Lesson 1

No matter what your company sells or how long it has been around, if you want to survive in business today, your business has to become an eBusiness.
Why eBusiness is growing fast. Traditional brick-and-mortar businesses are taking steps to become eBusinesses, and approximately 20 years ago, several eBusinesses, the dot-coms, with no brick-and-mortar foundation have sprung up. If this evidence is not compelling enough, just count the number of times in a single day that you see and hear the words "e-commerce" and "eBusiness" in the newspaper, in the magazines you subscribe to, on radio, TV, and the Web.
Elements of the eBusiness Solution introduces students to the tools and products needed to build an eBusiness solution from start to finish. The course begins with an overview of the history of eBusiness and the reasons why you should care about it. After exploring those reasons in detail, the course teaches you how to build that solution. You will learn which infrastructure and enhancement technologies you need, which packaged products and services you may use, and which issues to consider when purchasing and/or implementing the various elements of your solution.

After completing the course, you will be able to:

1. Understand the history and importance of eBusiness today
2. Describe the principal networking technologies of an eBusiness infrastructure
3. Describe the core technologies of an eBusiness infrastructure
4. Describe the Web technologies of an eBusiness infrastructure
5. Identify the function of integration technologies
6. Identify the enabling technologies available for your solution
7. Describe the component services and point products available for an eBusiness solution
8. Define the enterprise applications that will interface with an eBusiness solution
9. Describe the suites and third-party services available

This course, Elements of the eBusiness Solution, is the second of two courses in the eBusiness Solution Series., Elements of the eBusiness Solution. The first course, entitled eBusiness Architecture, examines the components and process for creating a solid, scalable eBusiness architecture. Specifically, it examines the role of an eBusiness solution architect(s); the market/technology forces and market/technology changes that have defined the architecture as it is today; the building blocks that comprise eBusiness architecture.

On the Resources page, you will find a folder titled Easy Reference. The Easy Reference folder contains a variety of lists, tables, and questions that are presented or mentioned in the course. You can download and print these resources, as you need them. You may access all of these at once by going to the Resources page, or you may do so one-by-one as they are mentioned in the course by clicking on the Easy Reference icon. The resources are listed by topic, not by module number.

QuickChecks are unscored opportunities for you to self-check your understanding of key points before you arrive at an Exercise or Quiz that is scored. You will encounter the QuickCheck icon throughout the course. Click once to see the question, and then click again to see the correct answer in a short, animated sequence.

To provide an opportunity to practice what you learn within a context, and to troubleshoot common eBusiness problems, we have created exercises throughout the series in which you apply your knowledge to various scenarios. The next lesson is about the prerequisites to this course.