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Frequently Asked Questions

What is Electronic Business?
How is this different from E-Commerce?
What is required for a company to do E-Commerce over the Internet?
What kind of business can be done electronically?
What are the advantages of E-Commerce to my company?

What is Electronic Business?

Electronic Business or E-Business is a term that encompasses use of the Internet to perform a business function. The business function could be for internal purposes such as entering time and expenses from field personnel or external such as E-commerce. The Web site must be tightly integrated with the company's business information management system to be of maximum benefit. Indyne has integrated applications available to perform common E-business functions and can develop custom applications as required.

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How is this different from E-Commerce?

Electronic Commerce is a term that covers all aspects of processing business transactions electronically with an external party. There are basically two forms of E-commerce. The first is Business-to-Business (B2B) which is the creating and processing of transactions electronically between companies that have an established vendor/ customer relationship. These transactions are private between trading partners. There are two main technologies available for this purpose; EDI and the Internet. Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) has been in use for many years, but it requires special applications and networks for all of the companies involved. The Internet provides almost any company with an opportunity to conduct electronic business with its trading partners.

The second form is Business-to-Consumer (B2C) which is generally making retail sales over the Internet. In that scenario, the seller has a limited or no relationship with the buyer. The site is public allowing anyone with a valid credit card to make purchases. Proper sites perform the payment function in a secure mode.

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What is required for a company to do E-Commerce over the Internet?

The company must establish a commerce Web site that can be accessed from the Internet. A basic commerce Web site contains an on-line catalog of available products, a database of the company's customers (for B2B), and a means for customers to place orders for products selected from the catalog. The Web site transmits orders created to the company for processing. The simplest form of transmission is email. Orders transmitted in this fashion must be entered or imported into the fulfillment system. The preferred method is to have the Web site integrated with the fulfillment system allowing orders to be entered and processed automatically.

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What kind of business can be done electronically?

Almost any order-related transaction between two companies can be accomplished electronically. A company that wishes to become a trading partner can fill out an application in the public area of the Web site. Once the application has been approved, that company is notified by email of their customer number and password. Using these, the customer can access the commerce area where they can browse the catalog, place orders and receive acknowledgements, and check on the status of previous orders. Shipping advice and invoices can be submitted to the customer electronically.

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What are the advantages of E-Commerce to my company?

Your company is available 24 hours-a-day, 7 days a week to receive orders from your customers anywhere in the world. They order on their schedule. You process those orders on your schedule. Your customers enter their own orders resulting in improved accuracy and processing efficiency. Your online catalog and pricing is always up to date. The effort and expense associated with creating printed catalogs only to have them become obsolete shortly after being published is costly. Once created, on-line catalogs need only be updated when changes to particular items occur. Pricing can be changed at any time. Sales or promotions can be created with ease and announced to your customers via email. Customers will prefer the ease of doing business that your E-Commerce system provides over the conventional methods of your competitors.

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