E-commerce Software's Next Wave: Can you ride it?The e-commerce prize so far has gone to software vendors that best cobbled cob·ble 1 n. 1. A cobblestone. 2. Geology A rock fragment between 64 and 256 millimeters in diameter, especially one that has been naturally rounded. 3. cobbles See cob coal. tr. together various technologies to enable consumer transactions. But if you want to do business in the seamless online environment of e-commerce, you are doomed by attempts to adapt and extend older stovepipe technologies. Twenty-first-century networks need software applications built expressly to create relationships between enterprises. Commercial transactions are among the most relational of all human interactions, with dozens of people handling customer information, products, transactions, delivery, payment and service. In traditional commerce, relational processes drive most successful business models. How much human interaction needed for creating, accessing, managing and changing all this information could be automated? Until now, we've seen simplistic sim·plism n. The tendency to oversimplify an issue or a problem by ignoring complexities or complications. [French simplisme, from simple, simple, from Old French; see simple online models built primarily around auction, reverse auction and shopping-cart paradigms for commerce. These models work primarily for surplus or distressed-inventory situations, simple consumer transactions and spot-buying, or for MRO MRO In currencies, this is the abbreviation for the Mauritanian Ouguiya. Notes: The currency market, also known as the Foreign Exchange market, is the largest financial market in the world, with a daily average volume of over US $1 trillion. or maintenance operations transactions. Today, there's a monumental change taking place in the way technology can support e-commerce. New software more robustly emulates and enables human behaviors that create successful businesses. It will transform bricks-and-mortar business models. We've witnessed the convergence of advances in computing computing - computer power with advances in communications and networking technologies. Now that's being ignited ig·nite v. ig·nit·ed, ig·nit·ing, ig·nites v.tr. 1. a. To cause to burn. b. To set fire to. 2. To subject to great heat, especially to make luminous by heat. by software applications of integrated relational technology. The architecture and interoperability The capability of two or more hardware devices or two or more software routines to work harmoniously together. For example, in an Ethernet network, display adapters, hubs, switches and routers from different vendors must conform to the Ethernet standard and interoperate with each other. of the new wave of e-commerce applications make them less painful to implement and manage than the procedural applications from the last wave. And the good news is they don't make prior investments obsolete, but enhance them. Here's what you need to ask when considering the new software: * What business models, besides auctions, reverse auctions and catalog catalog, descriptive list, on cards or in a book, of the contents of a library. Assurbanipal's library at Nineveh was cataloged on shelves of slate. The first known subject catalog was compiled by Callimachus at the Alexandrian Library in the 3d cent. B.C. , does the software support, and how? * How flexible versus how structured is that support? * What is the nature of the software -- procedural and rigid, or declarative de·clar·a·tive adj. 1. Serving to declare or state. 2. Of, relating to, or being an element or construction used to make a statement: a declarative sentence. n. and flexible? The more configuration done through the browser, the more declarative the software, and thus easier to manage and more flexible. * Will it integrate into your systems and your customers' systems? * What is the time frame to establish interoperability with other applications? Get specific answers to these questions and watch the transformation of e-commerce into mainstream business. |
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