re, services and systems integration ("Internet Banking, 1999).
Companies adopting e-commerce need to understand all of the elements and options involved to be able to choose the appropriate mix. For example, many companies are now grappling with the most basic decision--whether to outsource the cost and complexity of electronic commerce or keep it in house. There is a growing market for products and services that simplify the e-commerce decision and implementation process. Among the top benefits cited for a move to electronic commerce are decreased overhead costs from interfacing to back-end functions.
This indicates that businesses expect to gain the most advantage by streamlining their processes rather than by simply increasing sales by adding the Internet as a new channel. These agile, global corporations using e-commerce technologies are the wave of the future. The only question is which corporations will succeed in incorporating these fundamental changes, and which will be left behind.
The first structural change a bank would have to make is to move some or all of its operations online. It is estimated that more than 30 percent of all banks now have sites on the Internet's World Wide Web. In addition, many banks are using Intranets, which are private networks within institutions that use web browser technology and are a useful tool for sharing internal information and for work-group collaboration.
Banks are also using Intranet technology for classified and encrypted communications between banks and particular clients. As a general rule, however, Intranets limit access within a given organization. A third technology is called "Extranet" and in this technology, banks provide Internet and Intranet access to their customers and suppliers. Intranet and Extranet systems offer enhanced security for all users, precisely because they are systems that have limited or no public access (Radding, 1998).
Security ...