Chapter 5.

Minicase 2
E-Commerce Improves Inventory Control at Hi-Life
Corporation
1. Explain why this is B2E.
B2E

(business-to-its-employees)

is

special

case

of

intrabusiness

(intraorganizational) commerce. That means that an organization uses ecommerce internally to improve its operations and in this particular case an
organization delivers products or services to its employee.
Thus in case of Hi-Life corporation we see that employees use PC and it let
them lessen the time of inventory very much. So, we can say for sure, it B2E.
2. How is corporate decision making improved?
IT Solution was introduced and improved in 2 stages. First, Pocket PCs was
introduced by managers, so employees could understand how to operate it. One
year later an additional barcode scanner was added. Probably, this two-step
approach let the employees to learn better how to use these devices, than express
their opinion and ideas (about benefits, problems, possible improvement). And
just after that the second step was done. Analyzing benefits and some points to
be-improved, this was done before second step helped to develop this system
fully.
3. Summarize the benefits to customers, employees, and the company.
New system let employees to reduce inventory time, thus they gained more time
plan, manage and communicate with customers. To customers errors were
down by 90 %, so they received exactly what they ordered in a short time. Better
service. New system contributes more competitiveness and profitability to HiLife Corporation.