Introduction To E-business

             companies, new systems were developed for the internal use at the company.
             Using the new systems, the managers of companies, departments and.
             projects found out that they could get up to date access to information and the.
             logical next step was to expand this information to the interchange between.
             companies and their customers and suppliers. The problem in doing so was.
             the internal code of each company, the use of product codes and names that.
             was not uniform. Even the order of the information was not the same, so a.
             human had to interpret the information before it could be entered into the.
             receiving computers. This led to the development of standards for exchange.
             In the mid-90's Internet - or rather the World Wide Web - entered the stage.
             And companies found that they could use this new media to present.
             themselves on their own home-pages where every company suddenly had the.
             same possibility to grab the attention of the customers. The difference.
             between a multi-national and the small, local company almost disappeared.
             Via the homepages, the company could present marketing material for.
             everyone to find, and soon the first product catalogues appeared. Thereafter.
             E-Commerce solutions made it possible for the customer to buy on-line and the.
             natural next step was to make sure that the company was able to handle the.
             transaction electronically, directly into the order and accounting systems. The.
             ideal world would be a just-in-time production where every customer found.
             your products based on already made advertisement on the net. Through.
             cooperation with logistics companies the goods are then delivered directly and.
             the amount invoiced is electronically transferred from the customers bank.
             account at the right date, but the customers are often pushing.
             the companies to adapt their shops and production to their demands. Driven.
             by enterprising companies like Amazon, the customer is expecting:.
             - Products and services that are tailored to specific needs and.