Business-to-Business Internet Marketing, Fourth Edition - Lifecycle ...

Selling on the Internet 293
Most early Internet order generation systems were home grown out of
necessity, but now packaged systems are available that can get any business-to-business
marketer up and running quickly and cost-effectively.
E-commerce has now expanded so dramatically that there are a wide
variety of packaged solutions offered by numerous vendors, priced from
hundreds to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Some of these solutions
are even being offered free, as long as the user agrees to utilize the seller’s
online e-commerce services.
One interesting example is Electrom.com (www.electrom.com),
which claims to be the world’s largest business-to-business e-commerce
portal. Electrom.com uses SitePlugs that work with Web design tools,
such as Microsoft FrontPage 2000, to enable merchants to plug
e-commerce into their Web sites. Then the merchants can publish their
site and Electrom will manage it from start to finish for up to 250 products,
free of charge.
Even with the availability of off-the-shelf products and all-in-one
resources, however, the implications of e-commerce on an organization’s
existing systems should not be minimized. Legacy systems, such as financial
and accounting, and possibly the entire order processing and
fulfillment system, will need to be tied together with Internet-based operations.
Ultimately, any e-commerce initiative will need to be integrated
into a company’s operations to gain maximum efficiencies. This fact
has never been more obvious than in the experience of traditional retailers
transitioning to the Internet. Some have yet to effectively meet
the challenge of e-enabled inventory management and order fulfillment.
The cost of a fully enabled e-commerce system should not be underestimated.
Even in 1999, Gartner Group (www.gartner.com) found that
building an e-commerce Web site from scratch cost an average of $1
million, with 79% of the cost being labor related.
Another major issue that should be addressed early on is whether or
not you want to commit internal staff and resources to a major
e-commerce effort. Maintaining an electronic store or catalog is no small
feat. Products need to be photographed, scanned, and uploaded. Copy
needs to be written and published. Order numbers and prices need to be
continuously reviewed and updated.
That is just the creative side. An e-commerce operation requires serious
site management on an ongoing basis. Maintaining pages and links
and ensuring that all processes are in proper working order can be a
laborious responsibility. At the very least, running an effective