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e-Revolution:
Asia's largest companies are reinventing themselves as e-businesses. Their transformation will change the way the region works and lives

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Are You Ready For the 21st Century?
The 1000 Biggest Companies

Oracle Corp. offers a free online test of your company's maturity as an e-business at www.oracle.com. Take Asiaweek's simplified version and get a rough idea of where you are in the Internet revolution.



How do customers interact with your enterprise?

a) They can obtain general information about the company from our website
b) They can place orders, submit forms and perform other one-way transactions
c) They can pay bills, track orders and requests, and service their own accounts
d) Based on their transaction history, they receive customized offers on products and services at special prices

How do you use the Internet to manage your enterprise?
a) We share information within the company by e-mail and flyers, not through the Internet
b) Each division has its own data warehouse, so we have to query different systems to obtain aggregate information
c) We have an enterprise-wide data warehouse that employees can access to find information about financial activity in a previous period
d) We have an Internet portal for decision-making that uses an enterprise-wide, real-time information system

How do you use the Internet in your value-chain and procurement activities?
a) We don't use the Internet to communicate with our suppliers about orders
b) We input information from our suppliers' websites into our own systems
c) We collaborate with our suppliers to jointly plan, forecast and replenish our inventory
d) Our suppliers have limited access to our systems, allowing them to monitor our needs and manage our inventory for us

How does your technology infrastructure support e-business?
a) We use the Internet only for our enterprise-wide website
b) We have department-level websites, but they are poorly integrated
c) We have an enterprise-wide intranet connected to our suppliers and partners, which is wrapped around our old systems
d) We have a pure Internet architecture with all our applications running on self-service web systems

How do customers interact with your enterprise?
a) They can obtain information about the company from our website
b) They can place orders and perform other one-way transactions
c) They can pay bills, track orders and service their own accounts
d) Based on their transaction history, they receive customized offers on products and services at special prices

YOUR SCORE
Results
•  If "d" is your answer to all four questions, you're a fully e-enabled business. Are you sure you're not from a more advanced extraterrestrial civilization?

• A "d" to some questions, a "c" to others — be careful. You may be well on the way as an e-business, but imbalances may build up because some of your systems are not running in tandem. Remember Toys 'R' Us? It launched a website during the Christmas holidays last year, then found that its back-end systems — warehousing, packing, shipping — were not as advanced as the portal. A lot of angry parents and heartbroken kids there.

• A "c" to every question? You're getting closer with your cylinders firing more or less at the same time.

• A combination of "c" and "b" and maybe the odd "a." Again, the problem of mismatched ambitions and systems.

• All "a"? Better get going. The Internet waits for no man — and corporation.

 

 


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