The Internet and your business
e-Business - The benefits
e-Business - The Future
The Internet and your business
How often have you heard, or read, words similar to this ?
"A presence on the World Wide Web is rapidly becoming mandatory for every size of organisation - from the small trader to the large multi-national organisation. If you do not use the Internet as an integral part of your marketing mix, you are certainly not exploiting the potential of this now everyday route to business - while your competitors almost certainly are".
A lot of organisations, especially the Small to Medium Enterprises, are somewhere on this IT/Internet evolution path. Where are you? Where do you want to be?
Limited use of IT
The business uses a computer for internal office functions only - interested in the Internet and how it could benefit the business, but never seem to find the time, or know whom to turn to.
On the Internet
Business has a website, but its limited success is causing doubts about the benefits of its wider use and moving in an e-Business direction.
Website if effective
The business has a website that has generated a higher customer interest and service level. Benefits are beginning to be realised. Now want to move forward.
Electronic Catalogue
Website contains details of product & services, for existing and new customers. More interaction is being experienced from customers. Realisation that the available market has expanded. Perhaps orders being taken over the Internet.
e-Commerce
A rising percentage of orders are taken over the Internet. Secure servers and SSL being used to take payments on-line. Website is now integrated with other marketing channels. Starting to integrate the website with the back office systems.
Integration
Internet technologies now being used internally to extend integration of the website and with other systems. The business is now planning the introduction of closed Intranet and Extranet applications.
Advance e-Commerce
On-line relationship with Trading Partners - Suppliers and Customers. Website personalisation. E-CRM (Customer Relationship Management) systems introduced. Intranet technologies used for internal staff functions - e.g. Expense recording, HR functions, Time & attendance etc. etc.
It has been estimated that over three quarters of small businesses have their own website, but when questioned the vast majority are not satisfied with the outcome and state that it just did not meet their expectations. Simply having a website is not enough - your business needs to understand how to profit from this relatively new channel to market and how to integrate it into the business - or in some cases - start to change the way the whole business operates.
For those that get it right, or learn from their initial foray into the big bad world wide web, the rewards can be substantial.
e-Business - The Benefits
The reason for investing in Technology is to create value and improve your business's performance. When thinking of putting your business on-line, or extending the use of the Internet in your business, Costs, Benefits, Cost Savings and Return on Investment will be uppermost in your mind.
Lets consider for a moment the potential areas of benefit. Use these to help give you a basis for generating your own Internet strategy and cost benefit plan.
* Improve and Enhance your Customer Service.
* Widen your Marketing
* Increase your Customers and Sales
* Improve the relationships with Trade Partners
* Improve communications with customers, suppliers and employees.
* Reduce Costs.
Improve and Enhance your Customer Service
| Giving customers the information they want, when they want it, will greatly enhance the way they view your organisation, as well as saving you time and money. The Internet is a very effective tool to enhance your customer service levels. |
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~ By Providing on-line access to your products and services, you can keep the information accurate and up to date, and your customers get an improve service and your staff are not distracted.
~ By Providing online access to your customers to look at the status of their orders both inside & outside office hours, Problems can be resolved quickly and easily, Delivery expectations can more easily be met and you save on Administration costs.
~ By Providing access to after sales information, Specifications, Manuals, Frequently asked Questions, Case Histories etc - Your customers will be better informed, your information will be current, and you can save on Administrative and Printing cost.
Widen your Marketing
| The interactive features of the Internet allow you to determine far more easily what your customers are looking for, and allow you to target your marketing efforts towards particular audiences |
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~ By Providing an on-line company brochure, your business details are easily kept up to date, accurate and available at all times.
~ By Providing your customers with an easy way of contacting you by email via your website, you will gain an invaluable insight into how you are perceived as well as enhancing your brand name and image.
~ By Providing an on-line newsletter you can get company news and product and pricing information out to your customers quicker, more often and cheaper than the more traditional routes.
~ By Providing current Industry news and views, your customers will be attracted to your website and will be likely to return more often
~ By Providing Customer Testimonials on-line, you new and existing customers will be more assured about your product range and how it is used - It may even increase sales.
Increase your Customers and Sales
| This is the major reason that most organisations will invest in new technologies. The use of the Internet gives you access to a far wider market, which in turn should increase the number of customers you deal with, and all importantly, the sales from those customers |
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~ By Providing your customers with the ability to configure and order on-line, your business is always open, you will gain sales from new customers, customer satisfaction will improve, and you can more easily reach a much wider market.
~ By Introducing Electronic Marketing and Advertising, you can reach a global marketplace and attract people to your website, cheaper than mail shots or telemarketing
~ By Ensuring your website is well marketed and is Search Engine friendly you will feature much higher up in the search engine results list and attract a long more potential customers to you website.
Improve the relationships with Trade Partners
| This is one of the more advanced areas of e-Business, which may take your organisation some time to embrace. Major commercial improvements can be made by adopting the Internet for trading with new market, suppliers and partners. |
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~ By Providing secure access to your suppliers of some of your inventory and forecast data, you suppliers be in a much better position to react to you demands, you can reduce stock holdings and vastly simplify your administrative processes.
~ By Providing electronic procurement systems, your buyers can browse and buy from your suppliers online using up to date data, making the process much quicker and again helping reduce administration costs.
~ By Providing your customers with an electronic version of your product catalogue, you will enable them to use their electronic procurement systems to make purchases from you. Reduces paperwork, improves communication flow and helps keep costs down in the supply chain.
Improve communications with customers, suppliers and employees.
| When communicating with customers, suppliers and employees, both speed and accuracy are essential. More and more Internet technologies are being used to facilitate the secure and efficient flow of information both internally and externally, allowing all parties to access information when it most suits them. |
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~ By Providing an online repository for internal information, you will reduce the risk of duplication and errors, make your employees more efficient and enable them to access central information whenever they need to.
~ By Providing employees secure Internet access to internal systems such as Expense recording, their own HR records, Time & Attendance recording etc, you enable employees to effectively and quickly communicate critical company data, 24 hours, 7 days a week from wherever they are at the time. This often enables a reduction in administrative costs and a much quicker and smoother closing of period end.
Reduce Costs.
| In today's competitive market, every organisation is striving to reduce costs, while maintaining customer service levels. Many of the Benefits shown above will help to reduce costs, or allow you to process increased sales while containing costs. Summarised here are some of the areas for consideration. |
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~ By Automating your Customer Service you can improve the level of service you give to customers while reducing Administrative Costs.
~ By Enabling your customers to view your product catalogue, configure their purchases and order on-line will both speed up the customer ordering process, increase your sales and lower your unit cost of sale.
~ By Automating your communications, your internal and external communications will be quicker, easier and cheaper.
~ By Publishing Electronically your Company Brochure, Newsletters, Product Specifications will be more timely, accurate and published to the intended audience at a much reduced cost.
~ By Marketing electronically, you can get your marketing messages to a wider audience at a fraction of the cost of traditional methods
e-Business - The Future
The impact of the Internet and e-Business processes is the largest we have experienced in Information Technology since the PC (Personal Computer) was born. As businesses of all sizes get to grips with these new technologies and how to utilise them effectively we can take a view of how the future could look.
The diagram above shows how Your Business (shown in Blue) might be interacting with external parties using both internet and XML technologies.
Your Business. The box above shows a typical organisation using its own business systems for Accounting, HR/Payroll, Sales Order Processing, Inventory and perhaps a Manufacturing system.
Your Prospects will be able to review your website and your Product Catalogue, perhaps as a result of one of your electronic direct marketing campaigns.
Your Customers will be using your website to keep up to date with market news, your products, prices and perhaps order and stock availability. They can place orders on-line and receive Order Acknowledgements, Delivery Advices and even the Invoice On-Line.
Electronic banking is now well established. Your Finance department will be able to make payments, check on receipts and even have your Bank Statements down-loaded via the Internet.
With the introduction of an internal Intranet, your employees will be able to conduct administrative and operational functions from wherever they are in the country or the world. They will be able to amend certain parts of their HR records - Their new address for instance. They will be able to enter their time sheet, expense claims, project reports etc from home, the office or anywhere else that enables them to dial-in to the Intranet.
The Government have introduced many e-Business initiatives and targets for both central and local government departments. We can already log personal tax returns via the Internet - perhaps we will be able to lodge VAT, Intrastat and even communicate with Companies House via the Internet.
If you are manufacturing, or assembling to order, effective management of your Supply Chain is crucial. Being able to view Production Schedules, Delivery Schedules, your order status can all be achieved on-line with the co-operation of your trading partners.
Having access to your Suppliers Product Catalogues will enable your business to keep up to date with their products, prices and stock availability. e-procurement systems are being introduced by the larger organisations and are now standard modules within the major ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software vendors. You will be able to place your orders on-line, receive acknowledgements, review orders, back orders and delivery schedules on-line.
It all contributes to you organisation being able to operate as efficiently as possible while increasing, your customer service levels.
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