E-Business Readiness: A Customer-Focused Framework

PREFACE: \ Ready, Set, Go: Setting the Stage\ Readiness: (n) a ready quality or state.\ Ready: (adj) prepared or equipped to act or be used immediately.\ Why You Are Reading this Book\ \ You are from an established firm that is considering transitioning its current business models.\ You are part of a start-up that is challenging the status quo.\ You want to distinguish small-to-medium enterprise (SME) e-business capabilities from big business capabilities.\ You are part of a company that is commercializing e-business technologies to assist other businesses with achieving their vision.\ You are a consultant trying to determine how you can assist businesses with achieving their vision.\ You are an investor who wants to invest or is already investing in the e-business space and needs a way to look at the overall big picture of e-business.\ \ You are an individual who is simply expanding your horizons. We all have a common mission--we want to achieve some form of success and we hope to glean some insight from others to make us more successful. Big and small enablers and purveyors of e-business are operating in the marketplace. Each has its own unique challenges and contexts that affect whether it will be successful. Your challenge is to apply their ideas to your situation, learn from other people's mistakes, get some service that enhances your business, and apply new ideas. Your situation is unique, and you are trying to separate the wheat from the chaff.\ What This Book Is All About\ This book is all about e-business readiness. What are the many implications of moving into e-business? We havethis stateless environment that we call the Internet. Globalization is making our world seem smaller. We see Korean companies forming e-business portals with Commerce One. Vertical Net has opened up shop in Japan and localized its site in Kanji. In countries throughout the world, we notice the many initiatives that have been implemented to try and stimulate e-Business adoption. E-business is a complex beast. To do it, you must understand it. We understand the traditional business "levers" to a great extent, but what makes e-business tick? We want to show you, actually build before your eyes, a framework--the eBiz Readiness! framework--that will make you e-business ready.\ A framework is needed to give structure to complex situations. Our framework for e-business readiness supports modularity, reusability, and extensibility and also includes monitoring and feedback tools. Our eBiz Readiness! framework has successfully been used by a midsize enterprise to develop its e-business strategy and create tactical plans. In addition, we validated the framework through consultation with many business executives and "New Age" consultants throughout the globe as we were writing this book.\ The questions you need to answer as you prepare to become e-business ready today are the following:\ \ The Now: What are you doing today to become e-business ready?\ The Future: What do you have to do to ensure that you will be competitive in the future?\ The Feedback: What are the gaps that you've identified, and how are you going to achieve your future vision?\ \ The ultimate goal is to be e-business ready! The framework is targeted toward all businesses, ranging from SMEs to lines of business (LOBs) to Fortune 500 companies. It is a modifiable framework that allows you to integrate your own unique industry components and metrics; most importantly it provides strategic direction in e-business.\ Can we guarantee that you will be successful by simply following a framework? Of course not. Just like a best-selling book seems to have certain "magic," magic also surrounds the creation of a successful company. The most successful companies exude an aura of great leadership, which is something that no framework can provide. Although this book will not help you with your leadership skills, we hope that it will affect your ability to create "e-business magic." We are giving you the tools to create a sound e-business strategy, assess gaps, and infuse feedback into your e-business readiness efforts. The framework gives you some guidance on creating your directional strategy.\ When we wrote this book, we wanted to make sure our customers--you, the readers--would be satisfied with the value it gave you. We found that we needed a balance between the theoretical and practical applications of the framework. We wanted you to be able apply the ideas to your situation. We found a balance between the customer value creation theory and practical examples of businesses that are doing the right things in today's e-business space. To continue the customer-focused theme, we present you with scenarios that provide insight into the two e-business perspectives: SME and big business. The challenge facing all companies moving toward or beginning e-business is assessing which infrastructures, functions, business processes, and procedures need to be transformed. We use two fictional example companies in each chapter; one from an established big business with multiple business units and disciplines and another from a small business that just uses a few key components of our framework (and not all its intricacies). "Bob," shown in the following box, is the head of the e-business strategic unit for the big business company (BBCompany). "Sue" runs a small business (SMEBusiness). We provide BBCompany and SMEBusiness in various industries or verticals in every chapter. We hope you will find that some of the information provided by Bob and Sue apply to your situation. The point to remember is that no two companies are exactly the same. We also use examples of actual companies to further explain the points in the book. The examples are woven in the text and highlighted in Doing It Today boxes.\ Bob: CEO of BBCompany\ Task: To change his company's traditional business model.\ \ Comments: I come from a big business that has moved from being the incumbent company for the sector and must now contend with competition--not only from local firms but also on a global front. It seems like mergers and acquisitions are the only way for us to grow, but I am confident that we can move our business model toward e-business. I interact with customers in various ways; they are starting to use the Internet and e-mail to contact me. The same is true of my suppliers and partners. We have always done business using traditional communication methods--paper and fax machines--but we've suddenly realized that we have to use electronic methods if we are going stay on top of current information and get that information to our customers.\ \ \ Sue: CEO of SMEBusiness\ Task: To enhance her company's current e-business model.\ \ Comments: I come from a small e-business that currently sells to the North American market. I started the business because I wanted to make a career change and focus on the things I love. My company grew from a business that I started in my basement. We now have an office from which we run our operations. Being small means we am nimble, but it also means I wear many hats. I need simple, easy ideas to move my business ahead.\ \ \ How to Use This Book\ This book is organized in a specific way. Most chapters includes the following:\ \ Getting You Prepared, which sets the expectations for the chapter\ Defining the Horizon, which presents the chapter's core concepts\ Bob's perspective (the big business view) and Sue's perspective (the SME view) of the chapter's subject matter\ Doing it Today, which includes interviews with leaders of actual business\ Mini case studies of SMEs and large businesses so that you can read examples of the framework in action\ Are You Ready? which summarizes the chapter's highlights and metrics\ \ You should read chapters 1 and 2 first so that you get an idea of the scope of the book. Chapters 1 and 2 introduce the core concepts in e-business, emphasize the need for an e-business readiness assessment framework, and present an overview of the eBiz Readiness! framework. The details of the framework are developed in each of the subsequent chapters (Chapters 3 through 10). Although you can read these chapters independently, we recommend that you read them in order. In particular, we suggest that you read the chapter on operational partners (Chapter 6) before the chapter on strategic partners (Chapter 7). Chapter 10 explains how you can create an e-business strategy for your particular situation. It shows how to use the framework to assess your company's opportunities and threats in relation to business, industries, or countries. The book is supplemented with an Internet web site: www.ebizreadiness.com. The intent of this site is to complement the book by creating a community of interest for the readers.\ The e-business space is exciting, and it is an exciting time to be in the space. We hope that you have as much fun reading this book as we did writing it!\ \ \ 0201710064P04062001

1: Let's Get Ready: The Big Picture. Getting You Prepared. Defining the Horizon. Customer Focus. Customer Value. The Intermediate Value Web. Craig's Stakeholder Model of E-Business: Creating the New Value Web. The Stakeholders. The New Value Web. E-Business Models. Clearing Up Some Confusion: Creating a Common Lexicon. Application Service Provider. Enterprise Resource Planning. Providing Some Context: The E-Business Spectrum. The Need for the eBiz Readiness! Framework. Are You Ready? 2: Detailing Up: eBiz Readiness! Framework. Getting You Prepared. Defining the Horizon. The Customer-Focused Approach. Customer Value. The eBiz Readiness! Framework. eBiz Readiness! Stakeholders. eBiz Readiness! Components. eBiz Readiness! Enablers. Knowledge Management. Trust. Technology. Metrics in the eBiz Readiness! Framework. Benchmarking. Customer Metrics. Financial Metrics. eBiz Readiness! Internal Rating and Weighting Scales. How to Apply the eBiz Readiness! Framework. Macro View. The Feedback Loop. Are You Ready? eBiz Readiness! Framework Strengths. 3: Your Reason for Being: Your Customers. Getting You Prepared. Introducing the Customer Stakeholder. Defining the Horizon. Contact Points Integration. Contact Points. eBiz Readiness! Components for Customer Stakeholder. Engage. Order. Fulfill. Support. Questions You May Want to Ask. Overall. Leverage of Multiple Channels for Selling. Engage. Order. Support. Using the Evaluation Framework. Small-Business Perspective: Customer Stakeholder Assessment (SMEDistributor). Big-Business Perspective: Customer Stakeholder Assessment (BBFinance). Are You Ready? 4: Getting You Prepared. Defining the Horizon. Broad-and-Shallow versus Narrow-and-Deep Portals. Business-to-Consumer Communities. Business-to-Business Communities. eBiz Readiness! Components for the Community Stakeholder. Engage. Community Interaction. Community Services. Community Governance. Community Questions. Overall. Engagement. Interaction. Services. Governance. Small-Business Perspective: Community Stakeholder Assessment (SMEDistributor). Big-Business Perspective: Community Stakeholder Assessment (BBFoodCompany). Engage. Interaction. Services. Governance. Are You Ready? 5: Going Against the Flow: Operational Partnering. Getting You Prepared. Introducing the Operational Partner. Defining the Horizon. eBiz Readiness! Components for the Operational Partner Stakeholder. Partnering for Trust Services. Denial-of-Service Attacks. E-Commerce Security Technologies. Partnerships for Knowledge Management. Small-Business Perspective: Operational Stakeholder Assessment (SMEManufacturer). Big-Business Perspective: Operational Partner Assessment (BBGovernment). Are You Ready? 6: Hand-in-Hand into the Future: Strategic Partnering. Getting You Prepared. Introducing the Strategic Partner Stakeholder. Defining the Horizon. Strategic Partner Continuum. Partner Relationship Management. eBiz Readiness! Components for the Strategic Partner Stakeholder. New Alliances. Account Planning. New Market Research. Macro Resource Planning. Product or Service Development. Summary. Questions You May Want to Ask. Overall. Knowledge Sharing. New Alliance. Account Planning. New Market Research. Macro Resource Planning. Product Development. Using the Evaluation Framework. Small-Business Perspective: Strategic Partner Assessment (SMEGiftBaskets). Big-Business Perspective: Strategic Partner Assessment (BBTelco). Are You Ready? 7: eBiz Rules!: Governance. Getting You Prepared. Defining The Horizon. Globalization. Statelessness. Role of Government, Private Sector, and Self-Governing Bodies. Economics. eBiz Readiness! Components for the Governance Stakeholder. Socioeconomics. Marketplace Rules. Privacy and Trust. Technology. Questions You May Want to Ask. Overall. Socioeconomics. Marketplace. Privacy and Trust. Technology. Using the Evaluation Framework. Big-Business Perspective: Governance Components Assessment (BBMusicOnline). Socioeconomics. Marketplace Rules. Privacy and Trust. Technology. Weighting Assignment. Overall Assessment. Small-Business Perspective: Governance Components Assessment (SMEFood). Socioeconomics. Marketplace Rules. Privacy and Trust. Technology. Weighting Assignment. Overall Assessment. Are You Ready? 8: Working for YOU: Agents. Getting You Prepared. Defining the Horizon. eBiz Readiness! Components for Agents. Research and Analysis. Content Management. Sales, Marketing, and Service. Community. Education and Entertainment. Questions You May Want to Ask. Overall. Research and Analysis. Content Management. Sales, Marketing, and Service. Community. Entertainment. Small-Business Perspective: Agent Assessment (SMETailor). Big-Business Perspective: Agent Assessment (BBFinance). Are You Ready? 9: Get Your "Insides" Working: Employee and Internal Operations. Getting You Prepared. Introducing the E-Business "Insides": Operational Requirements. Defining the Horizon. E-Business and Enterprise Resource Planning. Customer Value Innovation. eBiz Readiness! Components for Internal Assessment. E-Culture. Productivity. Information Systems Infrastructure and Services. Questions You May Want to Ask. E-Culture. Productivity. Information Systems Infrastructure and Services. Small-Business Perspective: Internal Assessment (SMEHiTech). Overall Benchmark Score. Big-Business Perspective: Internal Assessment (BBEdu). Overall Benchmark Score. Are You Ready? 10: Strategic Planning: Attack and Defend. Getting You Prepared. Defining the Horizon. Strategies. E-Strategies. Core E-Business Competencies. Barriers to Successful E-Strategies: The Difficulty Index. Opportunities. What and Where. Risks. Extending the E-Business Stakeholder Model. Globalization. Industry-Level Modifications. The Challenge. Opportunity and Risk Assessment Questions. "Insides" Assessment Questions. Customer Stakeholder. Strategic Partner Stakeholder. Operational Partner Stakeholder. Community Stakeholder. Governance Stakeholder. Creating a Strategic Plan for Enabling E-Business: The E-Strategy. Small-Business Perspective: Planning (SMEVideoStore). Big-Business Perspective: Planning (BBTelco). Are You Ready? The Good Luck Story.

\ BooknewsE-business involves the transformation of business processes through the use of Internet technologies. Authors Craig (an e-business consultant) and Jutla (commerce, Saint Mary's U., Halifax) describe their approach for analyzing e-business needs, setting goals, determining an effective strategy, and monitoring change to foster what they call "e-business readiness." Issues are examined from the perspective of both established large businesses and small start-ups. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)\ \