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Building an e-Business: Design, Development and

Management

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Introduction

• Ways of Design– Turnkey solution

• A pre-packaged e-business

– E-business templates• Outline the basic structure, but allow the design to be

determined by the owner

– Project outsourcing• Available to businesses with substantial funding, alleviates the

need for businesses to complete projects in-house

– Front-end system• Portion of an e-business that is visible to consumers

– Back-end system• Database management, payment processing and logistics

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Getting Started

• Building, Managing and Maintaining– Advertising

– Marketing

– Customer relationship management

– Content management

– Accepting online payments

– Recognizing cultural differences

– Providing security features

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Generating Business Ideas

• Solid products and services– Discover what exists

– Decide how to improve it

• Develop a business plan– Enables you to envision your e-business on paper for

evaluation purposes

– Serves as a presentation of your business’ objectives and long-term expectations

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Business Plan Layout

• Business plan layout– Introduce your readers to the layout, what you will discuss

and when you will discuss it

– Provide an overview of the business premise including the primary issues

– Headings and sub-headings should categorize the content

– Focus on what makes the e-business unique

• Business plan services and software– www.synrgistic.com/busplan/busplan.htm– Mindspring Biz – www.adarus.com/html/demos.html

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Business Plan Layout

• Primary Purpose– Define the purposes of your business

– What do you intend to sell

– What services will you provide

• Strategy– Describe how your product or service fits in the market

– How is it different from existing products and services

– How will it be profitable

• Business model– What model will you implement

– How will you conduct transactions

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Business Plan Layout

• Support– Provide evidence that supports the idea of your business– How will you justify these as support to the idea– Have you conducted research– Who are your customers– Who is on your management team and what are their

credentials– How will you generate revenue– What are your expenses

• Process– List the steps necessary to build your e-business– Does more research need to be conducted– Inform investors of how money will be allocated

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Growth of e-Business: Evaluating Risk

• Successful Internet start-ups have led to rapid accumulation of wealth in history.

• Recent Survey (year 2000)– 59% of total business online was conducted through

businesses both an Internet presence and physical locations

– 41% presence of online business was conducted through Internet-only business.

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Growth of e-Business: Evaluating Risk

• Many Internet companies have experienced rapid growth

• Many others have struggled to get off the ground, find funding and make a profit

• Technological advancements usually lead to growth in industry

• The Internet has produced new industries and altered and enhanced existing industries

• E-businesses that target a specific market first must be aware of the changing technologies and their costs

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Finding Funding and Going Public

• Building an e-business can be expensive and risky

• Competition is intense

• Determining a market niche and reaching a target audience often require significant financial backing

• Internet incubator– A company that specializes in the development of Internet

businesses

– Often will serve as the financiers, as well as work with the development team

– Often receive a stake in the developing e-business, 50% or more

– Focus on getting e-business established as quickly as possible.

– Can make the difference between success and failure

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Finding Funding and Going Public

• Internet incubators– Camp Six– eCorporation– Idealab– eHatchery

• Venture capitalists– Individuals or groups that generate the financial support of a

growing enterprise, usually in exchange for ownership in the company

• Angel investors– Wealthy investors with business experience

• Many e-businesses look to make an Initial Public Offering (IPO)– Money generated from public investors can be used to grow the

company and establish it at the forefront of its market

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Finding Funding and Going Public

• Things to consider when choosing an incubator– The incubator might decide to reassign

corporate responsibilities• Choose the incubator carefully

• Gather information and reputation of incubator

– Be aware of the incubator’s success rate• e-business supported by an incubator do not

necessarily succeed.

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Finding Funding and Going Public

Rare Medium’s Incubation Methodology. (Courtesy of Rare Medium.)

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Putting Your Plan Into Action

• After generating ideas, building a business plan and finding funding, prepare to:– Manage distribution

– Manage shipping

– Enhance the user experience through Web design

– Prepare for new technologies

– Purchase supporting hardware and software

– Accept online payment

– Market your Web site

– Manage your consumers

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Choosing a Domain Name

• Domain name– The name used in the URL for a Web site– Choose a concise name that people will be able to recognize

and type easily – Consider how a domain name will be interpreted in many

different languages and cultures

• Fully qualified host name– The host name, the domain name and the top-level domain

(TLD)– Most Web servers use www as the host name– A domain name is often the name of the company that owns

a site or a word or phrase that otherwise describes the site– The TLD usually describes the type of organization that

owns the domain name (.com, .org, .gov)

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Choosing a Domain Name

• Available domain names with the dot-com (.com) extension are becoming rare

• ICANN (Internet Corporation for Names and Numbers) is considering the possibility of introducing new suffixes, such as .movie, .inc, .info and .web

• Registering a domain name– Network Solutions, Register.com, Domainit.com

• Cost to register a domain name depends on extension

• Usually, ownership of a domain name requires a one-time registration fee followed by recurring annual fees

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Supply-Chain Management

• Fulfillment– Warehouse storage, shipping, inventory management and

return procedures

• Manufacturer – The direct producer of the product

• Distributor– The supplier who acts as a middleman to manufacturers and

vendors, often reducing the price of an item by buying in bulk

• Allows businesses with Web-enabled supply chains to accept made-to-order requests (Dell)

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Supply-Chain Management

• Increased efficiency – Web merchant can serve customers better by knowing the

status of each order

– Web-based fulfillment mechanisms will demonstrate if the product is available, if it has left the warehouse or if it has been delivered and who signed for it

– Wireless Internet access allows fulfillment status to be checked from any location at any time

• Supply-chain management services and software– ChangePoint, GoCargo.com, Evolve, Atlas Commerce,

SubmitOrder.com

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Supply-Chain Management

GoCargo.com shipping bid. (Courtesy of GoCargo.com)

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Web-Site Hosting

• Web hosting company– Provides products, services and support for companies,

organizations and individuals to help them create and maintain Web sites

– Offers customers space on a Web server where they can build a Web site

– Offer more advanced services• Dedicated server

– Assigned one specific purpose, ensuring that the function that the server was intended to manage is not interrupted by other responsibilities, offering consistent download times

• Colocation

– Provide a secure physical location for a business’ server hardware

– E.g. a dedicated Internet connection and protection from power outages, fire and other disasters

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Web-Site Hosting

• Web-hosting services– Loudcloud

– Hostopia– DedicatedHosting.com– HostPro

– Global Crossing

– Exodus

– Digital Island

– Digex

– ValueWeb

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Web-Site Hosting

• Turnkey solutions– Freemerchant

– Yahoo! Store– BigStep.com– Tripod.com– Commerce One

– Virtual Spin

– AbleCommerce’s AuctionBuilder– Bidland.com– WebSiteForFree.com– Homestead

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Web Design

• Web site should be easy to navigate• Content should be the foundation of the site and

updated regularly• Design consistency

– Uniformity among the sections and pages

• Examples of well-designed sites:– Cooking.com– Apple

– Crayola– Amazon.com– eBay

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Web Design

• Strong branding• Easily located contact information• Consistent appearance of logos and color scheme• Easily located products and prices• Low-switching costs

– The costs of changing vendors

• Designed with consumers’ preferences in mind– Using market research

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Web Design

WebSiteForFREE.com’s site design. (Courtesy of WebSiteForFREE.com)

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Web Design

Homestead site tour. (Courtesy of Homestead.com © Incorporated. AllRights Reserved.)

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Enhancing the User Experience

• Adding a search engine– Freefind

• Intelligent agents– Software programs that communicate with end users and

recognize the users’ preferences (Amazon.com)

• Enhancing visual experience– E.g. take a closer look at the merchandise.

• zooming, size, different angles

– ZOOM Server software – ImagePump

• Community-building tools– People can ask questions, locate events, find answers– MyEvents.com

• Provide calendars, common files, bulletin board

• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) Link

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Enhancing the User Experience

ImagePump Zoom Technology. (Courtesy of Xippix, Inc.)

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3.3.5 Enhancing the User Experience

Enhanced view with the Magnifier. (Courtesy of Xippix, Inc.)

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3.3.5 Enhancing the User Experience

MyEvents.com calendar feature. (Courtesy of MyEvents.)

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Enhancing the User Experience

MyEvents.com contacts feature. (Courtesy of My Events.)

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Protecting Your e-Business

• Timely shipping and effective personalization• Protection from mistakes and misunderstandings

– Egghead.com• Privacy policy

– Secure Assure• Disclaimers should be easy to locate and

information should be presented in a clear and concise manner – Offer protection against:

• Small spelling or editing errors • Inaccurate statistics or product prices• Dated information and inaccurate links

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Protecting Your e-Business

Secure Assure’s example of a Privacy Profile™ (Courtesy of Secure Assure, LLC.)

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Streaming Media

• While multimedia such as streaming video and audio can enhance content, not all users have the capabilities to download this kind of information

• Provide consumers with simpler Web pages • Test your Web site’s effectiveness by running trial

downloads of your site through a standard dial-up connection prior to launch

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Preparing for New Technologies

• Keep up with new technology• Plan for new technologies during initial building

stages– Cell phone

– Pager

– Personal Digital Assistant (PDA)

• Employ new technologies to make your e-business accessible to mobile devices

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e-Business Solutions

• Enable good managers and business owners to build, manage and maintain an e-business

• Web-site building services• e-Consulting • Marketing

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End-to-End e-Business Solutions

• End-to-end solution provider– Offers services to build Web sites from conception to

implementation

• Design, development and deployment services • Payment capabilities• Web-site monitoring services• Back-end adaptation• Fulfillment• Data management

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End-to-End e-Business Solutions

• End-to-end solution providers– Webvision– Microsoft’s bCentral– ROIDirect’s Ecommerce– Dell E Works– Genuity– Interland– Appnet– Sapient– Scient– Viant– Proxicom– Inforte

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Other e-Business Solutions

• Exist for e-business development, operation and management – for special purposes, e.g., marketing, online accounting and

auditing services.

– Content Management• more efficient, e.g. size, price, logo changes.

• Decrease time-to-market (the speed to sell the products or services)

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Other e-Business Solutions

• Solution providers– Openair.com– Intacct

– BAport Accounting

– Netledger

– BizTone Financials

– Allaire Spectra

– Mediasurface

– InfoOffice – ITKnowledge.comSM

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Maintaining and Monitoring Your Web Site

• Balanced Scorecard– A method used to measure the success of a business by its

performance in customer satisfaction, integration capabilities and potential for growth

– An e-business must also consider its use of current technologies for management and production purposes

– Using outsourcing testing and monitoring services to reduce maintenance costs.

• Monitoring software and services– Mercury Interactive, ebSure, Inc., Akamai, iSharp.com,

Holistix, Keynote.com, Site Rock, Red Alert

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Maintaining and Monitoring Your Web Site

Holistix’s Web Manager. (Courtesy of Holistix, Inc.)

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e-Commerce Consulting

• Guide developing e-businesses • Consulting services

– Accenture (formerly Andersen Consulting)

– iPlanet

– SAP

– Sun Microsystems

– Kintana

– Xpedior

– Ernst & Young

– Deloitte & Touche

– eRunway

– Answerthink Consulting Group