Launching a Successful Online Business and EC Projects

Learning Objectives 1. Understand the fundamental requirements for initiating an online business including funding and compare it to adding EC initiatives to an existing business. 2. Describe the issues and methods of transforming an organization into an e-business. 3. Describe the process of acquiring websites and evaluate building versus hosting options. 6. Understand the importance of providing and managing content and support e-services in a website and describe how to accomplish this. 7. Evaluate websites on design criteria, such as appearance, navigation, consistency, and performance. Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall5-1

Getting into E-Commerce and Starting a New Online Business CREATING A NEW COMPANY OR ADDING AN ONLINE PROJECT 1. Identify a consumer or business need in the marketplace (Market Research). 2. Investigate the opportunity (Porter’s Model). 3. Determine the business owner’s ability to meet the need (SWOT). Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall5-2

Getting into E-Commerce and Starting a New Online Business PLANNING ONLINE BUSINESSES business plan: A written document that includes a company’s goals and how to achieve them and at what cost business case: A document that justifies the investment of internal, organizational resources in a specific application or project Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall5-3

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Getting into E-Commerce and Starting a New Online Business FUNDING A NEW ONLINE BUSINESS angel investor: A wealthy individual who contributes personal funds and possibly expertise at the earliest stage of business development Incubator: A company, university, or nonprofit organization that supports businesses in their initial stages of development venture capital (VC) Money invested in a business by an individual, a group of individuals (venture capitalists), or a funding company in exchange for equity in the business Additional Funding: A Large Partner Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall5-6

Adding E-Commerce Initiatives or Transforming to an E-Business ADDING EC INITIATIVES TO AN EXISTING BUSINESS A webstore (normally a static business webpage) A portal (a dynamic webpage that has many services) E-procurement Auctions and reverse auctions M-commerce Social commerce Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall5-7

Adding E-Commerce Initiatives or Transforming to an E-Business business process management (BPM): Method for business restructuring. It covers three process categories: 1. people-to-people, 2. systems-to-systems, 3. and systems-to-people interactions Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall5-8

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Building or Acquiring a Website CLASSIFICATION OF WEBSITES informational website: only provides information about the business and its products. interactive website: allows the customers and the business to communicate and share information transactional website: sells products and services collaborative website: allows business partners to collaborate social-oriented website: provides online tools for communication and sharing information on common interests Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall5-10

Building or Acquiring a Website STEPS IN BUILDING A WEBSITE 1. Select a Web host ( a space on a server) 2. Register a domain name (e.g. uob.edu.bh, batelco.com) 3. Create and manage content (static or dynamic, self- generated or syndication) 4. Design the website (responsive, easy to use, accessible, competitive, secured, consistent, speed, colors) 5. Construct and test the website (navigation is simple and easy, consistent, speed, useful, competitive, integrated, has support services like payment, search engine, digital signature, CRM, etc) 6. Market and promote the website. Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall5-11

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Opening a Webstore Selecting a Development Option. Consider: Customers Merchandising Sales service Promotion Transaction processing Marketing data and analysis Branding Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall5-13

E-Commerce and other Departments HOW TO ORGANIZE AN EC UNIT IN A COMPANY Options for Organizing the EC Workforce Report to the Marketing Department Report to the Finance Department Report to the Chief Operating Officer Distribute the EC Workforce in Several Departments Report to the IT Department Create a New, Autonomous EC Department No Formal Structure for EC Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall13-14

Opening a Webstore YAHOO! SMALL BUSINESS Getting Started Take a Tour and See the Videos Using the Templates Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall5-15