e-Business Strategy

Many companies are now exploring how e-Business tools can improve customer service, enhance quality and speed of time to market, rather than simply having a nice looking website.

However these businesses are actually beginning to go down a road which will eventually transform the nature of the business itself.

These changes in business strategy will become necessary to maintain competitive advantage, or indeed to maintain any sort of competition at all.

Traditional business strategy offered:
Certain measure of predictability, three, five or even ten year forecasting of business development.
One-time development effort
Production of goods the core focus

e-Business Strategy requires:

Concentration on adaptability and responsiveness
Strategy based on access, control and manipulation of information
The customer has to be the focus

However these changes are not a guarantee of success in the future, nor are the steps to implementing these changes simple.

For an e-Business to succeed these changes must be seen as a strategic issue for the management, not just as an isolated technological issue at which money and staff can be thrown in an attempt to resolve.

Businesses must ensure that there is a clear overall vision of where the business is heading in the virtual and physical marketplace, that the e-Business strategy is inline with that vision and that a culture of constant improvement through change is adopted.

When devising an e-Business strategy try to consider:

What will drive the integration of business strategies, processes, and functions that are needed to implement e-Business?

How will conducting e-Business change the current business model among manufacturers, distributors, retailers, and consumers as the issue of traditional distribution needs is examined and resolved?

What Internet technology is currently available or will be available in the future to allow companies to take advantage of e-Business?