The eBCM Model provides a general assessment platform for eBusiness and respective activities, and in addition, a working arena for benchmarking and indicator based studies covering eBusiness development and maturity follow-up. The eBCM can be seen as two main parts, the Core and Adjacent Elements.

The Core

Building Blocks, each of them covering a specific key issue in understanding and managing eBusiness;

Building Block Clusters, representing essential eBusiness sub domains and consisting of a number of strongly related building blocks. There are four clusters in the eBCM core.

Mindset. In order to promote ICT enabled business practices it is important to create an environment with enthusiasm, a virtual accelerating cycle and an atmosphere leading to adoption. For any development, there needs to be the right "mindset" in place, including the necessary knowledge, the awareness about the opportunities and the motivation to take action, and effective fora for cooperation of measures taken.
The cluster Building Blocks: Knowledge, Awareness and Motivation, and Cooperation.

Agreements. The business environment includes numerous agreements of different categories. Some agreements are informal, some formal by nature. Some are voluntary recommendations, some compulsory. The landscape is wide for agreements with differing strength; binding, guideline- type and recommendations to follow generally accepted codes of conduct. A prerequisite for a solid set of agreements is a stable set of supplier independent definitions and terminology.
The cluster Building Blocks: Laws and Regulations, Standards and Standardization, and Contracts.

Assurance. Establishing the necessary trust and confidence between business partners is to a very large extent a subjective issue affected by the reputation and image of the organizations or enterprises in question. This refers to the overall perceived identity and credibility, which are essential both in the traditional business as well as in the business practices with strong ICT penetration and network visibility.
The cluster's Building Blocks: Information Security, Identification, and Credibility Management.

Alignment is an integrating building block cluster, bringing together the fabrics of different ICT supported business processes and the necessary eBusiness community content descriptions, adaptation to different environments and partnerships, business transaction construction and respective message exchange means, preconditions and practices.
The cluster's Building Blocks: Content, Integration, and Messaging.

Adjacent Elements

There are two categories of Adjacent Elements:

I) Elements which are within the direct power of individual organisations to operate and decide upon:

Business Assets, set of elements and factors identifying key business processes, models and management as well as value chains and networks evitable for businesses to create and maintain dynamic and ac-hoc based cooperation structures, where different resources meet and work together to achieve a common goal, thus integrating their value production abilities.
The elements: Business Processes, Models and Management, and Value Chains and Networks

Adoption, set of elements and factors providing information from various sources about issues related to eBusiness adoption, i.e. how the ICT enabled business renewal is progressing, and identifying obstacles, barriers, gaps of knowledge etc. problems in the progress and take-up of new business practices, and serves as an integration point of the findings and messages provided by the individual building block based benchmarks and indicators.
The elements: Facilitators and Obstacles

II) Elements which are regarded as background given factors. These elements illustrate the general environment, prerequisites, need and motivation related issues important for eBusiness development and implementation. Individual organizations have to adapt themselves with respect to these factors and take action accordingly.

Driving Forces are set of elements and factors identifying internal or external forces such as technology and business innovations, the evolving markets and the turbulent competition scene, policy and society level issues, and the emerging new possibilities for profit opportunities as well as threats for success.
The elements: Profit Opportunities and Threats, Technology and Business Innovations, Markets and Competition, and Policy and Society

Enablers are set of elements and factors referring to key prerequisites for ICT enabled business practices and for establishing a well-functioning eBusiness environment.
The elements: ICT Infrastructure and Human Resources