E-business applications are web-based applications that can be implemented to perform tasks for businesses. These applications are not just for online businesses, but also for traditional ones. Behind the scenes, e-business applications usually rely on relationships between company servers and end user computers. Common e-business applications provide some way for a company to interact with consumers on the web or to perform tasks related to meeting consumer needs (such as online tracking of postal shipments).
One example of an e-business application is a when a company builds an e-business application in which users interface with the application only through a web browser. The application server is responsible for returning HTML content (information) to users based on their requests. This server also collects information entered by users in their web browsers. The exchange of information between client and server and server and client always occurs through a web server.
Another type of e-business application is a business suite offered by a company like Oracle or IBM. This suite of applications interfaces with the company's existing information systems. For example, financial transaction data can be transferred to the company's accounting system with a financial application. An e-business suite might help a company to perform transactions such as collecting online payments, managing inventory, tracking sales patterns, planning routes of distribution, posting product descriptions to web pages and managing customer information in a database.
An enterprise content management system (ECMS) helps a business that needs to manage a large amount of web content. Content may consist of many types of digital files, including text, audio, video, graphics, and financial data. A business uses a large database (sometimes powered by many servers) to manage information collected through web-based forms. For example, Memorial Health System in Colorado Springs partnered with IBM to create a Physician Link service using an ECMS. A local physician logs into Physician Link using a web browser located anywhere. She can view a patient's laboratory test results on the web and then phone in prescription orders to a hospital nurse on duty.
