What e-business is

The way business is done keeps changing. The book names three of the strongest trends: digitisation (doing things through computers and the internet), outsourcing (getting outside firms to do some work), and internationalisation and globalisation (doing business across countries).

E-business means carrying on industry, trade and commerce using computer networks, mainly the internet. E-commerce is a narrower idea: only a firm's dealings with its customers and suppliers over the internet, such as telling customers about a new product or taking their feedback. E-business also covers what happens inside the firm.

The scope of e-business, by who deals with whom:

• B2B (business to business): dealings between firms. A firm sells to its distributor, or a factory orders parts from its suppliers. Firms once did this through EDI (electronic data interchange).
• B2C (business to customer): a firm deals with its customers, covering the whole marketing process, from telling them about products to selling and after-sales service. When the customer starts the dealing, choosing what to buy and when, it is sometimes called C2B.
• Intra-B (within a business): departments of the same firm working together over its intranet. In a large firm with thousands of employees, one department can pass work to another online. Examples are flexible manufacturing, B2E (business to employees, such as an online staff notice board) and e-learning.
• C2C (consumer to consumer): both seller and buyer are consumers. Want to sell your old phone? You put an advertisement on a website and another consumer buys it. Sites such as eBay build trust through seller ratings, and payment services such as PayPal make the payment safer.