Competitive advantage through e-operations

This paper reports the initial stages of a research project investigating how UK-based organizations undertaking electronic commerce are seeking competitive advantage through the management of their e-operations. It is widely held that success in e-business is dependent upon harnessing the increased connectivity of the Internet in order to improve efficiency and effectiveness in managing business processes that produce and deliver goods and services. This requires the integration of operations management and information systems both within the organization and with supply chain partners. Results from a cross-case analysis of seven companies (three manufacturers and four financial service companies) are reported. These indicate that: (1) e-commerce investments are mainly driven by a fear of being left behind by competitors rather than a desire to improve business process performance; (2) e-commerce investments tend to automate rather than redesign existing processes; (3) e-operations are run as a discrete set of processes, with little or no integration between e-operations information systems and those of the bricks-and-mortar operations; (4) there is a lack of formal performance measures for e-commerce investments; (5) legacy systems and a lack of industry standards are major encumbrances to information systems integration.