Success in Business-to-Business E-Commerce

Author(s):  
Pauline Ratnasingham

The growth of business-to-business e-commerce has highlighted the importance of computer and communications technologies and trading partner trust for the development and maintenance of business relationships. Cisco Systems Incorporation, an international company, is now the second largest company in the world, behind Microsoft. Its solid financial performance is partly due to its early focus on the Internet as a channel to cut administrative costs, and boost customer service satisfaction. Cisco International provides end-to-end networking solutions which customers use to build a unified information infrastructure of their own, or to connect to someone else’s network. The end-to-end networking solutions provide a common architecture that delivers consistent network services to all users (Cisco Fact Sheet, 2000). Cisco network solutions connect people, computing devices and computer networks, allowing trading partners to access or transfer information without regard to differences in time, place or type of computer systems. By using networked applications over the Internet on its own internal networks, Cisco globally is gaining contributions of at least NZ$825 million a year in operating cost savings and revenue enhancements (Cisco Newsroom, 2001).

Author(s):  
Nasim Z. Hosein

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-justify: inter-ideograph; text-align: justify; margin: 0in 0.5in 0pt; mso-pagination: none;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-language: TH;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">As the internet becomes more important for commerce, internet websites are playing a more central role in most companies' business plans. The success of internet banking is determined not only by banks or government support, but also by customers' acceptance of it. Online banking acceptance has gained special attention in academic studies during the past several years as banks move toward implementing internet banking as part of their overall strategy. The business benefit of internet banking is to generate additional revenue, improve customer service, extend marketing, and increase cost savings. In accepting the internet and maximizing its potential, there are several stages that firms evolve through that involve different roles. These different stages of changes are reflected in the many levels that are present when firms go through the adaptation of new technology, including internet banking. From the literature review, some key questions were identified, especially to what extent banks should modify their internet services for customers. The aim of this paper was to identify those areas in which the banks could improve or modify their services to increase the adoption rate of internet banking. Data were gathered from non-internet banking users via a survey questionnaire. The results of the respondents were analyzed using Structured Equation Modeling (SEM) from which the hypotheses were tested and conclusions drawn. The results from the survey indicated that customers find it difficult to use internet banking services, which leads to a decrease in the adoption of internet banking. </span></span></p>


2011 ◽  
pp. 47-55
Author(s):  
Pauline Ratnasingham

E-commerce is defined as a means of conducting business electronically via online transactions among trading partners. Forrester Research predicted that B2B (business-to-business) e-commerce could be worth $5.7 trillion by the end of 2004. This study aims to examine the evolution of e-technologies and its impact on trust. Trust refers to reliance on and confidence in one’s business partner (Mayer, Davis, & Schoorman, 1995). We discuss the evolution of e-technologies in light of the evolution of trust in technology trust (or transactional trust) and relationship trust or (relational trust). Electronic data interchange (EDI) was the prominent technology used in the 1970s and ’80s. As we approached the 21st century and with the advent of the Internet, businesses feared that the lack of presence on the Internet would hinder their competitive and strategic advantages. Internet competition in most industries is forcing businesses to search for ways to improve product quality, customer service, and operation efficiency in supply chain management (SCM) in order to remain competitive. Today e-commerce has moved beyond EDI via value-added networks (VANs) by leveraging into the Internet and extending into Web technologies. The Internet is transforming and reshaping the nature of interorganizational commerce by enabling new types of interorganizational relationships. The business benefits include lower costs and more flexible systems that provide a facilitating structure for virtual relationships, enabling the easier identification of suppliers and products and more integrated supply chain management (Dai & Kaufmann, 2000). The Internet has impacted the SCM e-commerce environment by creating a centralized, global business and management strategy (e.g., make to order, assemble to order, and make to stock), and online real-time, distributed information processing to the desktop, thereby providing total supply-chain information visibility and the ability to manage information not only within firms, but also across firms and industries. On the other hand, uncertainties, technical complexities, and concerns about trust have kept many firms from participating actively in B2B e-commerce. Uncertainties reduce the confidence both in the reliability of online B2B transactions and more importantly in the trading parties themselves. In a survey of 60 procurement trading partners involved in supply chain management at U.S. firms conducted by New York-based Jupiter Media Metrix Inc. in 2001, the findings indicated that 45% of the trading partners suggest a lack of trust prevented them from buying goods and trading online more frequently. In the next section we discuss the evolution of e-technologies, followed by its role in supply chain management and impact on trust.


Author(s):  
Pauline Ratnasingham

E-commerce is defined as a means of conducting business electronically via online transactions among trading partners. Forrester Research predicted that B2B (business-to-business) e-commerce could be worth $5.7 trillion by the end of 2004. This study aims to examine the evolution of e-technologies and its impact on trust. Trust refers to reliance on and confidence in one’s business partner (Mayer, Davis, & Schoorman, 1995). We discuss the evolution of e-technologies in light of the evolution of trust in technology trust (or transactional trust) and relationship trust or (relational trust). Electronic data interchange (EDI) was the prominent technology used in the 1970s and ’80s. As we approached the 21st century and with the advent of the Internet, businesses feared that the lack of presence on the Internet would hinder their competitive and strategic advantages. Internet competition in most industries is forcing businesses to search for ways to improve product quality, customer service, and operation efficiency in supply chain management (SCM) in order to remain competitive. Today e-commerce has moved beyond EDI via value-added networks (VANs) by leveraging into the Internet and extending into Web technologies. The Internet is transforming and reshaping the nature of interorganizational commerce by enabling new types of interorganizational relationships. The business benefits include lower costs and more flexible systems that provide a facilitating structure for virtual relationships, enabling the easier identification of suppliers and products and more integrated supply chain management (Dai & Kaufmann, 2000). The Internet has impacted the SCM e-commerce environment by creating a centralized, global business and management strategy (e.g., make to order, assemble to order, and make to stock), and online real-time, distributed information processing to the desktop, thereby providing total supply-chain information visibility and the ability to manage information not only within firms, but also across firms and industries. On the other hand, uncertainties, technical complexities, and concerns about trust have kept many firms from participating actively in B2B e-commerce. Uncertainties reduce the confidence both in the reliability of online B2B transactions and more importantly in the trading parties themselves. In a survey of 60 procurement trading partners involved in supply chain management at U.S. firms conducted by New York-based Jupiter Media Metrix Inc. in 2001, the findings indicated that 45% of the trading partners suggest a lack of trust prevented them from buying goods and trading online more frequently. In the next section we discuss the evolution of e-technologies, followed by its role in supply chain management and impact on trust.


Author(s):  
A. Seetharaman ◽  
Nitin Patwa ◽  
Simon Lai Koek Wai ◽  
Ahammed Shamir

The evolution of the Internet has revolutionised the sourcing and procurement processes in organisations in every industry. The focus of this paper is to analyse the perception of business users on the factors which impact the usage of eprocurement systems in the biomedical industry. There are four factors identified in this research: i.e. control and compliance, cost savings, process automation, and improvements and transparency. The benefit of achieving process automation is the first biggest factor, followed by the need for control and compliance, and transparency, being the second and third factors respectively. The fourth factor, cost savings, is ignored because the users perceived that cost savings will not be realised in the short term, and the returns from the investment could be a couple of years after the eprocurement system has been fully operational. The research also concludes that the ability to perform business analytics and to strengthen the supply chain are the most important factors in measuring the success in the adoption of e-procurement systems


2021 ◽  
Vol 58 ◽  
pp. 102772
Author(s):  
André Lizardo ◽  
Raul Barbosa ◽  
Samuel Neves ◽  
Jaime Correia ◽  
Filipe Araujo

Author(s):  
Akili D. Khawaji ◽  
Jong-Mihn Wie

The most popular method of controlling sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions in a steam turbine power plant is a flue gas desulfurization (FGD) process that uses lime/limestone scrubbing. Another relatively newer FGD technology is to use seawater as a scrubbing medium to absorb SO2 by utilizing the alkalinity present in seawater. This seawater scrubbing FGD process is viable and attractive when a sufficient quantity of seawater is available as a spent cooling water within reasonable proximity to the FGD scrubber. In this process the SO2 gas in the flue gas is absorbed by seawater in an absorber and subsequently oxidized to sulfate by additional seawater. The benefits of the seawater FGD process over the lime/limestone process and other processes are; 1) The process does not require reagents for scrubbing as only seawater and air are needed, thereby reducing the plant operating cost significantly, and 2) No solid waste and sludge are generated, eliminating waste disposal, resulting in substantial cost savings and increasing plant operating reliability. This paper reviews the thermodynamic aspects of the SO2 and seawater system, basic process principles and chemistry, major unit operations consisting of absorption, oxidation and neutralization, plant operation and performance, cost estimates for a typical seawater FGD plant, and pertinent environmental issues and impacts. In addition, the paper presents the major design features of a seawater FGD scrubber for the 130 MW oil fired steam turbine power plant that is under construction in Madinat Yanbu Al-Sinaiyah, Saudi Arabia. The scrubber with the power plant designed for burning heavy fuel oil containing 4% sulfur by weight, is designed to reduce the SO2 level in flue gas to 425 ng/J from 1,957 ng/J.


2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (15_suppl) ◽  
pp. e24036-e24036
Author(s):  
Mercy Oduor ◽  
Kelvin Manyega ◽  
Therese Lotodo ◽  
Austin Okuku ◽  
Diana Namaemba ◽  
...  

e24036 Background: Multiple myeloma is a chronic progressive disease that calls for extended survivorship support post-diagnosis. Pre- COVID-19, the AMPATH Multiple Myeloma Program had created support groups for myeloma survivors and their caregivers that regularly met for health education, emotional support, and social opportunities. With the enforcement COVID-19 prevention and control protocols physical support group meetings became impossible. The program shifted to the online platform to sustain peer to peer support for myeloma patients and caregivers. We aim to describe challenges faced with online patient support group meetings as this has not been well documented in a resource-constrained setting. Methods: Myeloma patients and caregivers at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital were contacted and a meeting date and time agreed. Participants were briefed on how to download and operate the zoom application in preparation for online meetings. A meeting link was shared with the expected attendees and a reminder sent two days before a meeting. Support group meetings were held for different groups among them myeloma survivors and caregivers. The meeting sessions were led by healthcare professionals – hematology consultants, social workers, nutritionist and psychosocial counsellors. Peer-to-peer sessions were also held. Results: Six online meeting sessions were held between June 2020 and December 2020. A total of 199 participants were expected to join the six different meetings but a low meeting turn-out of 25.6% was experienced. Participants were later contacted to unravel the reasons for a low turn-out. A total of 129 participants were contacted of which 88 responded. Out of the 88 respondents, 29% reported a tight work schedule, 25% short time meeting alerts, 20% did not have access to smartphones, and 8% had poor internet connectivity and another 8% reported no internet data bundles to connect to the internet. Conclusions: Low attendance of online meetings was observed. Participants cited scheduling and internet access as major obstacles to attending online support group meetings. Improved access to the internet through smartphones, reliable internet connection, and affordable data are needed in underserved communities to fully unlock the benefits of virtual platforms namely cost savings and effective information sharing.


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