What is e-business?

When you think of e-business, you probably think of catalogues, shopping carts and online sales. Electronic business or e-business is much more than that. It is about utilizing the Internet or related technologies for any of your normal business operations. You might use it for emailing, online banking, buying, selling, advertising, and for more sophisticated applications such as Customer Relationship Management or CRM (keeping databases about customers and interacting with them) and back office integration systems (linking internal processes such as human resources, financial and administration systems to a web browser). You may use the Internet to reduce costs, improve productivity, or increase revenue.

The reason people in small and medium-sized businesses are getting into e-business is because they are looking for ways to: lower costs, improve efficiency and productivity, and work more cheaply, quickly and profitably.

Some small businesses are hesitant about e-business because they see risks and obstacles. You may be concerned about: cost, security issues, the technical expertise required and the return on investment. But if you look closely at each of these issues you will see that the objections are not substantial.

Cost
Technology can be expensive, but it doesn't have to be. There are different ways to implement e-business — high-end solutions may be right for some, while modest investment will yield results for others. Many small businesses have produced magnificent results just by putting basic, inexpensive Web-access and email to good use. Let Creative Lynx show you how you can save!

Security
Security online is an issue, just as it is in your physical operations. And like the world of "bricks and mortar" there are practical and effective solutions to security threats. (See our section on Security.)

Technical expertise
You don't have to be a technical wizard to make smart decisions about technologies. Think of how you employ professional expertise in legal matters, accounting or graphic design. In the same way, you can make smart, profitable use of the technical expertise that is available. Remember: e-business is not a technical decision, it is a business decision.

Return on investment
This is the key issue. What do you stand to gain from an e-business initiative? If you start with a clear-headed view of e-business as a question of business strategy you will be on the right track.

The real risk - The real risk to small business is NOT getting involved. If you don't put e-business solutions into place you face the real threat — competition and declining business. You don't want to be squeezed out of the supply chain, as a buyers or supplier, by those who can do business online.

By Strategis Canada