Lesson 14

In this module titled Evolution of e-Business technologies, we covered.

1. E-businesses technology roots
2. Pre-browser technologies
3. The browser effect on e-business
4. Web-Technology Architecture
5. The emergence of intranets and extranets in business
6. Search Engines
7. Infrastructure technologies
8. Infrastructure technologies support for business over the web
9. e-Business enhancement technologies
10. Business and technology drivers of change
11. Results of the technology trends
12. Levers of change used to accelerate development of customer-centric value chains

However, an e-business solution cannot be classified as part of this category without a Web services component. Using this definition, most enterprise-wide systems, such as enterprise resource planning, enterprise relationship management, and customer relations management, provide some form of content delivery and systems management through a Web services interface.
This characterization is important because of the environmental and operational issues often associated with the design, development, operation, and support of systems delivering Web services. In almost every case, the time between recognizing a need and deploying an e-business solution is compressed. This results in many issues ranging from design integration to operational support problems. Often, even fundamental components of project management and IT system design are not fully examined before a project is pushed forward, investment budgets allocated, and costs expensed.

It is also important to recognize that e-business solutions are more complex than many other types of IT systems. They include component, system, and application integration activities, all of which are complex themselves and may directly affect one another. Regardless of what the various vendors would represent in their sales literature, much of the technology used within e-business solutions is often new and, accordingly, may not be mature beyond a very limited set of parameters.
After examining a specific product, the analysts may agree with one another that its potential to benefit a corporation is significant. The subsequent implementation into that corporation's operational environment may identify a product's lack of maturity. Examples of this are common for those companies that have survived the dot.com bust. A common example was found in the initial releases of dynamic content Web server engines. Some products would work exceptionally well on Solaris platforms, whereas the same system running on an HP-UX platform would require significant tuning. Unfortunately, the discovery process to identify and then to resolve these issues requires significant resources and time, resulting in increased costs and delays in realizing returns on the investment. E-business solutions are specifically designed to provide benefits by creating operating efficiencies, reducing costs, or increasing customer satisfaction. The three generic classes of e-business solutions are

1. server-to-server,
2. server-to-client, and
3. client-to-client.

It should be noted that these classes are not mutually exclusive and may be combined within the same e-business environment, resulting in a very capable system.

To verify your understanding of concepts covered in this module, we recommend that you take the end of module self-check quiz.
Not only will this help verify your own understanding, but it will provide you with valuable practice prior to taking the end of course test.
Business Metaphors - Quiz
Now that you have completed learning about the evolution of e-Business technologies, we will take a look at the drivers and considerations that guide an e-business engagement. Namely, you will learn all about the consumer focus of e-business and how technologies have shifted how we think about businesses and their models.