An Overview and Summary

Abstract

This book has introduced a model-driven approach for identifying, designing, deploying, and managing business services in software. The concept of e-service is an extension of conventional business services, made possible thanks to the rapid explosion in popularity of the Internet and the World Wide Web (Rust & Kannan, 2003). The first generation of e-commerce was based largely on retailing commodity goods, such as books and CDs, and used mass media advertising to contact consumers. The premise of first generation e-commerce was that operational efficiencies (i.e., minimizing the need and therefore the expense to keep physical stores) would reduce the costs of selling. Unfortunately, selling commodities has low profit margins due to competition. An alternative is required, that allows companies to built sustainable competitive advantage, based on their capability to deliver more individualized and hence more profitable e-services.