E-com is dead. Long live e-com

The business-to-consumer e-commerce wave died an unheralded death with the end of the dotcom era. But that has in no way halted businesses taking advantage of the same mechanics to drive business-to-business commerce. From simple e-mail to Web-based ordering and order tracking, businesses can use the Internet in any number of ways to improve reaction time, or reduce costs.

A simple example is of a geographically distributed organization that has multiple sales points placing orders for products. A simple Web-based ordering and order-tracking system will not only reduce paper work, but also improve information available to the sales team on the status of their orders, and reduce communication costs significantly.

As the organization gets more complex in terms of number of products, and manufacturing and sales points, such a simple system would no longer deliver. Web enabling more complex ordering and tracking systems would bring you significant returns in turnaround time, information availability and communication costs. Similarly, other systems could move on to the Intranet, providing similar benefits internally. These could range all the way from internal newsletters on to HR, purchase and accounting systems.

Simply Web enabling an existing system is not the best answer. You must re-look how that operation is done, and to improve it, or make it faster, where possible. This is Business Process Reengineering. Unlike with more traditional systems, like accounting, e-enabled systems need continuous maintenance and modification. This is because of continuous change in the technologies involved (including in security) and change in the way you do business. Unlike with traditional software that are not linked intricately to the way you exactly do business, e-enabled software would have to change even before you change the way you do business. For example, when you launch a new product, your accounting or MIS systems could play catch up. But your online-ordering system has to be ready to take orders from day one, if not before.

Krishna Kumar