E Business Strategy: An Analysis

E traffic dodging An Analysis jargon is an institution that deals with m angiotensin-converting enzymey as well as credit. It accepts deposits from the usual, makes funds visible(prenominal) to those who motive then and athletic supporters in remittance of money form one place to an opposite (Macesich, George, 2000, p-42). Modern intrusts today perform a all(prenominal)-encompassing range of functions that makes it difficult to give an apt and precise definition of it. angiotensin-converting enzyme of the famous economists, Crowther had said, a money box collects money from those who have it to sp be or who be saving it aside of their incomes, and lends this money to those who require it. In short, the name bank in modern times refers to an institution that deals with money i.e. accepts deposits and advances loans has the magnate to create credit which basically implies expanding its liabilities as a multiple of its militia creates demand deposits and it is a commer cial institution that aims at securing profits. Citibank is a foot soldier of Citigroup. Citibank was founded as City Bank of New York in the year 1918. match to the latest statistics, it is now the third largest bank holding community in the United States by the total assets after Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase. The bank has its retail banking operations spread everywhere more(prenominal) than 100 countries and territories nearly the instauration (Harold, Cleveland Huertas, 1985). by from the standard banking trans movements, Citibank offers credit cards, insurance and an different(prenominal) coronation harvestings. Their online reverses have earned them appreciation from ein truth nook and corner, making them the virtually in(predicate) in the field. The 15 million online users bear certification to the stated fact. The key state involved in the man successionment of the bank atomic number 18 Vikram Pandit (CEO), John Gerspach (CFO), Douglas Peterson (COO) and Willliam R. Rhodes, the Chairman.Strategy literally means the mood an see is meanned to achieve the desired gists. Every smart set has certain aims that it hopes to conquer. It has a vivid description of what it desires to achieve. The vision statement that company has is an idealized go out which inspires it, energizes its efforts towards directing its actions towards the evaluate goals (Hambrick and Chen, 2007, p 935-955). Strategic Decision Making, in context of use of a firm or an organization, is the framing of long term plan of action that aims at resulting in success and profits for the products and function of processs marketed by the company, for instance (Triantaphyllou, 2000, p 320). Strategic decision making is all-important(a) to scoop the assorted other competitors in the market. The motion of determining appropriate courses of action for achieving organisational objectives and on that pointby accomplishing organizational decl atomic number 18 one self is cognize as Strategy formulation. In todays era of cut-throat competition in the air environment budget-oriented plan or forecast-based planning methods atomic number 18 insufficient for a large breadbasket to survive and prosper. The firm must engage in strategical planning that clearly defines objectives and assesses some(prenominal) the innate and external situation to formulate dodge, implement the scheme, evaluate the progress, and make adjustments as necessary to stay on principal (Kepner and Tregoe, 1965). A strategy consequently formulated, should reflect on environmental synopsis, basing on sustainable telephone line. It should lead to the materializing of the vision of the organization, as to where the organization sees itself in the eld to come and result in achievement of organizational objectives. It basically comprises of the sp argon-time activity stepsSetting up mission and objectives The mission statement describes the companys channel vision , including the unchanging measures and purpose of the firm and forward-looking visionary goals that would go the pursuit of future opportunities and lead to its long term stance in the line of work world. Measures such as sales targets and earnings growth argon the organizations financial objectives. Strategic objectives atomic number 18 related to the firms p arentage coiffe, and may take measures such as paper in the market and market share.environmental S movening The environmental s tail assemblyning includes the dissemblenal analysis of the firm, external macro-environment and the analysis of the firms task environment. Various scientific analysis have been developed which see in the process of environmental scanning. A wakeless rooted internal analysis of the firms strengths and weaknesses and external analysis of the threats and opportunities gives us a clear figure of speech about the firms stance. And a profile of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and th reats is given by the SWOT analysis. It gives us proper selective breeding regarding the concerned firm which helps us in unified the firms resources and capabilities to the emulous environment in which it operates (Menon et al, 1999, p 18-40). Strengths are apply in growth the rudiments for a competitive advantage. Strengths include exclusive gate to senior high school grade natural resources, patents, strong brand names, favorable inlet to dissemination ne 2rks and good reputation among clients. The weaknesses are high embody structure, oerleap of access to the best natural resources, lack of access to key distribution channels, a weak brand name and bad reputation among clients. Opportunities are venture occasions for growth and prosperity. They may include removal of international trade barriers, loosening of rules and regulations, introduction of new technologies and an unfulfilled customer need (Hill and Westbrook, 1997, p 46-52). The changes in the external envi ronment may pose serious-minded threat to the organization. For instance, emergence of substitute products, new regulations, increase trade barriers and shifts in consumer tastes a mode from the firms products. The external macro environment can be time-tested on the PEST analysis outgo. The acronym PEST (or sometimes rearranged as STEP) is apply to describe a framework for the analysis of these macro environmental factors. It is the Political, Economic, fond and Technological analysis. Political issues include G everywherenments policies and legal issues resembling Tax policy, engagement laws, trade restrictions and tariffs and political stability. Economic growth, Interest rates, Exchange rates and largeness rates determine the Economic conditions of the market. Social factors include career attitudes, age distribution, population growth rate, health consciousness and dialect on safety. The diverse factors like Automation, research and maturation activity, technological incentives and the rate of change of engineering, check the technological aspect of the functioning of the organization. A framework developed my Michael doorkeeper cognize as Porters five forces can also be used in drawing industrial analysis.Strategy formulation Keeping in mind the strengths and the weaknesses of the organization, it charts out its strategy that helps it in optimizing its resources and gaining maximum profits out of it. Business trends analysis, Market analysis, Competitive analysis, Market segmentation, Marketing-mix, SWOT analysis, Positioning analyzing perceptions and Sources of culture are all studied closely and accurately and then strategies are formulated on the basis of the three generic wine strategies. The Cost leadership strategy focuses on beingness the low cost upgrader in an industry for a given level of quality (Chaffee, 1985).The firm sells its products both below the average industry prices to gain market share or at the average industry prices to earn a profit high than the market rivals. In the situation of a price war, the firm can maintain some profitability while letting the competition jut out losses. Even without a price war, as the industry matures and prices decline, the firms that can produce more cheaply will remain profitable for a longstanding period of time. The cost leadership strategy usually targets a all-inclusive market. The internal strengths that lead to success in cost leadership strategy are High level of expertness in manufacturing process engineering, skill in devising products for efficient manufacturing, having access to required amount of chapiter for indueing in production assets and efficient distribution channels.The second generic strategy, i.e. The Differentiation Strategy triggers the development of a product or service that offers unique attributes that are appraised by the customers and that customers consider it to be go than or distinct from the products of the competi tion. That means it gives last-ditch utility and satisfaction to the consumer. Factors like access to leading scientific research, strong sales team that has the ingrained ability to put forward the perceived strengths of the product in the market, exceedingly skilled and creative product development de fictional characterment and bodied reputation for quality and innovation, result in the success of Differentiation Strategy (Mulcaster, 2009, p 65-70).The third generic strategy that is the Focus Strategy, finds its essence in a narrow segment within which it tries to achieve either a cost advantage or polariation. The basic idea is that needs of the group are better serviced by foc use entirely on it.Strategy carrying into action The strategy thus finalized is then implemented using budgets, programs and procedures. The firms resources are make and al situated and proper motivation is given to the work force to achieve its objectives and thus the strategy is implemented. The way in which the work force perceives the strategy is different. It is logical, that the people who formulated the strategy and the people who will implement it are very different from each other and thus there might be a conflict of opinions, if proper care is not taken to communicate efficiently. Misunderstanding may lead to chaos.Evaluation and Control The implemented strategy has to be followed up and monitored in every step, and adjustments, if any required, will be made to fit to the changed scenario of the market. Evaluation would primarily revolve around delineate parameters to be metrical, defining target values for those parameters, performing measurements, comparing measured results to the pre-defined standard and making necessary changes.E-BUSINESSThe activity of information and communication technologies (ICT) in support of all the activities of telephone line concern is known as Electronic business or e-business(Louis Gerstner,1996, p 172). Commerce deals with the exchange of products and services among businesses, groups and individuals and can be seen as one of the most subjective activities of any business. The application of Information and Communications Technology to change the external activities and kins of the business with individuals, groups and other businesses is what Electronic commerce is all about. Electronic business methods empower companies to colligate their internal and external data processing systems more efficiently and adaptably, to work more closely with suppliers and partners, and to better satisfy the needs and expectations of their customers (Timmers, 2000, p-31). In practice, e-business is farther more than just e-commerce. While e-business refers to more strategic focus with an emphasis on the functions that occur using electronic capabilities, is a subset of an overall e-business strategy. E-commerce aims to fill revenue streams using the World Wide entanglement or the net to build and nurture rel ationships with clients and partners and to improve efficiency (Miller, Roger, 2002, p741). Often, e-commerce involves the application of knowledge systems.E-business involves business processes spreading the entire value cooking stove electronic purchasing and fork up chain commission, handling customer service, processing inns electronically, and cooperating with business partners and catering to their needs online, via internet. Special technical standards for e-business enable the exchange of data between various companies. Basically, electronic commerce (EC) is the process of purchase, transferring, or exchanging products, services, and/or information via calculating machine networks, including the internet. EC can also be emolumented from many perspective including business process, service, learning, community. EC is often confused with e-business. . E-business software resultants allow the integration of intra and inter firm business processes. E-business can be cond ucted using the web, the network, intranet and extranet or a combination of these.E-BUSINESS STRATEGIES With the arrival of the profits facilities and plenty of web development technologies all over the world, e-business is the new talk of businesses in todays world. E-business, like any other emerging field, is changing fast and in the process is changing the way businesses formulate their strategies and conduct their business with realization of those strategies. E-business scores over the traditional sphere of business by adding speed to the business activities and big(a) a totally new dimension and definition to businesses worldwide be it whether partnerships, joint ventures or large corporations. It makes transactions quicker in this world of fast pace (Andam, 2003) . The intranet, internet, cellular networks and various other forms of digital engineering have resulted in formation of a niche value chain among clients, employees, suppliers, stakeholders and traders coordin ated and interlinked in the world of web marketing. The equipments and pillars of e-business strategies include acceptance of payments over the meshwork, online advertising, on-line trading and auction deals over the Internet. E-business strategies differ for small and medium-sized businesses. Apart from regular sources, e-business strategies can generate revenue made from paid marketing hampers, revenues derived from franchisees and subscriptions and revenue from maintenance of current channel integrity.E- Business technology provides organizations with a great opportunity to nurture relationships with external and internal parties across its value and supply chains, to realise its competitive advantages. In doing so, however, the solution is not in the application of technology alone, to develop an legal e-Business strategy and for a successful implementation to be realised, existing business interactions must be imitate and scrutinized to trace the interactions that will ben efit from this paradigm. The business processes supporting these interactions must be reformulated and designed to effectively perform the procedures behind the interactions. These changes to the business will aspire changes to the supporting technology and to the stakeholders that perform the business processes using the technology. The use of Internet has helped and garnered the worldwide development of business that reaches out to a wider consumer base and advertises their products more effectively and efficiently. E business has been added as the latest domain in business and has become a must-have in the highly competitive technology driven hand market. E Business Strategy can be summed up as the overall strategies that govern E Businesses through reckon information dissemination or scattering.Information dissemination has been widely regarded as the strongest attribute of e-business, which uses information technology in a most effective and exhaustive manner. Not only has e -business has come to play a meaningful role in the scenario of world trade there is no business without an accompanying e-business in todays world. E business gives a business the opportunity, the chance to open its base to the world(a) market and become a part of the international business community. The most important feature of e-business is that the helps businesses move on to the international scene at maximum efficiency using marginal cost. E-business has achieved unparalleled levels of success as business models (Business Software Alliance. 2001). For instance Materials compulsion Planning (MRP), EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) or ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning). The essential features of e-business strategies are submit Chain management and email marketing.A state-of-the-art E Business Strategy would generally includeSupply chain management correspond to Harland, the management of a network of interconnected businesses involved in the ultimate provision product and service packages as required by the consumer is known as Supply chain management. The supply chain spreads all over from governing the storage and movement of raw materials to the entry of the production process and the finished goods, from the origin point till the point where it is finally consumed (Mentzer et al., 2007, p 1-25). The effective management of supply chain can be taken care of with the help of e-business strategies, which will turn back down better coordination and understanding between the wholesalers and the retailers of various products that are launched into the market. Better integration of the supply chain cover from the source till the final delivery of the product can be effectively put to work using e-business strategy (Hines, 2004). This also leads us to the point of e- commerce where a parallel network of selling and buying can be seen using dissemination or scattering of information over the Internet. Everything ranging from automobiles to electro nic gadgets can be bought over the Internet in a hassle free manner under the aegis of fail supply chain management.Customer service and customer relationship management Effective e-business strategies would involve better customer service and customer relationship management ensuring the highest level of consumer satisfaction. E business is targeted at providing the services that are customer friendly, which would include the delivery of goods salutary at the doorstep of the consumer, right on time.Inventory and service management integration E business strategies can also help in improved inventory and service management integration through formulating certain precise plans for accumulation of inventory and purchasing of machinery and equipment which will avoid unnecessary purchases that would at long last lead to higher(prenominal) expenditures and entail different tax implications.tactical operations alignment Tactical operations implying towards short-term goals as opposed to strategic planning aimed at long term goals can be better coordinated by implementing the e-business strategies.Implementing Business Strategy Implementing e-business strategy is a major task and to ensure its success, from the beginning itself, objectives need to be identified and measurable goals need to be chalked down. This will include finding out steps in a business process, minimizing errors by eliminating paper-based transactions, introducing new market opportunities or improving information access among managers, departments or strategic business units. The costs and impacts of the establishment are measured in terms of resources, time and money. The impact of business should be anticipated, well ahead of time. The introduction of e-business technology across multiple strategicbusiness units will require a major commitment of IT department. Since e-Business applications are transparent to all major hardware platforms, operating systems and databases, thus, using an open architecture configuration eliminates this concern (Charles charge, 2009, p 49) . If an effort to make clarifications regarding the value of the strategy to the stakeholders is made, then the process of implementation becomes smoother. For instance, e-Procurement applications add value at the purchasing department level by reducing errors and streamlining the processes involved. At the organizational level value is added by facilitated purchasing in groups which cuts costs and vendors observe added value because they have quick and prompt access to information so they can track invoices and payments. The execution of the business interaction model is expected to place us in a position to clearly bring up and apply values that can be quantified to the four issues discussed above, the net result of which is the formulated e-Business strategy itself.E-business strategy in CitibankBanks today are up-to-date with both the pros and cons of the internet. They are aware of the opportunit ies and threats that are associated with the Web. Not a genius traditional bank is brave enough to face investment analysts without an Internet strategy. But even a very thoughtful approach to the Web may do no good to the company/ organization.The main purpose behind launching online banking services is to provide the customer an alternative way which is more responsive and less expensive i.e. is cost friendly. CitiDirect is the centre of the Citibank spheric e-Business strategy. The Business strategy of Citibank is to CONNECT their customers to their web enabled services,TRANSFORM their capabilities into new Internet offerings andEXTEND our reach into new markets via integrated infrastructure solutions and partnerships with technology companies or e-Commerce market makers. They have innovative e-business solutions like1) CitiPhone 24 hours Phone Banking service of process2) ATMs- Automated Teller Machines3) CitiAlert GSM notifications service4) E-Card Internet Shopping Card 5) CitiDirect incorporate Internet Banking Service, and6) Citibank Online Retail Internet Banking Service.Citibank is connected to an e-business strategy-Connect, Transform and Extend-was to web enable its core services, develop integrated solutions and reach new markets. (McCauley Khan, 2002, p.1). Their strategy is to position Citibank as the embedded Financial Services engine that powers the Internet economy. Citibank tries to distinguish itself from competitors by using its customer service efficiently. Several services are offered to their clients. Citibank offers telephone hotlines, customer relations managers to give individual care and tutelage to address the issues of their customers, and service experts. Citibank has been put in technology for the front and back end of the banking systems, consistently for a long time now. Citibank was also committed to its customers. According to the case study, Citibanks vision was to become the worlds leading e-business enabler. Citibank had over 268,000 employees located in over 100 countries and their focus was to embed their services into the nonchalant lives of the local population. Its a bank that has its roots spreading all over the country as deep as any local endemical bank, offering diverse products, building a broad customer base, actively participating in the social community and recruiting staff and senior management from the local population and hence guaranteeing employment and stability to the economy.Apart from being committed to employees and customers all over the world, Citibank has strong brand recognition and continues to invest in technology. The leading Citigroup formed adhesivenesss with Oracle, Commerce One, Inc., SAP AG, Wisdom Technologies and Bolero.net to help metamorphosis of its company to an e-business model, to place itself strongly within the technology sector. In 2000, four companies got together with Citibank to form Financial Settlement Matrix.com It is a company tha t connected buyers and sellers in e-marketplaces with credit, payment processing and other services through multiple participating banks and financial service companies. Citibank is always open to adjustments to adapt to the ever-changing business environment and thus it obtains the place of one of the most successful banking chains in the world. Citibank, in its pursuit of transforming its traditional assets to digital assets has established departments necessary to manage the process. Citibank formed the Internet Operation sort out which shouldered the responsibility of distributing Internet activities among e-Citi and all other business units. curtly after that, e-Consumer and e-Business segments were established with the aim of infusing internet to the entire customer and corporate banking activities and services. After a while, e-Capital Markets and e-Assets Management departments were also established. The e-Business unit has the task of developing the software needed to set clients up with electronic business accounts, utilizing both IT and business people. The e-workplace gave a tremendous boost to Citibank when it was in its pursuit of transitioning from the traditional way of doing business to the electronic way. Constant attention is given to development in order to make upgrades in the e-business model. The key to manage the be given of money, for its corporate consumers through the World Wide Web was delivering an integrated solution that would enable its corporate customers to conduct transaction on-line. Citigroup desired to be the centre intermediary between buyers and sellers for any sort of transaction. Their strength is the customer-centered approach including solvent time, technology and support which gains the confidence of the customers on the products of the bank. Citigroup is utilise towards creating products that cater to different industries and business needs by taking appropriate steps, be it investing thousands of millions of dollars in the online technology or starting e-business groups. By the end of 2000, customers had begun demanding electronic invoicing, online payments guarantees and digital receipts stored online and automatic application of payments to account receivables. Citibanks strategic function is to convert its traditional money management business into an e-business framework. Porter had accorded two main ways for a company to compete on the global front. One was cost advantage and the other was differentiation Porter, M.E (1980). And Citibanks strategy was not to compete on price and was bored rooted to the differentiation aspect. Since there are many other companies which market similar products and services, Citibank bases its differentiation on customer service. Traditionally, offering telephone hotlines, product consultants who provided service expertise, relationship managers who silent clients needs and expectations, and most important, continuous involvement in investing in te chnology to support both the front-end and the back-end electronic banking systems. In order for the change of traditional assets into digital assets, to be successful, the company must maintain or enhance its differentiation. Since the companys differentiation is based on customer service, that means that in the transformation from traditional to digital assets the company must continue to be highly responsive to the customers current and future needs and cater to the expectations of every single client without any fail or bias, and must do so to a higher level than the competition and set a higher standard than that set by the other competitors in the market. The alliance with the four companies Oracle, Commerce One, Inc., SAP AG, Wisdom Technologies and Bolero.net helped the Citigroup to transform and grow. In foregoing occasions, the company had invested millions of dollars on its own in multiple areas of e-business, and had miserably failed. As technology is not Citibanks fie ld of expertise, it found keeping in synchronize dealing with aeonianly changing technology to be an expensive battle, which it ultimately lost. However, by 2000 Citibank learnt form its failure. Taking lessons from its experience it changed its strategy to one of garnering alliances and using its partners strengths to create the technological infrastructure that the company needed to access markets and image its customers changing demands. Working through alliances increased its effectiveness, reduced Citibanks risks and costs, and allowed it to remain waxlike in going changing technological and customer demands. Both in the short term and long term, the customers demands vary. According to McCauley and Kahn (2002), one of the most important hurdles for Citibank to overcome in canalizing customers from traditional to digital service was addressing their deep seated concerns about security. While to some extent this troubled Citibanks efforts in rolling out Web-based applicatio ns, it did actively implement multi-layered security architecture public and private access keys, single-use passwords and multiple authorization controls in order to meet customer needs (McCauley and Kahn 2002, p. 9). To add to it, with digital processing it aspired to transform repeatable processes that could be commoditized into an efficient digital factory. The transformation of goods and services (or things that may not normally be regarded as goods or services) into a commodity is known as commoditization. Commoditizing repeatable processes improves efficiency, but also gives scope to resources for excess regional emphasis i.e. localization. The strong brand name of Citibank is a resource that translates into increased trust as a trusted provider when competing with Deutche Bank and other competitors. In fact, most Fortune 500 companies assign value to Citibanks specific offerings, and prefer it to other international payment providers. Citibank, then, offers multiple areas o f value to customers. The evidences of constant work in the field of imbibing recent technologies and adjusting to the changing business environment are many. The cooperation of the software giant, Microsoft and financial giant, Citibank led to the reinforcement of high standards. With a global network spanning more than 100 countries, Citi will benefit from this collaboration because the CitiDirect BE platform will help monetize its best-in-class service offerings and broad geographic coverage, while taking full advantage of Microsofts expertise in platform engineering, development of independent software vendor communities, and product life-cycle management, read an article on internet.Thus the commitment of Citibank to deliver global services and enhanced value through world-class partnership and innovative e-business solutions that meets the customers expectations in very evident and worth trusting. But the question that is worth focusing on now, is whether this value translates into a competitive advantage which translates into additional profits. The focus now would shift to question how unique are the solutions offered by it. Soon the cutting edge technological capabilities might become hygienics factors which will be considered to be required and not a competitive advantage and thus would not qualify for differentiation. Potential growths in e-business are always happening and continuous developments are indispensable. More and more companies are willing and opting to do everything from banking to purchasing to marketing online. Thus it becomes very essential for Citibank to align itself with the right partners in order to maintain their standards and their stance in the e-business sector. Company executive Tom Edgerton stated, In the future, it wont be what your company can do, but what the network of companies you work with can provide. In order for Citi to continue to grow, it must evolve in its e-Business model and develop lasting updates to its o nline products. Expanding on their existing good reputation, enhanced web features and exceptional customer service, would be the fundamental opportunities for Citibank. According to Edgerton, Citibank brings considerable value to potential alliance partners. Theyre interested in our brand, our financial services expertise, our global presence, our strong customer relationships and position as a trusted provider, as well as our knowledge of specific industries and international markets. The regionalization and specialized processing centers that Citibank has developed has provided them with scale and continual improvement opportunities.Like all other sectors and organizations, Citibank is also dedicated towards improving information management practices. This in turn improves the efficiency of business processes, the demands of compliance reg