Regardless of the model, the elements will include:

» business-to-business (B2B);

» business-to-consumer (B2C);

» e-marketplace (eMP); and

» application service provider (ASP), or

» managed service provider (MSP).

It is essential that relationships between these disparate elements and players be managed in an integrated and concise manner. E-operations necessitate managing an increasing number of elements found in the next generation of e-business. These integrated e-operations solutions interoperatewith one another, delivering enhanced customer value.

Customers have the freedom to choose whatever combination they need, with the assurance that these solutions will work together. Openness and extensibility give customers the flexibility to leverage their existing technologies and to adopt new ones as their e-businesses evolve.

These solutions can be categorized into three strategic e-operations areas:

» e-business process management;

» e-business information management; and

» e-business infrastructure management.

E-business process management

E-business process management solutions monitor and manage the critical business operations of a company’s trading partners, internal operations, business suppliers, and service providers.

True e-business process management requires two levels of integration:

» the integration of an enterprise’s existing back-end systems with its new Web-based systems; and

» B2B integration between an enterprise and its partners, suppliers, and service providers.

E-business has become a very service-oriented environment. Customers, suppliers, and business partners all need a seamless view of their interactions with the business, and this needs to be consistent. This necessitates a comprehensive platform for quick and seamless integration of systems tomanage e-operations. These operations include services such as messaging, XML and Java object management, and systems management.

E-business information management

E-business information management solutions should deliver unique portal, knowledge management, predictive analysis, and visualization capabilities (e.g.: ‘‘dashboard’’ functions). Such systems should enable the comprehensive integration of business processes, applications, databases, partner systems, and data, and be customizable to individual requirements.

Data analysis should provide the ability to predict business outcomes by analyzing both historical and current session data that present customers with the information they are most likely to be interested in. Customers’ overall satisfaction with personalized service will ensure their loyalty, and drive sales through cross-selling and up-selling techniques.

From powerful application development and life-cycle management to business intelligence, business information management solutions should enable historical and real-time data access, analysis, and dissemination for processing transactions across the extended enterprise.

E-business infrastructure management

E-business infrastructure management is the cornerstone of any business. Every resource – from traditional IT to wireless and other pervasive computing devices – must be managed in a cohesive, integrated fashion for e-business to deliver mission-critical availability and reliability. This requires industry-proven, highly scalable e-business infrastructure solutions, which range from comprehensive end-to-end management capabilities to solutions that meet specific needs such as security, network, storage, database, and application management.