Understanding E-Business Models

While different entities have different reasons for entering the world of e-business, they all have business models that are suited to their individual needs. This paper will focus on three web sites that have different business models and examine how these models are defined by the entity. The first entity is United States Steel and they have a Business-to-Business (B2B) extranet web site for their partners and customers. The second entity that will be examined is the state of Pennsylvania. They have an extensive web site with many features. In order to limit the scope of this paper, only the Department of Transportation will be examined. The final entity that will be examined is Staples, who have both Business-to-Business and Business-to-Consumers.

United States Steel

United States Steel (USS) is currently the largest integrated steel producer in the United States (United States Steel, 2004). They not only compete in the world markets, but they also have facilities in several other countries as well. In order to facilitate communications among partners and customers, USS created SteelTrack, the U.S. Steel Eextranet.

SteelTrack is a full featured extranet that allows both USS partners and USS business customers to access real-time information from USS. For USS partners, this information includes work orders, shipping and receiving information, and other items that the partner might need. For business customers, Steeltrack provides order status information, the ability to retrieve Certified Material Test Reports, shipping information, and it allows the customers the ability to reserve stock material from USS plants.

Because this extranet is only available to USS customers or partners, this site is not marketed to the general public. USS partners and customers are told about this site from either their customer service representatives or from personnel involved with the partners. In addition, there is a link to this site from the main USS Internet web site.

USS has invested a lot of time and money into their SteelTrack site and are now reaping the benefits from this investment. Enhanced communications with business partners is one of the benefits. Primarily USS business partners are outside processors that do additional work on material before it is shipped to the customer. SteelTrack allows these outside processors to access USS information to get the latest revision of what work is needed done to the material, allowing changes to be made up to a short time before the material is processed. This allows USS to be more flexible when dealing with customer requests for changes to their orders. A second benefit USS receives from SteelTrack is the enhanced communications they have with the customers. Customers now have twenty-four hour access to their order information. They do not have to call their sales representative to find out where their material is. The customer can also request Certified Material Test Reports from the SteelTrack site, again without having to contact their sales representative. Both of these benefits have had the affect of reducing the amount of time people needed to be on the phone together and has allowed USS, the customer, and the outside processors to place more effort into sales and marketing.

State of Pennsylvania Department of Motor Vehicles

The state of Pennsylvania has a very extensive web site with many features available. One of the most useful portions of the web site is the Department of Transportation. This web site features useful information on all areas of transportation in the state of Pennsylvania. This web site is targeting all residents of the state and also any one who might need information on traveling to Pennsylvania.

Throughout their web site, the Department of Transportation has a wide variety of information that is available to the web site visitor. In addition to just information though, residents of Pennsylvania can also perform routine tasks that used to require a visit to one of their offices. A prime example of this is vehicle registration. Most people are familiar with the yearly trek to the registration office to renew your vehicles registration for another year. Through their web site, residents can now perform this task online and have the new stickers mailed to them. In some instances, people can also perform the majority of their driver's license renewal; request driving records; or schedule driving tests at the state's facilities (Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, 2004).

In order to market their state web site, Pennsylvania started printing their web address on many of their correspondences. They also have taken out print advertisements (including bill boards and posters at toll booths) and mentioned it in their radio and television advertisements. The most visible place that they have placed their web address though, is on all the new license plates that are being issued. It is printed along the bottom of the license plate, usually in plain view of all that care to look.

The primary benefit that Pennsylvania receives from their web sites is cost reductions. By making these services and information so readily available, they have been able to cut down on the amount of time their employees need to perform these functions. In addition, these web sites have had the affect of making government in the state of Pennsylvania more accessible to the citizens of the state. Access to government offices and services have typically been a 9-5 feature that made it hard for many of the citizens to interact with them.

Staples

Staples is a multi-billion dollar a year retailer that works to provide affordable office supplies to business of all sizes. Their super stores offer over 7,500 products available in the stores and they have access to over 45,000 products through their online store (Staples, 2004). This wide variety of products allows Staples to target not only large corporations, but also small home businesses and everyone in between.

Staples web site provides a variety of information to consumers and potential investors. However, the primary offering of Staples' web site is there online store that provides consumers access to over 45,000 products. This online store is provided for general consumers and larger business users. Among other things, Staples also allows users to check the status of orders they have already placed, enter rebate information, view local store flyers, and customize the page by adding items to a favorites list.

Staples has a wide marketing plan for their web site and online store. They market their web site in all of their advertisements and have the web information almost all communications. Another way that Staples markets their web site is by providing access to it from all of their stores. If they do not have a product in the store (or in-stock), they offer to check the web site to have one shipped for you.

Staples receives many benefits from its web site. One of the primary benefits of their web site is the increased number of products that they are able to offer to their customers. In the superstores, they offer approximately 7,500 items, while through the web site they are able to offer more than 45,000. A second benefit that Staples receives is cost reductions from not having to stock 45,000 items in each store. They can concentrate on the most heavily purchased items in the store; yet still cater to the customers that need the other items.

Conclusion

There are a variety of reasons that businesses and other entities want to enter into the realm of e-business, but they all have business models that they follow to get a return on their investment. USS has created their SteelTrack site in order to allow partners and customers a way to have easy access to information that is important to them. The state of Pennsylvania has their web sites to further extend their accessibility and to allow citizens easier ways to interact with the government. Finally, Staples uses their web site to provide a significantly larger selection to their customers than is possible in their brick-and-mortar stores. This not only provides the larger selection to customers, but also allows Staples to realize cost reductions from having to keep all these items stocked in each store.

References

Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, (n.d.). retrieved Mar 17,

2004, from Pennsylvania Department of Transportation Web site: www.dot.state.pa.us.

Staples, (n.d.). retrieved Mar 17, 2004, from Staples Web site:

www.staples.com.

United States Steel, (n.d.). retrieved Mar 17, 2004, from U. S. Steel

Web site: www.ussteel.com.