes most of the company blogs and
information which can be accessed by social media. If the company information reaches the
social media, it takes no time for the information and news to be transferred to the general
public. The information in media news rooms is usually available to journalists and bloggers,
who are visitors searching for specific news and facts of the products and not just general
information. This is also one of the most effective Internet marketing strategies.

Read more on:

 Effective Internet Marketing Tools

 Effective Internet Marketing Strategies
 Most Effective Internet Marketing Tools

ARCHITECTURAL COMPONENTS:

 Client Workstations
 Web Server
 Transaction Server
 Database Server
 Network Communications
 Back-End Systems
 WEB PAGE REQUEST PROCESS

Web Page
With Data

TRANSACTION SERVER PROCESS:

Purchases
via
Phone
Or
Mail Order
ARCHITECTURAL SECURITY:
 Firewalls
 Screens IP Addresses and Domain Names
 Employs Secure Login Procedures
 Proxy Servers
 Thwart Outside Intrusion
 Virus Detection

SECURITY:

SIMPLE E-BUSINESS ARCHITECTURE:

Firm B
E-COMMERCE SOFTWARE:-

 Storefronts
 Storefront Features
 Homepage
 Product listing & pictures, auction technologies, product comparisons, order
tracking, and search tools.
 Storefront Software Integration
 Credit verification, shipping, tax & accounting
 E-Commerce Server Management Tools:
 Content Management Tools
 Replication and Clustering Tools
 Site Usage Tools
 Security Tools (who can change storefront changes, servers at remote sites).
 Key #1: Integration with IT Infrastructure
 Network operating systems
 Relational database systems
 Transaction server systems
 ERP systems
 EDI systems
 Third-party software
 Proprietary software
  Key #2: Customization
 Customization Wizards / Programmatically
 Cohesion: Function Relationship of Modules
 Coupling: Dependency of Modules
 High cohesion + Low coupling = Easier customization
 Key #3: Build or Buy
 Build:
 Requires technical skills in all systems / software
 Can customize to specifications
 Can be less expensive (if technical skills exist)
 Long development time
 Keeping-up with technological advances
 Result -- Sub-optimal software (compared to off-the-shelf solutions)
 Key #3: Buy
 Buy:
 Best practices
 Quicker development
 Higher cost
 May lack in-house knowledge to fully leverage system.

Reference: E-Business and E-commerce, Dave Chaffey,3rd Edition, Pearson education.