Supply Chain Management

E-business is a collection of business models and processes motivated by Internet technology. Its focus is on the improvement of extended enterprise performance. E-business can help firms to share information across the supply chain and respond to changes in a range of variables like customer demand, and shortages at customer and supplier levels etc. Using e-business, can implement supply chain concepts more effectively.

Supply chain concepts include information sharing, cross enterprise collaboration, mass customization, outsourcing, partnerships and strategic alliances. The Internet is an ideal medium for carrying out many of the supply chain operations because of the many advantages it has over other communication media. In this chapter, we discussed the impact of e-business on the supply chain from revenue and cost perspectives. Some of the revenue maximizing opportunities that e-business offers are provision of direct channels to customers, round the clock access to customers from any location, possibility of aggregating Information from various sources, provision of personalization and customization features, possibility of faster time to market, and flexibility in allowing price and service discrimination.