e-Business
FlatWorldSystems can help make the right choices and execute the strategies.
e-Business was once only for the large well financed corporation as was multi-location bricks and mortar business. Thanks to Open Source and the internet teens from home can run credible e-Businesses with minimal costs so why shouldn't a small business take advantage of such resources and compete effectively?
The business world is flattening. We all have to be prepared to re-invent ourselves and our business processes from time to time. It need not be a frightening and daunting idea.
Our focus is enabling the business process and we approach projects from that point of view. Sometimes it means rebuilding a site completely and other times it is a matter of supplementing a business' needs with practical means such as the use of great Open Source (OS) software available days without any license cost. OS has become main stream and is as good if not better than many commercial products. It is OPEN and has depth of tech resources readily available at reasonable costs because that is how the community creating OS makes money - selling their integration and tech skills.
Small businesses have small budgets that an entrepreneur should be willing to spend on solutions. Most are not keen on buying software and do-it-yourself. The bright ones understand that trying to do this often destroys or erodes their day to day business. So, a small budget which used to buy software and hardware can be better put towards services to improve the business process. After all, a suite of OS applications like an e-store, ad management and CRM runs happily at an ISP for $30 per month and costs $0 for the software. The small business can use its budget to implement this integrating it into the business process.
Particularly over the last few years, Open Source software available has become as good and often better than commercial products. Open Source techies make their money by selling their services for integration and support while the software is free. For the e-Business scenario we would recommend that you stick to modules based on Linux, Apache, PHP and MySQL which is the norm for Open Source. A typical suite of applications to run an e-Business:
These applications are very feature rich, enterprise quality. That means that most businesses will not make use of all they have to offer in the short term but the growth potential is there to power a business with hundreds of staff starting with just one.
It can be hosted for $30 per month - not all ISP's have the right mix of foundation so beware. Expect about a $300 cost to set up an SSL certifcates and the web services one time (SSL cert is about $100 - $250 the cert authority).
There are other products out there that can do some of the above. The challenge is to get them to work together and be stable.
FlatWorldSystems can help you and your business access these collaborative opportunites by helping you choose the tools you require and develop the strategies and expertise to use them effectively.
The means and process to take advantage of e-Business
is within reasonable grasp of even small companies. The explosion of technology increases complexity and thereby risks but has also levelled the playing field to compete globally!
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