EBusiness:
Overview

EBusiness now means significantly more than just having a traditional website. Today's eBusiness technologies can be used to form new connections with customers and business partners. They extend the reach of a business by opening up new marketing channels and to reach into the customer's realm to increase access, establish a closer relationship, and induce greater loyalty.

• Reach Extension -- Organisations can extend their systems-infrastructure to reach beyond their corporate walls to project a presence into the realms of their customers and business partners. This enables flexible new business configurations to be supported.
• Interconnection -- Because of the standardisation that eBusiness technologies establish, organisations can now connect with each other in powerful new ways that enable new business opportunities. Furthermore, the potential grows exponentially as more organisations link together. With their systems able to effectively 'talk' to each other, new configurations can be dynamically created to support short- and long-term joint projects. Organisations can realise significant cost savings by utilising the business services of others rather than developing it internally. This also enables them to keep the focus sharply on their core business strengths. A new landscape for business is created that empowers small organisations to effectively compete and prosper.
• Relationship Formalisation -- Business is about relationships. The new reach that eBusiness provides enables organisations to create channels that support the relationships of business in highly personalised ways. Both parties in a relationship are able to express their intentions to define their side of the relationship. Businesses can offer products and services, and customers can indicate preferences by blocking out those types that they are not currently interested in and opening up access to those that they are. Dialogues between the parties can be similarly tailored to ensure a positive tone in the relationship. For example, a prospective customer might indicate that he/she wish to be notified if a certain product goes on sale or is upgraded to the next version. This control ensures that both parties dialogue meaningful ways and eliminates time-wasting irrelevant communications. The benefits to organisations are unparalleled. They get highly relevant feedback that enables them to customise their offerings and to implement highly effective 'narrowcasting' market strategies. Customers commit to the relationship and become loyal. The organisation enjoys a stable competitive advantage over the competition that they can continuously adapt to changing market conditions.

Business Webs -- The above capabilities create a compelling opportunity to create Business Webs that support highly effective personalised business dialogue and process. By eliminating barriers of time and distance, Business Webs enable dissemination of real-time interactive multidimensional information, enabling organisations to gain knowledge about their consumers while teaching them about new product/service offerings, and building cohesive long-term relationships up and down the value chain. They create a business climate in which products and services can be sold with a knowledge component, a customized "educational experience" for the consumer. These benefits significantly impact profitability and the ability to establish a stable competitive advantage in a fast-moving business climate.