ebusiness or Out of Business: Oracle's Roadmap for Profiting in the New Economy [Hardcover]

Mark Barrenechea (Author), Larry Ellison (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 22, 2000

In this text, Mark Barrenechea, senior executive in Oracle's Customer Relationship Management division, provides readers with a view from Oracle on what companies need to know about making the etransformation. While technology and its increasing development makes the future unpredictible, one thing will always remain constant: information is the key to success in any organization. Effective management and easy access to information is vital, and to survive every business must embrace the changes the internet brings to their company. This book covers all aspects of the customer relationship, from supply, manufacturing and sales processes and looks at the internal processes that need to change if businesses are to operate effectively in the new economy.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

A Top Insider Reveals Oracle's Web-Based Success Strategies­­and How to Apply Them to Your Organization

E-Business or Out of Business is the moment-by-moment account of how Oracle, a global leader in technological innovation and eTransformation, was forced to actually transform itself­­or risk being swallowed by the revolution it helped to launch. This fast-paced book provides step-by-step details­­along with valuable historical perspective­­on how Oracle put every aspect and process of its business on the Internet, assembling a global database for customers, suppliers, and employees that was easy to access, and easier to use.

Praise for E-Business or Out of Business

"This book sets out the challenges and opportunities that accompany the transformation from offline commerce to e-business."

Scott McNealy, Chairman and CEO, Sun Microsystems

"The Rosetta stone to competitiveness today is instantaneous, uninterrupted access to all your information assets. Oracle has built a winning e-business through the relentless pursuit of a consolidated, unified global database."

Mike Ruettgers, CEO, EMC

"Succinctly sums up the state and direction of e-commerce. This book draws from Oracle's experience and serves as solid evidence of the company's thought leadership as an e-business pioneer."

Chuck Phillips, Managing Director, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter

"A fascinating guide to how to do business in the Internet era."

Farzad Nazem, Chief Technology Officer, Yahoo!

"The most intelligent presentation of e-business practices I have seen."

Neil Herman, Senior Vice President, Enterprise Software Research, Lehman Brothers

"Oracle's savings suggest that other companies that transform themselves into e-businesses can improve their margins by 10% or more."

Donald L. Lucas, Venture capital member on the Oracle Board

The business advantages available through today's expanding Internet technology are as plentiful as they are powerful. Organizations can now conduct business globally from one or a few data centers, maintain instantaneous contact with both suppliers and customers, add new products or services literally overnight­­and dramatically reduce the cost of transactions and interactions across the board.

Better yet, this transformation is as all-inclusive as it is revolutionary. Every enterprise, regardless of its size, can enhance its competitive position by understanding, and maximizing the commercial value of, the World Wide Web.

E-Business or Out of Business is an insider's report on how Oracle­­demonstrating the foresight its name represents­­became the first software company to move all of its essential operations onto the Internet. Filled with the insights and experiences of Oracle executives, along with case studies of actual companies from Oracle and Microsoft to General Motors and Boeing, E-Business or Out of Business provides a detailed blueprint on how any company can effectively use the Internet to institute its own global database­­and restructure itself to successfully compete in the emerging digital economy.

Written by one of the executives who was central to Oracle's e-Transformation, E-Business or Out of Business describes how, by following Oracle's proven example, any organization can:

• Reconcile new Internet business strategies with traditional bricks-and-mortar operations
• Cut IT expenses and standardize business processes
• Interact with each customer in consistent and effective ways
• Accumulate customer information systematically and reconcile it with data already gathered
• Deploy new products and processes internally­­the moment they become available
• Consolidate separate databases and computer systems into a one-stop global database
• Coordinate multi-vendor applications approaches
• Integrate the automation of all business functions­­marketing, sales, service, call centers, field professionals, HR, financials, and procurement

Becoming an e-business means transforming your company so that the existence of the Internet conditions every point of interaction: call centers, field professionals, suppliers, and end users. It means full collaboration between your employees, partners, and customers. Better than any other organization, Oracle has demonstrated the value of putting virtually every aspect of a business­­from pre-manufacturing internal and supplier contact to post-purchase customer service­­on the Internet.

E-Business or Out of Business is the first in-depth report on how Oracle became one of the first globally interconnected organizations. It clearly demonstrates the problems they saw, the solutions they found, and the strategies they will use to sustain their phenomenal growth in today's continually evolving, undeniably lucrative, and often unforgiving eBusiness marketplace.

About the Author

Mark Barrenechea is a senior vice president in the CRM Products division of Oracle Corporation.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 236 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies; 1st edition (December 22, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071373365
• ISBN-13: 978-0071373364
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,297,364 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Good Primer on e-Business Transformation, February 6, 2001

By 

"uniglobe" (Colorado Springs, CO USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: ebusiness or Out of Business: Oracle's Roadmap for Profiting in the New Economy (Hardcover)

I found this a good introduction to what it means to become an e-Business, and the challenges to be addressed in the transformation. It is non-technical, easy to read, with many examples of the impacts to Oracle Corporation of its own transformation. Plus, the author is not afraid to detail the ineffiencies within Oracle that drove its transformation and the internal resistance it had to address.

Chapter 1. "Changing the World" discusses the major technical advances that impacted the business world the most. The author does a good job of explaining that not all technical advances lead to positive business impacts, which is a nice way to say "just because it's neat technology, does not mean it will be profitable, or useful in the business world".

Chapter 2. "The Internet Changes Everything" discusses the business impacts of web-enabled technology and in transforming a company to e-Business. The author gives quite of bit of information on what to expect when a company goes to e-business. Such as: the cultural impacts, the business process that will change, the need to keep focused on "Must Haves", the fiefdoms that will need to be eliminated, the top 7 "e-Targets", etc.. The Author uses Oracle's e-transformation as examples, and also mentions how parts of Oracle are still experiencing the impact of the transformation.

Chapter 3. "E-Business or Out of Business" discusses the various business functions that e-transformation will impact, and the technological solutions that will replace or enhance the functions: sales and marketing, call centers, corporate infrastructure, customer care, materials management, IT systems, banking and funds management, customer loyalty, labor laws, etc.. Like in Chapter 2, Oracle's e-transformation is used as examples. The author also focuses on the "e-appliance" which will be technologically complex, but user simple.

Chapter 4. "Partner Relationship Management" discusses how e-ransformation can be used to enhance, improve, and grow customers and their loyalties.

Chapter 5. "Internet Exchanges" is an explanation of what "exchanges" are, and their impact to the business world. The author discusses the various types of exchanges, and then spends several paragraphs each on many of the current exchanges: Covisint, Aeroexchange, etc..

Chapter 6. "Where We Stand Now" discusses the current transformation of ERP and CRM systems to e-business, and the continual acceptance of customers to using self-service web-enabled applications.

Chapter 7. "The Shape of Things to Come" does a bit of future thinking on where e-business will continue its impacts. The author also discusses how e-business is impacting the various consulting firms, software vendors, and PC manufacturing companies

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good primer on e-business transformation, February 6, 2001

By 

"uniglobe" (Colorado Springs, CO USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: ebusiness or Out of Business: Oracle's Roadmap for Profiting in the New Economy (Hardcover)

I found this a very good introduction of what it takes to become an e-business, and the challenges that an organization will face during such a transformation. This is a non-technical overview of how Oracle used its own products to achieve the transformation, and the author is not afraid to point out how Oracle's own internal processes and systems were impacted during the transformation.

Chapter 1. "Changing the World" discusses the major technical advances that impacted the business world the most. The author does a good job of explaining that not all technical advances lead to positive business impacts, which is a nice way to say "just because it's neat technology, does not mean it will be profitable, or useful in the business world".

Chapter 2. "The Internet Changes Everything" discusses the business impacts of web-enabled technology and in transforming a company to e-Business. The author gives quite of bit of information on what to expect when a company goes to e-business. Such as: the cultural impacts, the business process that will change, the need to keep focused on the "Must Haves", the fiefdoms that will need to be eliminated, the top 7 "e-Targets", etc.. He uses Oracle's e-transformation as examples, and also mentions how parts of Oracle are still experiencing the impact of the transformation.

Chapter 3. " E-Business or Out of Business" discusses the various business functions that e-transformation will impact, and the technological solutions that will replace or enhance the functions: sales and marketing, call centers, corporate infrastructure, customer care, materials management, IT systems, banking and funds management, customer loyalty, labor laws, etc.. Like in Chapter 2, Oracle's e-transformation is used as examples. The author also focuses on the "e-appliance" which will be technologically complex, but user simple.

Chapter 4. "Partner Relationship Management" discusses how e-transformation can be used to enhance, improve, and grow customers and their loyalties.

Chapter 5. "Internet Exchanges" is an explanation of what exchanges" are, and their impact to the business world. The author discusses the various types of exchanges, and then spends several paragraphs each on many of the exchanges currently in existence (Covisint, Aeroexchange, etc.).

Chapter 6. "Where We Stand Now" discusses the current transformation of ERP and CRM systems to e-business, and the continual acceptance of customers to using self-service web-enabled applications.

Chapter 7. "The Shape of Things to Come" does a bit of future thinking on where e-business will continue its impacts. The author also discusses how e-business is impacting the various consulting firms, software vendors, and PC manufacturing companies.

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars lots of brand selling but some useful info.., March 15, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: ebusiness or Out of Business: Oracle's Roadmap for Profiting in the New Economy (Hardcover)

The book gives one an impression that it is hurriedly written and put together. also, a warning - a lot of Oracle brand selling. the first part deals with a historical narrative of disruptive n revolutionary technologies, not particularly helpful (depending on what you are looking for) the last part talks about the shape of things to come - again gives one a feeling of hurriedly being put together. the middle part about current companies and exchanges operating in the field and also discussions on various ebusiness goals offers a peek into the detailed workings of a ebusiness suite for b2bs, which is pretty enlightening.