Best practices in B2B e-commerce : the case of AT&T and MCI Worldcom in the telecommunications industry

The evolution of the Internet has deep influence on the way businesses are managed. It not only has great impact on the way businesses approach their customers but also on the interface with their trading partners, employees, as well as their internal businesses processes. Today, developing an electronic business implies the total redesign of the enterprise; in other words it involves the total transformation of the way we do business. This thesis will address the following main question: How do different companies within the telecommunications industry gain competitive advantage from business to business e-commerce? The main focus of the study will be to compare and contrast business to business e-commerce practices for two companies within the following matrix: Maturity, Incumbent, Attacker: Company, AT&T, MCI Worldcom. In order to answer the main question I will be focusing on the following issues (for the above mentioned cases): ** What have been their approaches to b2b e-commerce? ** What has been the economic impact, due to the b2b e-commerce practice? ** What are the implications on the corporate strategy level? Have any of these companies redefined their culture and/or business model? ** What is the impact of such b2b e-commerce initiative on the value proposition? ** What appears to be the critical success factors in leveraging B2B e-commerce? ** What have been the constraints and or limitations?

Department dc:contributor.department

Management of Technology Program.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2000

Author dc:creator

• Naranjo O., Fabio A. (Fabio Alberto), 1963-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Henry Birdseye Weil.

• Management of Technology Program.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://theses.mit.edu/Dienst/UI/2.0/Describe/0018.mit.theses%2f2000-41
• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Identifier URI

http://theses.mit.edu/Dienst/UI/2.0/Describe/0018.mit.theses%2f2000-41

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/9224