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FREE online courses on ECOMMERCE FUNDAMENTALS - Internet based E commerce
- Internet based E-commerce |
The Internet facilitates E-commerce by providing a cost
effective communication medium. For many small organizations, which cannot
afford the cost of leased lines or value-added-networks, it may be the only
alternative.
Leased lines cost between $ 60,000 and $ 100,000 each to set
up and thousand more per year to operate; they are a major expense for big
companies and beyond the reach of small companies with many customers.
Many value-added-network vendors such as Premenos, IBM, GEIS,
Sterling Software and Harbinger are jumping onto the Internet bandwagon and have
announced major Internet initiatives.
Kalakota and Whinston say, ‘‘The backbone of E-commerce would be the
existing infrastructure of Information Superhighway, especially the Internet,
which is raising connectivity to such a level that the feasibility of
implementing E-commerce is greatly enhanced in sectors where it was not possible
to do so before.''
Benjamin and Wigand make another argument and state that: “Electronic markets
may soon affect the evolution of the National Information Infrastructure (NII)
or Information Superhighway, as well as the emerging global infrastructure”.
Kalakota and Whinston have suggested a framework for elements
involved in E-commerce. The framework consists of three parts.
·
The first part consists of a
variety of EC applications including both inter- and intra-organizational and
electronic market examples.
·
The building blocks of a
common business services infrastructure, messaging and information distribution
infrastructure, multimedia content and network publishing infrastructure and the
Information Superhighway infrastructure make up the second part.
·
In the third part, the public
policy and technical standards necessary to support the applications and the
infrastructure are included.
