Assignment 1: E-commerce

Assignment 1: E-commerce
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Institution.
Assignment 1: E-commerce
Part A
The foreseeable future of e-commerce is dependent on three key factors: information technology, business models, and the perception of the society toward e-commerce (Laudon & Traver, 2016). E-commerce entails business transactions via an electronic medium with an underlying IT infrastructure to compliment the business model. The future viability of e-commerce is in the hands of fourth industrial revolution technologies, networking, databases, enterprise management systems, web scripting, mobile computing, among other technological concepts that support e-commerce. Technology bears the digital infrastructure to support and run a business. The successful implementation of e-commerce relies on the translation of traditional business concepts such as business model, accounting and finance, value chain management, among others to the digital world. Lastly, e-commerce needs to be modeled in such a way that it conforms to the values and beliefs of the society and does not compromise things such as privacy, property rights, and commerce policies in different jurisdictions.
E-commerce infrastructure is composed of numerous application servers that serve different purposes. The main functionalities in an e-commerce server that are necessary for online transactions are composed of an online catalog for product and service display, a shopping cart for order management, and a payment gateway for credit processing (Laudon & Traver, 2016). Other than the basic functionalities, critical factors to consider when choosing an e-commerce server include scalability, security, compatibility with existing business models, compliance with standards and policies, mobility, report generation, integration with logistics services, and communication capabilities (Laudon & Traver, 2016).
Business to Business (B2B) exchanges bring together a wide range of suppliers and vendees to exchange goods and services via electronic mediums. General Electric (GE) is a perfect example of a B2B marketplace that exists in the contemporary world. Electronic marketplaces lower business costs both for the buyer and seller while increasing their reach. The direct interaction eliminates the need for middle-men and brokers. Security, confidentiality, and integrity pose a challenge to B2B exchanges because many people find it hard to trust a virtual seller or buyer.
The competitive forces best describe what a business structure is. E-commerce has the potential to transform a business model entirely into a new model, thus providing a new way of carrying out business operations. Through e-commerce platforms, the prices are readily made available to the buyer, granting them the bargaining power while substituting the middlemen and brokers with automated systems for suppliers. Other notable changes of e-commerce on competitiveness is on the value chain and product costs. The internet, on the other hand, facilitates web technologies that directly link the customers, suppliers, and the firm seamlessly.
Through the different cloud service models (SaaS, PaaS, IaaS), business enterprises need not worry about the underlying information technology infrastructure. In that...