Key Challenges of e-business Solutions

In some ways, the challenges posed to eBusiness managers are no different from those that have long concerned businesses. Most businesses want to grow to increase profits, yet they must remain manageable. Most businesses strive to be sufficiently integrated so that their internal and external operations not only run smoothly, but also are well coordinated. Finally, all businesses want their customers to remain loyal. While these challenges are not new to the Web, the manner in which they present themselves and are dealt with on the Web is unique. Indeed, meeting these challenges depends chiefly on the technological infrastructure and Web-specific services that you employ as part of your solution. As an eBusiness solutions manager, you must be concerned with all of these goals and develop strategies for ensuring that they are met.

In the world of eBusiness, these challenges are known specifically as:

1. Stickiness
2. Scalability
3. Maintainability
4. Reliability
5. Interoperability

The following series of images below describes what exactly these terms mean within the specific context of building an e-business solution.

e-Business can have an impact on every facet of the organization, including

1. processes,
2. applications,
3. staffing,
4. infrastructure,
5. relationships,
6. and sales channels.

Not only is e-Business transforming companies and industries, it isdoing so at an accelerating rate. Business cycles that use to be measured in years are now measured in days. Competition in the future, even today in certain industries, will not be company against company but supply chain against supply chain. Companies will be only as strong as the weakest link in their supply chain.
The winners will be companies that can build up or tear down electronic B2B relationships rapidly. As part of this transformation, enterprise borders are starting to disappear.
e-Business is all about providing open access to infrastructure services, data, and applications. Partners, suppliers, customers and, in some cases, even your competition will be able to peer into your corporate nervous system. Hopefully, all of this will be for the better. But, if not handled correctly, sometimes it may be for the worse.

Customer expectations are rising in terms of the speed and reliability they expect from your e-Business applications. Studies show that Web customers will wait only eight seconds for a page view, even if they are on a slow connection that you have no control over. Not only are the expectations of your external customer rising but so are the expectations of your internal customers. They cannot watch the news or read an airline magazine without being reminded about what is possible in e-Business. As a result, they are clamoring for the functionality that e-Business provides, asking you to take the business from brick-and-mortar to clickand-mortar. And application developers may be pushing to develop online systems that involve users outside your organization, and that connect to the external systems of your business partners.

This course will provide you with the knowledge of tools and services that will help you meet these challenges.
The next lesson is about another key challenge in developing and maintaining an e-business solution, defining and meeting standards.