| Determining
your Competitive E-business Strategy:
E-business Intelligence as Competitive
E-business Strategy
E-business intelligence gives critical
Internet market feedback to an enterprise.
It is an enterprise’s method for measuring and managing return on
investment (ROI). However,
the biggest oversight about determining Internet ROI is the inadequacy of
meaningful metrics to measure it. Current
metrics are limited to web site effectiveness, not the impact of the
entire Internet on the business. They
answer the “what” but not the “how” or “why” of what happened
on the Internet. They suffer
from limited availability, coverage, and effectiveness.
As an example, real world measurements exist for down time, system
reliability, quick ratios, and cycle time; but not for advertising
effectiveness, site comprehensiveness, or audience satisfaction.
Enterprises are missing windows of opportunity by not capturing and
monitoring the appropriate metrics.
E-business intelligence is driven by
answering key questions such as:
·
How can our site maximize its traffic?
·
Does our company/site have the
“right” Internet affiliations?
·
How are our company’s products being
distributed on the Internet?
·
Are other companies leveraging my
business to drive their business?
·
Are my affiliates complying with set
guidelines?
The answer to these types of questions
becomes the fuel for future business strategies/models. Then upon implementation, these strategies are monitored for
their impact and effectiveness on ROI.
New
Revenue Generating E-business Models
Proactive enterprises are capitalizing
on Internet opportunities using new E-business models. These models are:
·
Advertising – revenue generated from
web site hits or “eyeballs”
·
E-retailing – revenue derived from
direct Internet sales
·
Channel – revenue produced from
maintenance of current channel integrity
·
Affiliate – revenue made from paid
marketing alliances
·
Franchise – revenue created from
authorized agents
·
Subscription – revenue derived from
payment for content access
The Pervasive
Effect and Reach of the Internet
The Internet affects all areas of your
online and offline enterprise. These
areas include:
·
Legal – Are sites cybersquatting or
infringing on copyright, trademark, patents or logos belonging to your
company? Profiting from
slight differences in domain names or peddling counterfeit wares means
outright lost sales. It also
conditions the public to accept piracy as a legitimate distribution
channel and sets a precedent that your content is “free.”
·
Corporate Communications – Are sites
involved with cybersmearing? Increased
Internet usage could mean added exposure to attacks on your company’s
good name. For example, are
sites promulgating untruths or rumors about your products/services or
ruining corporate reputation by associating your communications with
pornography? Unsavory communications of this nature can offend potential
or current customers.
·
Infrastructure – Are sites
incorporating the optimal technologies?
Don’t be the first to adopt bleeding technology, but then again,
don’t be the last either. Interface
design, applets, and cutting edge applications/tools can become the stuff
of great web sites.
·
Interactive – Are sites doing what it
takes to attract and keep customers?
There is first mover advantage when signing with the best
affiliates but are they respecting exclusive, noncompeting clauses and
other guidelines and not diverting traffic?
Are sites wrongfully implying or claiming a relationship with your
business? The inability to
control how your brand or services are characterized on unauthorized sites
has the potential of negatively affecting your bottom line while improving
theirs.
·
Strategy – Are sites aware of what
their partners are doing? Relationships
that work in the conventional offline world may not be advantageous in the
online world where geographical boundaries are non-existent. This produces additional issues concerning product pricing,
supplier relationships, management, and distribution channels.
The
Purpose of E-business Intelligence
Monitoring the Internet for nefarious
activities against your enterprise is ineffective because the Internet is
too large to find all the violators.
Instead, use E-business intelligence to implement a process that
combats the worse Internet violations perpetrated against your business.
This 4-step process consists of:
·
Understanding the scope the Internet
represents. The Internet
changes every second of every day. It
is growing exponentially from its estimated 800 million pages with no end
in sight. This is not a
matter for guessing. It is
critical that you have the correct answers to questions such as:
What is our
exposure on the Internet?
Do we have
adequate tracking and trending information?
What issues
will affect the bottom line today and in the future?
How do we
position for growth?
Putting
together numbers, contingencies, and scenarios that simulate or project
possible outcomes can help baseline what types of trends can and should be
tracked over time.
·
Developing policies and procedures.
All web sites are not created equal.
This justifies applying different consequences and treatment for
those that violate your business. Depending
upon the offensiveness and offense, appropriate responses from your
business come from official corporate policies and procedures.
For example, unsanctioned web sites can be divided into four
categories. Those that are
unprofitable are ignored by your business; those that are positive can be
either exploited or sanctioned by you; those that are negative require
correction and monitoring to ensure continued compliance; those that are
illegal must be eliminated.
·
Implementing proactive measures that
are both repeatable and sustainable.
Your business’ responsiveness is predicated on E-business
criteria. For example,
offenses perpetrated by fan clubs might justify notification to desist by
registered mail while commercial ventures make their case in court.
Begin with actions/behaviors that truly affect your bottom line
business and then be consistent and persistent about how they are
remedied.
- Being decisive.
Business is a competitive business.
The addition of E-business makes it even more so.
Whether your enterprise is the eater or the eaten is a matter
of being attentive to the eyeballs.
Either affiliate to drive people to your site or cut bait
because time costs you in competitors.
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