Web technology can be seductive. It is all too easy to install a 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 s