Customer Reviews

Exploring E-Commerce, Global E-Business and E-Society

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is right on-target. It is concise, hard-hitting and to the point. The many illustrations make it a great resource for those practicing or simply interested in the many topics of E-Commerce. Easy to read, and very informative. Nice job.

This book is a fantastic book. It describes many case studies from many of the world's largest contenders in E-Commerce. It is very apparent that these authors know the subject matter, and are experts in their respective field. The most interesting parts of the book (in my opinion) are the transformation models they describe. These models seem very useful for any company, practitioner, manager, or business person involved in the E-Commerce world. The graphics are excellent and the various references to other companies which are deeply involved in this field are extremely interesting. I highly recommend this book for any individual, corporation, or consultant involved in Internet Commerce. I use this book in my own job and reference many of the discussions these authors describe, as I work with my clients. My congratulations to the authors for a job well done. I also noticed on another Internet book retailer site that a second book is about to be published by these authors. I will be sure to pick up a copy of their next book, once it becomes available. I encourage the authors to keep up the great work. This is a book well worth the investment. My thanks to the Publisher, Prentice-Hall, for finding some great talent in this field. So many books on this subject are simply not of the quality of this one!

Written by 2 high-level IBM E-Commerce strategists & consultants, this text purports to be a comprehensive broad-view executive guide to e-commerce.

Over 216 pages of main text, the content covers in overview:

* What is e-commerce- some history, social aspects, defining e-commerce and e-business, research, e-commerce exemplars, management & organizational issues, and competition. Note that IBM's famous FUD-factor for business development (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt) has been renamed FDU...

* E-commerce channels to generate profitable revenues- business lifecycles, e-banking, and enabling technologies.

* Structured transformations through e-commerce- manufacturing, societies and governments, business sites, extending market reach, financial industries, and crossing boundaries. Note the interesting provocation bumper sticker- Internet for (US) President- extrapolate and think globally what could be saved in costs and greater effectiveness in having full e-governments!

* Global segmentation- customer relationships, e-business solutions, automotive solutions, e-business value chain, and supply chain.

* Unique management and organizational challenges- e-insurance, security and privacy, extended enterprise, and conclusion.

Strengths include:

* The 14 charts and tables that capture current e-commerce issues (e.g. Figure 9.2- open finance distribution; 10.2, 10.3, 10.4 - scope and stages in e-commerce transformation; 10.5, 10.6 on e-business transformation; 11.3- supply chain; 12.1- 20-step Website useability test; 12.2 - profitability vs effectiveness balance; 13.2,13.3,13.4- virtual business & value chain strategies; 15.7- e-business growth; 20.1- macro-business supply chain).

* The relatively interesting and engaging style.

* The global viewpoint (references to UN, EDC, ISO, European innovations as well as the usual well-publicized US success stories).

* The attempt to provide case studies spanning financial services, manufacturing, and non-profit sectors.

* A few highspots of content (e.g. 10 metrics for web design- correctness, efficiency, flexibility, integrity, interoperability, maintainability, portability, reliability, reusability, and testability; E-commerce designer challenges- context-sensitive GUI, multilingual, monetary & taxation compliance, security & privacy, and personalised e-marketing; discussion on EDI versus extranets (pp.60); discussion on Internet electronic bill presentation and payment (pp.155-163); and an example of aerospace's global lead in use of IT through the Boeing PART system (pp.173-178)).

Weaknesses include: the extreme repetition (probably 35% of book could be cut without losing any content); content often not matching titles or subheadings; piecemeal snapshot rather than integrated change framework structure (i.e. could not use book alone to support e-commerce initiatives); lack of references and superficial further reading list, supporting assertions (apart from throwaway compilation of 78 e-mail press releases over last 2 years); incompletely labeled & repeated figures; throwaway (i.e. not used/elaborated on) figures; multiple repeated definitions of terms throughout text; inconsistent statistics cited (e.g. web users, projected various web revenues); use of dated projections without reference to more current actual values; lack of depth on research & e-societies (as well as other sections); lack of definition of terms and bandying of jargon incorrectly used (e.g. business intelligence); occasional typos; the relative lack of website references; the seemingly continual IBM-sales pitch; non-optimal use of figures, tables, sidebars, and text to communicate content; and the ultimate lack of significant contribution or value-add for the target audience.

Overall, this reviewer expected better quality and content from a Prentice-Hall text- `Exploring E-commerce' could have done with addition of more value-add content, and a final thorough editing & proof-read prior to publication. Despite that, it is a worthwhile introductory E-commerce text for engineering or business undergraduate students, industrialists/business professionals, or consultants.

This book is well written and presents many industrial success stories on E-Commerce. The graphics in the book are excellent, especially business transformation graphics which show the typical models for many companies converging in the E-Commerce market.

I highly suggest to anyone interested in the topic of E-Commerce to purchase this book. Out of all the books on the market today, I find this book to be right at the top with excellent content on the subject. I am a senior business leader in a large global company, and have experienced many situations where the text in this book, maps into the problems which the biggest firms worldwide have experienced during E-Commerce business transformations.

These authors have obviously experienced the work challenges associated with Internet Commerce challenges. It is very clear that they not only are seasoned in this field, but also practitioners in the field, as well.

This book is a very good book on the subject of E-Commerce. I was interested to see the many reviews on this book, as they all point to the fact that these authors have had tremendous experiences in this area. I have read all the other leading books in the field, and this book is far beyond any of the books currently on the market. I highly suggest this book for the reader who is interested in the facts on E-Commerce. I think the authors did a great job on this book in the areas of business transformation. It is specific to reality, and this book is an excellent reference for other companies involved in this is field. Well worth the investment.

If you are looking for a comprehensive overview of the current state of E-Business, this is it. Some interesting examples of business that have already made the move and lessons learned.

Although the authors should be credited for making attempts to share some of their insights, this book fails to depict the other true forces that make up the entire realm of the eCommerce industry. In fact, the authors seem to be skimming through all over the place without providing concrete details within the subject matter discussed. This is apparent within most of the chapters presented in the book. While the authors have attempted to share their own expertise into the book, the materials unfortunately lack depth and professional insights into the actual workings of the eCommerce industry. Most often, the reviews within the book are [biased] based on the expertise of the authors. The reader will "abound" with the high number of "cut and paste" sections contained within the book. To some extent, the book also attempts to make ... publicity stances which seem to bring down the value of the book itself. If anyone is wishing to purchase this book, just be forewarned that this book provides only a general analysis and may disappoint those who are seeking more depth to the subject matter discussed.

This book was not only very interesting to read, but also had many areas which focused on the business values of implementing e-commerce environments. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the subject of Internet e-commerce. These authors have obviously been involved in some interesting work in this field.

Most Americans interpret E-Commerce as only happening in USA. We are so immersed and so ignorant about anything that happens outside of this country. This book is great to open doors to global success stories. I have used this book for a training class at Colleges and Corporations for the past two years. Each chapter is short so I added much recent materials. There are only 14 books listed here at Amazon.com on this topic. It is the most exciting one to read for now. The book would be better if more GLOBAL merger-acquisition and/or finance is included.

This book is a very well written book, and easy to read, which provides a wide spectrum on many e-commerce initiatives.

The authors have captured many relevant subjects in the Internet commerce world. They have done a great job presenting very interesting topics, and contrasting these topics to many large businesses involved in this area.

The information the authors present on business initiatives required to achieve successful e-commerce environments is very useful. Contrasting the many companies, mergers, and other e-commerce collaborations I found to be very informative.

I would recommend this book to both business executives, and technical executives (and practitioners) interested in e-commerce. This book was well worth the investment and I look forward to future books by these authors: They seem to be very informed on the subject areas and they also seem to have many experiences in this areas, as described in the content of the book.