John C.T. Ko Graduate School, José Rizal University Starting & Sustaining an On-line Business...

John C.T. Ko Graduate School, José Rizal University

Starting & Sustaining an On-line Business

Reported by John C.T. KoAugust 30, 2006


This presentation contains 6 parts:

Outline of the Presentation

1. Understanding an on-line business

2. Planning an on-line business

3. Building an on-line business

4. Protecting an on-line business

5. Managing an on-line business

6. Improving an on-line business


Broadly speaking, the term “e-business” (or on-line business) refers to using the Internet for doing business.

Every time a business uses the Internet to conduct business, it is doing on-line business.

Part 1: Understanding an on-line business


Understanding: Getting started an on-line Business

You will need …..

• A computer that can connect to the Internet reliably and at an acceptable speed

• Software on the computer that allows you to send email, browse the Web for websites and protects your computer

• An email account with an Internet Service Provider (ISP)

• Training in using the equipment and software efficiently


Part 2: Planning an on-line Business

Planning is absolutely essential to ensure that your precious time, money and energy is not wasted and that potential risks are minimized.

The person responsible for developing an on-line business plan must decide:

• who should be involved in the process

• the responsibilities of the planning team

• what the plan is to include

• what background research is required in order to produce the plan

• the time-frame for delivering the plan

• how best to inform staff about the plan to engage them

• when and how the plan will be reviewed and updated


Planning - The planning process

• Research the opportunities

• Consider the key issues

• Decide on what level of on-line business is right for you

• Prepare your e-business plan


Planning – 6 Key issues to consider

1. Innovation and imagination• Do we need to change business processes to get the most out of e-

business• Need to think about the future• Innovative and imaginative approach to tackling problems

2. Integration with existing office systems• Need to address the extent of changes to existing office equipment,

systems and procedures that might be required or desired• Consult the people who carry out the day-to-day business activities

to educate them about how the Internet can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of business tasks – early engagement can make the process of ‘change’ in the company smoother.

Cont/...

The person responsible for developing the e-business plan should consider all of these key issues in parallel as often one issue will affect another issue:



3. Develop a healthy e-business cultureCharacteristics

• The Internet is embraced as a way of conducting everyday business to the extent that it is practical in the organization

• staff are encouraged to suggest and try new ways of using the Web or email to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the business

• staff are competent and keen users of the Internet and of their organization's website

• the website is not seen as outside core business but part of it and supportive of it

• staff feel they have control of the website

• there is a commitment to continual improvement of the e-business plan.

How?

• Regularly communicate with staff about the e-business plan

• Train staff so they are not afraid to use the technology and can use it well

Cont/...



4. SecurityConsideration needs to be given to the security of your website,

emails and the computer systems that support them. Some high-level

questions include:

• Authenticity – “How do I know who sent me this?”

• Security – “How do I know this hasn’t been tampered with?”

• Privacy and confidentiality – “How do I know no-one else will see

this?”

5. Knowledge managementAn e-business plan should address what information and knowledge

will be used and generated by the use of Internet technologies and

how those technologies can be used to capture information and utilize

knowledge.

Cont/...



6. Estimating the budget• The e-business budget needs to be estimated and secured each year

and then managed responsibly to ensure that the objective for the e-business is achieved.

• Using a spreadsheet program as the tool, the following process can be used to estimate the annual budget:

• Identify the cost centres for all aspects of the e-business in the nominated twelve month period.

• Define the individual parts of each cost centre (as far as practicable). • Estimate the days involved in delivering each component during the

period. • Determine what functions are to be outsourced and what is to be done by

staff. • Apply an average hourly salary allocation, fee rate, cost of purchase,

annual license or lease, as appropriate, to each cost centre. • Factor in a contingency allowance - about 7.5%. • The sum total of these amounts provides an estimate of the cost of your

e-business for a given twelve month period.


Planning – Writing your e-business plan

• The e-business plan is a document that states the type and level of e-business that a business will engage in.

• The plan will set the course for your e-business over the next one to two years.

• Before you begin the plan, you might want to contact a local e-business advisor who can help you with it.


Part 3: Building an on-line Business

• Technical issues

• Choosing and preparing contents

• What do you want users to do?

• Marketing your website

• Web Design: The look and feel

• Organizing the contents of the web

• E-commerce - selling via your website

• Maintenance considerations

• Developing the website

This stage raises and explains key technical, content and design

issues to enable business owners, staff and advisors to

confidently brief technical experts about their e-business needs.

Main areas covered when building an on-line business include:


Building – Technical issues

Should the contents of the website be held in a database?

Database security

Should the website be the central source of information for everyone?

What type of Internet connection do you need?

Powering and hosting your website

Getting a website name

There are a number of key technical issues that need to be addressed before the building a business website can commence:


Building – Choosing and preparing contents

Website ‘contents’ include the words, tables, graphs, images, audio and video

The decision about what content to include should be guided by:

the aim and purpose of the site

the audiences for which it is intended

the resources available to provide and sustain the content

the format of the content (eg too many rich images may result in a site which is slow to download and view)

its availability in a web-ready format (eg it is in a word processor document or photo that has already been scanned)

its importance within the operation of the organization

legal issues such as copyright and privacy laws.


Building – What do you want users to be able to do?

To give users a sense of ‘control’ over your site, consider some of the tools and features you can include in your site:

Search Online forms

“Members only” section to the site Interactive questionnaires/surveys/polls

Animations Subscription email lists

Links to other sites Downloadable files

Contact Us Site map

Text-only version of the site Multilingual requirements

Provision for printing and bookmarking


Building – Marketing your website

1. Customer service Your website is for your target audience, not you, so make sure

everything is focused on them. Give users the information they want, don’t hold back. Give users the services they want. Fully disclose what you do and what you do not do – don’t be

vague. Provide an online help desk (not just a “contact us”) that provides

quick email feedback, or on-line solution, to help customers to use the site.

Make sure all staff are online – they can help callers navigate the site and refer to the information themselves.

Create a “customer service” section in the website that encourages users to make enquiries.

Create a "frequently asked questions" section. Cont/…

Before the website is built, and as its features are being planned, consideration should be given to how to use the website as a marketing tool:


Building – Marketing and your website

2. Make it easy for people to do business with you Work out what customers’ online priorities are and make

them your priorities. Let people configure your products and services. (ex. Dell) Place the most important elements of the page at the very

top, so users can act before the whole page has been built. Provide your contact details either directly on the home page

or just one click of a button away - don't bury them in the website.

Provide a search feature on your site, so users can search for terms and words in your website.

Make the navigation easy and clear, so they can find where to order products, book events and download information.

Make your website accessible to people with slow connections and to people with a disability.

Make your site user-friendly for overseas users.


Building – Designing your website: The look and feel

The design of the website refers the art of using colour, form, shape, typography, illustration and layout to convey a message.

It is essential for the design of a business website to have an immediate impact on the audience.

The design should:

reflect the type of business

establish the website’s purpose and scope

be visually appealing

convey credibility

arouse interest

be friendly and non-threatening.

Familiarise yourself with various website designs, including your competitors’ websites – note what you like and don’t like to discuss with a web designer.


Building – organizing the contents

When organizing content for the website, must take into consideration:

Information design – is the art of organizing and arranging the contents of a website.

The design should entice and encourage exploration of the site by the use of labels and divisions that are interesting and intuitive.

Navigation design - is the art of providing users with the means of accessing the contents of the website and related sites.

The art lies in creating for users intuitive and obvious evidence as to where they are, have been and could go in the site, using tools that are easy to use, see and understand, such as buttons and arrows that enable users to access quickly any contents from anywhere in the site.


Building – Designing your website: Accessibility

Consider whether you need to make your website accessible to people with vision impairment and/or people with slow connections.

Consider the following:

Build a text-only version of your website so it is fast to access

Make sure your website complies with the World Wide Web Consortium’s accessibility guidelines - check with www.w3c.org


Building – E-commerce

E-commerce refers to buying, selling or ordering goods on the Internet. It occurs when any commercial transaction is facilitated by the Web or

email. E-commerce is a sub-set of e-business. Websites or email can be used to allow customers or clients to order,

purchase or pay for things such as:

products and services information in the form of papers, images, video or audio clips –

perhaps held in a database on the site membership subscriptions rates, licences and taxes subscription to specialist services, newsletters etc for which you

normally charge specifically requested research conducted by the organization’s

staff bookings and tickets venue/facilities bookings.


Building – Maintenance considerations

Before the website is built, it is important to consider how you want to maintain the website, so that appropriate features can be built into the site from the beginning.

There are a number of levels of sophistication and options for maintenance of a website:

outsourced: requests for change and the new contents are emailed to a web developer who makes the changes

in-house – manual: the business makes the changes itself by accessing the web server and changing the programming code

in-house – semi-automated: the business makes the changes itself by using an off-the-shelf editing program

in-house – automated: the business makes the changes itself by using a maintenance tool built by the web developer specifically for the business to enable it to maintain its own site – this solution is often referred to as a content management system.


Building – Developing the website

Writing the development brief Who does the developing The development contract Selecting the web developer Evaluation and score-sheets What to look for in a developer Staging the development The technical specifications exercise The construction phase Testing the site Delivery and deployment

This refers to briefing, selecting, engaging and managing the web development team that will build your website – whether in-house or out-sourced.


Part 4: Protecting an on-line Business

As the Internet becomes an increasingly important tool

for businesses, electronic security (e-security) has

emerged as a major issue.

If your business is connected to the Internet, it is

essential to ensure that your business data, including

customer information, is safe and that your

transactions are carried out securely - otherwise, there

is a risk of transactions being intercepted, privacy

codes being breached, company information being

stolen and loss of money.


Protecting – Where do I start?

External and technical political activist “hactivists” hackers looking to steal credit card numbers information “brokers” hackers looking to obtain business contact lists and

client details

There are also a number of general security issues relating to Internet use that you need to consider, including:

Viruses Hacking

What are the sources of threats to my information systems?


Protecting – What can I do?

The development of a good security program is simply a matter of following some basic procedures similar to those applied to all aspects of the business planning process.

The Security Program Lifecycle (SPL)

1. Analyze/Assess

2. Design

3. Implement

4. Maintain/Monitor

5. ContinuousImprovement



Determine your requirements.

Review the current state of your security program.

Determine what your potential losses could be, including the impact on your good name.

Determine your cost break-even point based on realistic assessment of the security threat to your business.

1. Analyze / Assess



By understanding the real threats to your business information and systems, you can identify the right mix of technical, procedural and organizational controls needed to meet your security requirements.

Remember, security is as much about people as technology, so staff training is vital to the effective implementation of any security program.

2. Design



Implementation is a critical area, and it requires good project management to balance the implementation of the controls and the associated costs.

In larger organizations, this is the principal role of the Chief Information Officer (CIO). In smaller organizations it may be the responsibility of a single person who also has other responsibilities within the organization.

In some cases, an external provider may undertake this role, in which case, it is vital that you understand what support and service the outsourced company will supply.

The key is to identify who is responsible for what and not to assume that security has been addressed by a third party.

3. Implement



Maintaining - once the program is implemented, you must ensure that security is made an integral part of day-to-day business activities. For example, develop a policy for employees to follow concerning:

password use daily data backups general computer use safe and appropriate use of email and the Internet security awareness as part of the general business culture.

Monitoring - The aim of monitoring processes and systems is to identify potential and actual security problems before they become issues that may cost your company time and money. When a security issue is identified, all organizations should have procedures in place to:

stop further intrusions or breaches limit disruption save evidence of breach or intrusion prevent the incident from happening again.

4. Maintain / Monitor



All businesses, large or small, need to keep abreast of current information and system security issues.

It is only through being informed that you will be able to keep your security program current.

Make sure you have procedures in place to address changes to your business strategy that may have implications for your security requirements.

5. Continuous Improvement


Part 5: Managing an on-line business

Like any key aspect of your business, on-line business requires good management if it is to benefit the organization.

Just as people require managing, systems need to be maintained and budgets have to be monitored, any strategic use of the Internet by a business needs to be closely controlled.


Managing – Maintainingon-line business systems

An organization’s e-business systems comprise the Internet technologies, office systems and processes that support its e-business activities.

Maintaining your e-business systems includes:

Website content maintenance

Quality assurance

Making improvements

Technical maintenance

Managing the maintenance system


Without effective promotion, your website is unlikely to be seen as often as you would like.

As you have invested time and money in the site, promoting it certainly makes sense.

The site will not achieve the aims hoped for if the target audiences do not know it is there and are not often reminded of it.

This comprises of:

Developing a promotional strategy

Registering with search engines

Helping search engines find your website

Advertising your website

Managing – Promoting your website


The person or people in an organization who have the responsibility for marketing should develop and help implement a website promotional strategy.

A website promotional strategy should address: who is managing the strategy and the decision-making paths promotional techniques risk management strategies – what could go wrong and how you

will deal with it the internal communication plan – how the strategy will be

explained and sold to everyone in the organization, its sponsors and supporters

its strategic fit with your organization’s marketing plan the evaluation plan – what processes and criteria will be used to

assess the success of the strategy and how any necessary changes will be made


Developing a promotional strategy


A search engine is a piece of software that enables users to search through an index or database of websites that has been created either by people or automatically by software that crawls through the World Wide Web looking for new websites and indexing them.

A search engine is actually the tool that a website such as Yahoo or Google employs to enable people to search its index for websites, images, words or phrases.

Registering your website with search engines such as Yahoo is relatively easy. It is often free and is the first thing you should do once a new website has been launched or an existing one has been re-developed.

Registering with search engines is one of the most effective ways of making it easy for people to find your website.

You can register your website yourself with search engines or pay for an organization to register it for you.


Registering with search engines


There are two types of search engines, those that use humans to add websites to their directory (eg LookSmart) and those that use computers to index them (eg Google).

You cannot register your website with the search engines that use computers to do the indexing. These search engines will find your website and index its pages according to the contents they find there and according to their own rules. So make certain your website has a title and description on your homepage that the search engines can easily pick up and index.

You can make the indexing of your site by computer-indexing search engines more effective by providing them with information about the contents of your site in a structured manner and in a form that they will readily recognize. This is done by inserting, in the HTML code that creates the pages of your website, information about the site.


Helping search engines find your website


Advertising the organization’s website address in traditional media can be a very effective method of promoting the site.

Ensure that the website’s domain name appears, or is mentioned, whenever you have interaction with clients.


Advertising your website


The cost of maintaining your website over a 12 month period needs to be estimated and the money allocated so that the website has every chance of achieving its goals.

Many businesses make the mistake of only considering the cost of developing a new website and forget the cost of annual maintenance.

For some businesses, the maintenance costs are not high. For others, they can far exceed the development cost. No matter what the cost, annual budgeting for maintenance is very important.

Managing – Budgeting for maintenance


The legal aspect of on-line business is all about managing risks.

It is important to ensure that the content of your new website is accurate and complies with current law.

It is also important to regularly review the website once it is up and running to ensure that it continues to comply.

Managing – Legal issues


Some of the important general legal issues affecting e-business are listed below.

Note: you should seek your own legal advice specific to your organization and e-business.

Managing – Legal issues

Privacy laws Defamation Taxation and GST Contracts Terms and conditions Trade practices Intellectual property Copyright Trade marks Confidential information Digital signatures Security Jurisdiction Disability discrimination


Part 6: Improving an on-line business

Most businesses using the Internet as a business tool know that the technology and use of email, e-commerce and just about everything to do with the Internet is always changing.

So looking for ways to improve current uses of the Internet is necessary and makes sense.


Improving – Doing business with government online

e-government refers to the use of information and communications technologies to improve the efficiency, effectiveness, transparency and accountability of government.

Consider the range of business activities that you engage in where there is a requirement or need to work with government. These activities might include:

starting-up a business taxation paying taxes applying for licenses and permits checking legislation training and apprenticeships importing and exporting employing people grants and financial assistance closing down a business


Improving – Putting your catalogue online

One of the components of interacting along the supply chain is the cataloguing of products that could be used as inputs in the supply chain.

Putting this catalogue online can improve internal business efficiencies and ultimately the functioning of the entire supply chain.

An e-catalogue is an online presentation of information on products and services that are offered and sold by an organization.

For organizations that do not have a large range of products or services, putting its catalogue on the Internet is not a difficult task. However, for those with large product lines and many service offerings, multiple buyers, complex supply-chains and logistics, converting to an e-catalogue system is a complex task and requires careful planning and implementation.



it can be updated more efficiently and cheaply as the publishing process is faster, and there are no printing and paper costs

price changes and availability can be updated immediately when a new product or service becomes available or there is a supply issue with a product or service

it is available to customers anywhere in the world and anytime coupled with an online payment system, it encourages sales and

assists cash-flow through the use of cross-links and product-to-product

association, the website can automatically encourage users to purchase additional products (cross-selling) and more of a product or service (up-selling)

it can improve access to product catalogues by standardizing content and providing multiple search criteria, so that users can find it easily

it can provide images and diagrams to demonstrate product features.

Advantages of an e-catalogue



if the business has a large range of products or services that change price or availability often, then an e-catalogue requires a sophisticated website solution which can be costly to establish and maintain

to reap the full benefits of having an e-catalogue, a business would need to coordinate its customer and product databases, stock and inventory systems and financial systems and then ensure that these systems, or at least the website, could talk to the relevant systems of its suppliers and distributors – this is no mean feat.

Disadvantages of an e-catalogue


Improving – E-marketplaces

An e-marketplace is an electronic exchange where firms register as sellers or buyers to communicate and conduct business over the Internet.

Services offered by e-marketplaces include business directory listings, electronic catalogues for online purchasing of goods and services and trading or transaction services.

E-marketplaces that are worth considering are those that interconnect with other marketplaces and allow low-cost connection to a firm’s financial accounting systems.

There has been significant rationalization in the number of e-marketplaces operating over the last few years, and careful consideration is needed before making a commitment to join an e-marketplace, to determine whether it is appropriate for your business needs.


Improving – E-marketplaces

greater opportunities for suppliers and buyers to make new trading partnerships, either within their supply chain or across supply chains

the potential to lower the costs of negotiating and making transactions with automation of standard business procedures

the potential for more transparent pricing as buyers and sellers take the opportunity to trade in a more open environment

the opportunity to access value-added services such as inventory control and management of dispatch and distribution processes using electronic systems

the potential to access global markets.

Advantages of joining an e-marketplace


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