The business environment today runs the spectrum of engineering and development, manufacturing and distribution, sales and support. Today, business is done in both traditional models as well as electronic commerce where business is conducted and managed via the web. The basic fundamentals of business operation remain the same as years past; stability and growth depend on the ability to produce better, faster and cheaper than the competition. The major difference is the speed at which businesses must operate in today’s environment.
Today’s market has created an opportunity to define a new economic era. This is an era where electronic devices and distributed access capabilities have changed the way businesses interact with customers and sell their products. The way they distribute their products, the way they develop and build their products, and the overall speed at which all of these activities now must take place are all factors in gaining market share and increasing profit.
“e-Business” is not a software application. It is not a device or strategy based on one company’s products. It is a way of doing business using information technology systems to create efficiencies and “speed-to-selling” business practices. Systems designed for business today must be based on open standards and interoperability between systems. This openness and flexibility will permit integration with existing products and extensibility to new types of devices and products that will invariably appear in the near future.
