E-commerce capability

Those who have implemented new systems will look for ways to capitalize on their investments and exploit technology for competitive reasons. Frequently cited examples include E-commerce capability, electronic links along the supply chain, reducing inventory, exploiting databases for customer information, and increasing the role of technology in customer interfaces. 

Zhu, K. (2004). The complementarity of information technology infrastructure and e-commerce capability A resource-based assessment of their business value. Journal of Management Information Systems, 27(1), 167-202. 

With the rapid growth of Internet usage and e-commerce comes an unprecedented opportunity for manufacturing enterprise to connect directly customers scattered around the world. In addition, through the Internet and business-to-business e-commerce, manufacturing enterprise can now acquire access to the most economical production capabilities on a global basis. Such connectivity provides the necessary condition for customers to become connected to the company. However, by itself it wfil not enhance effectiveness. 

In essence, mass customization attempts to bring customers and company capabilities closer together. With the Internet, customers and providers in different stages of production can be connected at multiple levels of the Web. How this new capability will be utilized is still at a very early stage. For examples, customers can be better informed about important features and the related costs and limitations. Customers can then make educated choices in a better way. In the meantime, through these interactions the company will then be able to acquire information about customers needs and preferences and can consequently build up its capabilities in response to these needs. Therefore, e-commerce will be a major driving force and an important enabler for shaping the future of mass customization. 

In 1997, Amazon and Webvan were both e-commerce retail start-ups. Amazon built distribution and fulfillment capabilities as the company grew, while Webvan drove massive capital investments to operate a 336,000-square-foot warehouse in Oakland, California. This distribution center was designed to process volumes equivalent to 18 supermarkets. In 1999, Webvan contracted with Bechtel to build 26 new fulfillment centers, This building project did not materialize because the company closed for business in 2001. Webvan is now owned by Amazon. ... 

Driven by e-commerce s capabilities to empower clients, many companies are moving from the traditional push business model, where manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, and marketers have most of the power, to a customer-driven pull model (E-Future, 2006). This new business model is less product-centric and more directly focused on the individual consumer. To succeed in the business environment, companies have recognized that there is an ongoing shift in the balance of power in the commerce model, from suppliers to customers. 

The customer s virtual assistant represents the system in the dialogue with the customer and implements the multimodal interface concept for both e-commerce and technical support sections. The role of the multimodal interface is to make the virtual market close to the real world the virtual assistant and the real vendor in the sales process are similar. The customer s virtual assistance also implements the call center capabilities it queries the business intelligence component that decides the type of problem the customer has, calls the technical support and establish the communication between the customer and one of the technical support specialists. 

While ECM and ERP II are similar in many ways, there are at least two key differences. First of all, Gartner doesn t identify a company as an ERP II vendor unless it provides traditional ERP capabilities, which has come under significant criticism [55] since these very ERP vendors have all but abandoned the ERP label as they recast themselves in the role of e-business providers. That leaves out vendors such as Siebel Systems, Ariba, and i2 who pioneered the B2B applications that spurred on the development of collaborative commerce. While Gartner recognizes that these vendors systems could potentially be used as part of an ERP II solution, they are not characterized as ERP II vendors. Meanwhile, ECM recognizes that multi-vendor ECM systems are likely and recognizes the B2B software vendors as part of ECM. In their evaluation system of ECM vendors, vendors are classified as providers of ERP, Global... 

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