The purpose of this paper is to summarize the article, "E-Commerce Equals Empowerment," by Peter S. Cohan, published in May 2002, in Financial Executive magazine. With CFOs considering implementing e-commerce strategies as part of their own businesses as his primary audience, Cohan wrote the article to show that, although e-commerce and dot-coms are linked or synonymous in the minds of many businesspeople and the public, they are in fact very different, and have had different outcomes in their respective histories on the Internet. Early in this century, the "dot-com" meltdown led to losses of billions of dollars and millions of jobs; at the time, the future and the viability of the Internet was doubtful for many executives because of the 'bad rap' of Internet companies from this implosion. Actually, Cohan points out, the dot-coms and basic e-commerce are very different, and because of this difference, e-commerce continues to thrive despite the end of so many dot-coms. E-commerce is a strategic business enabler, and companies continue to pursue web-based operations for their many operational benefits, and these must become imperatives, even if their cost must be covered through cost-cutting or price increases.
At its most basic, "electronic commerce" or "e-commerce" refers to electronic shopping, doing business online or buying products and services through Web storefronts. The terms have evolved to include to all aspects of business and market processes facilitated by the Internet and the World Wide Web.
E-commerce is driven by web-based software solutions that provide a common, consistent system to capture data organization-wide to integrate information across corporate functions and to provide tools for planning and monitoring the various functions and processes towards a common purpose. To compete effectively, companies are challenged to create new products, maximize efficiencies in service, processing and administra...