Business Applications

E-business software solutions allow the integration of intra and inter firm business processes. It is more than just e-commerce. It covers business processes along the whole value chain: electronic purchasing and supply chain management, processing orders electronically, customer service and cooperation with business partners. This applies to traditional and virtual organizations. Special technical standards for e-business facilitate the exchange of data between companies.

Three categories of business applications

1. Internal business systems:
   • customer relationship management
   • enterprise resource planning
   • employee information portals
   • knowledge management
   • workflow management
   • document management systems
   • human resources management
   • process control
   • internal transaction processing
2. Enterprise communication and collaboration
   • content management system
   • e-mail
   • voice mail
   • discussion forums
   • chat systems
   • data conferencing
   • collaborative work systems
3. Electronic commerce (Business-to-business electronic commerce or business-to-consumer electronic commerce)
   • electronic funds transfer
   • supply chain management
   • e-marketing
   • online marketing
   • online transaction processing

Scope of e-business applications

These applications can be available to different kinds of users:

• all users of the internet
• only the employees on the intranet
• a specified target group of extranet users (like customers, partners etc.)