A Proposed Framework for Transition to an E-Business Model

E-business offers organizations many new strategic opportunities through virtual alliances and supply chain partnerships. As in the past, IT can provide organizations with unprecedented market advantages. Thus, not engaging in e-business may prove to be costly in missed opportunities and lost leadership. However, transitioning from a bricks and mortar to an e-business model is not a simple task; it presents many major organizational challenges. These include adopting an organizational strategy that incorporates an information technology (IT) enabled business model, developing the IT infrastructure to ensure technology can be delivered to all users, managing change (i.e., overcoming resistance) and developing users of the new IT, redesigning or reengineering management processes and organizational structure to co-align with the focus of the business model. This paper suggests an organizational approach and presents a framework based on the MIT90 framework for successfully transitioning to an e-business model. Reengineering and co-alignment of the framework’s components are vital to the underlying success