The Evolution of e-business: How Java is Changing the Marketplace
By Jeff Fassett
Java Marketing Team, IBM
Centuries ago, the local marketplace was a place where buyers and sellers came together
to haggle over the price of a bushel of wheat. The current marketplace, with the advent of new
technologies, is a more complex intersection for exchange. Today’s online marketplace still
retains the fundamental ingredients of the old days, and the same business issues persist.
But technology, while providing new ways to buy and sell goods and services, can sometimes
make the exchange more complicated. However, IBM, with its Java-enabled e-business products
and solutions, can simplify the process and help companies truly take advantage of the new marketplace.
Let’s trace the evolution of the marketplace to give some perspective about where we are today.
Through comparative analysis of the past and present, we can see how technology has created
new business opportunities and challenges as well.
The Original Marketplace
What did the original marketplace look like? Buyers and sellers met in a central marketplace.
Products were bought, sold, and bartered. The producers of the sale items were often the ones
haggling over price or comparable value. Inventory was on hand to be directly evaluated by the buyer.
Delivery of the goods was instant. People knew each other, trusted each other.
These were simpler days, but products still had to made, markets still had to be created,
prices still had to be set. This was the beginning of commerce--face to face transactions in a common market.
The Industrialized Marketplace
Emerging transportation and communications technology facilitated the establishment of large,
permanent trading centers, where buyers and sellers would come together in masses. "Middlemen"
(sales representatives) were brought into these spaces so that manufacturers need not be present
anymore. Prices were determined by supply, demand, and competition. The management of inventory
and the delivery of the goods to the customer became increasingly complex.
The result was the birth of modern commerce. Marketplaces remained central locations where
buyers and sellers met each other, but behind the scenes, the planning, production, and distribution
of goods became more elaborate.
Over the years, marketplaces became less definable, as secondary markets, middlemen,
and technology muddied the waters of traditional face-to-face commercial exchange.
Original marketplaces endured, however, in flea markets and farmers markets, for example, and
on a broader scale in less-developed countries. But for the most part, the interaction between
producer as seller and end consumer as buyer had been lost.
The Online Marketplace
Today, however, with the advent of the Internet and advanced computer networks, it is
possible to create online markets where buyers and sellers can "virtually" come together
again. Companies can sell products directly to consumers through online store fronts and
virtual markets. This is commonly called electronic commerce, and companies worldwide
are embracing it. Gone are the days when buyer and seller had to be face to face, the
product had to be on the table, and cash had to be exchanged on the spot. Now we
enter a marketplace from the convenience of our home or office.
But there is more than meets the eye for the casual Web surfer who buys a CD or
airline ticket online. Behind all those slick graphics are complex systems that do what
once was easy in the original marketplace: accept payment, verify inventory, and
deliver the product, to name a few. The fact that online marketplaces exist does not make
it easy for sellers to take advantage of them. There are still the same business issues to
deal with as there were in the beginning, but with new technological challenges thrown in.
And with nagging concerns over security and access, it is not all that simple for buyers either.
The Java and e-business Marketplace
With e-business and Java, IBM is leading the way to organizing entire companies around
serving this new online marketplace. In order to be truly successful, companies need to do
more than make a Web site and take orders, which is the basic model for today’s electronic
commerce. They need to have the proper infrastructure in place to fully take advantage of the
new opportunities in this marketplace. In short, they have to become e-businesses.
One way to describe an e-business is one that can virtually re-create the marketplace of the past.
Buyers and sellers virtually coming to the same online location. Products in inventory displayed for
viewing, testing, or sampling. Prices determined, payment securely executed, and delivery made.
But what does it take for today’s corporation to graduate from conducting simple e-commerce to
becoming a true e-business? It takes IBM’s Java enabled e-business products and solutions.
These products and solutions will take existing I/T infrastructure and link it with the Web,
allowing companies to do a lot more than just sell products. Intranets allow employees to
share and display information, extranets allow suppliers and distributors to be closer to the
company, and the Internet allows all of this to culminate for the customer in the online marketplace.
The challenge is to organize the entire business so that selling products on the Web
is as easy as possible. IBM has the breadth and depth of experience to achieve this for your business.
With a major commitment to Java, which is the glue that holds everything together, IBM can
leverage your existing systems, from mainframe data to the client browser.
A great deal has changed over the years in the definition of the marketplace, but we are at a
point with e-business where we can go backwards and regain some of the attributes of the
original markets. In a day when we have become consumed by technology and distanced from
our customers, IBM can utilize technology, whatever it is, to get close to the customer
again as in the town square market. Know your customer. Offer a mass customized product.
Verify inventory. Conduct a secure transaction. Build trust. Deliver on time. Ensure satisfaction.
You can do all of this and more in the new online marketplace. Strive to get back to a time
when life and business were simple. Use technology to make things easier; re-create the original
marketplace. IBM can help build the store front, and ensure that things work behind the counter.
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