e-Business Applications
e-Procurement: It involves internet-based sales transactions between business firms, including both, “reverse auctions” that facilitate online trade between a single business purchaser and many sellers, and, digital marketplaces that facilitate online trading between multiple buyers and sellers.
e-Bidding/e-Auction: Most shopping sites have ‘Quote your price’ whereby you can bid for the goods and services (such as airline tickets!). It also includes e-tendering whereby one may submit tender quotations online.
e-Communication/e-Promotion: Right from e-mail, it includes publication of online catalogues displaying images of goods, advertisement through banners, pop-ups, opinion poles and customer surveys, etc. Meetings and conferences may be held by the means of video conferencing.
e-Delivery: It includes electronic delivery of computer software, photographs, videos, books (e-books) and journals (e-journals) and other multimedia content to the user’s computer. It also includes rendering of legal, accounting, medical, and other consulting services electronically. In fact, internet provides the firms with the opportunities for outsourcing of a host of Information Technology Enabled Services (ITES) that we will be discussing under business process outsourcing.
e-Trading: It involves securities trading, that is online buying and selling of shares and other financial instruments. For example, sharekhan.com is India’s largest online trading firm.
