To effectively add value in today's business environment, accounting professionals must understand the fundamental issues associated with e-business, whether functioning as financial adviser, assurance provider, or broad-based business consultant. This book is intended to provide a relatively nontechnical introduction to the fundamental e-business issues that today's accounting professional needs to understand. While accountants' comparative advantage with respect to e-business generally lies at the upper end of the information value chain (closer to decisions than to raw data, as discussed in Chapter 1), accountants need a working knowledge of underlying technology, current applications of e-business, and various e-business models. The first three chapters of the book provide the necessary background on e-business, and while these chapters are somewhat tailored to accountants, much of the information is equally relevant to other business disciplines. In these early chapters, readers learn about the historical development of e-business as swell as the effect e-business is having on business. Coverage of the benefits and current usages of e-business make up a large part of Chapter 1 and the bulk of Chapter 3.

The speed with which "e" burst upon the business world has not permitted existing accounting, auditing, and information systems texts to address the important e-business issues accountants need to be aware of. The last two chapters and the technology appendices provide a good foundation of e-business terminology, strategic implications and important risks, threats, and opportunities, particularly with respect to the accounting profession. While the text covers fundamental information technology issues, this book is not intended to be an information technology "how-to" book.

In the two years since we wrote the first edition of this book, much has changed in the world of e-business. Of course this is what one would expect—change, and lots of it. April 2000 witnessed the bursting of the dot-com bubble. The tech-heavy NASDAQ stock index fell from its historic high mark of more than 5000 in March 2000 to well under 2000 as of this writing. Venture capital fled the e-business scene, and the mood went from exuberance and growth-focused to grim and profit-oriented. General recession and 9/11 have taken their toll as well. In this second edition, we have updated examples throughout the book and added new material to reflect the lessons and progress of the past two years. We remain convinced that even though e-business does change some of the rules, conventional business wisdom is still a vital factor in a company's success. We are glad to see much of the hype surrounding e-business has faded.

In collegiate settings, this book is primarily intended as a supplement to be used in existing accounting courses. It is appropriate for use in intermediate or advanced financial accounting courses, introductory or advanced auditing courses, and introductory accounting information systems courses. This book could also be used as part of a larger set of materials in a stand-alone e-business course for accounting students. While the book is targeted to accounting students, many consultants, business advisers, and CPAs will also ,,And that the book provides a useful introduction to important e-business issues.

We invite professionals, students, and faculty to visit our Companion Website, www.prenhall.com/glover, for additional resources such as links to the Web addresses referenced in this book, regularly updated references and links to current e-business articles, and more.