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How and why do I become an E-Business?
E-business is what happens when you connect your critical business systems directly to your critical constituencies, customers, employees, vendors and suppliers via Internet. This is done by revising your critical business systems into a “self-service” model. In other words, you move to transactions – not just buying and selling, but all processes like service and support, managing supply chains and the many systems that are at the heart of how your business works.
Putting your core business processes on line isn't easy. There is a lot to figure out. Like, how do you quickly deploy new applications across multiple platforms? How do you connect those applications to your back-end systems and make them reliable enough to do business 24 hours a day? It takes experience, and the right tools. This process can be overwhelming and time consuming. However, as more and more consumers become Internet savvy, business are finding the value in becoming an e-business. Your business becomes available on line 24 hours for answering common questions, downloading documentation, filling out documentation, watching videos about your products, buying your products and so much more.
Many of our small businesses are concerned that becoming an e-business will make them too sterile and impersonal. They have built their clientèle on “face to face” personal service. These business owners are not wrong. There is no doubt that they know how to treat a customer or client with special care. However, they don't understand that all kinds of people use the Internet to access information. A website can be impersonal, and that's a good thing. When people use the Internet they want information not a personal relationship. The information will bring them to you, and you can create the relationship.
E-business greatly expands opportunities to communicate with potential clients and customers that yo may not yet be servicing as well as current customers. It gives your company a mark of credibility with that continually growing portion of the population of Internet users.
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