E-Business Models

E-Business Models

Business-to-Business (B2B)

In Business-to-Business (B2B) model, business transactions are conducted over public or private networks, including public and private transactions that use the Internet. These transactions include financial transfers, on-line exchanges, auctions, delivery of products and services, supply-chain activities, and integrated business networks.

Organization: Staples

Staples, Inc. founded the office supplies superstore industry when they opened their first store in Brighton, Massachusetts on May 1, 1986. Today, Staples is the world's leading seller of office products with $13 billion in sales for 2003. Headquartered west of Boston in Framingham, Massachusetts, Staples' 60,000 associates make it easy for businesses of all sizes to buy the supplies, business machines, technology, and services they need to run their office. Staples operate three business segments: North American Retail, North American Delivery, and European Operations (www.staples.com).

In 1999, the company established three online operations - Staples.com, for small businesses; Quill.com, for vertical industries such as law, medicine, and education; and StaplesLink.com, for contract customers. By the end of the company's fiscal 2000, Staples' combined e-commerce initiatives had a million registered users and had generated more than $512 million in online sales, nearly five times the revenue of the previous year (Young, 2001).

Several features Staples.com offers their on-line customers are:

1. Detailed reports on the customer's expenditures that help them track costs and aid them in negotiating more-favorable contract pricing.

2. Real-time inventory availability so the customers can tell immediately when an item is going to ship. The process ties Staples' back-end system for fulfilling customer orders. The system searches for the ordered items, the closest distribution center to that customer, the next-closest Staples warehouse, or a wholesale partner's warehouse.

3. It simplifies processing returns online. By automating the paperwork, Staples ensures that customers are credited faster for their returns. The service creates a permanent record to verify that customers have returned an item so they can receive credit. With this in process, Staples saw improvement in cash flow since they substantially reduced invoices that are being disputed by the customers

To stay ahead of the competition, Staples has continue to improve StaplesLink.com site to make sure that it helps contract customers reduce the cost and hassle of ordering office supplies. On the supply side, improving the StaplesPartners.com site with a more-collaborative feature will strengthen Staples' supply chain partnerships, which will ideally trigger smarter merchandise planning, better inventory control, faster distribution, and lower costs.

Business-to-Consumer (B2C)

Business-to-Consumer (B2C) focuses on delivering a means by which consumers purchase information, products, and services on the Internet. Actual delivery of the product may still require a truck and a package, but the deal closes on the Internet.

Organization: Dell Computers

Dell Computer Corporation is the world's leading computer system company (www.dell.com). The company design, builds, and customizes products and services to a wide range of customers. Dell Computer sells directly to large and small businesses, government agencies, academic institutions, and individuals.

Dell offers their customer the opportunity to design their own computers -with whatever software, hardware, etc. The company buys the components from their supplier on an as-need basis which eliminating the expense of middlemen. Thus, Dell can afford to keep very competitive prices. In 1996, they launched their Internet website by conducting a survey. The survey asked regular customers and visitors what they want the most. They survey results showed that customers want fast, accurate, and effective technical support. Every since then, this has been Dell Computer's web site mission.

Several features Dell.com offers their on-line customers are:

1. The company constructed an information-technology system geared to the customer. The language is user friendly and the applications are doable even for beginners.

2. Internet commerce that is fully integrated with the whole business processes. With seamless communications between functions, customers have the ability to retrieve information, shop, build a new computer system, complete orders quickly and accurately, and receive the product in good working conditions.

3. Online support capability that aid customers to solve their own technical problems. Dell's online diagnostic flowcharts take the customer step by step through the same process Dell's technicians' follow (www.dell.com).

Since it Dell started their Internet website in 1996, its 2004 revenue grew to $41.4 billion and becomes one of the largest computer manufacturer (www.dell.com). The website has strengthened the company's commitment to dealing with the customer's directly - on their own time, place, and pace.

E-Government

E-Government uses improved Internet-based technology to make it easy for citizens and businesses to interact with the government, save taxpayer dollars, and streamline citizen-to-government communications (www.egov.gov).

Organization: DMV (California Department of Motor Vehicle)

In 1999, the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) began a project to permit the on-line registration of vehicles. Citizens can participate in the on-line vehicle registration system by having a valid credit card so they can pay. By accessing the DMV web site, California vehicle owners who meet the required criteria can then register their vehicle on-line.

Several features the website offers their on-line customers are:

1. Provides information about the agency.

2. Citizens can access and print public record or reports, forms, and data files.

3. The website allows the public to initiate a request