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E-business technologies include software, hardware, mobile solutions, and analytical processes that facilitate business operations through electronic means. Examples include websites, computerized inventory systems, and virtual meeting services. The term is constantly evolving due to new technological breakthroughs, and any solution that improves business performance and requires electricity can be considered e-business technology. These technologies have forever changed the way business is conducted, allowing for automation and mobile computing, reducing costs, and increasing response times.
E-business technologies consist of a variety of software packages, hardware components, mobile solutions, and analytical processes that facilitate business operations through electronic means. Organizations use e-business technologies to move and analyze data; monitor or direct order fulfillment; process payments; and to communicate with internal departments, suppliers and customers. Examples of e-business technologies include websites, electronic media, computerized inventory systems, and virtual meeting services, to name just a few, with more options, applications, and solutions appearing on an almost daily basis. Because technologies change so rapidly, even information technology professionals find it difficult to define e-business technologies beyond generic terms and concepts. What constitutes essential e-business technologies today will likely look obsolete within five years or less.
In the early days of electronic commerce, e-business technologies were simple and understood to be limited to computer components, simple retail websites, and payment processing gateways. E-commerce matched e-business, and thus, e-business technology was any tool that facilitated online sales, ordering, and shipping. Today, however, the tools and technologies used in e-business grow and change in a seemingly endless revolution with each new technological breakthrough or trend. From point-of-sale systems to cloud computing, mobile applications to information gathering, the term e-business technologies can mean nearly any form of technology used to increase an organization’s efficiency, reduce expenses, or expand the reach of market. It could almost be argued that any solution that improves business performance and requires electricity can be interpreted as e-business technology.
Information technology and the ability to communicate across numerous electronic mediums have forever changed the way business is conducted and, therefore, the technologies required for e-business. Whereas the only physical need for any business is the production and transfer of tangible assets, almost any other business process can be accomplished using e-business technologies. All other aspects of the business can be done online, by fax or by electronic communication. Automation and mobile computing enable further innovation and expansion of what e-business technology means.
For example, a retail business does not require a physical facility or even on-site employees. Using a website, an online payment processor, and on-demand inventory supplies, a business can exist solely in the virtual world of computers and the internet, while still making a profit. Rather than an infrastructure of retail outlets, warehouses, on-site employees and in-store stock, the same functions can be performed while also offering a deeper understanding of market trends, shopping habits and consumer preferences. Often, the cost of doing business is reduced and response times increased due to the use of various e-business technologies. Every aspect of business, from initiation to investor, sales to tax, employee hiring to customer relationships has alternatives that do not require a physical presence, thus opening the door to the development of even richer e-business solutions while technology continues to grow.
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