Following changes can be introduced to the value chain through e –business:

1. Improve speed of information flow between primary activities of value chain:

   i. Primary activities are directly concerned with the creation or delivery of a product or service.

   ii. They can be grouped into five main areas: inbound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, marketing and sales, and service. Each of these primary activities is linked to support activities which help to improve their effectiveness or efficiency.

   iii. E-Business helps to improve the flow of information speed between these primary activities.

   iv. Many enterprise technology systems such as SAP, use web enabled front-ends or back-ends to leverage Internet’s ability to link value chain constituents together for faster and more seamless communication.

   v. Nowadays, to achieve increased integration, the trend is towards the combination of an IT architecture featuring loosely coupled and decentralized Web Services, With standard business process that closely reflect the interactions among trading partners in supply chain.

2. Increase depth of information shared between activities:

   i. Information shared between activities include information about inventories at various segments of the chain, demand for products, capacity planning and activation, synchronization of material flows, delivery times, and any other relevant information that must be visible to all members of the supply chain at any given time.

   ii. Thus, e-business provides great amount of information visibility throughout the supply chain. This information helps managers plan, execute, and evaluate results with greater precision and speed.

   iii. Technology that permits complete visibility to this information enables businesses to manage their operations more effectively. . iv. Visibility of information across the supply chain as opposed to information from one supplier or customer provides for better management of the supply chain as a whole rather than as a set of discrete parts.

   v. Companies have transformed this kind of information visibility into competitive advantage.

3. Reduce costs of information processing.

   i. Initially, companies used information technology mainly for accounting and record-keeping functions. In these applications, the computers automated repetitive clerical functions such as order processing.

   ii. Today information technology is spreading throughout the value chain and is performing optimization and control functions as well as more judgmental executive functions.

   iii. Information technology is generating more data as a company performs its activities and is permitting it to collect or capture information that was not available before.

   iv. Such technology also makes room for a more comprehensive analysis and use of the expanded data. The number of variables that a company can analyze or control has grown dramatically.

   v. Thus, the costs of information storage, manipulation, and transmittal have greatly reduced.