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What is ebusiness?
Broadly speaking, the term ‘ebusiness’ refers to using the internet for doing business. Every time a business uses the internet to conduct business, it is doing ebusiness.
Are you doing ebusiness?
Is your organisation doing ebusiness? If you can say ‘yes’ to any of the following statements, then you are doing ebusiness.
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We communicate with customers, members or suppliers via email - for example enewsletters.
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We send emails to other organisations to order products and services.
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We sell or promote our products, performances, art work or services via our website and email.
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We use the web to find information such as prices, phone numbers, reviews.
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We use the web for research, such as the latest trends.
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We use our website to provide information about us and our programs, collections and so on.
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We use our website as a means of managing the information in our business.
The difference between ebusiness and ecommerce
The term ‘ecommerce’ has a narrower meaning than ‘ebusiness’. It refers to using the internet to order and pay for products or services. So ecommerce is a sub-set of ebusiness.
Ecommerce happens when a consumer buys a ticket online or buys something from the art shop and pays for it either when they receive the product or directly online at the time of ordering. It happens when an organisation pays another organisation for supplies via its website.
Ecommerce refers specifically to paying for goods and services, whereas ebusiness covers the full range of business activities that can happen, or be assisted, via email or the web.
Aims and benefits of ebusiness
At its most developed level, ebusiness aims to reduce costs and improve efficiencies by integrating business systems and eliminating duplication of effort. The main benefit is that you run a business more efficiently, achieving more with fewer resources and for less cost.
Embedding ebusiness into the core of your business processes will take time and resources. Against this you need to consider the lost opportunity cost of not doing so.
To explore other benefits of ebusiness go to the 'What are the benefits?' section of the ebusinessguide.
The main challenge for cultural organisations in the current period of ebusiness transition is to decide both the extent and pace of change from traditional business processes to an integrated ebusiness system. To help manage the transition it is vital that cultural organisations have an ebusiness plan - see the section on ebusiness planning.
What to do
If you would like to read more about what ebusiness is and what its benefits are, try these resources. Most provide a lot more than just an explanation of ebusiness and its benefits and so will almost certainly be useful for understanding other aspects of ebusiness covered in this website.
Sensis
Sensis, who produce the White Pages and Yellow Pages, has developed a very useful document entitled, E-business Made Easy. It is an excellent, high level manual designed for those seeking a basic understanding of what ebusiness can offer. For more information visit the Sensis website to download a copy of E-business Made Easy.
Australian ebusiness guide. 2nd ed.
This book contains information,
tools, resources and references to aid business advisers and small to
medium businesses in adopting and operating ebusiness. This is an annual
publication.
Publisher: CCH Australia
ISBN: 1864686375
Ebiz.enable – Canadian website
The Canadian ebiz.enable website is designed specifically for small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs). It is well-written and easy to use. To learn more about the benefits of ebusiness visit the ebiz.enable website.
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