If you are one of the millions of people who have

considered buying something online you have probably

been there at least once. Drowning in a sea of irrelevant

information about a product or service in which you are

interested, you thirst like Tantalus for the details about

which you actually need. You sit clicking away in vain,

wondering, where’s the phone number to call? What are

all the products and services this company offers? How

do I negotiate terms and conditions? Once I place an

order, what exactly happens to my form? What if I have

a billing question? And on and

on. Let’s take a moment to step

back consider the crooked path

that led to this state of affairs.

The advent of Internet-

based electronic commerce

commonly referred to as e-

commerce, clearly marked a

watershed for business. Many

observers indeed regard e-

commerce as perhaps the

greatest business opportunity in

history. E-Commerce is likely to

surpass the one trillion US dollar

mark worldwide by early 2003,

according to Merrill Lynch. Some

industry analysts assert that the

Internet will become the backbone

of the world economy in less than

a century. The opportunity costs of ignoring e-commerce

are equally omnipresent, as evidenced by a steady stream of

media accounts describing another corporate giant being

challenged by a start-up with a novel business model.

Today, the Internet is something like an “always

open” global shopping mall, offering everything from

used Buicks and out-of-print books to the latest Pokemon

cards and cutting edge business services. For the vast

majority of consumers, it’s equivalent to shopping from

a gigantic mail order catalog. The rise of the e-commerce

is similar to the Cambrian explosion 500 million years

ago, when, for no apparent reason, life evolved from

single celled organisms to a dazzling array of multi-celled

life forms in an extremely short time span. The Cambrian

explosion is remarkable for another characteristic: it’s

phenomenally high extinction rate.

Evan Schwartz, author of Webonomics, offered

similar observations in his latest book, Digital Darwinism.

Schwartz suggests a great sorting

is occurring as companies try to

adapt or reinvent their approach to

core competencies such as branding,

pricing, marketing, packaging,

manufacturing, and customer ser-

vice for the Web environment. Case

studies in scores of magazines have

illustrated how e-commerce is dif-

ferent than issues most traditional

companies have tackled before, and

how such initiatives can be a huge

challenge in terms of design,

implementation, maintenance and

corporate culture.

Despite all the hype surround-

ing it, e-commerce is just one of

many channels available to the

customer. A variety of sales chan-

nels exist today, as indicated below.

· Call centers

· Resellers

· VARs

· Retail kiosks

· Field sales teams

· Brick and mortar stores

· Tele-sales representatives

Collaborative E-Commerce:The Future of Online Customer Care

By Lewis Ward

· E-marketplaces, hubs and exchanges (extranets)

· Direct to consumers over the Web

Despite record revenues online, traditional stores

and call centers continue to be the most effective sales

channels for the vast

majority of products

and services. Quickly

scanning the range of

possible sales channels,

it’s evident that unless

consumers are purchas-

ing goods from vending

machines or the

equivalent via mail or-

der catalogs and the like,

people generally buy

from organizations (or

better yet people) they

feel they know and trust.

This is arguably the

number one reason

brick and mortar stores

and call centers are as

effective as they are.

date, the Web has basi-

cally evolved to the

point of being the digi-

tal equivalent of a

vending machine, and

one that may eat your

quarters at that!

“Conventional Web

wisdom” is to treat long-

time customers like

first-time customers

every time. The end

result is that many cus-

tomers feel like they’re

being treated like fish

in a barrel. But online

buyers know that alternatives are just a click away.

Ironically, at the moment that Web-based customer

service appears to be emerging as a critical factor in long-

term business success, it is lagging far behind traditional

offline alternatives.

Aside from acknowledging repeat customers, effec-

tive brick and mortar sales people (as well their call

center counterparts) recognize that the sales process is

not limited to the actual purchase of goods and services.

Customers often begin with an information gathering

and exchange phase and then progress into negotiations

with the sales person or account representative. Finally,

a purchasing decision is

reached. If favorable, the

transaction is completed

and post-sales support is

initiated. Research indi-

cates that, by and large,

gathering information to

support purchasing

decisions (rather than the

actual buying of products

or services) is the principle

activity of Web “shoppers”

today. A mature sales

ch a nn e l e f fe c t ive ly

supports the consumer at

every step along the way.

Most web sites are focused

on the transaction, the

point of sale, and not the

interactions that lead up

to a sale or what goes on

after the sale.

Many of the enter-

prises that are striving to

be cutting edge in their e-

commerce initiatives are

leaving customers behind

because there is no inter-

personal collaboration or

communication sur-

rounding the sales process.

For simple items with

which nearly everyone is

familiar, such as books or

gum, a static order entry

form and an automatic credit card transaction may be

good enough to move items in volume (profit margins

are another matter). But as the complexity and price of

products and services rises, people are less satisfied with

“insert your dollars face up in the slot” transactions

Terms and Definitions

e-commerce is the marketing, selling andbuying of products via the Internet (basedon TCP/IP)

e-business is the application of the Internetand its related technologies and servicesto business

While e-commerce may be consideredthe cornerstone of e-business, it shouldbe understood as only one component.The goals of e-business initiatives usuallyare to improve services and reduce cost,rather than simply sell more widgets.Therefore, many more variables are partof an e-business strategy.

CSR is an acronym for customer servicerepresentative; it is often usedinterchangeably with the term “agent”

Thus:

Collaborative e-commerce is theapplication of CSRs or other human agentsto e-commerce, specifically pertaining tothe sales and customer support processes

because more details are relevant to the sale. A vendor

in the guided selling market (part of what CS refers to as

e-commerce automation technologies) describes this

frustrating phenomenon in its sales literature as the

“complexity gap.” (Refer to our for a more complete

description of this phenomenon.)

The basic idea is that there is a divergence between

the amount of information available and how much

customers can absorb and interpret in the context of

their particular needs. As products and services become

more sophisticated, this complexity gap is widening. The

result of the complexity gap is that companies end up

with orders for product configurations that can’t be

produced. Dissatisfied consumers will return these prod-

ucts and are less likely to use the channel again. CS’

research suggests

that several market

observers have cor-

rectly diagnosed the

problem:

There’s an

alarming discon-

nect between the

old way of buying

and the new way of

selling. However,

there is not a con-

sensus on what

constitutes an ef-

fective long-term

solution. And find-

ing such a solution

is inimical to the fu-

ture of e-commerce.

The Path Less Traveled?CS’ research indicates there are two principle ave-

nues ahead. One route favors more self-help and e-

commerce automation tools ad nausea. The second camp

favors the reinsertion of live human beings into the

online sales process. The latter path is collaborative e-

commerce. Simply because the Web is revolutionary in

several respects, it doesn’t follow that it has to be in every

respect. In fact, because it’s radically different it’s critical

that aspects that can be, should be grounded in common

experience. If organizations aren’t selling the way most

people buy, it follows that this disconnect will adversely

impact sales.

Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com, recently

stated in The Wall Street Journal that e-commerce is about

reengineering outward-facing processes, one-to-one mar-

keting/mass customization and the outsourcing of cus-

tomer service to the customer himself. Bezos recognized

the importance of a shift in focus from the product to the

customer. But how can one capitalize on these trends?

From Bezos’ vantage point, increased e-commerce auto-

mation tools may seem the only logical direction.

An analysis of Web self-help and automation tech-

nology that supports customer-facing initiatives reveals

a clear trend: they

are attempting to

reach the efficacy of

a live human being

while minimizing

costs. From custom-

er profiling and

“smart FAQs” to

context sensitive in-

ventory searching

(guided selling, etc.)

and automatic e-

mail responses, the

goal has been to

reach customers

with increasingly

personalized service.

The push has been

to empower cus-

tomers to help themselves, and the faster the better.

While artificial intelligence systems have come a long

way in recent years, there’s still one clear conclusion:

people are the best adaptive problem solvers. Although

intelligent systems approach aspects of being human,

they are not human beings. Therefore, there is a threshold

above which e-commerce automation and self-help tools

provide little additional benefit – and may indeed harm

customer relationships if deployed improperly.

For the moment, let’s set aside self-help tools and

focus on the dynamic between automation tools and live

human agents. As one approaches real time, few could

argue against the notion that a properly trained and

equipped human being can deliver better customer

service than a machine or software application. In a real

time sales environment, one should expect the unexpect-

ed and be prepared to resolve complex issues “on the

fly”. Most sales situations are unique in some way, and

it’s nearly impossible to define enough business rules to

support flawless instant automation. It can cost hundreds

of thousands of dollars for marginally better customer

automation past a certain point, with less and less clear

return on investment (if measured by higher customer

satisfaction). If customer satisfaction is goal, at that point

the question becomes whether increasing the capacity of

call/contact centers is outweighed by opportunity cost of

less satisfied customers.

So while some observers have astutely diagnosed the

complexity gap, they have failed to account for the signifi-

cance of the drive toward real time online customer care.

While additional automation may sound like a panacea, it

in fact declines in efficacy as one approaches real time. At

a certain point, collaborative e-commerce becomes a

superior and indeed more cost-effective alternative.

This dynamic is illustrated in the following figure.

Here, “efficacy of approach” may be understood to be the

level of customer satisfaction (although repeat patronage,

loyalty, or another metric may be similarly equated) divided

by the cost of delivering that support. The general tenet

is that asynchronous forms of customer support – e-mail,

standard mail/delivery services and the fax machine

perhaps being the best examples – deliver a lower level of

customer satisfaction at greater cost as the customer’s

requirements approach real time. Conversely, properly

trained and equipped human beings can potentially deliver

superior support in a real time environment.

It may be worth reiterating that CS does not contend

that automation has no place. Indeed, there are significant

efficiencies to be gained by the proper use of e-commerce

automation and self-help technologies. But we will

certainly make a case that automation has its limits and

should be as invisible as possible. When using a telephone

or an ATM, for example, we don’t care what happens in-

between the moment our friend says “hello” or $20 bills

appear in the slot. Similarly, automation is best when

performing repetitive functions that don’t directly impact

the end user’s experience. Thus, the earlier proposition

that there are two separate paths ahead was an oversim-

plification: CS believes there are a multitude of viable

routes between these two extremes and that each organi-

zation must weigh the pros and cons of these alternatives.

Whether employed as a stand alone instant chat

service or a full-fledged implementation that fuses call

center customer relationship management (CRM) pack-

ages with a consumer’s browsing experience, the general

concept of collaborative e-commerce should be the same:

surround the sales process with live human to human

interaction whenever it is cost effective. Collaborative e-

commerce can be a risky undertaking and there are many

pitfalls along the path. It is not a panacea, and CS does

not contend that it will not help everyone sell more

widgets.

Cisco Systems and Dell Computer Corporation are

examples of companies that blend self-help, automation

and collaborative e-commerce tools into a unified system.

These companies’ approach is to provide sales applica-

tions directly to untrained first-time users – their custom-

ers – and then escalate them to humans if they encounter

difficulties. Such companies are turning complexity to

an advantage, by implementing collaborative e-commerce

as a competitive differentiator. They view the new

possibilities of the Web medium as a challenge to be

surmounted rather than as a roadblock.

ConclusionsCS research indicates that collaborative e-commerce

can help organizations by:

· Illustrating ways to make it easier for theircustomers to do business

· Underscoring the importance of allocatingresources for serving the customer

· Offering a methodology for improving outward-facing business processes

· Suggesting avenues to increase customer loyalty

Some of the benefits of collaborative e-commerce are

that it:

1. Improves customer satisfaction by meeting their needs

on the first point of contact

2. Boosts organizational efficiency by helping to create a

contact center that fuses traditional call centers with the Web

3. Raises Web site traffic “eyeballs” and “stickiness,” and

increases sales by creating a new avenue for up- and

cross-selling

4. Creates a competitive advantage by providing a superior

continuum of services to customers

Collaborative e-commerce may, and perhaps should

be viewed as a critical piece of larger e-business initiatives.

The Web is inducing an increasing number of organiza-

tions to redesign their entire customer-facing business

processes. Just as CRM suites consolidate disparate

customer information for internal purposes, collaborative

e-commerce is an avenue for extending such practices

and benefits to the

customers them-

selves. CRM may be

understood as a

continuation of the

reengineering wave

that broke in the

early 1990s. Such

initiatives stream-

lined business

processes, but they

were uniformly

started from the

inside out.

L i k e e -

commerce and RTC,

collaborative e-

commerce has four

areas of potential application: B2C, B2B, government

and to a lesser degree, consumer to consumer. Like the

others, collaborative e-commerce is intrinsically global

as well. CS new report, Collaborative E-Commerce: A

Market Forecast and Strategic Guide, largely focuses on

collaborative e-commerce from B2C and B2B perspectives.

This approach naturally follows how this marketplace

has emerged over the past few years. Please follow this

if you want more details on this exciting new industry

report. We also have a survey available in which you may

express your opinion about collaborative e-commerce

and have the executive summary of this report sent to

you via e-mail as soon as it is available.

In this holiday season, the promise of eCommerce

is high. What is becoming increasingly clear is that it is

no longer adequate for a company just to put up a web

site with a list, catalog or database of items, and then sit

back and rake in the bucks. The Internet has transformed

our expectations not only as consumers, but also in any

business interactions. We expect access to high quality

content at a low cost, and even more critical we expect

service equal or better than what we get in a traditional

retail institution. Although we have been using the

Internet as a broadcast medium, it was actually

constructed to be an interactive medium. With increasing

sophistication of usage, and the trend towards immediate

interaction the need to interact with customers and

business partners at

a lower cost has

become a critical

t r e n d i n

e C o m m e r c e .

C o l l a b o r a t i v e

Strategies explores

eCommerce from

the point of view of

the interaction

between people via

t h e c o m p u t e r,

rather than just a

person accessing

data web page. This

is because we

believe that for

c o m p l e x o r

sophisticated products, it is people that sell to people, not

web sites or catalogs. Yes, that works for Beanie Babies

and books, but not for network routers, cars or houses.

These larger more complex e-sales often require

interpersonal interaction.

CS defines collaborative e-commerce as “the

application of customer service representatives (CSRs) or

other human agents to e-commerce, specifically pertaining

to the sales and customer support processes.” Collaborative

e-commerce software tools allow human agents to interact

online with potential customers as well as current

customers and business partners in real time. Through

the utilization of text chat, collaborative Web browsing,

call backs (over the Public Switched Telephone Networks

(PSTN), voice over Internet Protocol ( VOIP),

streaming/two-way video, Instant Messaging, and

application viewing/sharing, CS research indicates that

a growing number of organizations are empowering their

CSRs to interact with customers live over the Internet.

This increased level of customer care leads to significantly

higher e-commerce (and potentially offline) revenues

when deployed under the proper conditions.

Despite the stunning progress that e-commerce and

e-business technologies have made over the past decade,

few argue that online customer service is leading the

charge. Indeed, reports, case studies and common

experience all suggest that customer service on the Web

currently lags far behind its offline counterpart. A recent

E-Commerce Times survey of 50 e-commerce retail sites

did not find any that qualified for “excellent” or even

“good” ratings in customer service, for example.

In the process of researching this report, CS found

that there were many different types of online support

available. Self-help tools may be considered the “ground

floor” of customer support. In this area FAQs, search

engines and the like help shoppers and customers find

what they need, assuming it is online in the first place.

The next area may be described as the automation level.

Within this level arel reside automation technologies

including advanced search engines, intelligent/virtual

agents, customer profiling tools, and automated e-mail

response tools.

While automated e-mail responses can help

minimize the quantity and quality of the e-mails that

contact center CSRs/agents must answer (driving

efficiency and saving money in the process), CS believes

that this level of response is far from adequate in terms

of the level of customer service many customers expect

from e-commerce oriented Web sites. A recent

BizRate.com survey found that level and quality of

customer service was the top factor in generating repeat

business. Surprisingly, customer service was found to be

three times as important as price. CS believes the cost

savings associated with self-help and automation

technologies must be balanced against the opportunity

cost of delivering inferior customer support. Not all

automatic e-mail response tools adequately resolve the

initial inquiry. Surely getting the wrong response 24

hours later is worse then as bad asnot getting one at all!

Despite the stunning progress that e-commerce and

e-business technologies have made over the past few

years, online customer service lags far behind its offline

counterpart. A recent E-Commerce Times survey of 50 e-

commerce retail sites did not find any that qualified for

“excellent” or even “good” ratings in customer service.

A ComputerWorld article quoted a survey of 125 sites

that found that over half never responded to e-mailed

customer service inquiries, took more than 5 days to

reply, or failed to offer an e-mail address on their site at

all. Even the best ERM system fails to address the needs

of the customer who wants immediate online customer

care while they are considering the merits of a particular

product or service.

Partially because of these customer care deficiencies,

many people don’t complete online transactions. A

survey of more than 10,000 respondents (from

BizRate.com and the NPD Group) revealed that 75 percent

of online consumers have abandoned shopping carts in

the past three months. When asked why they’re

abandoning online shopping carts, 31% of respondents

claimed they simply changed their minds. How many of

those that just “changed their minds” may have been

persuaded in the other direction by a skilled contact

center agent/CSR? CS research indicates that automation

tools should be as invisible as possible and that escalation

to live human support should occur anytime it makes

sense economically. Before turning to what CS has

determined the size of the collaborative e-commerce

market to be, let’s first create some context for

understanding the complexities associated with the e-

commerce and call/contact center marketplaces.

E-Commerce and Call/Contact CenterMarket Forecasts

Together, business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-

to-business (B2B) e-commerce revenues are anticipated

to climb from $213 billion this year to $1.39 trillion by

the end of 2003 (data derived from public , according to

data from Merrill Lynch, eMarketer and Upside Magazine

sources). The majority of these revenues will be generated

in the B2B sector. B2B e-commerce revenues should

grow to more than seven times B2C revenues by 2003.

Nearly $170 billion will be generated in the B2C

sector by 2003 worldwide. This is a significant increase

from $64.3 billion revenues expected to be generated in

2000, according to Merrill Lynch and eMarketer. The

growth rate for B2C eCommerce between 1999 and 2003

should be 58% CAGR. Merrill Lynch and Zona Research

studies also indicate that the number of actual B2C

buyers is anticipated to pass the 180 million mark

worldwide by 2003, up from 71.5 million in 2000. The

top three B2C verticals in terms of revenue generation in

2000 are travel, hardware/consumer electronics, and

books. The B2C market is characterized by an annual

seasonal sales cycle, culminating the holiday buying

season. A variety of sources believe the 2000 holiday

season will generate between $12 and $20 billion in

online sales.

Despite the success of some B2C “dotcom”

companies over the past several years, the B2B segment

has quietly moved into a position of e-commerce

dominance in 2000. In its most simple form, B2B e-

commerce may be viewed as a triangle, represented by

a consumer/buyer, a supplier, and a reseller or partner

of the supplier, but this may be augmented to include

six or more parties. The B2B e-commerce sector is

expected to grow from $167.2 billion in 2000 to over $1.2

trillion by 2003, according to Merrill Lynch and Upside

Magazine estimates. Over this five-year period, B2B e-

commerce will expand by more than 91% annually. The

top three B2B verticals in terms of revenue currently

include computing and electronics, utilities, and motor

vehicles. Issues of integration with legacy systems and

data magnify the complexities of effective B2B e-

commerce and e-business initiatives among established

companies. However, CS believes these established

companies should have an advantage over the long term

in offline support that pure Internet players cannot easily

duplicate. Thus while such established players often face

the challenge of playing “catch up” with their pure play

Internet counterparts, they also have more to gain in the

long term from the unification of their online and offline

customer services strategies.

An increasing number of traditional PSTN call

centers today are morphing into more flexible and

extensible contact centers, which are readily capable of

supporting collaborative e-commerce and other customer

service functions. The contact center is often closely

associated with customer relationship management

(CRM) packages. Traditional call centers evolved

independently, long before mainstream acceptance of

the Internet. Brick-and-mortar B2B companies tend to

especially have well-established PSTN legacy systems in

place, making the conversion to contact centers

particularly difficult.

But with the added potential for Web-based

interaction with customers – both asynchronous and in

real time – the need to integrate traditional PSTN call

center functions with the Internet is clearly growing.

While many initial efforts were to treat these avenues as

separate, the trend we see is the in the integration of

online and offline service centers. Customers and buyers

may e-mail an agent about a call they placed the previous

week or vice versa. With the advent of live human-to-

human interaction in a sales or support context online,

these complexities are growing geometrically. Thus,

many call centers are being forced to convert into contact

centers, where integration across all customer contact

channels is achieved.

A reported $980 billion in products and services

were sold through call centers in 2000, a figure which is

g r o w i n g 2 0 % a n n u a l l y, a c c o r d i n g t o

PriceWaterhouseCoopers. If accurate, this means that

call centers will generate 4 to 6 times the revenues of B2C

and B2B e-commerce combined this year. A recent

Teleprofessional magazine article stated that there were

2.5 million agent seats in the US in 1998, and would

increase to 2.7 million in 2003. This article also stated that

the total number of call centers in the US was 69,500 in

1998, and is expected to top the 78,000 mark in 2003.

The Collaborative E-CommerceMarket Forecast, 1999-2003

CS estimates that the collaborative e-commerce

software and services market will grow from $760 million

in 2000 to $5.7 billion in 2003. Collaborative e-commerce

vendors that sell directly to other companies are far from

being the only revenue-generating component of the

market. Channel partners come from a variety of

backgrounds and provide a wide range of services that

help customers get the most out of their collaborative e-

commerce technology investment. Channel partners

may be: resellers/VARs, OEM partners, system integrators,

training firms, marketing partners, strategic partners,

consulting firms and other types of organizations.

We believe

that most of the

collaborative e-

c o m m e r c e

channel revenue

over time will be

earmarked for the

B2B space due to

t h e o n g o i n g

complexity of

b o t h t h e

relationship and

the products sold

in this sector. For

vendors in the

collaborative e-

commerce space,

this rapid channel expansion indicates that those with

the most partners – both in terms of quality and quantity

– are more likely to succeed.

3 Methods for EstimatingCollaborative eCommerce

CS research indicates that while the number of

collaborative e-commerce implementations is rising at

a much more rapid rate than the total number of call

centers, it will continue to represent a small fraction of

this total through the forecast period. Our analysis

indicates that between 1999 and 2003:

· Total call center growth will be 2.3% (CAGR)

· Collaborative e-commerce contact centerimplementation growth will be 80.5% (CAGR)

A second way to approach market penetration is to

consider the number of collaborative e-commerce

enabled software agent seat licenses that have been sold

worldwide and compare this to the number of agent

seats around the globe. CS expects the number of agent

seats with collaborative e-commerce functions to rise

rapidly over the next three years. Between 1999 and 2003

our analysis found:

· Total call centerseat growth willremain at 6.5%(CAGR)

·Collaborativee - c o m m e r c econtact centerseat growth willbe 62% (CAGR)

The third

a p p r o a c h t o

penetration is to

consider the total

number of e-

commerce sites

and compare this

w i t h o u r

implementation

totals for collaborative e-commerce. Since there are over

one million e-commerce sites and slightly more than

5,000 collaborative e-commerce implementations to date,

penetration from this perspective is very low. Indeed, in

2000, this means roughly 0.5% of all e-commerce sites

support this function.

Additional FindingsCS completed two surveys that directly bear on the

adoption and use of collaborative e-commerce tools. In

late 1999, CS completed a yearlong project examining

the penetration of real time collaboration (RTC) tools in

Fortune 1000 and Government organizations. Nearly 150

completed surveys were received. One of the findings of

this survey was that 60% of Fortune 1000 employees

thought their organization hads a strong e-commerce

and e-business strategy in place. Furthermore, CS

estimates that 20% to 25% of these organizations have

already adopted collaborative e-commerce tools (an

above average penetration rate). Such systems were not

regarded as being particularly effective, however. This

lukewarm response to collaborative e-commerce tools

was probably the result of several converging factors (see

below). We also asked those already using such tools to

identify the perceived implementation benefits. The top

three responses were: to create a competitive advantage,

boost productivity, and increase customer satisfaction.

CS conducted a second survey in late 2000 in an

attempt to gather additional current data and to better

represent smaller organizations. One finding of this

survey was that an amazing 90% respondents indicated

that they consider collaborative e-commerce to be either

critical or very important to the long-term success of

their organization. Based on parallels between the two

surveys CS has identified several other key points:

· High technology companies appear to be theleading edge in the adoption of these tools

· B2B uses seem to be the “sweet spot” forcollaborative e-commerce for the next few years

· Adoption of these tools is likely to acceleratesignificantly in coming years

More than a dozen case studies from ten industries

are presented in the report including:

· High Technology

· Financial Services

· B2C Retail

· Communications

· Manufacturing

· Professional Services

· Architecture/Engineering/Construction (AEC)

· Healthcare/Pharmaceutical

· Transportation

· Government

Such case studies concretely illustrate the advantages

of collaborative e-commerce as well as showing the

practical limits and implementation issues associated

with such tools. Based on CS analysis, an opportunity

assessment tool is also offered in the report so that

organizations that may be considering the adoption of

collaborative e-commerce products and services may

gauge their readiness and likelihood of success.

Our research indicates the collaborative e-commerce

vendor marketplace is highly fragmented and that none

of the 40 vendors in the market can effectively claim

dominance. CS split the 24 vendors profiled in this report

into three groups or classes based on their tool’s core

value proposition as well as the company’s background

and closest competitors. It’s critical to note that all of

the vendors profiled have some real time online customer

care functionality built into the tool being considered in

the profile. The three classes of collaborative e-commerce

vendors identified by CS are as follows:

1 . Call center: Vendors profiled in this subsection

primarily compete in the call center arena that has

become well established over the past thirty years. The

tools covered may be primarily IP based software, but

these tools are designed to significantly augment – if not

completely replace – existing call center systems. Six

vendors are covered in this subsection.

2 . Real Time Web: This group of tools was designed

from the ground up to support real time online customer

care. They may not support any PSTN call center

functions at all, however, and some of the vendors profiled

don’t even interface with such systems. They generally

support a high level of real time Web interaction. Thirteen

vendors are covered in this subsection.

3 . ERM/Automation: These tools are strongest in

e-mail response management and/or automation

technologies. Self-help tools may be part of these systems

as well. The real time Web care functions are often

positioned for use by CSRs as a last resort. Five vendors

are covered in this subsection.

Each of the 24 profiles provides an abundance of

current details about the vendor company, their tool,

distribution channels, partnerships/alliances and strategic

direction. While the vast majority of the vendors currently

sell server-based enterprise or call center oriented

software licenses, a few utilize the ASP approach. A

feature/function matrix on these collaborative commerce

vendors is included in the appendix.

CS divided the challenges and barriers associated

with the digital marketplace (and collaborative e-

commerce as one aspect of it) into five broad, interrelated

areas. These areas include security/cryptography,

consumer protection and privacy, legal/financial issues,

technology issues and integration with legacy systems,

and corporate culture (behavior). One of the most critical

emerging standards in the digital marketplace is

Extensible Markup Language (XML, or meta data). Other

emerging standards that are similar to XML in some

respects include BOF and CBL.

Basic network infrastructure standards that are

relevant to this space include TCP/IP and HTTP.

Messaging and transactional database standards that

run on application servers include: SMTP, POP3, IMAP4,

IRC, FTP, ODBC, CORBA, and OTS/IIOP.

If implemented correctly, CS analysis indicates that

collaborative e-commerce tools can benefit organizations

in a number of ways. Such tools can:

· Improve customer satisfaction by meeting theirneeds on the first point of contact

· Boost efficiency through the creation of a contactcenter that fuses the call center with the Web

· Raise site traffic “eyeballs” and “stickiness,” aswell as increase sales by creating a new avenue forup- and cross-selling

· Create a competitive advantage by providing asuperior continuum of services to customers

The road to robust online customer care will be

bumpy at best for the next decade (at least). As e-

commerce climbs into the trillions of dollars and e-

business becomes an increasingly critical component of

organizational success, CS research indicates that real

time online customer care will also become paramount.

Collaborative e-commerce strategies may well make the

difference between the success and failure in this age of

immediacy brought about by the Internet. The goal of

this report was to look at the evolution of online customer

service, and specifically the effective introduction of a

people back into the online sales, service and support

processes. It is our view that we have moved from the age

of “personal productivity” into the age of “interpersonal

productivity”, and those that can deal with the increasing

levels of complexity and immediacy associated with this

evolution will be successful. It is clear that people buy

larger or more complex products and services not from

Web sites, but from other people. It is the inter-

personalization of e-commerce, not just the infrastructure

and technologies that support e-commerce that we see as

the next critical stage in this evolution.

For those interested in additional information about

CS latest publishing effort, there are more details available

online. We believe the Collaborative E-Commerce: A

Market Forecast and Strategic Guide report will be an

invaluable asset to vendors in this market as well as user

organizations that are interested in implementing such

solutions. If you complete our survey on this topic, you

may also have the executive summary of this report e-

mailed to you.

© 2000 Collaborative Strategies, LLC. All rights reserved.

Lewis Ward is a Senior Research Analyst at Collaborative Strategies. Mr. Ward joined the company in the fall

of 1997 and has since written functional and technical analyses of over fifty IP-based software applications.

He received a BA in English from the University of California at Berkeley in 1994 and continues to write articles

for a variety of internationally distributed magazines including IT Professional, Knowledge Management and

e-Business Advisor. Always willing to extend a helping hand, Lewis can be reached via e-mail at

LewisW@collaborate.com.