Websites, or locations in the world wide web (the Internet) are the buildings of e-business. Each is unique, with a unique address that can be found by anyone who has access to the web. However, like shops on busy streets in any city, merely having a website, or an address, is no guarantee that anyone will find it in anything but the most haphazard way. Therefore there are systems on the web that deliver searchers to specific websites, much like maps allow people in the physical world to find their way around a city.

Do you need a website?

Websites are the electronic, public "face" of a business. So any business considering creation of a website should determine whether it requires one as part of its E-Business strategy. Despite much hype out there, not all businesses require websites to conduct their business. Cases where this might be true include:

• When a company's business is in a small, contained area. For example, a local printing operation might not need a site if it merely services customers in its own neighbourhood. The web gives companies geographical reach, and if they don't require it, would likely be a waste of time and money. The operation might use other aspects of E-Business, however: Office or production functions would likely be computerized, for example.
  
  
• Some E-Business systems are concerned only with internal operations, while a website is really for external users. Just as a manufacturing facility often does not require a "storefront", or any kind of external face, so an E-Business system may have nothing to do with anyone outside the company.