Your E-Commerce Site: Build, Buy Or Rent?

By Brian Walsh  To build or to buy. Yes, it's time to dust off that old bit of IS folklore. We know about the popularity of the Web and the well-documented successes of electronic-commerce sites--at least the PR machines have publicized them well enough. That success has driven us to wistful contemplation: Can we be the next ones to make $1 million on the Internet. But how will we sell our widgets and services over the Web? It shouldn't be too hard. After all, the prerequisite components--corporate Web servers, databases and consumer browsers--are ubiquitous; they work well and they don't cost an arm and a leg. Moreover, at this point everyone and his mother has a Web page. Heck, you might be up to your third or fourth version. How Tough Can It Be? The impression most tire-kickers get as they browse many of the sites out there is, "Whoa! I can do this!" And while perusing the various commerce sites, you might find yourself thinking the same thing over and again: There just doesn't seem to be all that much behind many of them. The bottom line seems to be that if it's convenient and makes life easier for the customer, it's a good site. That's the ticket! Just download some components, match them to your internal schema, infrastructure and that site architecture you love so much, and before you know it, your site will reflect the unique nature of your organization's business. You'll be perfectly poised to capture market share, reduce costs and increase profitability. Well, wake up and pay attention--pretend it's your own money and not the corporate budget you're spending! That "not-invented-here mentality" is what MSN (Microsoft Network) was probably thinki ng when it decided that its billing needs were so distinct and special that it had to have its own homegrown billing systems. The problems MSN experienced were widely reported--no need to rehash. It was quite a while ago, and suffice it to say, MSN still hasn't fully recovered. The Real Deal E-commerce is not as easy as it looks. Let's take the simple act of finding a product and placing an order. Ian Finley, manager for product marketing at Open Market, breaks the problem into its composite parts: "How will I interact with customers to get their orders? Do I need to show different customers different prices, different looks, different products? How easy should it be for my customers to find the item for which they're looking? How many ways should I let them search? Should I show them product-comparison tables? And finally, how much of my budget should I devote to building software that can be readily purchased from reputable vendors and how much should I devote to creating a differentiated, compel ling Internet commerce presence?" Look beneath the surface. You can't tell from browsing whether an e-commerce site is all vertically and horizontally integrated or whether a fax is sent off and rekeyed by a clerk. Undoubtedly, you'll need a complement of applications to succeed at e-commerce. First, your site will need to dynamically generate content to create interest driven by the intersection of customer and product. Second, your customer needs to be able to place an order. Although this may sound trivial, take a moment and talk to some of your customer service agents. Let them tell you how trivial your existing order entry process is. Third, try not to forget that you want to get paid for all this. Also important to remember is that the definition of lost customer is the message, "Call 1-800-LUDDITE to complete this process." Fourth, after the customer pays, a digital receipt will be required. Fifth, to live up to your promise of increased customer satisfaction, you'd better make sure that you inte grate the e-commerce site with the rest of your manufacturing and financial systems and vice versa. And finally, you need to close the circle with tracking and promotion tools; review results with marketing and management; reiterate until exhausted; and do all of the above in a real-time, secure environment.

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