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Inside this Issue:
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Business
News via the Value Framework™ Lenses
Management Perspective
by
Mitchell Levy, Author, E-Volve-or-Die.com, Author,
the Value Framework™
Executive
Producer, VMS3.info
VMS3.info News
SAP, Ford, Caterpillar
Get Serious About Global Supply Chain Ops
In a move to strengthen a weak
link in most supply chains, SAP (NYSE: SAP) , Ford Motor (NYSE: F) and Caterpillar
(NYSE: CAT) have developed a software initiative to improve tracking and inventory
procedures for parts used in auto servicing. How
E-Procurement Is Changing the Rules
A few years ago new e-procurement
tools, such as automated requests for proposals and reverse auctions, shook up
corporate procurement offices and eventually permitted -– in some cases,
forced -- companies to re-evaluate and realign supply chain strategies...
New Rule of E-Commerce: Go Back to the Old Rules
As online retailing enters the early stages of maturity and profitability
becomes the rule rather than the exception, e-businesses might find they need
only reset their goals rather than alter their entire approach...
Demand Chain Best Practices
Some companies
understand e-selling, others struggle. Market researcher Aberdeen Group collected
data from various case studies, en route to a report on demand chain management's
best practices -- and has given Line56 readers an exclusive peek. Can
Fun Still Sell E-Commerce?
While companies have begun to eschew bells
and whistles in favor of more cost-effective strategies, there still might be
room for fun in the e-commerce plan. More
Web Sites Try Charging for Content
Media outlets are jumping on the paid-content
bandwagon, with national and regional players alike announcing plans to charge
visitors for online access to print and broadcast content. Freedom Communications
-- a Florida newspaper publisher -- is the latest to join the for-fee parade...
Kings of Repeat E-Business
Early adopters
of e-commerce spent millions trying to draw online shoppers through their virtual
doors. But only a handful attracted the coveted repeat customers that mark a successful
e-business. Today, e-commerce sites looking to turn browsing visitors into repeat
buyers must move well beyond the basics...
Online Bill Payment Faces Obstacles
It's cheap to use and eliminates the hassle of mailing checks, but online bill
payment is still struggling for acceptance. Banks are daunted by the setup costs
and the challenge of convincing consumers of the value of such systems. MODEL:
PARTICIPANTS What Is Killing
Internet Market Research?
Internet market research is designed to be
evergreen, so that clients who buy advice about online customer service or traffic-building
tactics can use that advice later. But Internet market research firms have fallen
on hard times of late, trying to remain financially afloat even as their clients
let them go -- or themselves sink...
The Reinvention
of E-Commerce
In some ways, brick-and-mortar companies have it easy.
They can study the successes and failures of firms that came before them. In the
past, brick-and-clicks and pure-plays have not had that luxury. But as the ins
and outs of e-commerce have become better known, many companies have begun to
change their practices...
Phase Two for E-Commerce
In its infancy, e-commerce was all about building a Web site, attracting
"eyeballs" and capturing orders. Mega corporations and upstarts alike
rushed to the Web like pioneers digging for gold. They raced to build user interfaces
and electronic shopping carts that mimicked the brick-and-mortar experience. But
within a few years, like most infants, e-commerce players began crying. With millions
invested and no profitability in sight, many were forced to close their virtual
doors. Now that e-commerce has moved beyond the shakeout stage, reaching toddlerhood
and preparing for adolescence, the primary goal is customer-centric order fulfillment.
Enter phase two for e-commerce. What can we expect to see within the sector as
the second era of e-commerce gathers steam? Analysts pointed out several key trends
to watch. China Surpassing Japan in PCs, Internet Use
The world's most populous nation, China, appears to be passing Japan and taking
a position second only to the United States in Internet use and in the PC market,
according to industry sources. With well over one billion people and a society
that is rapidly transitioning to high-tech, it is no surprise that China is moving
up in the world of technology . But there is some surprise at how soon the nation
is passing its technologically advanced neighbors in the Asia-Pacific region,
including Japan.
The
Junkyard of Bad E-Commerce Ideas
Just as a museum helps visitors learn
lessons from the past, a monument
dedicated to bad e-commerce ideas might
offer a similar education to
those who sell on the Web. Such a memorial might
impart a key truth:
While users will flock to sites that make their lives
easier, they will
not change their habits to accommodate ill-conceived business
plans...
STRATEGY: MANAGED Rosettanet Merges with
UCC
IN AN EFFORT to boost business-to-business integration efforts in
the high-technology and retail sectors via XML and Web services standards, the
Uniform Code Council (UCC) and RosettaNet have agreed to merge their organizations,
officials said Monday. The two organizations will jointly develop an architectural
environment designed to provide a common set of objects that businesses can exploit
to more easily automate supply chain operations. In addition, the move is designed
to provide software vendors more incentive to design products to support the standards
via a larger membership base of potential customers. New
Web Services Standards
IBM, Microsoft, and BEA collude on WS-Coordination,
WS-Transaction, and Business Process Execution Language for Web Services; preparing
WS for B2B use. Ford Slams Brakes
on E-Commerce
In a massive re-integration effort, Ford Motor Company has
pulled the plug on its e-commerce unit, fired the unit's chief executive and will
no longer supply internet access and PCs to its employees. Online Dating
Services Thrive
Lured by the convenience and the thousands of potential
dates, legions
of people are seeking romantic connections online, making
personals one
of the Internet's rare financial successes. At least a couple
of Web
sites competing in this fast-growing industry are profitable...
EBay Poised To Sell Butterfields
Auction Division
EBay is reportedly close to a deal to sell its Butterfields
division, probably for considerably less than the $260 million price tag that
the auction house carried in early 1999, when eBay set out to leverage its real-world
auction assets...
The Rebirth of the Online Grocery
The first wave of online
grocery stores is all but gone, but one year after Webvan secured its title as
the biggest dot-bomb ever, the online grocery segment is slowly reinventing itself.
Brick-and-mortar supermarkets are cooking up some early success with hybrids of
the original model...
Priceline, Expedia Shift Strategies
Leading travel
sites have unveiled a slew of promotions in recent days aimed at boosting their
hotel sales, in apparent recognition that long-slumping airline ticket sales might
not soon recover. Both Priceline and Expedia unveiled hotel service upgrades targeted
at consumers, and Expedia also beefed up its offerings for the hotels themselves...
Dell: It’s Time to Diversify, Dude
Dell Computer,
the no-fuss PC sales machine, has set the standard for a successful direct-distribution
company. But Dell is now reworking its bare-bones formula in an attempt to branch
out from the PC market into more sophisticated, and profitable, computer systems.
It’s a risky strategy in a tough economic climate, but experts suggest it’s
Dell’s only option if the company wants to keep growing. TaylorMade
for E-Business
Golf-club maker re-invents supply chain -- and itself;
shooting for the green; the 24-hour, custom made club About
the Author: Mitchell
Levy, is President and CEO of ECnow.com (http://ecnow.com),
an e-commerce management consulting company helping individuals and 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 E-Volve-or-Die.com (http://e-volve-or-die.com),
author 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),
Chair of comdex.biz at Comdex Fall, and Chairman of the Pay-per-Performance PR
Agency Media Attention Now TM (http://ecnow.com/mediaattention),
the on-line learning content production company Transition Learning (http://transitionlearning.com)
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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