Sejarah Komputer

PENGENALAN KOMPUTER

Komputer adalah alat yang dipakai untuk mengolah data menurut perintah yang telah dirumuskan. Kata komputer semula dipergunakan untuk menggambarkan orang yang perkerjaannya melakukan perhitungan aritmatika, dengan atau tanpa alat bantu, tetapi arti kata ini kemudian dipindahkan kepada mesin itu sendiri. Asal mulanya, pengolahan informasi hampir eksklusif berhubungan dengan masalah aritmatika, tetapi komputer modern dipakai untuk banyak tugas yang tidak berhubungan dengan matematika.

Secara luas, Komputer dapat didefinisikan sebagai suatu peralatan elektronik yang terdiri dari beberapa komponen, yang dapat bekerja sama antara komponen satu dengan yang lain untuk menghasilkan suatu informasi berdasarkan program dan data yang ada. Adapun komponen komputer adalah meliputi : Layar Monitor, CPU, Keyboard, Mouse dan Printer (sbg pelengkap). Tanpa printer komputer tetap dapat melakukan tugasnya sebagai pengolah data, namun sebatas terlihat dilayar monitor belum dalam bentuk print out (kertas).

Dalam definisi seperti itu terdapat alat seperti slide rule, jenis kalkulator mekanik mulai dari abakus dan seterusnya, sampai semua komputer elektronik yang kontemporer. Istilah lebih baik yang cocok untuk arti luas seperti "komputer" adalah "yang memproses informasi" atau "sistem pengolah informasi."

GENERASI KOMPUTER

Generasi Pertama

Dengan terjadinya Perang Dunia Kedua, negara-negara yang terlibat dalam perang tersebut berusaha mengembangkan komputer untuk mengeksploit potensi strategis yang dimiliki komputer. Hal ini meningkatkan pendanaan pengembangan komputer serta mempercepat kemajuan teknik komputer. Pada tahun 1941, Konrad Zuse, seorang insinyur Jerman membangun sebuah komputer, Z3, untuk mendesain pesawat terbang dan peluru kendali.

Pihak sekutu juga membuat kemajuan lain dalam pengembangan kekuatan komputer. Tahun 1943, pihak Inggris menyelesaikan komputer pemecah kode rahasia yang dinamakan Colossus untuk memecahkan kode rahasia yang digunakan Jerman. Dampak pembuatan Colossus tidak terlalu mempengaruhi perkembangan industri komputer dikarenakan dua alasan. Pertama, Colossus bukan merupakan komputer serbaguna(general-purpose computer), ia hanya didesain untuk memecahkan kode rahasia. Kedua, keberadaan mesin ini dijaga kerahasiaannya hingga satu dekade setelah perang berakhir.

Usaha yang dilakukan oleh pihak Amerika pada saat itu menghasilkan suatu kemajuan lain. Howard H. Aiken (1900-1973), seorang insinyur Harvard yang bekerja dengan IBM, berhasil memproduksi kalkulator elektronik untuk US Navy. Kalkulator tersebut berukuran panjang setengah lapangan bola kaki dan memiliki rentang kabel sepanjang 500 mil. The Harvard-IBM Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator, atau Mark I, merupakan komputer relai elektronik. Ia menggunakan sinyal elektromagnetik untuk menggerakkan komponen mekanik. Mesin tersebut beropreasi dengan lambat (ia membutuhkan 3-5 detik untuk setiap perhitungan) dan tidak fleksibel (urutan kalkulasi tidak dapat diubah). Kalkulator tersebut dapat melakukan perhitungan aritmatik dasar dan persamaan yang lebih kompleks.

Perkembangan komputer lain pada masa kini adalah Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC), yang dibuat oleh kerjasama antara pemerintah Amerika Serikat dan University of Pennsylvania. Terdiri dari 18.000 tabung vakum, 70.000 resistor, dan 5 juta titik solder, komputer tersebut merupakan mesin yang sangat besar yang mengkonsumsi daya sebesar 160kW.

Komputer ini dirancang oleh John Presper Eckert (1919-1995) dan John W. Mauchly (1907-1980), ENIAC merupakan komputer serbaguna (general purpose computer) yang bekerja 1000 kali lebih cepat dibandingkan Mark I.

Pada pertengahan 1940-an, John von Neumann (1903-1957) bergabung dengan tim University of Pennsylvania dalam usaha membangun konsep desain komputer yang hingga 40 tahun mendatang masih dipakai dalam teknik komputer. Von Neumann mendesain Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer (EDVAC) pada tahun 1945 dengan sebuah memori untuk menampung baik program ataupun data. Teknik ini memungkinkan komputer untuk berhenti pada suatu saat dan kemudian melanjutkan pekerjaannya kembali. Kunci utama arsitektur von Neumann adalah unit pemrosesan sentral (CPU), yang memungkinkan seluruh fungsi komputer untuk dikoordinasikan melalui satu sumber tunggal. Tahun 1951, UNIVAC I (Universal Automatic Computer I) yang dibuat oleh Remington Rand, menjadi komputer komersial pertama yang memanfaatkan model arsitektur Von Neumann tersebut.

Baik Badan Sensus Amerika Serikat dan General Electric memiliki UNIVAC. Salah satu hasil mengesankan yang dicapai oleh UNIVAC dalah keberhasilannya dalam memprediksi kemenangan Dwilight D. Eisenhower dalam pemilihan presiden tahun 1952.

Komputer Generasi pertama dikarakteristik dengan fakta bahwa instruksi operasi dibuat secara spesifik untuk suatu tugas tertentu. Setiap komputer memiliki program kode biner yang berbeda yang disebut "bahasa mesin" (machine language). Hal ini menyebabkan komputer sulit untuk diprogram dan membatasi kecepatannya. Ciri lain komputer generasi pertama adalah penggunaan tube vakum (yang membuat komputer pada masa tersebut berukuran sangat besar) dan silinder magnetik untuk penyimpanan data.

Generasi Kedua

Pada tahun 1948, penemuan transistor sangat mempengaruhi perkembangan komputer. Transistor menggantikan tube vakum di televisi, radio, dan komputer. Akibatnya, ukuran mesin-mesin elektrik berkurang drastis.

Transistor mulai digunakan di dalam komputer mulai pada tahun 1956. Penemuan lain yang berupa pengembangan memori inti-magnetik membantu pengembangan komputer generasi kedua yang lebih kecil, lebih cepat, lebih dapat diandalkan, dan lebih hemat energi dibanding para pendahulunya. Mesin pertama yang memanfaatkan teknologi baru ini adalah superkomputer. IBM membuat superkomputer bernama Stretch, dan Sprery-Rand membuat komputer bernama LARC. Komputer-komputer ini, yang dikembangkan untuk laboratorium energi atom, dapat menangani sejumlah besar data, sebuah kemampuan yang sangat dibutuhkan oleh peneliti atom. Mesin tersebut sangat mahal dan cenderung terlalu kompleksuntuk kebutuhan komputasi bisnis, sehingga membatasi kepopulerannya. Hanya ada dua LARC yang pernah dipasang dan digunakan: satu di Lawrence Radiation Labs di Livermore, California, dan yang lainnya di US Navy Research and Development Center di Washington D.C. Komputer generasi kedua menggantikan bahasa mesin dengan bahasa assembly. Bahasa assembly adalah bahasa yang menggunakan singkatan-singakatan untuk menggantikan kode biner.

Pada awal 1960-an, mulai bermunculan komputer generasi kedua yang sukses di bidang bisnis, di universitas, dan di pemerintahan. Komputer-komputer generasi kedua ini merupakan komputer yang sepenuhnya menggunakan transistor. Mereka juga memiliki komponen-komponen yang dapat diasosiasikan dengan komputer pada saat ini: printer, penyimpanan dalam disket, memory, sistem operasi, dan program.

Salah satu contoh penting komputer pada masa ini adalah 1401 yang diterima secara luas di kalangan industri. Pada tahun 1965, hampir seluruh bisnis-bisnis besar menggunakan komputer generasi kedua untuk memprosesinformasi keuangan.

Program yang tersimpan di dalam komputer dan bahasa pemrograman yang ada di dalamnya memberikan fleksibilitas kepada komputer. Fleksibilitas ini meningkatkan kinerja dengan harga yang pantas bagi penggunaan bisnis. Dengan konsep ini, komputer dapat mencetak faktur pembelian konsumen dan kemudian menjalankan desain produk atau menghitung daftar gaji. Beberapa bahasa pemrograman mulai bermunculan pada saat itu. Bahasa pemrograman Common Business-Oriented Language (COBOL) dan Formula Translator (FORTRAN) mulai umum digunakan. Bahasa pemrograman ini menggantikan kode mesin yang rumit dengan kata-kata, kalimat, dan formula matematika yang lebih mudah dipahami oleh manusia. Hal ini memudahkan seseorang untuk memprogram dan mengatur komputer. Berbagai macam karier baru bermunculan (programmer, analis sistem, dan ahli sistem komputer). Industri piranti lunak juga mulai bermunculan dan berkembang pada masa komputer generasi kedua ini.

Generasi Ketiga

Walaupun transistor dalam banyak hal mengungguli tube vakum, namun transistor menghasilkan panas yang cukup besar, yang dapat berpotensi merusak bagian-bagian internal komputer. Batu kuarsa (quartz rock) menghilangkan masalah ini. Jack Kilby, seorang insinyur di Texas Instrument, mengembangkan sirkuit terintegrasi (IC : integrated circuit) di tahun 1958. IC mengkombinasikan tiga komponen elektronik dalam sebuah piringan silikon kecil yang terbuat dari pasir kuarsa. Pada ilmuwan kemudian berhasil memasukkan lebih banyak komponen-komponen ke dalam suatu chip tunggal yang disebut semikonduktor. Hasilnya, komputer menjadi semakin kecil karena komponen-komponen dapat dipadatkan dalam chip. Kemajuan komputer generasi ketiga lainnya adalah penggunaan sistem operasi (operating system) yang memungkinkan mesin untuk menjalankan berbagai program yang berbeda secara
serentak dengan sebuah program utama yang memonitor dan mengkoordinasi memori komputer.

Generasi Keempat

Setelah IC, tujuan pengembangan menjadi lebih jelas: mengecilkan ukuran sirkuit dan komponen-komponen elektrik. Large Scale Integration (LSI) dapat memuat ratusan komponen dalam sebuah chip. Pada tahun 1980-an, Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) memuat ribuan komponen dalam sebuah chip tunggal.

Ultra-Large Scale Integration (ULSI) meningkatkan jumlah tersebut menjadi jutaan. Kemampuan untuk memasang sedemikian banyak komponen dalam suatu keping yang berukurang setengah keping uang logam mendorong turunnya harga dan ukuran komputer. Hal tersebut juga meningkatkan daya kerja, efisiensi dan keterandalan komputer. Chip Intel 4004 yang dibuat pada tahun 1971membawa kemajuan pada IC dengan meletakkan seluruh komponen dari sebuah komputer (central processing unit, memori, dan kendali input/output) dalam sebuah chip yang sangat kecil. Sebelumnya, IC dibuat untuk mengerjakan suatu tugas tertentu yang spesifik. Sekarang, sebuah mikroprosesor dapat diproduksi dan kemudian diprogram untuk memenuhi seluruh kebutuhan yang diinginkan. Tidak lama kemudian, setiap piranti rumah tangga seperti microwave, oven, televisi, dan mobil dengan electronic fuel injection (EFI) dilengkapi dengan mikroprosesor.

Perkembangan yang demikian memungkinkan orang-orang biasa untuk menggunakan komputer biasa. Komputer tidak lagi menjadi dominasi perusahaan-perusahaan besar atau lembaga pemerintah. Pada pertengahan tahun 1970-an, perakit komputer menawarkan produk komputer mereka ke masyarakat umum. Komputer-komputer ini, yang disebut minikomputer, dijual dengan paket piranti lunak yang mudah digunakan oleh kalangan awam. Piranti lunak yang paling populer pada saat itu adalah program word processing dan spreadsheet. Pada awal 1980-an, video game seperti Atari 2600 menarik perhatian konsumen pada komputer rumahan
yang lebih canggih dan dapat diprogram.

Pada tahun 1981, IBM memperkenalkan penggunaan Personal Computer (PC) untuk penggunaan di rumah, kantor, dan sekolah. Jumlah PC yang digunakan melonjak dari 2 juta unit di tahun 1981 menjadi 5,5 juta unit di tahun 1982. Sepuluh tahun kemudian, 65 juta PC digunakan. Komputer melanjutkan evolusinya menuju ukuran yang lebih kecil, dari komputer yang berada di atas meja (desktop computer) menjadi komputer yang dapat dimasukkan ke dalam tas (laptop), atau bahkan komputer yang dapat digenggam (palmtop).

IBM PC bersaing dengan Apple Macintosh dalam memperebutkan pasar komputer. Apple Macintosh menjadi terkenal karena mempopulerkan sistem grafis pada komputernya, sementara saingannya masih menggunakan komputer yang berbasis teks. Macintosh juga mempopulerkan penggunaan piranti mouse.

Pada masa sekarang, kita mengenal perjalanan IBM compatible dengan pemakaian CPU: IBM PC/486, Pentium, Pentium II, Pentium III, Pentium IV (Serial dari CPU buatan Intel). Juga kita kenal AMD k6, Athlon, dsb. Ini semua masuk dalam golongan komputer generasi keempat.

Seiring dengan menjamurnya penggunaan komputer di tempat kerja, cara-cara baru untuk menggali potensial terus dikembangkan. Seiring dengan bertambah kuatnya suatu komputer kecil, komputer-komputer tersebut dapat dihubungkan secara bersamaan dalam suatu jaringan untuk saling berbagi memori, piranti lunak, informasi, dan juga untuk dapat saling berkomunikasi satu dengan yang lainnya. Jaringan komputer memungkinkan komputer tunggal untuk membentuk kerjasama elektronik untuk menyelesaikan suatu proses tugas. Dengan menggunakan perkabelan langsung (disebut juga Local Area Network atau LAN), atau kabel telepon, jaringan ini dapat berkembang menjadi sangat besar.

Generasi Kelima

Mendefinisikan komputer generasi kelima menjadi cukup sulit karena tahap ini masih sangat muda. Contoh imajinatif komputer generasi kelima adalah komputer fiksi HAL9000 dari novel karya Arthur C. Clarke berjudul 2001: Space Odyssey. HAL menampilkan seluruh fungsi yang diinginkan dari sebuah komputer generasi kelima. Dengan kecerdasan buatan (artificial intelligence atau AI), HAL dapat cukup memiliki nalar untuk melakukan percapakan dengan manusia, menggunakan masukan visual, dan belajar dari pengalamannya sendiri.

Walaupun mungkin realisasi HAL9000 masih jauh dari kenyataan, banyak fungsi-fungsi yang dimilikinya sudah terwujud. Beberapa komputer dapat menerima instruksi secara lisan dan mampu meniru nalar manusia. Kemampuan untuk menterjemahkan bahasa asing juga menjadi mungkin. Fasilitas ini tampak sederhana. Namun fasilitas tersebut menjadi jauh lebih rumit dari yang diduga ketika programmer menyadari bahwa pengertian manusia sangat bergantung pada konteks dan pengertian ketimbang sekedar menterjemahkan kata-kata secara langsung.

Banyak kemajuan di bidang desain komputer dan teknologi yang semakin memungkinkan pembuatan komputer generasi kelima. Dua kemajuan rekayasa yang terutama adalah kemampuan pemrosesan paralel, yang akan menggantikan model non Neumann. Model non Neumann akan digantikan dengan sistem yang mampu mengkoordinasikan banyak CPU untuk bekerja secara serempak. Kemajuan lain adalah teknologi superkonduktor yang memungkinkan aliran elektrik tanpa ada hambatan apapun, yang nantinya dapat mempercepat kecepatan informasi.

Jepang adalah negara yang terkenal dalam sosialisasi jargon dan proyek komputer generasi kelima. Lembaga ICOT (Institute for new Computer Technology) juga dibentuk untuk merealisasikannya. Banyak kabar yang menyatakan bahwa proyek ini telah gagal, namun beberapa informasi lain bahwa keberhasilan proyek komputer generasi kelima ini akan membawa perubahan baru paradigma komputerisasi di dunia.

Saat ini, komputer sudah semakin canggih. Tetapi, sebelumnya komputer tidak sekecil, secanggih, sekeren dan seringan sekarang.

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DELL 15 USING E-COMMERCE FOR SUCCESS

The Business Problem/Opportunity
Founded in 1984 by Michael Dell, Dell Computer Corp.(now known as Dell) was the first company to offer personal computers (PCs) via mail order. Dell designed its own PC system and allowed customers to configure their own customized systems using the build-to-order conceptand shipped to them by direct mail. These concepts were, and are, Dell's cornerstone business models. By 1993, Dell had become one of the top-five computer makers worldwide, threatening Compaq, which started a price war. At that time, Dell was taking orders by fax and snail mail and losing money. Losses reached over Sl00 million by 1994. The company was in trouble.

The Solution: Direct Marketing Online
The commercialization of the lnternet in the early 1990s and the introduction of the Web in 1993 provided Dell with an opportunity to expand rapidly by selling online. Dell implemented aggressive online order-taking and opened subsidiaries in Europe and Asia. Dell also started to offer additional products on its Web site. This enabled Dell to batter Compaq, and in 1999 Dell became number one in worldwide PC shipments. Today, Dell (dell.com)sells about $60 billion a year in computer-related products online, from network switches to printers, employing over 63,000 people.

Dell sells to: individuals for their homes and home offices; small businesses (up to 200 employees); medium and large businesses (over 200 employees); government, education, and health-care organizations.

Sales to the first group are classified as business-to-owmer (B2C). Sales to the other three groups are classified as business-to-business (B2B). Consumers shop at dell.com using online electronic catalogs. ln addition, Dell sells refurbished Dell computers and other products in electronic auctions at dellauction.com.

Here are Dell's major EC initiatives:

Business-to-Business. Most of Dell's sales are to businesses. These sales are facilitated by standard shopping aids (e.g., catalogs, shopping carts, comparison engine, and credit card payments). B2B customers obtain additional help from Dell. Dell provides each of its nearly 100,000 business customers with Premier Dell service.

For example, British Airways (BA) considers Dell to be a strategic supplier. Dell provides notebook and deskop computers to 25,000 BA users. Dell offers two e-procurement services to BA purchasing agents. The more basic service, Premier Dell, allows BA (and other businesses) to browse, buy, and track orders on a Dell Web site customized for the the user's requirements. The site enables authorized users to select preconfigured PCs for their business unit or department. This provides automatic requisition and order fulfillment once an authorized user has chosen to buy a PC from Dell. BA has placed the e-procurement tools on their E-Working intranet. This allows authorized staffto purchase PCs through a portal that connects directly into Dell! systems.

Business-to-Consumer (B2C). Dell sells direct to individuals from its private marketplace (store). Using fairly standard mechanisms such as electronic catalog, shopping carts, and payment gateway and shipping, any customer can configure and price a desktop, laptop, or other product sold by Dell. Payment must be arranged in advance.

Customers can also participate in auctions of refurbished computers, which are periodically conducted online.

ln addition to supporting its business customers with e-procurement tools, such as in the case of BA, Dell is using EC in its own procurement. Actually, Dell developed an e-procurement model that it shares with its business partners, such as BA. One aspect of this model is the use of electronic tendering to conduct bids, known as reverse auctions. Dell uses electronic tendering when it buys the components for its products.

E-Collaboration. Dell has many business partners with which communication and collaboration is necessary. For example, Dell uses shippers such as UPS and FedEx to deliver its computers to individuals. lt also uses third-party logistics companies to collect, maintain, and deliver components from its suppliers, and it has many other partners. Dell is using leading-edge technologies such as Web Services to facilitate communication and reduce inventories. Web Services facilitate B2B integration that links customers' existing ERP or procurement systems directly with Dell and other trading partners.

Finally, Dell has a superb communication system with its ovet 15,000 service providers around the globe.

E-Customer Service. Dell uses a number of different tools to provide superb customer service around the clock. To leverage customer relationship management (CRM), a customer service approach that is customer centered is implemented for lasting relationships. Dell provides a virtual help desk for self-diagnosis and service as well as direct access to technical support data. ln addition, a phone-based help desk is open 24/7. Product support includes troubleshooting, user guides, upgrades, downloads, news and press releases. FAQs, order status information, a "my account" page, a community forum (to exchange online ideas, information, and experiences), bulletin boards and other customer-to-customer interaction features, training books
(at a discount), and much more. Dell keeps a large database of its customers. Using data mining tools, it learns a great deal about its customers and attempts to make them happy. The database is used to improve marketing as well.

Intrabusiness EC. To support its build-to-order capabilities, significantly improve its demand-planning and factory-execution accuracy, reduce order-to-delivery time, and enhance customer service, Dell partnered with Accenture to create a high-performance supply chain management solution. Now in place in Dell's plants around the world, the program, which paid for itself five times during the first 12 months of operation, enables Dell to adapt more quickly to rapidly changing technologies and the business environment and maintain its position as a high-performance business.

Dell also has automated its factory scheduling, demand-planning capabilities, and inventory management using information technology and e-supply chain models.

Dell is using many other EC initiatives. For example, you can join Dell's affiliate program by placing Dell's banner and logo on your Web site. lf a customer comes to your site and clicks on Dell's banner and then purchases an item at Dell, you get 1-4 percent commission for the referral. Another example is EducateU at LearnDell.com, which allows online self-learning about Dell products as well as about many lT and management topics. Finally, using an intranet (inside.dell.com), Dell serves its own employees with information they need to do their job better providing them with customer data, financial reports, product information, training, and much more.

The Results
Dell has been one of Fortune's top five "Most Admired" companies since 1999, and it continuously advances in the rankings of the Fortune 500 and the Fortune Global 500. Dell has over 100 country-oriented Web sites in many languages, and profits are nearing $4 billion a year. lf you had invested $10,000 in Dell's initial public offering (IPO) in 1987 , you would be a millionaire just from that investment. Dell actively supports EC research at the University of Texas in Austin (Dell's headquarters are in Austin). Dell is expanding its business not only in the computer industry but also in consumer electronics.

Lesson Learned from This Case
Dell exemplifies the major EC business models. First, it pioneered the direct-marketing model for PCs, and then it moved online. Furthermore. Dell supplemented its direct marketing with the build-to-order or custom-built model on a large scale (mass customization). ln doing so, Dell benefited from the elimination of intermediation by selling direct, from extremely low inventories, and from superb cash flow by getting paid in advance. To meet the large demand for its quality products, Dell is using other EC models, notably e-procurement for improving the purchasing of components, collaborative commerce with its partners, and intrabusiness EC for improving its internal operations. Finally, Dell uses e-CRM with its customers. Dell believes that the most efficient path to customers is through a direct relationship that minimizes confusion and cost. By successfully using e-commerce models, Dell became a world-class company, winning over all of its competitors. Dells EC business models have become classic examples of best practices, and they are followed today by many other manufacturers, notably car makers.

Source: Information Technology for Management 6e.

Transforming Organizations in the Digital Economy

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Menghilangkan linux GRUB

Ketika kita mempunyai dua OS, katakanlah Linux Ubuntu dan Windows XP, terkadang OS Linux Ubuntu bisa crashed atau error atau rusak bahkan karena kita menginstall di dua HD yang berbeda, HD tempat kita menginstall Linux Ubuntu sudah menunjukkan tanda-tanda kerusakan sehingga untuk masuk ke grub saja tidak bisa dan akibatnya kita tidak bisa mengoperasikan OS kita baik Windows XP maupun Linux Ubuntu.

Ada beberapa teknik yang bisa kita terapkan untuk menghilangkan grub tersebut sehingga kita bisa masuk ke OS Windows, berikut caranya :

Cara I

1. Boot komputer dengan menggunakan CD Booting Win98 atau CD Booting DOS

2. Pada Command Prompt Ketikkan fdisk /mbr ( c:\fdisk /mbr )
3. Lalu RESTART komputer

Cara II

1. Boot komputer dengan CD Instalasi Windows XP

2. Masuk ke recovery console

3. Ketikkan fixmbr

4. lalu RESTART komputer

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NEXTBUS : A SUPERB CUSTOMER SERVICE

The Problem
Buses in certain parts of San Francisco have difficulty keeping up with the posted schedule, especially in rush hours. Generally, buses are schedule to arrive every 20 minutes, but, at times, passengers may have to wait 30 to 40 minutes. The scheduled times become meaningless.

The Solution
San Francisco bus riders carrying an Internet-enabled wireless device such as a cell phone or Palm (or other) PDA can quickly find out when a bus will actually arrive at a particular bus stop. They can find not only the scheduled arrival time, but also the actual one. The system tracks public transportation buses in real time. Knowing where each bus is and factoring in traffic patterns and weather reports, NextBus (nextbus.com) calculates the estimated arrival time of the bus to each bus stop on the route. The arrival times are also displayed on the Internet and on a screen are also displayed on the Internet and on a screen at each bus stop.
The NextBus system is used successfully in several other cities around the United States, in Finland, and in several other countries. It is an example of location-based e-commerce, which is a major part of mobile commerce.
Exhibit 8.1 (page 334) shows how the NextBus system works. The core of the NextBus system is the GPS satellite that let the NextBus information center know where a bus is. Based on a bus’s location, the scheduled arrival time at each stop can be calculated. Users can access the information from their cell phones or PCs, anytime, anywhere.
Currently, NextBus is an ad-free customer services, but in the near future advertising may be added. As the system knows exactly where you are when you request information and how much time you have until your next bus, it may send you to the nearest Starbucks for a cup of coffee, giving you an electronic $1 discount coupon.

The Results
Passengers in San Francisco are happy with the system; worries about missing the bus are diminished. Passengers may even discover they have time for a cup of coffee before the bus arrives! In rural areas in Finland, where buses are infrequent and it is very Cold in winter, passengers can stay in a warm coffee- house not far from the bus stop rather than waiting in the cold for a bus that may be an hour late. Also, using the system, a bus company can do better scheduling, arrange for extra buses when needed, and improve its operations.

What We Can Learn...
This opening vignette demonstrates an application of one of the most talked-about areas of EC, mobile commerce. Its most significant feature is that the service is provided to the customer wherever they are located. This capability, which is not available in regular EC, may change many things in our lives. The technological basis of mobile commerce, its major applications, and its limitations are the subject of this chapter.

Sources: Compiled from Itsa.org/ITSNEWS.NSF, August 10, 2001, P. Murphy, September 7, 1999, and nextbus.com. Read More..

MOBILE WORKPLACE APPLICATIONS

The following are two scenarios of wireless applications for mobile employees.

Sales Support
Linda is a member of the field sales team at Theru Tools (a fictitious company name). Each day she drives out to her customers in a van stocked with products. For each sale, she has to note the customer, the number and type of products sold, and any special discounts made. This used to be done manually, and many errors were made, leading to customer complaints and lost sales.
The company was reluctant to invest in laptops for such a limited applications, but Linda wanted the speed and reliability of automation. With the help of SAP, Theru was able to implement a system using low-cost but powerful handheld wireless devices.
Using Mobile Sales (an application for handhelds), accessed via the mysap.com Mobile Workplace, Linda and her coworkers in the field now have information at their fingertips, including updates on new products and special promotions. She can place orders without delay and get immediate feedback on product availability and delivery times. What’s more, the system at headquarters can prompt Linda and make plausibility checks on the orders, eliminating many of the errors associated with the manual process. It can also check if she is giving the right discounts to the right customer, and immediately trigger the invoicing process or print out a receipt on the spot.

Customer Service Support
Michael works for Euroblast, Inc. (a fictitious company name) as a service engineer. It is his job to provide time-critical maintenance and support for the company’s customer’s electromechanical control systems. To do so, he needs to know immediately when a customer’s system is faltering, what is malfunctioning, and what type of service contract is in effect for billing purposes.
Using SAP’s Mobile Service, Michael does not need to carry all of this information in his head, but instead has it in the palm of his hand. With only a few taps of the stylus, Michael accesses the mysap.com Mobile Workplace for all the data he requires, including the name and address of the next customer he should visit, equipment specifications, parts inventory data, and so forth.
Once he has completed the job, he can report back on the time and materials he used, and this data can be employed for timely billing and service quality analysis. In addition, his company is able to keep track of his progress and monitor any major fluctuations in activities. As a result, both Michael and his supervisors are better informed and better able to serve the customer.

Sources: Compiled from “CRM and the mySAP.com Mobile Workplace,” SAP AG Corp., 2000 (a publicly available brochure). Read More..

THE INTERNET JOB MARKET

The Internet offers a perfect environment for job seekers and companies searching for hard-to-find employees. The online job market is especially effective for technology-oriented companies and jobs because these companies and workers use the Internet regularly. However, there are thousands of other types of companies that advertise available positions, accept resumes, and take applications over the Internet. The following parties use the Internet job market :

1. Job seekers. Job seekers can reply to employment ads. Or, they can take the initiative and place their resumes on their own home pages or on others' Websites, send messages to members of newsgroups asking for referrals, and use recruiting firms such as headhunter.net, asiajobsearch.org, hotjobs.com, and monster.com. For entry-level jobs and internships for newly minted graduates, job seekers can use jobdirect.com.
2. Employers seeking employees. Many organizations advertise openings on their Web sites. Others advertise job openings on popular public portals, online newspapers, bulletin boards, and with recruiting firms. Employers can conduct interviews and administer tests on the Web.
3. Job agencies. Hundreds of job agencies are active on the Web. They use their own Web pages to post available job descriptions and advertise their services in e-mails and at other Web sites. Recruiters use newsgroups, online forums, bulletin boards, Internet commercial resume services, and portals such as Yahoo! and AOL.
4. Government agencies and institutions. Many government agencies advertise openings for government positions on their Web sites and on other sites. In addition, some government agencies use the Internet to help job seekers find jobs elsewhere, ad done in Hong Kong and the Philipines (see Study case E-Commerce)
   

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Perfect Competition in EC

EC supports efficient markets and could result in almost perfect competition. In such markets, a commodity (undifferentiated product) is produced when the consumer's willingness to pay equals the marginal cost of producing the commodity, and neither sellers nor buyers can influence supply or demand sellers not buyers can influence supply or demand conditions individually. The characteristics necessary for perfect competition are the following :

1. Many buyers and sellers must be able to enter the market at no entry cost (no barriers to entry).
2. Large buyers or sellers are not able to individually influence the market.
3. The products must be homogeneous (no product differentiation). (For customized products, there is no perfect competition.)
4. Buyers and sellers must have comprehensive information about the products and about the market participants' demands, supplies, and conditions.

EC could provide, or come close to providing, these conditions. Read More..

Kelompok Diskusi SIM Kelas F, Senin 13.30-15.10 WIB

Kelompok I
Budhi Mahendra Perdana/0812000170
Anggrita Indreswari/0812000216
Lisa Amelia Sari/0812000223
Fahmi Fathurahman/0812000235
Topik : Information Systems Helps KIA Solve Its Quality Problem

Kelompok II
Mutia Susiana/0812000166
Putri Wahyu Utami/0812000174
Dwi Suhendro/0812000175
Windy Wulandari/0812000183
Tri Riyanto Andhika Putra/0812000190
Topik : Amazon.com: An Internet Giant Fine-Tunes Its Strategy

Kelompok III
Putri Dwirachmawati/06120069
Alwina Minang Putri/06120196
Dede Mulyana/07120083
Mochtar Baihaqie/07120265
Irfan Dwi Meiriyan/07120286
Topik : The Internet: Friend or Foe to Children?

Kelompok IV
Siva Karunia/07120304
Megha Oktiani/07120375
Fitria Malina F/07120384
Kumaras Mahartami/07120385
Vira Pratiwi/07120388
Topik : What Can Be Done About Data Quality?

Kelompok V
Fritz Ondy/05120271
Ricko Ramadhan/07120073
Indra Darmawan Pamungkas/07120080
Izhar Noor/07120316
Topik : Monitoring Employees on Networks: Unethical or Good Business?

Kelompok VI
Irfan Suhada/07120010
Bayu Setyaji/07120022
Muhammad Fachreza Fitra/07120023
Cempaka Septiati/07120210
Topik : Unilever Secures Its Mobile Devices

Kelompok VII
Rien Bunga Adhinda/04120218
Avid Suhendar/05120435
Ayu Medianti Lestari/0812000188
Indra Januarman/0812000189
Reza Adi Dwi Priadana/0812000372
Topik : Invacare Struggles with Its Enterprise System Implementation



Note :
Bagi yang belum terdaftar di atas harap kirim email atau update kelompok anda melalui email. Read More..

INTERORGANIZATION AND COLLABORATION

NTE EVENS THE LOAD

The hauling industry is not very efficient. Though trucks are likely to be full on outbound journeys, they are often empty on the way back. (About 50 percent of the trucks on America's roads at any one time are not full.) National Transportation Exchange (NTE) is attempting to solve this problem.
NTE (nte.com) uses the Internet to connect shippers who have loads they want to move cheaply with fleet managers who have space to fill. NTE helps create what is called spot market (a very short-term market) by setting daily prices based on information from several hundreds fleet managers about the destinations of their vehicles and the amount of space they have available. It also gets information from shippers about their needs and flexibility in dates.
NTE then works out the best deals for the shippers and the haulers. When a deal is agreed upon, NTE issues the contacts and handles payments. The entire process takes only a few minutes. NTE collects a commission based on the value of each deal, the fleet manager gets extra revenue that they would otherwise have missed out on, and the shipper gets a bargain price, at the cost of some loss of flexibility.
When NTE was first set up in 1995, it used a proprietary network that was expensive and limited the number of buyers and sellers who could connect through it. By using the Internet, NTE has been able to extend its reach down to the level of individual truck drivers and provide a much wider range of services. Today, drivers can use wireless Internet access devices to connect to the NTE Web site on the road.
In 2001, NTE expanded its services to improve inventory management, scheduling, and vendor compliance along the entire supply chain. NTE's software is integrated with its customers' operations and systems. NTE's business is currently limited to ground transportation within the United States. In Hong kong, arena.com.hk (called Line) provide similar port services.

Source: Complied from The Economist, June 26, 1999; Davidson,
April 2001, and arena.com.hk, April 2001

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THE LIMITATIONS OF EC

EC has both technological and non technological limitations. The major limitations are :

Technological Limitations
1. There is a lack of universally accepted standards for quality, security and reliability.
2. The telecommunications bandwidth is insufficient.
3. Software development tools are still evolving.
4. There are difficulties in integrating the Internet and EC software with some existing (especially legacy) applications and databases.
5. Special Web servers in addition to the network servers are needed (added cost).
6. Internet accessibility is still expensive and/or inconvenient.

Non technological Limitations
1. Security and privacy concerns deter customers from buying.
2. Trust in EC and in unknown sellers hinders buying.
3. National and international government regulations sometimes get in the way.
4. It is difficult to measure the benefits of EC, such as the effectiveness of online advertising. There is a lack of mature methodology.
5. Some customers like to feel and touch products. Customers are resistant to the change from a real to an online store.
6. People do not yet sufficiently trust paperless, faceless transactions.
7. There is an insufficient number (critical mass) of sellers and buyers needed for profitable EC operations

Despite these limitations, EC is expanding rapidly. For example, the number of people in the United States who buy and sell stocks electronically increased from 300,000 at the beginning of 1996 to over 25 million by the spring of 2002. In Korea, about 67 percent of all stock market transactions took place over the Internet in the spring of 2002 (versus 2 percent in 1998). According to the major financial institution J.P. Morgan, the number of online brokerage customers in Europe will reach 17.1 million in 2003 (versus 1.4 million in 1999). As experience accumulates and technology improves, the cost-benefit ration of EC will increase, resulting in greater rates of EC adoption.
The benefits presented here may not be convincing enough reasons for a business to implement EC. Much more compelling are the economic impact of EC and the digital revolution, along with the effects of EC on business competition.
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MARKETSPACE COMPONENT

Similar to a marketplace, in a marketspace sellers and buyers exchange goods and services for money (or for other goods and services if bartering is used), but they do it electronically. A marketspace includes electronic transactions that bring about a new distribution of goods and services. The major components and players of a marketspace are customers, sellers, goods (physical or digital), infrastructure, a front end, a back end, intermediaries and other business partners, and support services. A brief description of each follows.

Customers
The tens of million of people worldwide that surf the Web are potential buyers of the goods and services offered or advertised on the Internet. These consumers are looking for bargains, customized items, collectors' items, entertainment, and more. They are in the driver's seat. They can search for detailed information, compare, bid, and sometimes negotiate. Organizations are the major consumers, accounting for over 85 percent of EC activities.

Sellers
Hundreds of thousands of storefronts are on the Web, advertising and offering millions of items. Every day it is possible to find new offerings of products and services. Sellers can sell direct from their Web site or from a-marketplaces.

Products
One of the major differences between the marketplace and the marketspace is the possible of digitization of products and services in a marketspace. Although both types of markets can sell physical products, the marketspace also can sell digital products, which are goods that can be transformed to digital format and delivered over the Internet. In addition to digitization of software and music, it is possible to digitize dozens of other products and services. In digitization, most of the costs are fixed and the variable cost is very small. Thus, profit will increase very rapidly as volume increase once the fixed costs are paid for. This is one of the major potentials of electronic markets.

Infrastructure
An electronic market infrastructure includes hardware, software and networks.

Front end
Customers interact with a marketspace via a front end. The business processes in the front end include the seller's portal, electronic catalogs, a shopping cart, a search engine and a payment gateway.

Back end
All the activities that are related to order aggregation and fullfillment, inventory management, purchasing from suppliers, payment processing, packaging and delivery are done in what is termed the back end of the business.

Intermediaries
In marketing, an intermediary typically is a third party that operates between sellers and buyers. Intermediaries of all kinds offer their services on the Web. Online intermediaries create and manage the online markets (such as in the NTE case). They help match buyers and sellers, provide some infrastructure services, and help customers and/or sellers to institute and complete transactions. Most ot these online intermediaries are computized systems

Other business partners
In addition to intermediaries, there are several types of partners, such as shippers, that collaborate on the Internet, mostly along the supply chain.

Support services
Many different support services are available, ranging from certification and trust services, which ensure security, to knowledge providers. These service are created to address implementation issues.
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CLASSIFICATION OF EC BY THE NATURE OF THE TRANSACTION

A common classification of EC is by the nature of transaction or the relationship among participants. The following types of EC are commonly distinguished.

Business-to-Business (B2B). All of the participants in business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce are business or other organizations. Today most EC is B2B.

Business-to-Consumer(B2C). Business-to-consumer (B2C) EC includes retail transactions from business to individual shoppers. The typical shopper at Amazon.com is a consumer, or customer. This type is also called e-tailing.

Business-to-Business-to-Consumer (B2B2C). In business-to-business-to-consumer (B2B2C) EC, a business provides some product or service to a client business. The client business maintains its own customers, to whom the product or service is provided. An example is Qantas' Pan-Pacific market cited earlier. The term B2B frequently is used to describe B2B2C as well.

Consumer-to-Business (C2B). This category includes individuals who use the Internet to sell products or services to organizations, as well as individuals who seek sellers to bid on products or services they need. Priceline.com is a well-known C2B organizer.

Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C). In the consumer-to-consumer (C2C) category, consumers sell directly to other consumers. Examples include individuals selling residential property, cars, and so on in online classified ads. The advertisement of personal services over the Internet and the selling of knowledge and expertise online are other examples of C2C (e.g., guru.com). In addition, several auction sites allow individuals to place items up for auction. A special type of C2C is where people exchange music, videos, software, and other digitizable goods electronically using peer-to-peer (P2P) technology. A well-known organizer of P2P is Napster (napster.com). (As a result of legal challenges, Napster no longer offers free exchanges; in 2002 it tried offering only digital goods that people pay for.)

Mobile Commerce. E-Commerce transactions and activities conducted in a wireless environment are referred to as mobile commerce, or m-commerce. Such transactions targeted to individuals in specific locations, at specific times, are referred to as location-based commerce, or l-commerce.

Intrabusiness (organizational) EC. The intrabusiness EC category includes all internal organizational activities that involve the exchange of goods, services, or information among various units and individuals in that organization. Activities can range from selling corporate products to employees to online training and collaborative design efforts. Intrabusiness EC is usually performed on intranets or corporate portals (in general, gateways to the Web).

Business-to-employees (B2E). The business-to-employees (B2E) category is a subset of the intrabusiness category in which the organization delivers services, information, or products to individual employees, as Qantas Airways is doing with its College Online.
Collaborative Commerce. When individuals or groups communicate or collaborate online they may be engaged in collaborative commerce (c-commerce). For example, business partners in different locations may design a product together, using screen sharing, or they may jointly forecast market demand.

Nonbusiness EC. An increasing number of non business institutions such as academic institutions, not-for-profit organizations, religious organizations, social organizations, and government agencies are using EC to reduce their expenses or to improve their general operations and customer service. (Note that in the previous categories one can usually replace the word business with organization.)

E-Government: Government-to-citizens (G2C) and to others. In e-government EC, a government entity buys or provides goods, service, or information to businesses or individual citizens.

Exchange-to-exchange (E2E). An exchange describes a public electronic market with many buyers and sellers. As these proliferate, it is logical for exchanges to connect to one another. Exchange-to-exchange (E2E) EC is a formal system that connect exchanges.
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Individuals and Communities

REVERSE MORTGAGE AUCTIONS IN SINGAPORE

Homebuyers like to get the lowest possible mortgage rates. In the United State, Priceline.com will try to find you a mortgage if you "name your own price." However, a better deal may be available to home buyers in Singapore, where reverse auctions are combined with "group purchasing," saving about $20,000 over the life of a mortgage for each homeowner, plus $1,200 in waived legal fees. Dollardex.com offers the service in Singapore, Hong Kong, and other countries.

Here is how Dollardex arranged its first project: The site invited potential buyers in three residential properties in Singapore to join the service. Applications, including financial credentials, were made on a secure Web Site. Then, seven lending banks were invited to bid on the loans. In a secure electronic room, borrowers and lenders negotiated. After 2 days of negotiations of interest rates and special conditions, the borrowers voted on one bank. In the first project, 18 borrowers agreed to give the job to United Overseas Bank (UOB), paying about 0.5 percent less than the regular rate. The borrowers negotiated the waiver of the legal fee as well. From this first project, UOB generated $10 million of business. Today, Dollardex allows customers to participate in an individual reverse auction if they do not want to join a group.

The banks involved in the auctions can see the offers made by competitors. Flexibility is high; in addition to interest rates, banks are willing to negotiate down payment size ad the option of switching from a fixed to variable rate loan. On average, there are 2.6 bank bids per customer.
As of spring 2000, in addition to mortgages, Dollardex.com offers car loans, insurance policies, and travel services. It also allows comparisons of mutual funds that have agreed to give lower front-end fees.

Source : Compiled from moneyq.com.hk, 2002 and Dollardex.com, 2002.

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HOW RAFFLES HOTEL IS CONDUCTING E-COMMERCE

The Problem
Raffles Hotel, one of Singapore's colonial-era landmarks, is the flagship of Raffles Holding Ltd., which owns and manages luxury and business hotel worldwide. Raffles Hotel operates in a very competitive environment. To maintain its world-renowned reputation, the hotel spent lavishly on every facet of its operation. For example, it once stocked 12 different kinds of butter, at a high cost. The success of the company and each of its hotel depends on the company's ability to lure customers to its hotels and facilities and on its ability to contain costs.
The Solution
To maintain its image and contain costs, Raffles must address two types of issues--business-to-consumer and business-to-business. On the business-to-consumer side, Raffles maintains a diversified public portal (raffles.com) that introduces customers to the company and its services. The portal includes information on the hotels, a reservation system, links to travelers' resources, a customer relationship management (CRM) program, and an online store for Raffles products.
On the business-to-business side, Raffles has interorganizational system that enables efficient contacts with its suppliers. To do business with Raffles, each of 5,000 potential vendors must log on to Raffles' private marketplace. As for purchasing, Raffles conducts e-procurement using reverse auctions among qualified suppliers, in which sellers bid for the sales contract, and the lowest bidder wins. With the reverse auction, the number of suppliers is reduced and the quantity purchased from each increases, which leads to lower purchasing prices. For example, butter is now purchased from only two suppliers. Procurement negotiations now take place online. Buyer-seller relationships have been strengthened by the private, online marketplace.
The e-marketplace also has a sell-side, allowing other hotels to buy Raffles-branded products, such as tiny shampoo bottles and bathrobes, from electronic catalogs. Even competitors buy Raffles-branded products because they are relatively inexpensive. Also, the luxury products make the hotel that purchases from them look upscale.

The Results
The public portal helps in customer acquisition. Using promotions and direct sales, the hotel is able to maintain high occupancy rates in the difficult economic times. The private marketplace is strategically advantageous to Raffles in forcing suppliers to disclose their prices, thus increasing competition among suppliers. The company is saving about $1 million a year on procurement of eight high-volume supplies (toiler paper, detergents, etc.) alone. The success of the company is evidenced by its aggressive expansion in the Asian markets.

What We Can Learn...
For an old-economy hotel to transform itself into a click-and-mortar business, it had to create two separate electronic markets: a B2C private market for selling its services to consumers and a B2B market to buy from its suppliers and to sell products to other hotel. In addition, it had to use several e-commerce mechanisms : a corporate portal, electronic catalogs, and e-procurement using reverse auctions.
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INTERORGANIZATION AND COLLABORATION

THE INTERNET AND THE INTRANET SHORTEN TIME-TO-MARKET FOR NEW DRUGS

The Federal Drug Administration (FDA) must be extremely careful in approving new drugs. However, there is public pressure on the FDA to approve new drugs quickly, especially those for cancer and HIV. The problem is that to ensure quality, the FDA requires companies to conduct extensive research and clinical testing. The development programs such research and testing cover 300,000 to 500,000 pages of documentation for each new drug. The subsequent results and analyses are reported on 100,000 to 200,000 additional pages. These pages then are reviewed by the FDA prior to approval of a new drug. Manual processing of this information significantly slows the work of the FDA, so that the total approval process takes 6 to 10 years.

A Software program called Computer-Aided Drug Application Systems (Research Data Corporation, New Jersey) offers a computerized solution. The software uses a computerized solution. The software uses a network-distributed document-processing system that enables the pharmaceutical company to scan all related documents into a database. The documents are indexed, and full-text search and retrieval software is attached to the system. Using keywords, corporate employees can search the database via their company's intranet. The database is also accessible, via the Internet, to FDA employees, who no longer have to spend hours looking for specific piece of data. Information can be processed or printed at the user's desktop computer. Today, the U.S. government is able to offer an electronic submission and online review process for approval of new drugs (fas.gov/cder).
This system not only helps the FDA, but also the companies' researchers who now have every piece of required information at their fingertips. Remote corporate and business partners can also access the system. The overall result: The time-to-market of a new drug is reduced by up to a year. (Each week saved can be translated into the saving of many lives and can also yield up to $1 million profit.) The system also reduces the time it takes to patent a new drug.

An interesting use of this technology is the case of ISIS Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (isip.com), which developed an extranet-based system similiar to the one described here. The company uses CD-ROMs to submit reports to the FDA and opens its intranet to FDA personnel. This step alone could save 6 to 12 months from the average 15-month review time. Simply by submitting an FDA report electronically, the company can save 1 month of review time. To cut even more time, SmithKline Beecham Corporation is using electronic publishing and hypertext links to enable FDA reviewers to quickly navigate its submissions.

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REAL-WORLD CASE

E-COMMERCE CURES HOSPITAL

Changes in U.S. government regulations and strong competition in the health care industry in the late 1990s and early 2000 caused headaches for many health care institutions. Even Kaiser Permanente, the largest U.S. health maintenance organization (HMO), could not escape the problem, losing $288 million in 1998 alone. Kaiser Permanente serves about 10 million members with 361 hospitals and clinics, 10,000 doctors, and tens of thousands of support employees.

The company realized that the old way of doing business, working with old-fashioned paper records and communicating with telephones, faxes, and letters, would aggravate its financial problems. So in a bold move, Kaiser Permanente decided to move toward EC by investing $2 billion in various Web-based systems. Here are some of the projects that were undertaken :
> An Internet-based communications system was implemented. The system includes customized Web pages for each organization with which Kaiser has a contract. Staff from those organizations can locate particular rates or coverage online, and do not have to call Kaiser's employees for the information.
> Kaiser's portal allows patients to schedule and check their appointments via the Internet and to e-mail routine queries to Kaiser employees.
> Kaiser's corporate intranet allows doctors and other employees to electronically order supplies, equipment, and services.
> The corporate intranet has an application that checks the drugs that a doctor suggests for each patient. The computer suggests cheaper or less dangerous alternatives, and the doctor can then decide if the substitution is acceptable.
> As an HMO, Kaiser has to compete with other HMOs for customers, both organizational (with all their employees) and individuals. The intranet allows for real-time quotes, enabling Kaiser's sales force over 4,000 brokers to provide customers with customized rates within minutes.
> Digital records of patients' test are kept on Kaiser's intranet and can be accessed by authorized personnel in seconds. This means that staff no longer need to repeat 10 to 15 percent of patient tests due to lost or misread paper records.
> An e-procurement system expedites shipments, reduced inventories, and cuts costs.
> All medical record are digitized. A doctor can instantly tap into a patient's records from a keyboard and a flat-panel computer screen attached to the wall. The doctor can also add notes to the electronic file.

Dozen of other EC applications are in the works. All of the EC applications will be part of huge network that will be completed in 2003.

EC implementation has not been easy. The HMO started phasing in EC in the northwestern states in 1999. During the phase-in, some employees resisted, mistakes were made, and vendors had to be managed. But the results are clear. The Internet is the most effective medicine for large health care organizations. In the first 2 years, processing costs in the Internet system were about 60 percent lower than costs in comparable non-Internet systems. Most importantly, the use of EC has also improved the quality of delivery, and that is what really matters.
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INDIVIDUAL AND COMMUNITIES

THE SUCCESS STORY OF CAMPUSFOOD.COM

Campusfood.com’s recipe for success was a simple one: Provide interactive menus to college students, using the power of the Internet to enhance traditional telephone ordering of meals. Launched at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn), the company took thousands of orders for local restaurants, bringing pizzas, hoagies, and wings to the Penn community.

Founders Michael Saunders began developing the site in 1997 while he was a junior at Penn. With the help of some classmates, the site was launched in 1998. After graduation, Saunders began building the company’s customer base. This involved registering other universities, attracting students, and generating a list of restaurants from which students could order food for delivery. Currently, some of these activities are outsourced to a marketing firm, enabling the addition of dozens of schools nationwide.<

Financed through private investors, friends, and family members, the site was built on an investment of less than $1 million. (For comparison, another company with services also reaching the college-student market invested $100 million.) Campusfood.com’s revenue is generated through transaction fees; the site takes a 5 percent commission on each order.

When you visit campusfood.com, you can :

• Navigate through a list of local restaurants, their hours of operation, addresses, phone numbers, and other information.
• Browse an interactive menu. The company takes a restaurant’s standard print menu and researches each one in order to convert it to an electronic menu that lists every topping, every special, and every drink offered, along with the latest prices.
  
• Bypass “busy” telephone signals to place an order online, and in doing so, avoid miscommunications.
  
• Get access to special foods, promotions, and restaurant giveaways. The company is working to set up meal deals that are available exclusively online for Campusfood.com customers.
  
• Arrange electronic payment for your order.
  

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QANTAS AIRWAYS—A NEW WAY TO COMPETE

THE PROBLEM
In 1999 and 2000, rising fuel costs placed pressure on the airline industry. Increased fuel prices arrived quickly and without warning. For Qantas Airways (qantas.com.au), Australia’s largest airline, the increase in fuel prices was just one of several problems. The airline faced two new domestic competitors, Impulse and Virgin Blue, as well as higher fees at Sydney Airport. In 2001 traffic dwindled, especially after the September 11 disaster. In addition, the airline needed to upgrade its fleet to stay competitive, replacing aging aircraft and purchasing new 500-seat planes. Finally, the Australian economy slowed down in 2000 and 2001, and the Australian dollar was sinking against the U.S. dollar. Can Qantas, the world’s second-oldest airline, survive against such business pressures?

THE SOLUTION
In addition to traditional responses, such as buying fuel contracts for future dates, Qantas took major steps to implement electronic commerce (e-commerce, EC), which involves buying, selling, and exchanging goods, services, information, and payments electronically. Qantas undertook a number of major initiatives :

Joined Airnew Co., a procurement business-to-business (B2B) electronic-marketplace (e-marketplace), that links dozens of major airlines with suppliers of fuel, fuel services, flight maintenance services, catering, and other services and suppliers. The e-marketplace uses electronic catalogs and conducts a variety of auctions.

Joined Corprocure.com.au together with 13 other large corporations in Australia to electronically purchase general goods and services, such as office supplies, light bulbs, and maintenance services.

Formed a Pan-Pacific electronic marketplace that provides a full spectrum of travel services (airline tickets, hotels, cars, etc.). This e-marketplace provides products and services to business partners, such as travel agencies, who can use the same marketplace to sell directly to individual consumers. This type of transaction is known as a business-to-business-to-consumer (B2B2C) transaction.

Qantas also implemented the following EC activties :

Sends e-mails to all 2.4 million of its frequent-flyer members, inviting them to book a flight online. As an incentive to book online, customers are rewarded with mileage bonuses and an opportunity to win $10,000 AU.

Provides information on arrival and departure times, as well as flight delays, to travelers via mobile phones and other wireless devices.

Increases brand visibility by providing online training to travel agents

Assists in the training of its 30,000 employees in 32 countries via Qantas College Online. This program is part of Qantas’s business-to-employees (B2E) initiative (qfcollege.edu.au).

Operates a credit union with 50,000 members worldwide (another B2E project). Members make over 100,000 transactions a month at qantascu.com.au. Services are comparable with those of commercial online banks.

THE RESULTS
Leading an old-economy company into e-commerce is not easy. It requires changing existing organization structures and processes and fitting new-economy strategies with old-economy ways of thinking. Qantas knows that this is the path it must take. Results are not expected overnight. It will take years and hundreds of millions of dollars to implement these and dozens more EC initiatives. Yet, Qantas expects to see an estimated $85 million AU in cost reductions per year by 2003. It also expects to increase annual revenues by $700 million from nontravel sales. One piece of bright news for Qantas is that it has successfully outlasted competitor Impulse, which went out of business in 2001.

WHAT WE CAN LEARN…
As the story about Qantas demonstrates, traditional brick-and-mortar companies are facing increasing competitive and other environmental pressures. A possible response to these pressures is to introduce a variety of e-commerce initiatives that can reduce costs, increase customer service, and open markets to more customers.

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