INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SYSTEMS

Information Technology Systems

Information Technology Systems

Introduction

Every era of business yields new strategies and new ways of doing business. With the introduction of radio and television came the first mass-market advertising. Nowadays the Internet and something known as e-commerce are radically changing the business world gradually. There are some elements of commerce that are necessary for any transactions to take place, which should be available for regular bricks-and-mortar commerce as well as for e-commerce. First, (Frieden, 2006) whether a firm is doing business online or in the real world, it must have a product to sell or a service to offer. Then, the place from where to do business should be considered. In the conventional world of commerce this can be a physical store. In the world of e-commerce the place to do business is the Web site. E-commerce is an emerging concept that describes the process of buying and selling or exchanging of products, services, and information via computer networks including the Internet. This paper evaluates the following statements;

“E-commerce will replace traditional offline business”

“E-commerce is the way forward for business and organizations”.

1. E-commerce will replace traditional offline business

Businesses that have the means to process transactions and fulfill orders over the web are e-commerce businesses. E-commerce is not a new trend. Businesses have long performed transactions electronically using Electronic Data Exchange (EDI) mechanisms. However, the potential of Internet, most notably the WWW, as a medium to carry out e-commerce has just begun to be realized. For once, even SMEs stand a chance to compete with giant corporations. Specifically, e-commerce replaces the manual business processes with their automated electronic equivalents to accelerate ordering, delivery and payment procedures. This electronic paradigm has saved businesses billions in operational and inventory costs. (Frieden, 2006)

For consumers, web acts as a cost-effective information arbiter. Much like the traditional business environment characterized by industries and markets, e-commerce also comes in various flavors or models: auctions, storefront, horizontal and vertical portals, bartering, online trading, entertainment and automotive sales, click-and-mortar businesses. If we look closely at each of these models we realize that e-commerce has brought buyers and sellers closer by directly connecting them and, in the process, bypassing intermediaries such as distribution outlets, brokers, dealers and agents. Since e-commerce over the Internet is a relatively newer phenomenon, there are still some misunderstandings as to its role. One such misunderstanding is the role of the traditional intermediary or the middleman in presence of e-commerce. (Graham, 2008)

The role of an intermediary or the middleman has been well defined in a traditional business environment. An intermediary, for our purposes, is any person or agency that acts on behalf of both the buyers and the sellers (manufacturer) so that the collective benefits of all the parties are maximized. As such, real estate agents, travel agents, wholesalers, retailers are all intermediaries. Take the example of a retail outlet. Retail outlets are the last stage in the distribution channel. Their functions were well defined and ranged from providing information to concluding ...