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E-business is the combination of strategies, technologies and processes to electronically coordinate both internal
and external business processes, and manage enterprise-wide resources. E-business software systems generally fall
into four categories: Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Supply Chain
Management (SCM) and Sales Force Automation (SFA).
ERP, CRM, SCM and SFA differ in terms of goals, functionality, users and boundary of the systems.
| Software |
Goals |
Functionality |
Users |
Boundary |
| ERP |
improve and streamline internal business processes, which typically requires reengineering of current business processes.
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product planning, parts purchasing, inventory control, product distribution, order tracking as well as finance and human resources aspects of a business.
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employees of the organization at all levels.
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The boundary of an ERP system is small than the boundary of the organization that implements the ERP systems.
In practice, however, many ERP implementations involve the integration of ERP with external information systems.
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| CRM |
facilitate acquiring, enhancing and retaining of customers.
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customer contact management, from direct marketing, sales and customer support.
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workers at all levels of an organizations. It may include customers and business partners.
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The boundary of an CRM system is small than the boundary of the organization that implements the CRM systems.
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| SCM |
- to reduce inventory cost,
- to increase sales
- to improve the coordination and the collaboration between participants of the supply chain.
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demand forecasting, product planning, parts purchasing, inventory control, manufacturing, product assembly to product distribution.
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workers of supply chain participants at all levels.
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The boundary of a SCM system is the boundary of extended enterprise which includes the company, suppliers, partners, distributors and customers.
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| SFA |
facilitate sales campaign management, lead assignment, contact management, proposal and presentation generation and opportunity reporting.
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sales campaign management, lead assignment, contact management, information sharing, quick proposal and presentation generation, product configurators, calendars, to-do lists and opportunity reporting.
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workers involved in marketing and sales.
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The boundary of an SFA system is small than the boundary of the organization that implements the SFA systems.
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