E-Business
e-business may be defined as the conduct of industry, trade and commerce using the computer networks.
The network you are most familiar with as a student or consumer is the internet. Whereas internet is a public thorough way, firms use more private and, hence more secure networks for more effective and efficient management of their internal functions. e-business is broader than e-commerce:
Just as the term business is a broader term than commerce, e-business is a more elaborate term and comprises various business transactions and functions conducted electronically, including the more popular gamut of transactions called e-commerce. e-commerce covers a firms interactions with its customers and suppliers over the internet.
E-business includes not only e-commerce, but also other electronically conducted business functions such as production, inventory management, product development, accounting and finance and human resource management.
E-business is, therefore, clearly much more than buying and selling over the internet, i.e., e-commerce.
Scope of e-Business
Almost all types of business functions such as production finance, marketing and personnel administration as well as managerial activities like planning, organizing and controlling can be carried out over computer networks.
In terms of people or parties involved in electronic transactions:
Viewed from this perspective, a firms electronic transactions and networks can be visualized as extending into three directions viz.,
B2B which is a firms interactions with other businesses,
B2C i.e., a firms interactions with its customers and
intra-B or a firms internal processes.
B2B Commerce
Here, both the parties involved in e-commerce transactions are business firms, and, hence the name B2B, i.e., business-to-business.
Creation of utilities or delivering value requires a business to interact with a number of other business firms which may be suppliers or vendors of diverse inputs;
or else they may be a part of the channel through which a firm distributes its products to the consumers.
Historically, the term e-commerce originally meant facilitation of B2B transactions using Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) technology to send and receive commercial documents like purchase orders or invoices.