Will you straddle the worldwide web like a spider or will you be a fly caught in it ?

Competitive advantage in business is being redefined in a brave new borderless world - completely and cataclysmically - and the catalyst for this corporate catharsis is electronic business or e-business. The rewards of embracing this new business model are as dramatic as the risks of being caught unprepared.

e-Business, takes place when a customer completes a business transaction with a provider of goods or services, using electronic communication channels. The Internet, is not necessarily the only electronic channel available, but in today's context, since it is the most popular and widely known, we shall restrict ourselves to this powerful tool. But before we delve into eBusiness, let us first clarify some basic terms.

The Internet and the World Wide Web are not one and the same. The Internet is a physical platform, a gigantic collection of computers that are physically connected to each other. The WWW is an application platform that is used to build functional applications. If all this seems to be quite a mouthful, consider the following analogies.

	The Internet is equivalent to a computer and the WWW is an application platform like VisualBasic or PowerBuilder. Using the VisualBasic platform you can build functional applications like payroll or financial accounting.
	The Internet is equivalent to a building complex and WWW is an application platform like commerce or education or sports. Using the commerce platform you can set up a grocery store or a bank. Using the sports platform you can set up a tennis club or an athletic track.

Next, what is a website ? A website is a collection of "web pages" or computer programs that can interact (a) with anyone having a web browser (b) using the WWW application (c) over the Internet. A web page is developed using a language called HTML. Complex pages can be built by introducing JavaScript, CGI, Java or other more complex languages. A simple web site can perhaps only display information whereas a more complex website has more "intelligence" and can interact more meaningfully with the user. A website is identified with an URL that goes like http://www.yahoo.com or http://.

One or more website can reside on a physical computer called a webserver. A webserver is identified with a unique TCP/IP address, something like 206.103.11.181, but smart applications like DNS that also run on the Internet makes these numbers invisible to the user. The URL or the http address is all that a user needs to connect to a website and access the resources that have been made available there.

An e-mail address like name@computer is like a mailbox where you can only receive electronic communication. It is different from website in the sense, it does not communicate back with the sender of the message. However a clever combination of webserver, website and e-mail address can be made to overcome this restriction.

Now that we know all about the Internet, World Wide Web, functional applications, websites, e-mail and webservers, let us see how these can be used to transact business. Business transactions can range from the really simple to the truly complex and to anything inbetween.

Simple business transactions can consist of

	Displaying your name and contact address
	Listing the products and services that you offer

Complex business transactions can consist of automatically

	Accepting credit card numbers and verifing credit
	Checking availability of goods
	Receiving and confirming orders
	Despatching goods

Intermediate business transactions can consist of everything that is possible with simple business transactions together with some added interactivity, for example …

	Receiving enquiries from customers at an e-mail address and responding to them later on
	Showing current price lists together with availability, for example hotel rooms.
	Showing order processing status or delivery schedules, for a particular customer
	Helping customers choose the correct make and model depending on requirements, preferences and price points
	Providing tips and techniques on how to make the best use of a product that has been sold or how to fix faults
	Registering customer complaints and displaying status of customer service
	And so on ……

Transacting a full fledged business process needs a very powerful web server that guarantees reliability and security plus a very sophisticated website with complex programs. This is pretty expensive but is being gradually adopted worldwide by many firms because with the passage of time, this will become the dominant mode of doing business.

Simple business transactions on the other hand can be done very easily and at virtually no cost. Web servers are available where you can create your website free of cost. Some effort is required to build web pages using basic HTML commands together with some text and pictures and these pages can then be uploaded into the website. [ This website has been built at no cost -- only the effort of creating these pages. We will explain this process in another article in the future ]. Once the website is up and operational, interactivity can be gradually added by introducing JavaScript.

But building a website is not enough …you have opened a small shop in a back alley but who will come there ? This is where the Internet is a great leveller. Every site -- whether it is multi-million dollar site from General Motors or free site like ours -- is just a click away from anywhere in the world. Who could ask for anything more ? The only catch is that more people are aware of the big sites and this is the only thing that you need to do …. spread the word, publicise the site and here too, the Internet is a fantastic facilitator.[ Just imagine, could we have ever published a magazine like this if the Internet was not there]

Because of the regressive policies of the government, India has almost missed the eBusiness revolution, but perhaps it is still not too late. Businesses in India must wake up to the immense potential of this new technology and the way to do it is simple … start small, learn the rules and expand rapidly. Stake out your claim in cyberspace.

Ask yourself …. Do you want to be the spider or the fly ? Do you want to have lunch or be lunch.