Page 661 - Introduction to Business

CHAPTER 18 The Digital Enterprise 635

profitability resulting from supply chain management. According to the same
career center, a job in supply chain management involves one or more of the fol-
lowing, depending on the size of the business organization:
• Providing an uninterrupted flow of materials, supplies, and services required
to operate the organization
• Developing productive working relationships with external constituents, such
as vendors and retailers, and internal departments, such as marketing,
accounting, operations, and MISs
• Analyzing and negotiating contracts with suppliers, manufacturers, or
distributors
• Integrating information technology into the supply chain to improve
profitability
Industries in which supply chain management graduates are hired include
communications, consulting, financial institutions, government, health care, hos-
pitality, manufacturing, retail, and transportation. Examples of companies recruit-
ing for supply chain management graduates are Accenture, Dell, Delloite & Touche,
Ford Motor Company, Frito Lay, IBM, Johnson & Johnson, Motorola, Nestlé, and
Nokia Telecommunications.

E-Business

The Bureau of Labor Statistics at the U.S. Department of Labor reports that in order
to remain competitive, firms will continue to install sophisticated computer net-
works and set up more complex Internet and intranet sites. Keeping these sites run-
ning smoothly is essential to almost every organization. Firms will be more than
willing to hire managers who can accomplish that. The security of computer net-
works will continue to increase in importance as more business is conducted over
the Internet. Organizations need to understand how their systems are vulnerable
and how to protect their infrastructure and Internet sites from hackers, viruses, and
other acts of cyber terrorism. As a result, there will be a high demand for managers
proficient in computer security issues.
Due to the explosive growth of e-business and the ability of the Internet to cre-
ate new relationships with customers, the role of managers in this field will con-
tinue to evolve in the future. They will continue to become more vital to their com-
panies and the environments in which they work. The expansion of e-business will
spur the need for managers in this field with both savvy and technical proficiency.

Summary

LEARNING OBJECTIVE 1 LEARNING OBJECTIVE 2
Explain what the digital enterprise is. Describe the role that the new information
technology infrastructure plays in the digital
Business processes are the unique ways in which enterprise.
companies organize, coordinate, and execute activities,
information, and knowledge in order to produce their The Internet is an international network of networks
goods or services. The digital enterprise is a business containing hundreds of thousands of private and public
organization in which all major business processes and networks all over the world. The Internet capability called
relationships with suppliers, customers, employees, the World Wide Web is one of the reasons why the Internet
managers, and shareholders are digitally-enabled. has become so popular in such a short period of time. An

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