Resumen
Forward-thinking companies have come to realize that e-commerce is neither just a buy-side nor sell-side packaged application. They have learned that mission-critical business opportunities abound and they must implement many e-commerce initiatives along the way to building the virtual corporation that thrives in the Digital Economy. To them, e-commerce is an infrastructure for a whole new way of doing business. They have learned if they extend their business processes across company boundaries and integrate them with their suppliers and customers business processes something totally new starts to happen. E-commerce applications can be categorized into the four major groupings. On the sell side of most companies, I-Market applications include online catalog management, order management, trading communities, marketing and advertising, while Customer Care applications involve customer self-service, customer relationship management and business intelligence support. On the buy side, Vendor Management Systems automate the procurement of indirect operating resources including sourcing, bid/ask buying and custom supplies catalogs.