Lesson 1

A Guide to e-Business Technology, Tools, and Vendors.
The goal of this course is to teach you how to quickly associate specific vendor products and applications with the appropriate technologies and solutions. When you finish this course, you will be able to:

1. Explain how each tool category relates to architecture
2. Classify the standards, tool products, and applications by major categories
3. Define each of the tool product categories
4. Contrast the purpose and range of tool products and applications for each of the categories

This course assumes a basic understanding of technologies that were described and can be gained from the following courses:

1. E-Commerce Fundamentals
2. E-Business Architecture Concepts

e-business is the application of information and communication technologies in support of all the activities of business. Commerce constitutes the exchange of products and services between businesses, groups and individuals and can be seen as one of the essential activities of any business. Electronic commerce focuses on the use of ICT to enable the external activities and relationships of the business with individuals, groups and other businesses.
Electronic business methods enable companies to

1. link their internal and external data processing systems more efficiently,
2. to work more closely with suppliers and partners, and
3. to better satisfy the needs and expectations of their customers.

Companies use more private and secure networks for more effective and efficient management of their internal functions. In practice, e-business is more than just e-commerce. While e-business refers to more strategic focus with an emphasis on the functions that occur using electronic capabilities, e-commerce is a subset of an overall e-business strategy.
E-commerce seeks to add revenue streams using the Internet to build and enhance relationships with clients and partners and to improve efficiency. Often, e-commerce involves the application of knowledge management systems. E-business involves business processes spanning the entire value chain:

1. electronic purchasing and supply chain management,
2. processing orders electronically,
3. handling customer service, and
4. cooperating with business partners.

Special technical standards for e-business facilitate the exchange of data between companies. E-business software solutions allow the integration of internal firm business processes. E-business can be conducted using the the Internet, Intranets, Extranet, or a combination of these.
Basically, electronic commerce is the process of buying, transferring, or exchanging products, services, and information by means of computer networks. Electronic commerce can also be beneficial from many perspectives including business process, service, and learning.