E-commerce business technology and society

e-Commerce and Business Technology

In reading the text readings for this week, what one deep concept (contained within a paragraph not a page) interested you most which was relatively new information to you. How will it be helpful to you in your career? Tell us in a 3 to 4 paragraph essay with a cite of the idea in the text plus a cite of an additional source on the topic plus your experience.

Of the many interesting and valuable e-commerce concepts and frameworks defined in the text, the one that resonate the most with me is the integration of product and service customization, combined with the agility that is possible with e-business models (Laudon, Traver, 2011).

When these core concepts are combined from the text, the importance of supply chains and their accuracy, efficiency of operation and contribute become evident. Studies of the impact of supply chain management, construction and production management show that they perform a critical link of back-office processes and systems to customer-facing processes and strategies (Bakker Harland, Knight, Zheng, 2008). The greater the complexity of a given e-commerce initiative, the more diverse the sales channels it relies on, the greater the need for supply chain collaboration and communication (Balakrishnan, Geunes, 2004).

This is seen throughout the Laudon and Traver (2011) text, as the many e-commerce technologies and concepts all must be galvanized to serve the customer. Supply chain management within the context of e-commerce platforms and strategies is essential for fulfilling the expectations of customers (Golicic, Davis, McCarthy, Mentzer, 2002). The supporting roles of construction and production management are the catalyst of how e-commerce systems set and keep accurate commitments to customers as well (Johnson, Whang, 2002). What is apparent from reading the text is just how highly integrated any successful e-commerce strategy is to the entire organization or firm that is implementing one. The first generation of e-commerce systems showed that a siloed, stand-alone approach to e-commerce will most likely fail, yet a highly integrated one will succeed (Laudon, Traver, 2011). The role of supply chain management, construction and production management is to create the foundation from which e-commerce strategies can succeed. The roles of these three components of a strategy are well-documents as critical to the success of any e-commerce strategy (Nikakhtar, Jianzheng, 2012).

In March 2012 Apple announced the "new" iPad. Some news coverage signaled the end of the PC and projected that Pad computing will replace the laptop. Do you agree or disagree that Pad computing will replace PC computing? In a 3 to 4 paragraph essay with 1 cite from the text, 1 cite from a recent news article and your experience take a position and justify it.

Throughout the analysis of e-commerce and supporting technologies in the text, the authors make a clear case for how disruptive innovations will reorder e-commerce both on the Internet and off (Laudon, Traver, 2011). Several of these disruptive innovations, including more efficient and strong Wi-Fi networks, greater agility and speed of mobile phone and tablet PC processors, and most significantly, the disruptive shift in content, are all working together to fundamentally reshape how the world uses the Internet (Laudon, Traver, 2011).

The greatest of these disruptive innovations has emerged as the Apple iPad. According to market research firms including International Data Corporation (IDC), Gartner and others, the sales of tablet PCs are close to eclipsing PC sales today and will most likely completely eclipse them by 2015 (Currier, 2011). The arguments that the iPad and related tablets will eventually replace traditional laptops are pervasive throughout the industry press today, mentioning the pervasive availability of Wi-Fi and the need for entirely new classes of devices to keep up with knowledge workers' increasingly mobile work styles (Currier, 2011). Apple has the majority of developers building applications for their mobility devices compared to any other competitor, including Google (Currier, 2011).