Monday, October 16, 2000		Article

Web ready to hit middlemen
By Sumesh Raizada

The advent of the Internet has changed the complexion of the business operations, altogether. The conventional method of performing a business transaction, wherein a buyer places an order to the prospective supplier, gets delivery of material and makes payment at mutually agreed terms, takes considerable time and effort

Through electronic commerce or e-commerce, as it is popularly called, the process of business transaction has become much faster and simpler. A lot of communication time and effort is saved. Relevant information regarding product, service, price and manufacturer’s profile is available on the Web.

Interested buyers can simply access the Web site concerned and get the desired information in detail. He can fill up the blank form, which is usually available on the Web sites, giving personal details and about the product or services he needs to buy. The most popular mode of payment in e-commerce is through credit cards, as it is most convenient for the parties concerned.

E-commerce involves consumers, manufacturers, banks, credit card companies and government departments for achieving business transactions and involves complex issues like electronic payment, e-mailing, virtual delivery, security and legal aspects and fraud prevention. The role of middleman is considerably reduced, thus.

Two main types of business transactions are B2B, business to business and B2C, business to consumers. However, it is the B2B transaction, which account for nearly 80 to 90 per cent of the total e-commerce transaction. In B2B, business transaction takes place between the manufacturers and its raw material suppliers or retailers or customer, who are all, connected through the Net.

It is believed that in countries like the USA, business worth billions of dollars is done through the Web. In India, e-commerce still constitutes a very small fraction of business transactions comprising less than Rs.500 crore of business, comparatively. It is predicted that, with the rise in the PC population, improved bandwidth, growing Internet and Intranet providers, business through the Net or e–commerce will flourish tremendously in near future.

The B2C consists of shopping through the Web sites and selecting products and services. Some of the popular sites are amazon.com, priceline.com and jaldi.com. It is estimated that within a next couple of years, the e-commerce business will be more than a trillion dollars, globally. Computing and electronic equipment, automobiles will be the main industries that shall account for a major share. Other B2C transactions will be in the field of books, audio or video CDs and cassettes, airline/railway ticket booking, financial services and stock trading. Nowadays one can virtually buy anything ranging from cars to apparel through the Web. Complete banking is now possible without moving physically from home or place of work.

The Net-based business is just a fraction of e-commerce. The whole e-commerce includes customer relationship management, supply chain management, dealer marketing systems, vendor management services, retail services, and financial services. It also includes e-shop; subscription services, security implementations, fraud detection, merchant payment systems and smart card-based services.

Several companies are now involved in carrying out business through the Net keeping up with the trend. Almost all software companies are providing e-commerce solutions and software. The application areas include financial services, banking, legal aspects, marketing and credit card services. For all these specific areas, companies require qualified and trained professionals who could generate the required data and manage it effectively. Vacancies are being generated for e-commerce professionals, both in India and abroad.

Individuals are nowadays choosing this highly lucrative career option both in terms of remuneration as well as growth. Career in e-commerce is not only rewarding but highly satisfying too. It requires a lot of creative and interpersonal skills. A person needs to be alert and updated with the latest developments in the related fields, and has to be aware of the competition.

One can work either as a freelancer on contract basis or as a salaried employee. One way of earning is to become a part of business chain in e-commerce, as in case of much-publicised S.kumars.com, wherein people were asked to become franchises and then become a middleman for facilitating business and money transactions. The other option is to work with the manufacturer directly and facilitate the e-commerce transaction by involving in Web application development, Web programming, building online shops and business Web sites. One can also work with the software companies for providing e-commerce consultancies or solutions, as application architect, application developer, technical account professional or technical architect and graphic design analyst.

For performing these tasks an in-depth knowledge of the concepts of networking, Internet and network security are required, besides having command in Java, Corba, Unix, Oracle, and XML.

Organisations like the IBM and NIIT, offer a variety of career options in e-commerce, for aspiring individuals. As an application architect, an individual is involved in the process of gathering and documenting business requirements, designing and implementing B2B and B2C systems and providing business solutions to the marketing managers. An application developer is basically a software man who designs programs for use in the specific area of business operations, for respective clients or organisations. The ISPs and portals also require e-commerce professionals for carrying out Web operations.

Almost all computer-training institutes offer a specialised e-commerce course, because of the burgeoning demand for trained and qualified professionals. The course modules are more or less similar for all of these and include networking, Java application development, e-business transaction, HTML, site promotion and maintenance.

The minimum qualification for these courses is 10+2 or graduation and the duration varies from 6 months to 2 years. Course fees usually varies from Rs 20,000 to 60,000 and can be paid in instalments. Some of the institutes offering e-commerce courses are NIIT, Aptech, EL Net, IBM, Webcity, Arena multimedia and Zap, besides others. The NIIT, through its Futurz and the eNIIT programs, is engaged in the sale and distribution of e-commerce solutions and systems. An aspiring e-com professional can get relevant information on several Web sites, both Indian and foreign. The ZD Net is one such site, which provides free e-mails, newsletters, and job search and free downloads.

Though the companies have created much hype, educational institutions and associations, still it will take some time before e-commerce changes the lifestyle. As the surveys reveal, in the next two to three years there shall be nearly half a million jobs for e-commerce professionals.

Their future is bright world wide as more and more geographical areas and market are being covered through the Internet or Intranets.