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... wider circulation, big simplicity of using and reduction of prices in connection with the fact that specific costs are much lower than specific costs information technologies at the use of traditional methods). One more tendency of information technologies development is the information business globalization. Theoretically any person (or firm) today is the probable consumer of the information.
Therefore opportunities of the information market still are boundless though there is rather rigid competition between the basic manufacturers. Traditionally strong manufacturers are the USA, Japan, France, Great Britain and Germany, not very long ago firms of Australia, Southern Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore joined them. One of the main reasons of the intensification of the world competition is the distribution of demand for concrete IT kinds on a global scale. It is possible to say, that, despite of distinction of the markets, best-selling production in America, is actually similar to that production that has great demand in Japan and Europe. Presence of five major factors causes this process: a various level of knowledge in IT area, determining rates of its distribution which vary over a wide range depending on sphere of application and on the characteristics of the country; ratio " cost - efficiency " of IT; the governmental support; standardization; comparative advantages of coexisted and interchangeable technologies.
World Wide Web technology creation led to the revolutionary rise of use of the Internet. WWW is the newest and quickly expanding information technology in the Internet. Only during half a year the quantity of WWW-servers in the world increased from 3000 up to 10000. And "weaving of a web" continues, every day there are the new storehouses of data containing the diverse information appear. WWW supports a set of the standards allowing users to get access to information Internet resources. Distinctive feature of the Web is the hypertext means, by means of which it is possible to get access to the information without complex manipulations.
WWW is the new method for publishing business and the quantity of the editions appearing in the form of electronic versions constantly grows. Small business firms and non-profit organizations can seize the opportunities that the Internet offers. The number of Internet users worldwide exceeded 150 million in 1999, and this number is expected to quadruple in a few years. These users are a vast market for organizations offering products or services on web sites. Firms such as Amazon. com and eBay have exploited this market, growing from nothing to giants in less than a decade.
Naturally, many small firms want to get in on the action by establishing their own web sites. Other organizations, such as professional associations, want to use web sites to recruit members and create an Internet presence enhancing both their members' reputation and marketability. What is the best way for them to proceed? A boutique might be very competent at acquiring clothes that float off the rack. Each professional member of a not-for-profit association might co-ordinate the activities of hundreds of people. However, designing, constructing, maintaining, and managing an Internet site requires technical expertise and capital these organizations don't necessarily have.
Can the government assist by providing information and financing to organizations wanting to enter cyberspace (Canada, Western Economic Diversification)? To compete with the big players on the Internet, small businesses and non-profits, with help from the government, can contract with experienced web-consulting firms to supply the programming and computer skills to ensure delivery of a web site for a reasonable price. The Internet speeds up the globalization of markets. A few decades ago, only the multi-national companies sold products worldwide. Today, for a few thousand dollars, anyone can become a merchant and reach millions of consumers world-wide." Unfortunately, Canadian small businesses are not embracing e-commerce as ardently as American firms. Many domestic firms have neither the investment capital nor the technical knowledge to seize the opportunities the Internet offers.
Consequently, Canadian firms lag behind American firms. While the American economy is ten times larger than Canada's, American venture capital investment in the Internet was 36 times larger last year ("E-business Acceleration"). Although the Canadian government is making an effort to encourage e-commerce (Canada, Industry Canada, The Canadian Electronic), some firms paid exorbitant prices for e-commerce sites that are not profitable because they lacked accurate information on the cost of constructing web sites. For example, Edie Hats of Vancouver spent $ 100 000 building their web site. It is fun to browse (Edie); but, their online revenue was only $ 15 000 during the web site's first year of operation (Daniels). Evidently, Edie Hats and their web-designer's online-sales projections were much too optimistic.
Other firms obtained better returns on their investment. Steed Cycles of North Vancouver hired eBusiness-Aps. com to develop a ten-page e-commerce site for $ 500 plus $ 60 per month. They credit $ 50 000 of their annual sales of one million dollars to their web site (McCullough), demonstrating that the right e-commerce site can earn substantial profits. Still, potential entrants into e-commerce must worry about the financial problems of large Internet firms like Amazon and Buy. com (Linn; "Troubled Buy.
com"). These early entrants to global e-commerce are severely curtailing their operations. However, new e-commerce entrants could consider their retrenchment an opportunity to catch up with the big boys. While the profit motive propelled much of the technological innovation making the Internet accessible to virtually everyone, the Internet has created opportunities for people to express their charitable instincts. In chat rooms, help forums, and collaborative endeavors, people contribute gifts, such as advice, software, and programming tips, to "community friends and anonymous recipients alike, assuming that eventually someone will return the favor" (Tapscott et al. 132).
The traditional gift economies, the not-for-profit and volunteer sectors, have used the Internet with mixed effectiveness. Volunteer Vancouver's excellent site, although expensive at $ 50 000, serves as a place where volunteers and volunteer agencies can meet. Tens of thousands of people search more than 1000 positions with some 450 agencies each year to find a job volunteering (Volunteer Vancouver). Another effective web site is that of the Canadian Administrators of Volunteer Resources (CAVR), a national group that "promotes the professional administration of volunteer resources, certification of membership, continuing education standards and collaboration with provincial, national and international organizations" (CAVR).
With members spread all over Canada, they needed a focus, an efficient way to communicate events, issues and meetings, and a means to recruit new members. Their new web site, produced for under $ 2 500, satisfied these needs, and generated directly a fifteen percent annual increase in the number of members. In the industry modeling system allow to do without expensive tests, reduce the time of production. Systems of the automated designing accelerate designing of complex products, make possible closer use of working groups potential. The system of electronic data transmission allows to operate the enterprise more effectively to conduct fast correspondence between partners, allows to create working groups inside the corporation, not incorporated territorially, and even to expand an operating time above projects due to the difference of time zones. In bank system there are new payment systems, rationing systems, electronic purses, electronic clearing systems on the basis of IT achievements.
Originally cards used a principle of a magnetic tape, further it was possible to create the microcircuits with diminutiveness, big opportunities and the best protection. Smart cards periodically charged by owners are applied to service of fine payments. They do not need authorization for purchases, and are more protected in comparison with usual magnetic cards. New IT allows to expand the sphere of services to speed up payments, to reduce the price of cost of a monetary revolution. Despite of complexities in a condition of reliability and safety of Internet, there was specification Open Financial Connectivity (OFS), regulating financial transactions in network Internet, and trading system Merchant Server from Microsoft. Show business uses achievements of information technologies actively and variously.
It is the development of the new computer games, new attractions, use of the IT in film- and video manufacture. Due to the development of the information technologies nowadays more and more companies of different fields are able to use them. The Internet revolution is just beginning. Small businesses and non-profits can reap the benefits of continued Internet growth. Information technologies are an efficient way to reach out to new customers and make your business successful and up-to-date. Bibliography McCormick, Brian. "Lending tech smarts to local non-profits. " Crain's Chicago Business, October 9, 2000.
Mitchell, Emily; Kanigel, Rachel; Lea, Elizabeth. "Getting Better at Doing Good. " Time, February 2, 2000. Murphy, Erin. "Non-Profits and other organizations can run i MIS over the internet. " PR Newswire, August 3, 2000. Wagner, Mitch. "Nonprofits Face Hurdles. " Internet Week Issue 732, P. 79, 1 p, 2 c. CMP Media Inc, 2003.
Wagner, Mitch. "Nonprofits face hurdles. " Internetweek United States: September 14, 2003 Young, Dennis. Governing, leading, and managing nonprofit organizations, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2003. Zerega, Blaise. "Future Tech Group Launched. " InfoWorld Vol. 20 Issue 22, P. 19. InfoWorld Publishing Company, 2002 Ernest Ackerman and Karen Hartman, Internet Today! Email, searching, and the World Wide Web, Chicago & London: Franklin, Beetle & Associates, 1999 Brian Austin, Using the Internet, Warwickshire (UK): Computer Step, 2000 Chris Di Bona et al, Open Sources: Voices from the Open Source Revolution, Sebastopol: O'Reilly, 2003 Gordon Graham, The Internet: a philosophical inquiry, Routledge, 2003 Charles Jonscher, Wired Life, Bantam Press, 2003 Angus J. Kennedy, The Internet: The Rough Guide, London: Rough Guides, 2000 Tim Berners-Lee, Weaving the Web, London: Orion Business Books, 2000 Jim McClellan, The Guardian Guide to the Internet, London: Fourth Estate, 2000 John Naughton, A Brief History of the Future: The Origins of the Internet, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2000 Geoff Preston, The Internet in Easy Steps, Warwickshire: Computer Step, 2000
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Research essay sample on E Commerce Small Businesses
