Web server, generate some flashy graphics and, bingo, you have
an electronic version of your core business operations.
Unfortunately, successfully transitioning your company to
e-business a lot more complicated than that. E-business is not
just about developing a Web site but rather changing your
business model to adapt to the new economy. Simply grafting a
snazzy front-end on your current business is unlikely to take
full advantage of the opportunities offered by the e-business
revolution and may in fact be a prescription for disaster.
The problem with this approach is that it doesn't address the
important issue of whether your current business model can be
improved to take advantage of new e-business opportunities. For
example, suppose you have regional distribution centers across
the country. Without a doubt, the Internet can speed
communications between these distribution centers. But that
overlooks the possibility that the Web may make it possible to
serve the country from far fewer distribution centers or even
that you need don't need regional centers at all any more. The
nonstrategic approach to e-business also leaves a free path for
a new market entrant to develop a more efficient channel
structure that blows you out of the water.
What you should be doing instead is to first develop a macro
level business strategy that provides a road map for adapting
your business to the era of e-business. Just like developing a
business strategy for the old economy, your e-business strategy
should start by considering your current position in the market
including strengths and weaknesses, products and distribution
channels, the challenge posed by competition, new opportunities
in the market, etc. But at the same time you need to consider
the opportunities and challenges posed by the Internet, such as
the potential to interact directly with customers to streamline
distribution channels as well as the competitive threat posed by
new market entrants leveraging the Internet.
The next step is mapping a path to implement that strategy while
putting the primary emphasis on delivering a positive experience
to your customers, channel partners and the others with whom you
interact. Trying to avoid going down the blind alley of making
incremental improvements to your existing business. For example,
business units, with each targeting specific products and
markets, may organize your company. In that case, the individual
business units are doubtless thinking about how they can
optimize their own piece of the pie rather than the effect of
the e-business revolution on the entire company. Chances are,
many of these units may be performing the same business
processes in slightly different ways. In that case, there are
probably serious opportunities of scale across those business
units, such as using the same technology to perform processes
such as sales order processing, inventory or customer service.
Taking advantage of these opportunities will require a
big-picture perspective that requires the involvement of top
management to serve as an integrating force.
It's important that your e-business strategy the focus not on
the needs of fiefdoms within your own company but rather on the
experience of the user of your system, whether it's a customer,
general partner or employee that is interacting with you. One of
the most important areas is segmenting your strategy to address
the individual needs of different users. For example, a human
resources Intranet should be subdivided so that employees are
able to quickly get information on their benefits and
compensation while human resources professionals are able to
obtain the much more complex information that they need to do
their jobs.
Personalization is often the key to providing an outstanding
experience to the users of your Web site. As an example, one of
our customers developed a first-generation web site that
delivered a large volume of basic technical support information
on their Web site but failed to impact the rapidly growing need
for personal support services. The solution was developing a
more personalized approach that provides important advantages
over traditional technical support. Now, when a customer hits
their support site, it now knows who they are, the products they
own, how long they have owned them, what release they are on,
what level of support services they have contracted for, etc.
The support site then provides them with a customized interface
that addresses their individual needs. For example, it provides
the status of outstanding service requests and technical
bulletins on equipment they own.
It almost goes without saying that it's very risky to rely upon
your own perception of your customers' needs. A far more
effective approach is to let actual customers evaluate your
existing site as well as the approach you are considering on a
prototype basis so they can express their opinion as to whether
it meets their needs. Focus groups and usability studies provide
an excellent method to determine without a major investment
whether or not your site is easy to navigate, delivers the
correct brand impressions, contains the features and content
that your customers are looking for, etc.
Another point to consider is that no matter how good a job you
do in developing your strategy, it's going to be outdated in six
months. That's why it's so important to develop a flexible,
scalable architecture that will allow your system to easily
adapt to the future. Within a year after your site goes online,
there's no doubt the competitive landscape will have changed.
You may have purchased a company, been acquired, entered new
markets, changed your distribution channels, etc. The use of
open standards and industry standard tools can contribute to the
development of architecture with real staying power. Be sure to
investigate the financial strength and market position of the
companies that you choose to provide components. Their ability
to support you over the long term is just as important as the
value of their technology.
Finally, one critical part of your e-business strategy is the
use of technology in your company. Are you going to build up
your own expertise to maintain your e-business? In that case,
you need to develop a programming staff, graphical design
studio, editorial staff for content development, etc. The other
alternative is to outsource your technology development to a
service provider that will maintain your infrastructure and
deliver your applications as a hosted service. This approach has
the advantage of allowing you to focus on your core business
operations and outsource the technology issues to a specialist.
Whichever approach you take, develop a strategy that takes
advantage of the changes wrought by the e-business revolution
and your chances of success will be high.