Architecture for e-Commerce strategy - Questions and Answers Demystifying Structurally Strong E-Commerce Architecture.

E-COMMERCE STRATEGY.

TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT FOR E-COMMERCE IMPLEMENTATION

Nethra Sambamoorthi, Ph.D
CRMportals Inc., 
11 Bartram Road, Englishtown, NJ 07726
PH: 732-972-8969

Questions and Answers Demystifying Structurally Strong E-Commerce Architecture.

What is E-COMMERCE?
E-Commerce is doing business using electronic tools and related processes.

There is no packaged solution to any company.

The challenge in putting together processes and E(electronic) tools is understanding and using the optimal combination of e-tools to do business with business partners and customers so that they are connected to business relationship managers in a continuous, instantaneous, and productive exchange of information. 

It is the vehicle, not the end result.

Isn’t E-COMMERCE about Internet?
Yes, and it is one important part of the total infrastructure for customer interactions.

In a matured E-COMMERCE environment, today’s hot e-tools may become a mismatch but the fundamental requirement of servicing the business relationship and being the master of the required strategy will stay the same.

As tools, email and web pages will help resolve E-commerce architectural problems for some company. However, the business problems for the internal consistency of E-Commerce architecture is about productive and instantaneous exchange of information among consumers, business partners, and business relationship managers, with the business strategy of ‘Right communication and Right Relationship with the Right Partners and Right Consumers, using the Right Combination of E-Tools’

The challenge is in the ‘Right Implementation’.

What is the end result of E-COMMERCE?

The end result of E-COMMERCE is successful practices of business rules. It is a business advantage to reduce the cost of creating and maintaining individualized customer and business partner relationships, and possessing significant competitive advantage, by significantly creating value.

What are business rules?

Business rules, are relationship rules, which are directly connected to the profitability of a corporation. Some of the important business rules any corporation should have are:

  • Achieve profitability with a certain margin.
  • Know the high responsive customers vs low responsive customers
  • Rank the current customers by the ROI
  • Optimize assignment of channels of communication using ROI of each customer who has relationship with us.
  • Find 20% of the business partners who bring in 80% of the revenue.
  • Privacy of consumers’ name, address and phone numbers are of utmost importance and shall never be shared with any one.

What are the components of E-tools?

The tools are Web portals, email services, teleservices, marketing literature, and wireless communication. A particular combination of these tools with certain intensity gives raise to a specific solution for an organization. 

Every technological revolution promised the same, but for the first time, we have a technology, which is easy to use, facilitates exchange of information among customers, business partners and business relationship managers, from anywhere, any time, for fulfillment of the products and/or services. 

The footprints of communication are self-documented in the clearest possible way.

The content and delivery of information among customers, partners and the business managers of a corporation, is truly at ‘Light Speed’. 

There are no packaged software solutions to any company, though there are some commonality among these solutions. Every company will have its own optimized configuration of these commonality forms. 

What are the operational facilitators (commonality forms) for E-COMMERCE?

There are four components, which is a precursor for running best in class E-COMMERCE infrastructure.

  • Best practices in data management which includes data capture, data access and data integrity for identifying, creating, and maintaining productive relationships with consumers, business partners, and employees
  • Best practices in analytical capability which means not only ability to rank customers and partners on any given business metrics but also ability to rank certain business rules(business metrics) in order of importance based on data.
  • Best in breed business relationship managers.
  • Best in class communication tools for web portals, teleservices, marketing literature, and wireless communications.

While these tools are available in its own merit, the emergence of E-COMMERCE technology means bringing them together to organize, facilitate and fulfill the business rules in the most efficient way.

Automation in the integration of these tools for information exchange is the fuel for InterAction engine.

How is the customer value generated in this new communication and relationship engine?

Instantaneous exchange of information to solve problems, and hence the relationship facilitation is the value that every customer and business partner ultimately wants to be assured and serviced with. The reduced cost and the well being for the patients due to compliance and the proper usage of the product and services is the value generated. 

Where does Knowledge Management fit in all these?

Knowledge Management is the creation and sharing of best practices among business relationship managers.

Creation of knowledge refers to actually knowing our consumers and partners to practice the business strategy of ‘Right communication and Right relationship at the Right time with the Right consumers and business partners with the Right E-Tools’. 

Sharing of knowledge refers to the tools and processes for ‘Light Speed’ communication about best practices among business relationship managers inside the corporation.

E-COMMERCE technology and strategy encompasses the processes of Knowledge Management.

Why some companies already (fail in E-COMMERCE or) change their E-COMMERCE strategies significantly?

They are either

  • not well versed in the business relationship rules of their partners, competitors, and customers, or
  • do not have working operational E-commerce facilitators in place, or
  • the E-tools are not optimized for the business rules, or
  • the business relationship managers are not ready to drive this vehicle yet, either because of corporate culture or because of skill sets, or
  • a combination of the above. 

Are we positioned well for E-COMMERCE?

Yes. We have well-developed operational E-Commerce facilitators in place and we have an excellent team of business managers who understands and appreciates the importance of business rules for relationship with our customers, business partners, and the sales force.

How to create significant competitive barriers to others in E-COMMERCE?

Lack of speed to implement the E-COMMERCE solution is the hindrance to achieve competitive advantage. 

Start now. Let the team of best in breed business relationship managers come together with a passion to bring out the E-COMMERCE infrastructure to own the market in the new millennium.

The business relationship managers are the first and foremost resource. E-COMMERCE is about communication with the customers and business partners tactically connected to implementation of business rules.

What is E-COMMERCIALIZING in a pharmaceutical production model?

In a pharmaceutical setup business partners are physicians and MCOs. Our resources are sales force and business relationship managers. Our already established business relationship channel facilitators are agencies, web portals, Teleservices, marketing literature. Our high ROI efforts are servicing the relationship with current product users.

However, the communication location that is directly connected to product usage for treatment and compliance is predominantly at the physicians’ office, though it is moving slowly but steadily into the areas of DRTV, RADIO, PRINT, and MAIL after the FDA deregulated the communication opportunities with the patients, outside the physician's office.

Creating the web portals, especially, tuning physicians’ office not only as a web medium but also as a place of complete resources for physicians to manage their patients, with teleservices, email facilities and audio and video streamers will be the strategy to achieve. However, we can still leverage the same resources to reach, educate, and influence decisions for better health using the new media of direct communications mentioned above.

The brilliance in the implementation of E-COMMERCE is taking the right steps with the right bits of work, to reap the benefits while building the infrastructure.

 

 
 
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