ECommerce

1
E-Commerce
The challenge and threat of Web-based business
operations.
2
The Year for E-Commerce
1996 brought the birth of E-Commerce on the
Internet.
1997 saw it sit up.
1998 was the year that e-commerce began to crawl,
warts and all, into the mainstream consumer
consciousness.
1999 should deliver on the promise that
e-commerce began to show in 1998. While there
are plenty of issues to deal with, 1999 should be
the year that E-Commerce finally takes off.
3
E-Commerce Jobs
Systems architect Network infrastructure
support Project manager Web site
developer Content author Resident artist,
photographer, production editor Webmaster Technica
l support, help desk
4
Terms?

• E-Commerce
• E-Business
• Virtual Corporation
• Partnership
• Outsourcing
• Intranet
• Extranet
• Electronic Data Integration (EDI)

5
E-Commerce Goal
Building a great customer experience to develop
brand preference and increase customer loyalty
to grow revenues (and increase profits).
6
The Promise of E-Commerce!?

• Increase customer loyalty.
• Decrease time-to-market for new products.
• Reach customers in the most cost-effective way
• with targeted offers.
• Reduce costs per transaction substantially.
• Reduce customer service costs substantially.
• Reduce customer service time appreciably.
• Increase profitability.

7
E-Commerce

• Requires no business district.
• Few entry barriers.
• Gains full time global coverage.
• The web site is the package and the product.
• Relatively easy automation.
• Allows minimal or even no inventory.
• Can accomplish instant electronic distribution.
• Captures a wealth of customer data.

8
E-Commerce
The web is not a mass market but a mass of niche
markets.
9
E-Business
An E-Business integrates its business philosophy,
strategies, processes and organizational
structure to learn, purchase, market, sell,
manufacture, share resources and receive services
through any channel at any time.
E-Business occurs when the company, its customers
and partners interact on all of these levels
electronically.
10
E-Business Approach
Successful E-Business needs to be based on a
broad electronic business strategy that embraces
all the ways that you do business electronically.
11
E-Business Capabilities

• E-mail and messaging.
• Web site.
• Intranet and extranet.
• Company-wide data warehouse.
• ERP links.
• Internal processes that are consistent
• and compatible with the above.

12
Web-Powered Organization
CSRs
Marketing Automation
Field Sales
Customers
Customer Support Systems
Sales Automation
Internet
Telesales
Channel Partners
Channel Partners
Back Office Systems
Field Service Reps
Employees
Suppliers
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• Marketing Automation
• Leads
• Campaigns
• Marketing Libraries
• Proposals

• Back Office Systems
• Product Catalogs
• Orders
• Configuration
• Inventory
• Financials

14
Business Success with the Internet
Business success through the use of the Internet
starts and ends with how it can effectively
support key business strategies.
Business strategies dictate the need for and an
opportunity to exploit information technologies.
The Internet, as an information technology,
enables the support of a key business strategy.
15
Zingers or business strategies?
16
FedEx The World on Time
A business is as big as it appears. If time is
money, speed is profit. A powerful tool for
customer satisfaction. Time is the currency of
the future. Connecting you to a world economy.
17
In a World Where Competition is a Way of Life
Industry Leadership Demands 1. Tremendous
drive. 2. Outstanding ability. 3. Cutting-edge
technology. 4. Passion in what you are doing.
18
Ways to Win on the Web

• Selling to Businesses - Dell Computer
• Selling to Businesses - Cisco Systems
• A Corporate Intranet - Sun Microsystems
• Streamlining the Supply Chain - Pitney Bowes
• Recruiting Online - Lots of Companies
• Winning and Keeping Web Surfers - Yahoo
• Selling to Consumers - Amazon.com
• Customer Service - Federal Express
• Online Auction - eBay

19
Successful E-Commerce Businesses
Ask the Builder Cassette House Coastal Tool
Supply Discount Games Expert Marketplace Fragrance
Net Gamesville HorseNet International Golf
Outlet iPrint Ken Crane's Laser Discs The Knot
KoreaLink Long Island Hot Tubs Motorcycle
Online Mountain Zone Practical Online Weightloss
Clinic Product Partners Reel.com Ridout
Plastics The Knot Tradeshop U.S. Wings Weirton
Steel
20
Top 25 People in E.Biz
Empire Builders Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com Stephen
Case, American Online Inc. Timothy A. Koogle,
Yahoo, Inc. Pacesetters David Pottruck, Charles
Schwab Corp. John T. Chambers, Cisco Systems
Inc. Michael Dell, Dell Computer Corp.
21
Innovators
Louis Borders, Webvan Group Jay Walker,
Priceline.com Margaret Whitman, eBay Inc. Glen
Meakem, Freemarkets Inc. Jim Clark, Mycfo
Inc. Chritos Cotsakos, ETrade Group Inc.
22
Bankrollers
Masayoshi Son, Softbank Corp., Japan Robert
Kagle, Benchmark Capital Lawton Fitt, Goldman
Sachs Co. John Doerr, Kleiner Perkins Caufield
Byers Bernard Arnault, Lymh Moet Hennessy Louis
Vuitton, France
23
Architects
Louis Gerstner, IBM Corp. Pehong Chen,
Broadvision Inc. David Peterschmidt, Inktomi
Inc. Kevin OConnor, Doubleclick Ellen Hancock,
Exodus Communications
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The Internet Obliterates Traditional Barriers
Geographic barriers Online businesses can reach
to every corner of the globe without building
physical facilities. Time barriers People can
research and buy 24 hours a day
Information barriers Comparison shopping
is a breeze, even for things that are tough to
compare in the real world.
Switching barriers No longer are customers
locked in by the time and hassle of finding
another supplier, the competition is just a
click away.
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Bill Gates Rules for Business Success
1. Insist that communication flow through
email. 2. Study sales data online to share
insights easily. 3. Shift knowledge workers into
high-level thinking. 4. Use digital tools to
create virtual teams. 5. Convert every paper
process to a digital process. 6. Use digital
tools to eliminate single-task jobs.
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7. Create a digital feedback loop. 8. Use
digital systems to route customer complaints
immediately. 9. Use digital communication to
redefine the company boundaries. 10.
Transform every business process into
just-in-time delivery. 11. Use digital
delivery to eliminate the middleman. 12. Use
digital tools to help customers solve problems
for themselves.
27
Business-to-Business Sales
With all the recent noise about Internet
shopping, it would be easy to assume that
Amazon.com, CDNow and their top competitors are
the true champions of E-Commerce. In reality,
they are not even in the major leagues. If you
combined the 1998 revenue of every single U.S.
retailer on the Internet -- 7.8 billion,
according to Forrester Research -- you wouldn't
even match the total of one business-to-business
seller, Cisco Systems that says its Internet
sales currently average more than 8 billion per
year.
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E-Commerce Perspective
Seventy-five percent of E-Commerce transactions
happen outside of the consumer's reach.
29
EDI System Obstacles

• Company data versus standards
• Cross industry standards
• Standards compliance

Data

• Time zones and windows
• Communication protocols
• Telecommunications equipment
• Service cost and balance

Communications

• Integration
• Features and function supported
• Interface

Applications
30
Dell Computer Corp.
Created a 12 Billion Company in 13 Years. A
sell direct to customers business model from the
very beginning.
31
Dell Computer Direct Business Model

• Customer Focus
• Supplier Partnerships
• Mass Customization
• Just-in-time Manufacturing
• Made possible by Information Technology!
• Resulting in extraordinary returns to investors.

32
Direct Business Model

• Eliminates the resellers markup.
• Minimizes the costs and risks associated with
  carrying large inventories of finished goods.
• Keeps you closer to what customers want.
• Takes advantage of just-in-time manufacturing.
• Emphasizes just-in-time product technology.
• Gains the advantages of tightly coordinated
  supply chain management that traditionally came
  from vertical integration.
• Benefits from the focus and specialization of a
  virtual company.

33
Selling Direct
Dramatically improves the ability to forecast
demand. Can track a customers total PC
purchases. Dell has developed web pages for its
200 largest customers that provides purchase
information to enable the customer to better
manage this part of its operations.
34
Charles Schwab and Co.
Is generally credited with creating the
discounter broker segment of the brokerage
industry in the 1970s. Its stock outperformed
Intel and Microsoft in the 1990s. No firm rode
the bull market like Schwab. Customer accounts
tripled, customer assets grew tenfold, revenues
grew times six and net income increased by a
fourteen multiple. Competitive pressure
intensified from deep discount and Internet based
brokers. In 1998 commission rates collapsed while
expenses surged.
35
Remaking Schwab
We cant build a business on trading any more
because that service is a commodity.
Susanne Lyons President Specialized Investor
Services
36
Schwab Competitors
Ameritrade Brokerage Direct DLJ
Direct ETrade Jack White Lindner Farsight
Net Investor Quick Reilly Suretrade Web Street
Securities Waterhouse
37
The New Schwab
Charles Schwab believes that it can harness the
power of the Internet to create a firm that
delivers the kind of advice and service that
investors want.
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Schwab III
Schwab I - We will save you money on trade
commissions.
Schwab II - We offer broad trading services at a
competitive price.
Schwab III - A brokerage firm for which there is
no prototype. One that is built around the
Internet to coach people to manage their own
investment portfolios.
39
The New Schwab
Its new strategy is based on increased help and
advice. The bigger the asset base of its clients,
the less dependence it has on cutthroat
commissions competition. It can make this change
without mergers or major acquisitions. It also
doesnt need some elses capital, technology or
brand name. It is more actively soliciting new
clients through warm calls.
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Success Probability?

• High brand name recognition.
• Strong branch network.
• A young customer base.
• Financially solid.
• Strong IT capabilities and track record.
• A strong foothold on the Internet.
• A visionary leader and a strong management team.

41
Meanwhile, what about consumers?
42
E-Commerce Skeptic
If you cant hear it, smell it, taste it, feel
it, see it, hold it, measure it, compare it, or
even try it, why would anyone want to buy it? My
guess is that 3 to 5 of people might buy a
product through e-tailing, but that 70 of them
would be dissatisfied with it.
M.W. Dippold, Rimrock, Ark.
43
The Numbers Please
As of January 1999 50.3 of US households had a
personal computer 30.2 were online 10 were
shopping online 54 million people are considered
active Internet users 41 million people are
projected to join the ranks of active users by
2002
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Online Users Making an Online Purchase
1998 1999 Intended

• Books 7.2 16.0
• Music/Video 6.3 16.4
• Software 4.8 12.6 Apparel 4.5 11.0
• Computers 3.2 6.2
• Toys 3.1 10.3
• Auctions 2.8 5.6
• Travel 2.6 4.3
• Electronics 2.1 6.9
• Household 1.5 5.3
• Health/Beauty 1.4 4.3 Sports/Shows
  Tickets 1.4 4.2

Data Harris Interactive
45
Amazon.com

• Founded by Jeff Bezos in 1995 with a mission to
  use the Internet to offer products that educate,
  inform and inspire.
• 6.2 million people in more than 160 countries
  have bought something from Amazon.com.
• Still has an unbelievable stock price for a
  company that has never made a profit.

46
Would the Amazon.com Business Model Work?
The issue was not whether the technology would
work, but whether customers would want to shop
for books online.
Has set the standard for on-line retailing.
47
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc., is an online book, CD and
video  retailer offering more than 4.7M music
CDs, videos, DVDs, computer-games, books, toys
and an auction. For the six months ended 6/30/99,
revenues rose from 203.3M to 608M. Net loss
totaled 199.7M, up from 32.9M. Revenues
reflect an increase in units sold due to growth
of the customer base and repeat customers.
Higher loss reflects a 75.8M merger and
acquisition related charge. 
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We made a list of the top 20 products that could
best be sold online and researched the top five.
It was important to understand the size of the
market, the number of suppliers in each, who the
800 pound gorillas were in each market, and in
particular to understand what value proposition
you could offer the customer by adding special
value on the Internet
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Barnes Noble and Borders are the largest US
booksellers and they only have 11 and 10 market
share respectively We want to be one of the
world's leading bookstores. WE think that online
book sales might represent 8 of all book sales
by the year 2000! New approaches like the
Internet increase the size of the market. You
see that with TV and videos increasing the size
of the cinema market One reason online book
selling is so good for publishers is that stores
like Amazon.com can offer the entire list of
every author, not just the recently published
books. The very best sellers are warehoused, the
others we buy as we need them.
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Customer Basics

• Dont waste our time.
• Remember who we are.
• Make it easy to order and procure service.
• Make sure that service delights us.
• Customize products and services.

51
Amazon.com
"Online, you can build a store that can't exist
in real life or as a paper catalog," says Jeffrey
Bezos. "If we printed a catalog of what we
offer, it would be the size of seven New York
City phone books. "How do you build a Web site
that gets media stories in the hundreds,
coordinates customer visits in the thousands, and
handles inventory in the millions?
52
What is Amazon.com?
Its business is not selling things, but helping
customers to easily and conveniently make buying
decisions.
Its system is built for speed. Information is
treated as entertainment and a way to lure people
into buying more. It repackages the data that
it generates Ranking books by
sales Identifying other purchases of similar
topics Providing reader reviews
53
Amazon.com Brand Strength
If we are profitable anytime in the next two
years, it will be an accident. We're focused on
building our brand name, and any profits we have
made are getting reinvested in the business.
54
Convenience

• A high probability that they will have what you
  are looking for.
• Organized online book store like a physical
  bookstore.
• Tables to find what you are looking for.
• New releases, specials and gift ideas.
• Search capability by author, title or key words.
• Book description and projected shipping date.
• Testimonials by others that have bought the
  book.
• Other books of similar topics.
• Easy check-out.

55
Personalized Services

• Acknowledges you by name when you log on.
• Maintains standard information about you
  regarding mailing address and credit card.
• Saves shopping cart if you want to finish later.
• Maintains a history of your past purchases.
• Sends you email messages to acknowledge a
  purchase, to confirm a shipment and to suggest
  other things in which you might be interested.

56
What about price?
Buybooks.com thinks they can compete on this
basis. Will people find books at Amazon.com and
then buy them from Buybooks.com?
57
eBay

• The world's largest personal online trading
  community.
• Created a new market efficient one-to-one
  trading in an auction format on the Web.
• Was conceived as a result of a conversation
  between
• Pierre Omidyar and his wife, an avid Pez
  collector. She commented how great
  it would be if she were able to collect Pez
  dispensers and interact with other collectors
  over the Internet.
• Was founded on Labor Day in September 1995 with
  the belief that people are honest and
  trustworthy.

58
Internet Auctions
Auction sites like eBay are a great way to sell
stuff sitting around your house. An old computer
you don't use anymore or that Brady Bunch
lunchbox you've had since you were 12. All can
bring in a little extra cash. Just post them on
one of the auction sites, sit back, and hope the
bidding gets ferocious. While many auctions
are just like that, one person selling off extra
loot, more and more it's becoming full time
sellers auctioning off not one or two old items,
but several hundred brand new things. Instead of
going through the hassle of setting up an online
shop, many people are diving into auctions head
first and selling their goods directly through
the Internet auction site.
59
eBay
Ebay has the hottest and biggest technology
challenge in the Internet space. If you take a
look at a lot of the other e-commerce sites, even
though they have a lot of volume and activity,
the actual intensity can be pretty low. You do
a lot of batch updates to a back-end database and
it looks pretty recent, but you still have to fly
packages around the world, and getting updates on
the packages isn't a hard thing to do -- though
it is important.
60
eBay has an extremely tight integration between
all the Web transactions and the database. The
volume and the intensity put it in the
Fortune-100 kind of transaction volumes. As to
the service problems at eBay, the good news is
these are high-class problems to have. An
extremely scalable and tight application that is
all written in C has a lot of headroom and legs
left to run. What isnt as good is reliability
and availability of the platform. As a result,
some of the bigger outages were because of a lack
of recovery and flexibility. There was a lack of
enough hardware redundancy so if a database
server crashed for any reason, all of the
elements of the server itself had to be fixed to
be able to roll back and get the site back up.

61
To fix this problem backup has been created which
should make it possible to get back up pretty
quickly -- within two to four hours of an outage
-- at any time. By the middle of October, a
high-availability backup with fully redundant
servers made it possible to be back up within
an hour. At the same time, a next-generation
architecture plan is being developed to eliminate
any single point of failures. This will involve
distributing the application and database over
multiple servers to make sure the new system can
handle the 100X growth in database activity that
is already being experienced.

62
Who Will Win the Web Retail Wars?
Short-term, Wall Street sees the Internet as more
of a threat than an opportunity for
brick-and-mortar merchants.
Longer-term, it is viewed as a positive for
traditional merchants.
63
Better Business Outlook
Even if the online only companies have to share
more of the market, everyone agrees that online
business is an exponentially expanding
pie. Projections are that online sales will
double or triple this Christmas season. This
could mean 9.5 billion in sales compared to 3.5
billion in same time frame in 1998. 17 million
households will be shopping online compared with
10 million in 1998.
64
The Big Guys Go Online
Round 1 - The big guys didnt impress people with
their initial web pages and Internet strategies
and their pure Internet rivals tended to prevail.
Round 2 - 1999 Christmas season could be another
story as everyone from Wal-Mart to Nordstrom gets
deadly serious about Web selling.
65
Big Guy Attitude/Strategy
The companies that are going to be winners on
the Internet are those that already have
established brand names and vendor and
distribution networks and can reach consumers
through multiple channels, not just one.
Gerald L. Storch President of Credit and New
Businesses Dayton Hudson
66
Big Guy Web Activities
Pretty much across the board, the large retailers
have redone their web pages and in most cases
added significantly more merchandise.
Will this enable them to overcome an earlier poor
performance on the Web?
67
Nordstrom, Inc.

• To do business on the Web you need to think like
  a startup.
• Joint venture with venture capital firms Madrona
  Investment
• Group and Benchmark capital (creators of eBay)
• Seeded the new venture with 26 million.
• Budgeted 17 million for a five week ad
  campaign. (Its biggest ever)
• The goal presenting 20 million pairs of shoes
  for Christmas

68
Business Outlook
This will not be a profitable year for most of
the Internet companies. They assume less
competition than exists, and they assume greater
loyalty and higher purchases per consumer than
they have yet been able to prove.
Gary M. Stibel New England Consulting Group
69
Online Success
Building a great customer experience is the key
to online success. Creating the right experience
is difficult simplicity is not easily
achieved. E-businesses must go through a
challenging, laborious process of clarifying
their goals, identifying their customers and then
making a commitment to create and maintain a good
experience. The good or bad news is that many
companies are not doing this very well if at all.
70
Recognizing that
The customer experience is never perfect.
Building a great customer experience is not an
event but a continual path towards online
success.
71
Online Customer Service
Despite the tremendous growth in E-Commerce
activity, the lack of real-time customer service
means that thousands of dollars of potential
sales are being left in abandoned shopping carts
and buying are going away dissatisfied.
72
E-Commerce Study Findings

• 67 of online purchases were never completed.
• Only one in 20 people who visited E-Commerce
  sites even
• attempted to make a purchase.
• 50 of web sites never responded to customer
  queries via
• email, took more than five days to respond or
  offered no
• email address on their web page.
• Only three percent of web pages offer a live
  help button.
• Fairly strong evidence that the lack of customer
  service is a
• primary reason for low browser-to-buyer
  conversion rates.

73
Bad Customer Experience Rules
1. Error messages. 2. Long instructional text. 3.
Excessive technology requirements. 4. Fatal
errors--like database error messages. 5.
Distracting screen elements. 6. Irrelevant or
flashy features. 7. Typographical errors. 8.
Excessive or inaccurate search results. 9. Basic
web errors--page not found.
74
Good Customer Experience Rules
1. Clear, concise web page wording. 2. Quick web
page download time. 3. Appropriate web page
width. 4. Simple web page design. 5. Few and
small supporting graphics. 6. Large graphics only
when good for the customer. 7. Jargon-free
language. 8. A good search function. 9. Easy
navigation.
75
Customer Experience Strategies
1. Identify your customer goals and your
goals. 2. Commit the organization to building a
great customer experience. 3. Monitor the
customer experience.
76
Important Factors
1. Target the right customers. 2. Try to own the
customers total experience. 3. Streamline
(reengineer) business processes that impact
the customer. 4. Provide a 360 degree view of the
customer relationship. 5. Let customers help
themselves. 6. Help customers do their jobs. 7.
Deliver personalized service. 8. Foster a
community.
77
Customer Strategy
Start by focusing on existing customers by
figuring out what they want and need and how you
can make life easier for them. Then expand to
reel in new customers. Implementing this
approach is not easy.
78
Evolutionary Process
1. Providing company and product information. 2.
Providing customer support and interaction. 3.
Supporting electronic transactions. 4.
Personalizing interactions with customers. 5.
Fostering community.
79
E-Commerce Advise
Those who put a response form on their site
receive many more inquiries than those asking
people to just list an e-mail address. Keep the
form simple and do not ask for redundant
information. For example, if the response is
going to be exclusively by e-mail, then don't ask
for address, city, phone and fax.
80
E-Commerce Advise
A web site gets more traffic if it is frequently
updated on a regular schedule. Repeat visitors
learn to expect new information every 2 days.
When I missed an update, traffic fell 20-30 and
took a couple weeks before it returned to regular
levels. Also, our newsletter which lists updates
during the last week, results in about 1-2 extra
page views/subscriber spread out over a period of
3 days (as people check their e-mail, finally get
to read it and return to the site).
81
E-Commerce Advise
The best piece of advice I could give any site is
to remember that the Web is only a small part of
a larger process of conducting business online.
Without some type of ongoing outbound
communication with people, either via an E-mail
alert, regular appropriate participation in
forums or discussion lists, or building a network
of links from other sites, your site is more than
likely doomed. Nobody cares that you have a
website since everyone has one. Why should they
go to any particular site? The answer lies in
having a site that offers dynamic content that
matters to them, and you remind them of that on a
daily or weekly basis.
82
E-Commerce Advise
We were quick to realize the value of the most
widely used application on the Internet --
E-mail. By producing a weekly newsletter with
direct links to the latest buy and sell
opportunities on our site, we increased our
transaction volume two-fold. Targeted e-mail
containing links back to your site is the most
powerful demand generator. Ross
Mayfield VP of Marketing, RateXchang
83
E-Commerce Advise
Even though we are an Italian company, we decided
to target Japan and the U.S. since Internet sales
in Europe are still in their infancy. It's not
an easy task to get business for a foreign
company but we discovered something that
significantly changed the ratio of visits to
orders testimonials. Put your customers'
comments on your web page! Carlo
Botteon, La Gondola
84
Be Careful What You Do With Your Data!
Amazon.com was publicizing what IBM employees
were buying from them. CEO Louis Gertsner felt
that this was an invasion of privacy and sent an
email message to IBM employees asking them if
they felt that this violated Internet privacy.
When 5,000 replied that they felt that it did,
he sent an email to Jeff Bezos stating that he
felt that this was an important issue. Bezos
removed IBM from its reference list.
85
Business-to-Business Commerce
It is not a question of public or private
networks, or open or controlled environments.
For large corporations, the very investment in
networks and their pervasive reach into business
processes requires a careful integration with new
technologies.
Chapter 11 Net Success
86
E-Code for E-Commerce
Feed the Web Identify all the places the Web
touches the company and imbue them with a
Web-enabling philosophy. Appoint a senior
executive with the responsibility for Web focus,
priorities and activities.
Leverage Legacy Systems Treat these systems as
your resource and Web-enable them.
87
Get Ready to Globalize Since this wont happen
overnight, create functional Nets as cells that
can later be chained together. Prepare your
organization to think and act globally.
Build Your Web Brand The domain is your brand.
Build a single point of contact for customers,
suppliers, employees and stakeholders.
Embrace Everyones Expectations Offer customers a
convenient way to interact with you. Give trading
partners all the information they need. Provide
employees freedom of choice and convenient
systems. Offer shareholders easy access to
information.
88
Dont Wait Start where you are. Learn. Copy.
Plan. Leverage. Outsource.
Avoid the Inertia of Speed Remember that twenty
new Web sites are added every second. Dont
panic. Web your world.
89
Customer Relationship Management
CRM, a software-based strategy, automates and
improves the business processes associated with
sales, marketing, customer service and support.
90
E-Commerce in Japan
While Japan trails the US in developing
E-Commerce, the importance of building a
Net-based economy has not been lost on the
traditionally conservative bureaucrats and
politicians. E-Commerce generated 77 billion in
1998 which was double the 1997 amount. 17
million or 13.4 of the population log onto the
Web up from 1.5 million in 1995. 52 of
households will be online by 2003. E-Commerce
projection is 639 billion by 2003. (US 1.5
trillion)
91
E-Commerce Standards
Standards, standards everywhere!
Don't bother tracking the proposed e-commerce
standards too closely right now--the landscape
is changing on an almost a daily basis.
Datamation June 1999
92
Electronic Commerce
Electronic commerce is more than just buying and
selling goods over the Internet. Companies
require a way to easily exchange standard
business documents (such as a purchase order,
invoice, or expense report). Retailers need
to create online catalogs according to a standard
format that makes it easy for consumers to buy
online. Firms that use enterprise applications
need a standard way to move data between
packaged applications like Oracle and SAP R/3.
Note the key word here standard. If e-commerce
is to proliferate, standards are needed.
93
A Guide for the Perplexed on E-Commerce Standards
Proposed Standard What It Does Commerce XML
cXML (Extendable Markup
Language) is a set of DTDs
(document type definitions) that will allow
businesses to exchange common
business documents in a standard format.

Ariba spearheaded creation of the
proposed standard with input from
Extricity Software, InterWorld, Ironside
Technologies, POET Software,
SAQQARA Systems, Sterling Commerce, Vignette,
webMethods, etc. BizTalk
BizTalk is a set of XML DTDs that will allow
businesses to exchange common
business documents in a standard format.
Microsoft is
developing BizTalk DTDs with input from
1-800-Flowers, Active
Software, barnesandnoble.com, Best Buy Company,
Clarus, Commerce One, Concur
Technologies, Dell Computer, DataChannel,
Eddie Bauer, Emercis, Harbinger, J.D.
Edwards Co., Level 8 Systems,
Oberon Software, PeopleSoft, SAP AG, SAQQARA
Systems, Sharp Electronics,
Sterling Commerce, Vitria Technology, webMethods,
and other vendors and
customers.
94
Technical Limitation
E-commerce companies, while constantly adjusting
to operating at lightning speeds to keep pace
with Internet technologies, must reconcile
themselves to the fact that their customers are
living in what amounts to slow motion on the
other end of the line. As a result, these
businesses have to make difficult decisions about
how to attract and keep customers within the
limited bandwidth available.
95
Electronic Signatures
On Sept. 16, 1999 California became the first
state to recognize the legal validity of
electronic signatures. The new law becomes
effective on Jan. 1, 2000. More political
rhetoric than a significant impact of E-Commerce
but a logical step for the state to take.
96
Business Challenges
1. Integrating technology relative to strategic
business objectives. 2. Getting into and out of
new technologies faster and more
efficiently. 3. Assessing and evaluating
technology more effectively. 4. Better
accomplishing transfer of new technology. 5.
Using IT to reduce new product development time.
6. Managing large, complex, and
interdisciplinary and/ or
interorganizational projects and systems. 7.
Leveraging the effectiveness of technical
professionals. 8. Using IT to creatively develop
new business.
97
Yahoo Perspective
What makes for a good web page 1. Good user
interface -- appeal and ease of use. 2.
Appropriately communicative. 3. Robust and under
constant change. (current info is a
given) 4. Indicates a good understanding of who
your customers are and their primary needs
and interests. 5. Is currently or will lend
itself to internationalization.
98
Yahoos Opinion as to Best Web Pages
1. J. Crew 2. E Toys 3. Toys R Us 4.
Amazon.com 5. Yahoo Check them out!