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Inside this Issue:
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Business
News via the Value Framework™ Lenses
Management Perspective
by
Mitchell Levy, Author of the book E-Volve-or-Die.com, Creator of the
Value Framework™
Executive
Producer, VMS3.info
VMS3.info News
Customer
Service: Admit You Have a Problem
How companies resolve (or don't resolve)
customer complaints can be a strong indicator of why there are complaints in the
first place.
End of the Training Tunnel
After spending enormous
amounts of money and time on an enterprise application system, the last thing
a company wants is to spend more on training. But that is exactly what is needed
for success. "However, enterprise apps have not yet reached this point,"
said Forrester research analyst Jennifer Chew.
The New Face of Confidence
Everyone agrees that confidence
is important to entrepreneurial success, but few can agree on exactly what confidence
is. Where does it come from? How do you get it? And how can you get it back after
losing it? As
the Personalization Pendulum Swings
Personalization has gotten a bad
rap in recent years. The technology is expensive, and many enterprises have not
been able to demonstrate the ROI they originally anticipated for personalization
projects. But the problem is not the technology or even its cost, according to
recent findings of the Aberdeen Group.
MasterCard International:
Online Services... Priceless
MasterCard created Member Services Online,
an extranet once meant for internal use, and expanded it to provide better and
faster research and transaction service to its member banks. E-Commerce as a Way of Life
New study on Internet usage finds that nearly two-thirds of all Internet users
have purchased a product or service online as the Web becomes increasingly pervasive.
Watershed Moment
for Enterprise IM
In recent months, IM (instant messaging) has marched
right through companies' back doors and onto the center stage. Widespread use
of consumer IM products in the office has led to a rash of enterprise IM offerings,
and now that the technology has been upgraded to business class, many are left
wondering what will come next.
MODEL: PARTICIPANTS
E-Procurement on Steady Climb
Online procurement is slowly gaining
traction in the B2B community, according to new data from Forrester Research.
In a survey of 294 supply management executives conducted last quarter, representatives
of all industry segments said they had increased the volume of their procurement
in Q4 2002.
Cisco and Yahoo! Tap into SMB Market
Cisco Systems
teamed with Yahoo! to launch a service for small and medium businesses (SMBs)
that supports the integration of networking technologies to sharpen the competitive
edge for Web-based and brick-and-mortar businesses. MODEL:
INFLUENCES Music Industry Unveils Net Sales Tracking
Tag
LONDON (Reuters) - A music industry trade body launched Monday electronic
identity tags to keep tabs on Internet music sales in a bid to compensate musicians
and song writers as more of their works become available online.
Forget Moore's Law
Because it's unhealthy.
Because it has become our obsession. Because it is dangerous--a runaway train,
roaring down a path to disaster. The Latest Tech Discontinuities
Every once in a while a technology discontinuity occurs, reinventing the marketplace
and sending a shiver up the corporate spines of vendors. This year, two major
discontinuities will emerge, first confusing and then enticing customers while
perplexing vendors.
And the Online Fraud Goes On...
eBay users continue to be bombarded with scam e-mails from criminals
harvesting account information; now, the FTC is investigating some of the frauds.
Why Europe Hates Microsoft
Microsoft is under attack again for
leveraging its monopoly and bundling its products, but this time its lines of
defense are concentrated on the European front. How much muscle does Europe have
to bring down one of the world's most powerful companies?
Time To Escape from Silicon
Valley?
From chipmaker Intel to auction giant eBay, Silicon Valley is
home to many of the high-tech industry's standard-bearers. But in an era of bottom-line
budget scrutiny, does it still make sense for companies to stay in the Northern
California hot spot, where the cost of living -- and therefore of doing business
-- is among the highest in the U.S.?
Match.com Case Study
Match.com is the leader among Internet dating
sites, a category of e-commerce that's growing at rates reminiscent of the Internet
frenzy of the late '90s.
The World According to IBM
Financially, 2002 was
not a gangbuster year for IBM -- revenue from continuing operations declined 3
percent. But the company still earned $5.3 billion in the year, even as most firms
struggled to stay out of the red zone. How did IBM thrive in such a difficult
environment -- and can the company extend its streak of success?
Yahoo to launch paid Net video service
Yahoo is
close to unveiling details of a paid, subscription-based Internet video service
that will compete with a similar product from RealNetworks, according to sources
familiar with the plans. Sources said the company is preparing to introduce the
service, called "Platinum Yahoo," by the end of March. An announcement
could come as early as Wednesday during an event with Wall Street analysts and
reporters. As previously reported, Yahoo last year began testing user appetite
for such a product as part of a companywide effort to develop nonadvertising,
subscription-based services. Amazon's Ambitious Failures
Amazon's e-commerce triumphs
are legendary. But paralleling Amazon's victories are product-category fizzles,
the result of the company's near-constant efforts to morph into a universal department
store. Which of these failures have been most prominent, and what potential uncertainties
does Amazon face as a result of its entry into several new areas?
Many Companies Cut Research Budgets
More than 1,500
public companies, grappling with the slow economy, cut their research and development
budgets last year. The cuts could slow innovation at corporate research departments
that have created the transistor, laser and personal computer, analyst Jules Duga
said.
STRATEGY:
MANAGED Why Is Dell Up
and Gateway Down?
Michael Dell's eponymous company has annual sales of
more than $30 billion and $2 billion in profits. Ted Waitt's Gateway has roughly
$4 billion in annual sales and a net loss in the tens of millions. What did Dell
do right, and what did Gateway do wrong? And will Dell's winning formula continue
to serve it well in a changed PC marketplace?
Making Internet
Banking Pay
NetBank Chief Executive Douglas Freeman says that even if
demand for home loans falls off a cliff, as many expect, he'll still manage to
grow profits 40% this year. He'll just raid giants like Bank of America and Wells
Fargo for more customers. The Implementation
Stopwatch: Racing to ROI
When it comes to rushed software implementations,
happy endings are the exception rather than the norm. Plunging headlong into a
project with the goal of achieving quick ROI usually does not work -- particularly
because the companies that do so often fail to create a good road map by defining
goals, strategies and metrics.
Being Smart
about Business Intelligence
Many companies have achieved considerable
success in using BI (business intelligence) tools. Wal-Mart, General Electric,
and Cisco have all expended huge sums on BI
solutions, and give these systems
a great deal of credit in helping them successfully manage their business. Siebel
Systems, by virtue of tight controls on processes and doing
things right
from the start, has also created an internal BI system that is a model for what
many companies are trying to do. S.F. Law Firm Falls Victim to
Dot-Com Dive
One of San Francisco's largest and most prestigious law
firms has told shocked employees it is shutting down, a victim of the tech implosion.
Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison, which rose to national prominence by handling
hundreds of dot-com IPOs and mergers during the Internet bubble, leaves 1,100
lawyers and support staff in 14 cities out of work.
Are Tech Visionaries Finished?
Unlike the flamboyant
CEOs of the high-tech boom era, who became heroes by making bold predictions and
then acting on them, today's top execs seem to be cherished more for their ability
to cut costs and make tough business decisions to help a company survive in hard
times. Is the age of the tech visionary finished?
A Sweet Song? Delta Aims at the Low-Fare Market
On
April 15, a lime-green plane will depart New York City for Florida. On it ride
the hopes of America’s third-largest carrier, as Delta’s new subsidiary,
Song, takes wing. With a new staff and new attitude, Delta is hoping to break
into the burgeoning low-fare air travel market to an extent that United, American
and Continental haven’t been able to achieve. So far, pre-flight reviews
are mixed. Roxio
Hires Napster Founder, Will Re-Launch Service In 2003
Roxio, the maker
of CD and DVD burning software that purchased Napster's assets for $5 million
at a bankruptcy auction last November, confirmed on Monday that Napster founder
Sean Fanning will be brought on with the company, which plans to launch a licensed,
fully-legal version of Napster by the end of the year. Initially, the service
will not be based around a peer-to-peer network, the protocol on which the original
Napster worked that allowed free-range copying of music files from anyone logged
onto the network. "We're looking to put a legal service up by year end,"
Roxio spokeswoman Kathryn Kelly told CNET News.com.
About
the Author: Mitchell
Levy, is President and CEO of ECnow.com (http://ecnow.com),
an e-commerce management consulting company helping corporations transition from
the industrial age to the Internet age through strategy, marketing, and off-the-shelf
and customized on-line and on-ground training. He is the author of the book E-Volve-or-Die.com
(http://e-volve-or-die.com), creator of
the Value Framework™
(http://ecnow.com/value/),
Executive Producer of VMS3.info (http://VMS3.info),
the Founder and Program Consultant of the premier San Jose State E-Commerce Management
Certificate Program (http://ecmtraining.com/sjsu),
former Chair of comdex.biz at Comdex Fall, and Chairman of the Pay-per-Performance
PR Agency Media Attention Now TM (http://ecnow.com/mediaattention),
and the CEO Networking organization CEOnetworking (http://ceonetworking.com).
Mitchell was at Sun Microsystems for 9 years, the last 4 of which he managed the
e-commerce component of Sun's $3.5 billion supply chain. Mitchell is a popular
speaker, lecturing on ECM issues throughout the U.S. and around the world.
Read more about Mr. Levy: http://ecnow.com/ml_bio.htm
Public speaking appearances I've given: http://ecnow.com/speaking.htm
Read about ECnow.com's media coverage: http://ecnow.com/media
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