Corporate Business Solutions

While corporations don't face the time and financial restraints of small ecommerce merchants, their problems are equally daunting — the need for:

• astute decisions on expensive technical matters.
• strategic planning that integrates very different disciplines and departments.
• delivery of complex projects within time and budget.

Unfortunately, they are often handicapped by:

• tangled management structures.
• changing overall objectives.
• non-communication and/or rivalry between divisions.
• decision-making remote from shopfloor realities.
• wavering commitment to ecommerce.

As a result, the larger companies often get ecommerce wrong — bloated graphic design, poor navigation, nonexistent customer feedback, a confusing ordering process. The brand may carry prestige in the shopping mall, but ecommerce is played by different rules.

Technical Aspects

Consult the sites listed on our site development resources page, but your most important decision is probably site hosting. Do you run your own server — expensive in support staff salaries — or have a dedicated server run by a third party? And what server software should you choose? Your need to integrate with systems already in operation will limit the choices, but our resources page lists the main players and sites carrying evaluations.

Then comes choice of storefront software. Do you a) write your own from scratch, b) use the integrated bundles of software provided by the larger software companies, c) employ an outside company with accredited expertise, or d) purchase a top-of-the-range 'out of the box solution'? There are no easy answers, but our resources pages on corporate solutions and storefront programs will help you weigh up the issues.

Project Management

Some 90% of IT projects overrun on time and/or budgets. To ensure yours escapes these problems:

• get Main Board approval: ideally one director should be personally responsible for and committed to the project.
• appoint a project leader who enjoys the confidence of staff and senior management.
• make sure objectives and delivery times are crystal clear and agreed by all parties.
• don't be overly-ambitious: stick as far as possible to tried and tested solutions.
• test to ensure that plans are realistic; then add a generous contingency factor.
• employ the right staff: i.e. find staff for the project rather than tailor the project to the staff available.
• achieve a proper balance of personalities: the visionaries and the solid coders.
• outsource sections if necessary but monitor closely and insist on onerous penalties for noncompliance.
• establish a proper reporting structure with clear responsibilities and reporting procedures.
• instigate regular meetings, if necessary training staff in these essential skills.
• keep senior management fully up to date on time and cost expectations.

Skills Integration

All businesses require a mix of specialized skills, but the need for understanding between very different disciplines and personalities becomes acute in ecommerce. Senior management is responsible for the company's future position in the market place. Sales will understand marketing and customer psychology. The Art Department involves itself with company image and branding. Only the IT Department knows what is and is not feasible on the programming side. Any website that doesn't marry and build on all these disciplines will soon run into problems.

What's the answer? Respect for and understanding of different jobs — not as a pious wish, but by practical measures: detailed project management, consultation and temporary secondments. The better staff are usually curious of other departments and enjoy having their horizons broadened. Cross fertilization can achieve wonders in a demanding but supportive working environment.

Customer Relationship Management

Large companies with thousands of customers and suppliers commonly need software to manage the information effectively. Our resources page provides a good listing.

Content Management Systems

Large sites maintained by different individuals or departments require content management systems that:

• keep all content together, usually through a database,
• automate the workflow,
• control access, i.e. who does what,
• reduce the manual labor of updating,
• preserve the overall appearance of the site.

Though they can be tailored to your requirements, such systems will tie your company to the skills and fortunes of the software developer. Moreover, they don't come cheap. Choose wisely from our resources listing.

Large Catalogues with XML

Online catalogues featuring thousands of products can be built with HTML and Javascript that accesses some relational database for content — commonly MySQL or SQL Server. In B2B operations, however, where one company seeks to incorporate another's products in its own catalogue, increasing use is made of XML. Naturally, there are different standards or implementations of XML, each with their advantages and geographical areas of use, and the resulting systems can be expensive.

Companies wishing to enter this expanding field may:

• write the system with their own programmers.
• outsource the task to a service bureau.
• purchase software to automate the task.

Our resources page lists the companies supplying software, plus sites providing information on the differing XML implementations.

Consult our e-book to use the extensive listings on corporate business solutions.

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