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Doing Business The E-way

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Ravi Marwaha,




managing director and CEO, Tata IBM Ltd
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E-business is what happens

when you combine the broad reach of Internet with the vast resources of traditional

Information Technology (IT) systems. It is dynamic and interactive. The scope of

E-business is broad, spanning the spectrum from private intranets, through shared

extranets, to the public Internet. It uses the web to bring together customers, vendors,

suppliers, and employees in a way that had never been possible before.
SIZE="2">

E-business offers innumerable

opportunities. Companies around the world already buy and sell over Internet. They connect

with their customers, sales people, suppliers, and shareholders. E-business is about

web-enabling your core business processes to improve customer service, reduce cycle time,

and get better results from the existing resources. It offers new opportunities, needs,

rules, and challenges.

It is certain that E-business will

encompass every single business, no matter the size. Future successful companies will be

those that recognize today the benefits of linking their businesses to new customers and

partners via the Internet—benefits in purchasing, in leveraging information, and in

reaching new markets. The efficiency with which companies process transactions will be the

key business differentiator in the world of E-business. And, E-business will make every IT

system mission-critical. It will connect all the IT systems together in a global network

and customers will talk to business, and businesses will talk to their suppliers entirely

through the medium of the electronic global network.

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SIZE="4">E-business offers innumerable opportunities. Companies around the world



already buy and sell over Internet.

While this provides innumerable

opportunities for companies to find new markets and build on their existing market

presence, E-business connects them to the outside world like never before. As a natural

corollary, organizations will critically look into the IT systems that support their

business goals. The need will arise for a well-managed, robust, and reliable IT

infrastructure that can support innovative applications and possess the flexibility to

move quickly to meet new challenges in a dynamic market.

According to a 1997 Meta Group study,

expenditure on Internet applications has yielded a substantial positive return on

investment. On an average,

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  • $1 invested in customer

    service, commerce or collaboration returns at least $1.40.

  • $1 invested in inventory

    management returns $1.53.

  • $1 invested in database access

    returns $1.68.

Here are some interesting examples that

demonstrate the benefits of E-business.

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The University of Minnesota’s

Internet Student Registration System, used by almost 80 percent of students to do

everything from choosing and registering for classes, to calculating financial aid, is

going national under the auspices of IBM. IBM will market a program based on the

University’s system, called Student Server, to other post-secondary institutions. The

system allows students to browse through class lists, pursue class summaries, check out

professors backgrounds, and call up maps and even photos of classroom buildings. Students

can search for all the classes for that quarter and can pose "what if" questions

about financial aid and grade-point averages to plan their education. Web registration has

pretty much eliminated lines at the registrar’s office.

Making The Most Of Time SIZE="2">

A unit of FDX Corp., Roberts Express, is

the largest surface expedited carrier in North America. Time itself is the most valuable

commodity the company handles as most shipments consist of time-specific material. For

example, a customer may call Roberts Express because an unexpected shortage of

material—anything from automotive components to the sticky tabs on disposal

diapers—threatens to shut down a production line.

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face="Times New Roman">By the year 2000, the Internet connections in India are expected to

reach 1.3 million



from the 60,000 now. This offers great pportunities for the growth of E-business in the
country.

The company has carved out a small, vital

niche in the huge transportation industry. Satellite communications and a highly

specialized database application enable 250 customer service agents working in Akron,

Ohio, to manage the 1,600-truck fleet with great precision. Once Roberts Express picks up

a shipment, the same truck and driver team travels non-stop to its final destination.

Progress is monitored continuously via a truck-mounted satellite dish linked to the

company’s database application.

The job of the customer service agent is

to take customer calls, dispatch vehicles, monitor shipments, and keep customers updated

on the status of their shipments. Since each shipment goes straight through with no stops,

agents must react immediately to a problem on the road.

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ABB India has used IBM’s hardware and

software technology to set up an intranet that connects to ABB world-wide. At ABB

Durgapur, the drawing approval cycle has been reduced by more than 50 percent after

adopting the intranet technology.

Malayala Manorama uses a variety of

E-business applications developed using Lotus Domino.

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In Tata IBM, we use intranet technology

within the organization for capital expenditure management, sales force automation,

partnerInfo, etc. We have developed templates around this area which can be customized for

our Indian customers.

Today, there are about

60,000 Internet connections in India. By the year 2000, this figure is expected to reach

1.3 million. This offers great opportunities for the growth of E-business in the country.

E-business is a powerful tool. Each of us will have to decide how we will exploit it, and

how soon. Organizations that do this most effectively will create enormous competitive

advantage into the 21st century.

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