eCommerce
has already a transformational impact on the way that most companies do
business. Change has been rapid and fundamental, partnerships and business
governance. As the economic assumptions that formed the basis for success in
the old world are being overturned, eCommerce is increasingly affecting the way
in which supply chains operate. Interaction and collaboration costs have been
slashed. Physical assets are no longer the cornerstone of competitive success
and value propositions.
Despite
all this change, the success factors of many traditional business have remained
constant. We are entering in a new phase in which large multinationals are
reasserting their authority over start-ups. Changes in B2C eCommerce have been
fast, furious and unsettling. Changes wrought through B2B eCommerce is more
aggressive and more definitive in its conclusions. Same companies are well
prepared, other are awakening giants and many risk becoming the victims of the
next wave.
Companies
have been undergoing progressive stages of development in their eCommerce
capabilities. In the earliest stages of broadcast, interact and transact, the
emphasis was on creating customer and supplier awareness. Most organizations
have integrated these capabilities into how they conduct and collaborate/synchronize,
involve using technology to fundamentally change the way business is conducted.
These last stages will have most impact on supply chains of major companies,
those can achieve liquidity and scale the fastest will be most successful.
An
unexpected opportunity facing most companies is that of redesigning their core
business process to be smarter, more standardized, internet enabled and linked
to traditional technologies can eliminate business processes. The impact of
eCommerce can be viewed from an individual area such as eProcurement on the
buyer side or web based selling on the seller side as well as from interaction
between areas. These interactions can occur such as a design processes shared
across R&D, manufacturing and marketing groups, as well as shared planning
and forecasting between supplied and customers and eFulfullment interactions
between internet customer services, logistics managers and third party
logistics providers.
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