A large part of the economy is made up of firms that were created long before the e-business. However, most e-business research has focused on the "pure-play" companies that were created specifically to take advantage of Web. The authors have created an e-business planning process, which can be used both for the study was created by the existing operations and to identify promising new business opportunities. The planning process consists of four steps. The first is to identify the potential of e-business initiatives based on the fact that they create value for the business and reduce costs. The second step is to analyze the features of each project with the architecture of electronic business processes. In the third phase, analyzing the sustainability of benefits of each initiative is particularly important in the e-business context, because the Internet is subject to the interaction of copying by competitors. Finally, among the priorities of e-business projects depends on how they fit with the other elements of information technology. The authors explore the ways in which e-business can create opportunities for entirely new products and markets, including the addition of information functions, selling information as a product, and to find new markets. The authors detail how their e-business planning process has been used in a mature global delivery. The company task force considered two major projects. E-business planning process sharpened the definition of projects set out the technical requirements and other resource requirements, and confirmed the stability of both projects. "Hide
by Amit Basu, Steve Muylle Source: MIT Sloan Management Review 11 pages. Publication Date: 01 Oct 2007. Prod. #: SMR261-PDF-ENG