From a customer’s point of view, companies that consistently offer the best value are able to keep track of their customers’ individual preferences, keep up with market trends, supply products, services, and information anytime, anywhere, and provide customer services tailored to individual needs. And so electronic commerce has become a strategic opportunity for companies, large and small, to offer fast, responsive, high quality products and services tailored to individual customer preferences.

Internet technologies can make customers the focal point of all E-business and E-commerce applications. Internet, intranet, and extranet websites create new channels for interactive communications within a company, with customers, and with the suppliers, business partners, and others in the external environment. This enables continual interaction with the customers by most business functions and encourages cross-functional collaboration with customers in product development, marketing, delivery, service, and technical support.

Typically, E-commerce customers use the Internet to ask questions, air complaints, evaluate products, request support, and make and report their purchases. Using the Internet and corporate intranets, specialists in business function throughout the enterprise can contribute to effective response.

This encourages the creation of cross-functional discussion groups and problem solving teams dedicated to customer involvement, service, and support. Even the extranet links to suppliers and business partners can be used to enlist them in a way of doing business that ensures prompt delivery of quality components and services to meet a company’s commitment to its customers. This is how an E-business enterprise demonstrates its focus on customer value.

Intranets, extranets, E-commerce websites, and web enabled internal business processes form the invisible IT platform that supports this E-business model. This enables the E-business to focus on targeting the kinds of customers it really wants, and “owning” their customer’s total business experience with the company.

A successful E-business streamlines all business processes that impact their customers, and provide its employees with a complete view of each customer, so they can offer their customers top-quality personalised services. A customer-focused E-business helps their customers to help themselves, while also helping them do their jobs.

Finally, a successful E-business nurtures an online community of customers, employees, and business partners that builds great customer loyalty, while fostering cooperation to provide an outstanding customer experience.

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