IBM AS/400e User Handbook Manual page 95

departmental events. Anyone can tack up a notice for all to view. And the department
probably publishes a newsletter with contributions from the department members. Now
extend that to the world and to the Web, and you have the concept of bulletin boards
and newsgroups. Bulletin boards and newsgroups can use both push and pull
techniques. In this case, you often subscribe to a bulletin board or newsgroup and
receive an e-mail notification when new items are posted in your interest area.
• Document management: In the arena of LOB applications, IT has long understood
the advantage (even the necessity) of storing data once, but retrieving and displaying it
in multiple ways. With e-business, this need expands to storing data electronically and
to storing unstructured information (such as documents, spreadsheets, images, audio,
and video) electronically. This requirement goes far beyond the traditional file serving
that is part of a PC network to a robust system for archiving, indexing, and retrieving
diverse documents (where the term document is used in the broadest sense). Lotus
Notes and Domino, with its ability to organize, store, and retrieve both structured and
unstructured information, is a good example of document management capability.
• Value-add, Web-enabled applications: From the perspective of traditional AS/400e
applications, you may think of a value-add, Web-enabled application as extending your
"inquiry" applications to the Web. These applications typically give the world, or some
subset of the world, the ability to view information from your LOB databases directly.
Transport and distribution companies, such as United Parcel and DHL, are often-cited
examples in this arena. Their Web sites offer customers the ability to track packages
on their journey from the point of origin to their destination.
This type of application provides value to the customer and differentiates the e-business
from its competitors. In addition, it can reduce costs by reducing the volume of calls to the
customer service organization. Usually, this type of application simply provides a new way
of accessing and displaying information that is already being captured and stored for the
LOB applications.
Obviously, this type of application, which integrates Web pages, forms, and LOB
databases, is more challenging than a static Web site. It is more difficult to develop, and it
must meet the same demands as your LOB applications, such as security, integrity,
reliability. The application provides competitive advantage only if it's available, up-to-date,
responsive, and easy to use. Otherwise, your customers will pick up the phone (at best) or
go to your competitors (at worst).
• E-commerce: E-commerce (a subset of the function implied by e-business) goes one
step beyond value-add, Web-enabled applications by exchanging "value" rather than
simply exchanging information (not that information isn't valuable). In an e-commerce
transaction, one or both parties commit electronically to the delivery of a product or a
service for a payment. Both parties accept the transaction as binding. In effect, an
e-commerce transaction ultimately creates a flow of money and has the force of a
letter or contract with a binding signature.
AS/400e Advanced Technology
AS/400e Advanced Technology
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