qprev_HBB Manual 2.qxd - Small Business BC

Success factors for E-CommerceIf you are ready to venture onto the InformationHighway, enhance your chances of survivingwhen you go digital by learning from IBM’sconsultants. Here’s their wisdom gained fromhelping create over 18,000 e-commerceoperations in the past few years.For more information, go to: www-ibm.com/software/info/soul/it/guide.htmlSeek technical expertiseE-commerce is as much about business vision astechnology. The most successful e-businesses arepartnerships between business owners andinformation technology experts. Companies thatmake e-business central to their business domuch better in the long run than those that makeit an afterthought or treat it as a peripheral.Link to your strategic planFor most organizations, the key to a successful e-business transition is making their e-businesspriorities the same as their other businesspriorities. This makes e-business an investmentinstead of a bet.Move swiftly and deliberatelyWhen you move to e-business, it pays to movequickly and completely. In many industries,business cycles already reflect e-businessefficiencies and speed. Waiting for Internettechnology to “mature” will probably meanceding advantages to bolder competitors.Fully integrate the technologyIt pays to integrate e-business with your coreoperations from the start. This approachleverages business-proven systems you alreadyhave, saves you from doing dumb things likeselling products that aren’t available at prices thathave changed; and ensures that customer serviceand accounting are consistent across all saleschannels.Ensure systems are dependableScalability, availability, and security are notoptional. Extending business-critical applicationsto the Web doesn’t make them any less critical.In a system that is only available 95 per cent ofthe time, five per cent of sales transactions arelost.Satisfy customer needsCustomer knowledge is everything on the Web.The company that knows its customers best anduses what it knows to serve them better has ahuge advantage in this one-to-one environmentwhere competitors are only a click away.Focus on the big pictureThe key to transforming any major process is toidentify all of the sub-processes that are a part ofit. This sounds obvious until you consider thatmost business processes span multiple operatingenvironments and customers. It pays to focus onthe whole – rather than on the systems designedto serve just pieces of the business.Allow for future expansionPlan to overbuild for traffic you don’t expect toget initially. Triple-digit growth is the norm in e-business, and unpredictable 1,000 per centdemand spikes are common. Early overcapacityis less expensive than starting again if your sitecrashes and customers move on.Build in compatibilityA vital component of e-business is a way tomanage the performance of all your systems,networks, and applications – as a singleenterprise.102solutions for small business home-based business