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Chapter 2 Global E-business and Collaboration 87

whenever it is needed to improve business processes and management
decisions. They also link the firm to external sources of knowledge.
We examine enterprise systems and systems for supply chain management
and customer relationship management in greater detail in Chapter 9. We discuss
collaboration systems that support knowledge management in this chapter and
cover other types of knowledge management applications in Chapter 11.
Intranets and Extranets
Enterprise applications create deep-seated changes in the way the firm conducts
its business, offering many opportunities to integrate important business data
into a single system. They are often costly and difficult to implement. Intranets
and extranets deserve mention here as alternative tools for increasing integra-
tion and expediting the flow of information within the firm, and with customers
ad suppliers.
Intranets are simply internal company Web sites that are accessible only by
employees. The term “intranet” refers to an internal network, in contrast to the
Internet, which is a public network linking organizations and other external
networks. Intranets use the same technologies and techniques as the larger
Internet, and they often are simply a private access area in a larger company
Web site. Likewise with extranets. Extranets are company Web sites that are
accessible to authorized vendors and suppliers, and are often used to coordinate
the movement of supplies to the firm’s production apparatus.
For example, Six Flags, which operates 19 theme parks throughout North
America, maintains an intranet for its 2,500 full-time employees that provides
company-related news and information on each park’s day-to-day operations,
including weather forecasts, performance schedules, and details about groups
and celebrities visiting the parks. The company also uses an extranet to
broadcast information about schedule changes and park events to its 30,000
seasonal employees. We describe the technology for intranets and extranets in
more detail in Chapter 7.

E-BUSINESS, E-COMMERCE, AND E-GOVERNMENT

The systems and technologies we have just described are transforming firms’
relationships with customers, employees, suppliers, and logistic partners into
digital relationships using networks and the Internet. So much business is now
enabled by or based upon digital networks that we use the terms “electronic
business” and “electronic commerce” frequently throughout this text.
Electronic business, or e-business, refers to the use of digital technology
and the Internet to execute the major business processes in the enterprise.
E-business includes activities for the internal management of the firm and
for coordination with suppliers and other business partners. It also includes
electronic commerce, or e-commerce.
E-commerce is the part of e-business that deals with the buying and selling of
goods and services over the Internet. It also encompasses activities supporting
those market transactions, such as advertising, marketing, customer support,
security, delivery, and payment.
The technologies associated with e-business have also brought about similar
changes in the public sector. Governments on all levels are using Internet tech-
nology to deliver information and services to citizens, employees, and businesses
with which they work. E-government refers to the application of the Internet
and networking technologies to digitally enable government and public sector
agencies’ relationships with citizens, businesses, and other arms of government.

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