Electronic commerce

Information technology, as both an industry and business resource, is still in its infancy. In the 1950s, businesses embarked on the first widespread use of computers primarily as tools for recording and processing accounting transactions. Thus, IT has only really been a part of business for about the last 40 years. Nevertheless, IT is one of the most important resources in today’s business environment. Businesses use IT to perform functions that occur in business. The popular term for doing business electronically or with the aid of technology is electronic commerce.

Electronic commerce is a modern methodology that addresses the use of informationtechnology as an essential enabler of business. Electronic commerce supports both internal and external business functions. That is, external electronic commerce addresses the use of information technology to support how a business interacts with the marketplace and internal electronic commerce addresses the use of information technology to support internal processes, functions and operations. This definition encompasses two themes: (1) information technology in support of how a business interacts with the marketplace and (2) information technology support of internal processes, functions and operations. For businesses, electronic commerce means being able to electronically order products and services from other organisations, give other organisations the ability to electronically order products and services from you, move money electronically, reach customers through electronic advertising, have employees work together while in different locations, use technology to aid in designing and producing products and perform a host of other business activities using technology.

Here are some key aspects of electronic commerce-both internal and external-that offer your organisation a real competitive advantage, including the following: external electronic commerce (ordering products and services, moving money without handling it, reaching the exact customer, gathering competitive intelligence); internal electronic commerce (intranets, telecommuting).

One of the most important and widely used forms of electronic commerce is that of moving information electronically between two organisations as one organisation orders products and services from another organisation or performing transactions with other organisations through the use of electronic data interchange (EDI) – the direct computer-to-computer transfer of transaction information contained in standard business documents, such as invoices and purchase orders, in a standard format. To do this effectively, businesses must provide first-rate technologies that support the flow of information among all parties involved-these technologies are called interorganisational systems. An interorganisational system (IOS) automates the flow of information between organisations to support the planning, design, development, production and delivery of products and services. No longer you have to use paper to distribute information.

For most people, electronic commerce is about business-to-custo­mer. That business-to-customer aspect of electronic commerce certainly dominates the Internet right now. On the Internet, you can purchase groceries, clothes, computers, automobiles, music, antiques; you can buy plane tickets, make hotel reservations and much more. On the Internet, you’ll find millions of sites that provide information on the world news events, local happenings and worldwide weather information forecasts.

Electronic commerce is a great new business horizon. Thou­sands of businesses are taking advantage of the Internet everyday to perform electronic commerce. They use the Internet along with all types of media for advertising. The Internet is viewed as an interesting big advertising tool. Electronic advertising differs radically from the other forms of advertising, such as television and radio. It is seen as the future for electronic commerce. In business, advertising can result in either a huge increase in sales or static sales. Organisation’s success in advertising depends on what it knows about its market and how effectively it can reach different segments within the market.

Today many organisations are restructuring in a variety of ways including workplace virtualisation and telecommuting. Virtual workplace is a technology-enabled workplace. No boundaries. Work anytime, any place, linked to the other people and information you need, wherever they are. Telecommuting is the use of communications technologyto work in a place other than a central location. Basically the concepts of the virtual workplace and telecommuting focus on using communications techno­logy (for example, fax, voice mail and videoconferencing software) to allow people to work together or individually to perform work-related tasks while in another location. Today, it’s estimated that over 15 million people in the United States telecommute and that figure is expected to grow by 20 per cent in the next several years.

For many organisations, the Internet represents a great way to easily, quickly and inexpensively connect to customers, suppliers, distributors and retailers all over the world. By simply setting up a Web site full of advertisements, product information and product ordering capabilities, your organisation can reach millions of people and organisations around the world. But you can also use the Internet to connect people within your organisation, no matter where they are. And many organisations today are doing just that. To do so, these organisations are developing intranets. An intranet is an internal organisational Internet that is guarded against outside access by special security software. Intranet allows employees to meet in online chat rooms, exchange documents, discuss ongoing projects and conduct virtual meetings with staff located in remote geographic areas.

In today’s information-based environment knowledge is a key to success. Knowing who your customers are and what they want, knowing what your products cost to make and knowing what your competitors are doing (or planning to do) are all keys to success in business. All this information is part of competitive intelligence. Competitive intelligence is simply information about the internal workings of your organisation as well as the external market surrounding your organisation. For external market information most organisations focus a great deal of their efforts on gathering competitive intelligence about their competitors.

Whether you’re gathering competitive intelligence about your competitors, customers or internal processes, it falls within the category of electronic commerce if you do it by way of technology. And gathering competitive intelligence today is an important business activity. Remember, what you don’t know can put you out of business.

Task 25. Translate the sentences into English:

1. У п’ятдесяті роки компанії вперше почали широко використо­вувати комп’ютери як знаряддя для виконання бухгалтерських операцій. 2. Електронна комерція підтримує як зовнішні, так і внутрішні функції комерційної діяльності. 3. Вам більше не потрібний папір, щоб передати інформацію, це можна зробити за допомогою електронної технології. 4. Тисячі компаній викорис­товують Інтернет щодня з вигодою для себе, щоб здійснювати електронну комерційну діяльність. 5. У сьогоднішньому світі, побудованому на інформації, знання є ключем до успіху. 6. Ця комп’ютерна програма аналізує інформацію про внутрішню роботу організації та зовнішній ринок. 7. Електронна комерційна діяльність – це сучасний метод ведення бізнесу за допомогою інформаційних технологій. 8. Електронна комерційна діяльність – це не лише купівля та продаж товарів чи послуг, замовлення квитків та бронювання номерів у готелі через Інтернет, а також ціла низка інших можливостей. 9. Інтернет дає змогу працівникам зустрічатися в режимі он-лайн, обмінюватися документами, обговорювати поточні проекти і проводити віртуальні зустрічі. 10. Електронна реклама відрізняється від інших форм реклами, таких, як телебачення та радіо. 11. Телеком’ютинг – це викорис­тання техніки зв’язку для роботи на відстані від головного місця розташування. 12. Електронна комерційна діяльність – це нова сфера бізнесу. 13. В Інтернеті ви знайдете мільйони сайтів, що надають інформацію про події і прогноз погоди у світі, місцеві новини. 14. Для багатьох організацій Інтернет – це можливість легко, швидко і недорого зв’язатись з покупцями, постачальника­ми, дистриб’юторами та роздрібними торговцями в усьому світі. 15. У бізнесі наслідком реклами може бути колосальне зростання або статичний обсяг продажів.

Task 26. Make up a plan of the text “INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES FOR ELECTRONIC COMMERCE” in writing.