Page 642 - Introduction to Business

616 PART 6 Managing Business Operations, Management Information Systems, and the Digital Enterprise

Dangers of the Digital Enterprise

hey were just a few short lines of code, but they provided a big wake-up
call for anyone using a computer. The recent back-to-back hits by the
TBlaster and SoBig viruses ended a long lull in high-profile attacks on
computer systems. The chaos they created was an unpleasant reminder that
computer networks and the Internet—now so vital to a company’s business—
are still vulnerable to intrusions.
What’s more, virus outbreaks are only the most visible evidence of
computers’ vulnerability. Sophisticated thieves can steal customers’ credit card
numbers out of vast databases, industrial spies can tap e-mails and other
communications for sensitive corporate secrets, and unscrupulous or
negligent employees—not to mention malevolent hackers—can sabotage
critical computer systems. “The attacks are getting more frequent, and they are
more complex,” says Robert A. Clyde, chief technology officer at security-
software maker Symantec, Corporation, of Cupertino, California. 1

Introduction

LEARNING OBJECTIVE 1
Explain what the digital enterprise is.
business processes The unique ways Business processes are the unique ways in which companies organize, coordinate,
in which companies organize, and execute activities, information, and knowledge in order to produce goods or
coordinate, and execute activities,
information, and knowledge in order services. A digital enterprise is a business organization where all major business
to produce goods or services processes and relationships with suppliers, customers, employees, managers, and
digital enterprise A business shareholders are digitally enabled. Cisco Systems, Procter & Gamble, and Dell are
organization where all major business examples of digital enterprises in the making. Furthermore, nearly all other firms,
processes and relationships with especially larger and traditional firms such as DaimlerChrysler and Sony, are being
suppliers, customers, employees,
managers, and shareholders are driven in the digital enterprise direction by the synergy of the following independ-
digitally enabled ent but interrelated developments:
• New information technology infrastructures that include intranets, extranets,
and the Internet
• New business software for integrating business processes across a firm known
as enterprise resource planning
• New market forces leading to the integration of business organizations across
their supply chains, which has been termed supply chain management
• New opportunities for businesses to interact electronically with customers and
other businesses that have been called e-business
In this chapter, we explore these developments and their synergies, emphasiz-
ing their contribution to the digital integration of enterprises with their suppliers,
customers, employees, managers, and shareholders. Whereas legal and ethical
issues are a concern to every organization, e-businesses must be particularly inter-
ested in security, as illustrated by the virus problems narrated in the vignette. We
finish the chapter with a presentation of career opportunities in digital enterprises.

reality What digital enterprises do you interact with?
CH ECK

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