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Subject: Sep-Oct 2004 VMS3.info: Fry's Electronics
Analyzed via the Value Framework®
Value
Framework® Institute eZine: Your Link to Business Strategy
September 7,
2004 *5,200 subscribers* Volume 6, Issue 5
Online at http://ValueFrameworkInstitute.org/publications.html
This Issue online at http://ValueFrameworkInstitute.org/Sep-Oct2004/
Business
News via the Value Framework® Lenses
Management Perspective
News MODEL:
PROCESS A Drive-Through Lane to the Next
Time Zone
PULL off Interstate 55 near Cape Girardeau, Mo., and into the
drive-through lane of a McDonald's next to the highway and you'll get fast, friendly
service, even though the person taking your order is not in the restaurant - or
even in Missouri. The order taker is in a call center in Colorado Springs, more
than 900 miles away, connected to the customer and to the workers preparing the
food by high-speed data lines. Even some restaurant jobs, it seems, are not immune
to outsourcing. Web Ad Spending to Double
Study says
that online advertising is the fastest growing media field. Online advertising
spending is expected to nearly double by 2009 to $16.1 billion, and to represent
a much higher percentage of marketers' total budgets in that time, a study has
found. Spike Lee Wins Cybersquatting Case Vs. Porn Site
Movie director Spike Lee has won his cybersquatting case against
a Philippines-based operator who misused the domain name, spikelee.com, to redirect
surfers to a pornographic Web site, arbitrators ruled Friday. Ignoring
High-Value Prospects
Ingrained telephone culture, budget limitations,
solution immaturity preventing companies from being more responsive to online
customers. Schedule and Optimize Labor
In a retail environment, think
about supporting several scenarios; how Best Buy Canada and Future Store tackle
T&A and labor scheduling The Importance of Search Branding
The industry urgently
needs a quick crash course in branding. Otherwise, connecting with potential customers
will become a very tough challenge. Lucky are those who have a short and clear
dot-com brand. Customers can simply go directly there -- like Sony.com or PlayStation.com.
Verizon rolls out Net-based phone service
Verizon Communications Inc., the biggest US provider of conventional phone service,
yesterday launched its first Internet-based phone service that lets people with
high-speed connections make unlimited local and long-distance calls for $40 a
month. Taking
E-Commerce to the Next Level
Eventually, Chester Yeum hopes to sign up
retailers to send his customers pitches via their cell phones or handheld computers
that will entice them into a store they're approaching, perhaps using a 10 percent
off coupon. Or maybe send them an e-mail reminding them that an outfit they abandoned
in an online shopping cart is available in the store to try on.
How Retailers Are Turning to Tech
What's behind
this shift to technology? With consumers growing more accustomed to the quick
convenience of shopping on the Internet, bricks-and-mortar retailers are having
to hustle like never before.
ChannelAdvisor Customization
Offers Improved eBay Selling
Enabling shoppers to customize their sought-after
products can be a great way to increase sales and boost customer satisfaction.
But for merchants selling through eBay, it's nigh-impossible to offer customization
within product listings -- till now, that is. That's because this week, ChannelAdvisor
has officially made its Configurator widely available. The tool, which has been
in a limited pilot program, enables eBay PowerSellers to add an interactive feature
to their online auctions that let visitors customize the product for sale. MODEL:
PARTICIPANTS Portal/Content
Integration
Vignette offers deeper native integration of portal and content
platforms, enhanced delivery for line of business users, standards still important
Finding Affiliate
Profits Online with Site Build It
It's no secret that e-commerce is becoming
one of the hottest ways for people to get into business -- and thousands of merchants
each year are seeing success in the online arena. But for would-be Internet entrepreneurs,
it can seem like a steep hurdle, especially if you're not sure what to sell online.
Fortunately, there's Site Build It (SBI), an affordable e-commerce solution for
just about anyone. eBay's
Search for Sellers
The auction giant's fate depends on getting -- and
keeping -- new merchants, so it's going all-out to help them succeed. When more
than 10,000 eBay sellers descend on the eBay Live! member confab June 24 in New
Orleans, it'll be party time. They'll trade collectible company pins, cheer the
wedding of eBayers Maggie and Brad, and maybe dance with Chief Executive Meg Whitman.
But behind the folksy facade, it's serious business. Veteran sellers will huddle
with eBay (EBAY ) brass and exchange tips on how to jack up sales. Newbies will
attend dozens of classes to learn how to sell eBay-style. It's just one part of
eBay's latest push: boosting the number of sellers and the amount of merchandise
it peddles on the world's largest online marketplace.
Report: Good Times Ahead For MSSPs
Enterprises
will outsource up to 90 percent of their security solutions by 2010, according
to a report issued this week by the Yankee Group. The report also indicated that
the market for managed security solution providers (MSSPs) will reach $3.7 billion
in that same time. MODEL:
INFLUENCES Despite
cost pressures, RFID tags gaining steam
RFID conference looks at ways
the technology will change supply chain management. It may be "the oldest
new technology," in the words of IDC analyst Christopher Boone, but the combination
of RFID (radio frequency identification) tags with electronic product codes could
change the way manufacturers and retailers manage their supply chains, according
to analysts, vendors, and attendees at IDC's RFID Update conference in Boston
on Monday. For years RFID technology has been used in access cards and transponders
for automated highway toll collection, Boone said. What is new about RFID technology,
and what is attracting the interest of supply managers and privacy advocates,
is the ability to track products across the supply chain more efficiently than
the venerable bar code.
The Big Picture: Online Retail
Health and beauty sector
shows 61 percent sales growth online.
Salesforce.com Shares Rise 56% on
Their First Day of Trading
Even application service providers have mounted
a comeback, led by I.B.M. Its application hosting business generated more than
$1 billion in revenue last year, a company spokesman said. Visa Reports Jump in E-Commerce Spending
on Credit, Debit Cards
Through the end of May, e-commerce spending in
the U.S. on Visa-branded credit and debit cards rose 59% over the same period
in 2003, the San Francisco-based company said on Tuesday. Visa, which recorded
$22.3 million in e-commerce spending during the first quarter, credited the gains
in part to its introduction of online security programs, such as Verified by Visa,
designed to protect internet shoppers. Visa USA said that it has recently reached
agreements with several key e-commerce players to adopt the Verified by Visa program,
including CompUSA, JetBlue Airways, Digital River and 2Checkout.com. The company
said that more than 9,000 Visa issuers worldwide currently offer the program,
with customers' account information now guarded at more than 17,000 Internet retailers BSA: 36% of World's Installed Software
is Pirated
About 36% of all software installed on computers worldwide
was pirated in 2003, representing a loss of nearly $29 billion, according to new
information from the Business Software Alliance (BSA), an international association
representing some of the world's largest software manufacturers, including several
in the Bay Area. The study found that while $80 billion in software was installed
on computers worldwide last year, only $51 billion was legally purchased. In North
America, the piracy rate was 23%, with losses totaling more than $7.2 billion.
The problem, however, was most prevalent in Eastern Europe, where the piracy rate
was 71%, and the Asia/Pacific region, where dollar losses totaled more than $7.5
billion. BSA members include Adobe, Apple, Autodesk, Borland, Internet Security
Systems, Macromedia, McAfee, Microsoft, SolidWorks, Sybase, Symantec, UGS and
Veritas Software. Broadband
Subscribers to Exceed 325 Million by 2008
The number of broadband subscribers
is expected to exceed 325 million by 2008, with the North American marketplace
growing from 34 million to just under 75 million, according to a report from market
research firm Yankee Group. Cable modem-based broadband is projected to trail
DSL connections globally, but maintain its lead in the North American marketplace,
while satellite connections will grow to 12 million and 4% market share. "Broadband
access continues to be one of the largest and most profitable areas of telecommunications
around the world," said Lindsay Schroth, a Yankee Group analyst. Skype close to launching global Net call service
Service lets users make cheap calls to any phone around the world from their PCs.
Skype Technologies SA, which offers software that allows users to make free phone
calls over the Internet, said Friday that it is closer to launching a new prepay
service in which users can make cheap calls to any phone around the world from
their PCs. Skype, which was founded by the creators of the Kazaa peer-to-peer
(P-to-P) file-sharing software, currently offers software that gives users the
ability to call other Skype users around the world for free using P-to-P technology.
Over 7.5 million people are now using the service, according to a Skype spokeswoman,
and the software is available in 20 languages. The forthcoming SkypeOut differs
from the company's current offering because users will not be limited to calling
just other Skype users. The prepay service will allow users to call any fixed-line
or mobile phone around the world from their PCs. The calls travel over the Internet,
like traditional voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP), and then hit the public
telephone system at their destination, the spokeswoman said. Sarb-Ox Spurs New Accounting Systems for Small Businesses
Study shows companies are doing away with spreadsheets to meet stricter auditing
requirements. Lessons
from Google's IPO
Google's initial public offering, on the surface, seems
to be a success. The company did raise $1.67 billion by going public at $85 a
share, and the stock went up 15% on the first day of trading. Experts at Wharton
and elsewhere say, however, that it's too early to issue a verdict. They add that
Google's IPO offers useful lessons to company executives and investors alike.
Customer
Care: Small Is Beautiful
Executive Editor Alison Bass reports that CIOs
who plan to invest in CRM this year are skipping the big enterprise systems and
going for modular software purchased from smaller vendors or built in house. Could
this trend breathe new life into internal IT departments? Let us know what you
think.
Yahoo Unveils Enhanced E-Mail Features
Striking back at Mountain View
rival Google following the release of that company's free e-mail service, Sunnyvale-based
Yahoo on Tuesday launched several new features on its own mail service, including
a major increase in storage space for both free and premium users. Free e-mail
subscribers have been upgraded to 100-megabytes of storage, 25 times more than
the prior free offering. Premium customers, including subscribers to SBC Yahoo
Dial and DSL, will now have 2 gigabytes of storage, or twice as much as users
of Google's Gmail. Yahoo also unveiled a new design and improved search capabilities,
and removed graphical ads from its premium e-mail services. In addition, the company
said that it is opening up more than 50 million Yahoo IDs, giving consumers more
address options for their e-mail accounts. What's Behind the Overseas Forays of U.S. Online Giants?
EBay has taken over Baazee.com in India. Yahoo has launched Yisou, a search engine,
in China. Google has acquired a stake in Baidu, a Chinese search engine. What's
driving the international expansion plans of these Internet companies? More importantly,
will the business models of these U.S. companies lend themselves to being exported
and transplanted overseas? Experts at Wharton and elsewhere note that localizing
a global business can be a daunting challenge but if handled right, the payoff
can be huge.
From Intel Inside to Intel Everywhere: Will the Chipmaker's Strategy Work?
Intel dominates the world of microprocessors, but the company has set itself a
much loftier goal. Over the years Intel has quietly been expanding its horizons
well beyond chips for laptops and desktop computers. Company executives have outlined
a vision for Intel technology that touches "every human on earth, every minute
of every day, in every aspect of their lifestyle." This strategy, which might
be dubbed "Intel Everywhere," has its risks, say experts at Wharton
and elsewhere.
More E-Commerce Sites Aim to Add ‘Sticky’ Content
If it
is taking longer to shop online, there is a reason: stickiness, the notion of
gluing customers to sites with product information like consumer reviews and stories,
is back. Stickiness was heralded during the dot-com boom, and ridiculed during
the bust. But now a confluence of technological and consumer trends is prompting
e-commerce executives to again think of their online stores as multimedia shopping
extravaganzas. STRATEGY:
MANAGED Recipe for Good Governance
MIT research has found
that good IT governance leads to better return on assets for companies. But what
makes for good governance?
HP: 900,000 notebooks may be buggy
Hewlett-Packard has discovered
a memory flaw in as many as 900,000 of its notebook computers and is offering
customers free replacement of a faulty component. Real Value: Into the Light
Columnist
Howard Rubin agrees with Gary Beach that hidebound ROI measurement and corporate
valuation can be shortsighted. Some IT processes, such as those focusing on supporting
customers, are difficult to quantify and are therefore hidden. But, he says, it
is possible to bring such value out of the shadows.
Management Reports: Let's Start Meeting Like This
A recent study
of virtual work groups finds that they can be more productive and more effective
than teams who always meet face-to-face. - CIO Magazine
- http://www.cio.com/archive/070104/hs_management.htm
E-Businesses: Tweak That Model
Three Internet
companies learned profitability lessons -- the hard way. So, was the answer having
Mr. Spock join the Captain? Inside the Mind
of Jeff Bezos
Amazon.com's founder is a study in contradictions -- analytical
and intuitive, careful and audacious, playful and determined. What really makes
this remarkable entrepreneur tick? Cisco's
Chambers would welcome Nortel partnership
Cisco Systems Inc. President
and Chief Executive Officer John Chambers said Thursday he would welcome a partnership
with telecommunications equipment maker Nortel Networks Corp.
What's Behind
the Four-minute Mile, Starbucks and the Moon Landing? The Power of Impossible
Thinking
Impossible thinking. It is what put men on the moon, allowed
Starbucks to turn a commodity product into a powerful global business and permitted
Roger Bannister to run the four-minute mile. While not every "impossible
thought" can become a reality, very often the greatest obstacle to transforming
our organizations, society and personal lives is our own thinking. This may seem
to be a simple idea in theory - that what we see and act upon is more a product
of what is inside our heads than out in the world - but it has far-reaching implications
for how we approach life and decision making. In their new book titled, The Power
of Impossible Thinking: Transform the Business of Your Life and the Life of Your
Business, Wharton marketing professor Jerry Wind and Colin Crook, former chief
technology officer at Citibank, discuss the process - and promise - of "impossible
thinking."
Is Java Bigger
than Sun? - The Java Ecosystem Debates the Future of Java
Should Java
be open sourced? What would the verb "open-source" actually mean if
it were? What would be lost, if anything, in terms of safeguarding the compatability
of Java, if Sun moved toward more of an open-source model? What innovation and
energy might be lost to Java if it doesn't? These questions were asked and - in
part - answered this morning, from multiple perspectives, at "The Big Question"
keynote debate at JavaOne in San Francisco. Network Associates
changes name back to McAfee
McAfee is McAfee once again. After a seven-year
stint doing business under the name Network Associates Inc., the company formerly
known as McAfee Associates Inc. has readopted its founder's name and will be known
as McAfee Inc., effective Wednesday. Roxio Changes
Name to Napster, Sells Software Business for $80 Million
Roxio, a Santa
Clara-based developer of CD and DVD burning software and the parent company of
Napster, said that it will sell its software division to Novato-based Sonic Solutions
for $80 million and change its corporate name to Napster to emphasize its focus
on the music downloading business. . "[It] will allow us to focus all of
our efforts on Napster and the fast-growing online music market," said Chris
Gorog, the chairman and CEO of Roxio. He said that the deal will "significantly
enhance our balance sheet resulting in a net cash position well in excess of $100
million, which will support our efforts to drive subscriber growth and accelerate
Napster's competitive position." The division posted a net profit of $6 million
on revenue of $22 million during the first quarter. In recent months, Roxio has
launched versions of Napster in the U.K. and Canada, and also expanded its campus
music service program. Yahoo, AOL, Microsoft
to Integrate Instant Messaging Systems
In a landmark move aimed at increasing
the use of instant messaging at work, Sunnyvale-based Yahoo on Thursday said that
it is partnering with rivals AOL and Microsoft to link up their instant messaging
systems, allowing users to communicate freely between the three. Under the plan,
companies will have to pay licensing fees to use software made by Microsoft that
allows them to connect to the different IM systems. Microsoft reportedly then
will pay a portion of the proceeds to AOL and Yahoo. The new service will include
several corporate-friendly features, such as the ability to save and record IMs.
At-home IM users are currently not part of the plan. The move underscores the
immense popularity of instant messaging. AOL said that more than 2 billion IM's
are sent over its network daily., compared with 400 million e-e-mails. "This
lays the groundwork for instant messaging to become as widespread and useful as
e-mail is today," Taylor Collyer, the senior director of real-time collaboration
marketing at Microsoft, told The Washington Post.
About
the Author: Mitchell
Levy is CEO
and Chief Strategist of the Value Framework® Institute and President and CEO
of ECnow.com (http://ecnow.com/), a management
consulting firm helping companies grow with strategic consulting and targeted
business education. The strategic consulting component focuses on helping companies
choose and manage the business models they deploy, manage and evolve. Through
the Value Framework® (http://ValueFrameworkInstitute.org/)
we share a tool that allows the practitioner to merge strategic planning with
business process reengineering and execution.The
business education component involves custom programs as well as off-the-shelf
programs at Universities like San Jose State where we run the Silicon Valley Executive
Business Program (http://SiliconValleyPACE.com/).
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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