There are many internal and external impacts to eCommerce, that may provide opportunities or threats to an organization.

Explain and discuss one of the following below:

1. eGovernment

2. Growth in Latin American eCommerce

A: What is E-government?

According Abdelbaset Rabaiah and Eddy Vandijck of Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), e-government can be defined as a new way of interaction between government, citizens, business partners and employees. It consists on the application of the technologies of information and communications to provide its services online. Its main purpose is to achieve an improvement in the efficiency and effectiveness of the state processes, as well as to make easier the distribution of services.

Does E-government provide opportunities or threats to an organization?

Authors state in the chapter “E-Government and Its Impact on E-Commerce in LDCs” that it can act as a catalyst of e-commerce. They point out that some companies such as IBM and HP, have long developed complete software packages for e-government implementation. They also state that e-government brings efficiencies and cost reductions for businesses. In addition it allow to grow quickly by facilitating operation and access to common ICT infrastructure.

On the other hand, the authors explain that e-government has political, social, legal and economical technical. Regarding the political challenges, it was very interesting for me that a large-scale project could never see light because of the lack of political commitment; according the authors this can fail the project at its earliest stages. Regarding social challenges, Government should demonstrate to its citizens that their privacy is preserved. Privacy laws should be secluded by the constitution. Privacy and security must be a core component of e-government implementation.

Respond and discuss whether you would participate in these markets (Government, or region specific ecommerce)