Selling Power?s website implementation plan has been evolving in a continuous and ongoing process. At the outset, the contractor provided a basic website development plan to ?launch? the improved website as quickly as possible. However, he is continuing his research to identify areas for improvement and features that could be added to the website. He conducted interviews with company personnel, observed customer service to gain an understanding the overall process of selling the company?s products, held conferences with financial managers to determine available spending money for the project, and observed traffic on the current website. All of these actions have been part of the continuous processes to make the website perform at its optimal level.
The contractor also advised Selling Power that the following characteristics are necessary to make its website ?great?: (a) must provide value for the consumer, (b) must be user friendly, (c) must be well organized, (d) must be ?sticky? (the term ?sticky? refers to making the customer want to return to the website), (e) must be professional, (f) must be global, (g) must be informational, (h) must be educational, (i) must be resourceful, (j) must be secure and (k) must be reliable.
In adhering to the contractor?s recommendations, Selling Power has identified specific areas for improvement to its website.
The current site offers the opportunity to purchase products on-line, but the credit card information is not secure. The user enters the credit card information and then it is transferred via email to the customer service department, allowing the opportunity for this information to be transferred into the wrong hands. Selling power recognizes that customers will be reluctant to provide credit card information to an un-secure website. The company is working on establishing a relationship with its current credit card processing center so that all credit card orders can be approved on-line in a secure environment.
There are also problems with the purchase of magazine subscriptions. There are two areas of concern. First, it appears that many sales people prefer to read information on-line, versus a hard copy of the magazine. Currently, the magazine provides access to the entire website archive, with minimal or no fee. The web contractor suggested that Selling Power provide access to some articles with no charge, but the issues that contain articles with special information, such as the Selling Power 500 (similar to the Forbes 500), should only provide enticing tidbits. This will produce more revenue because people will be willing to purchase these articles on-line in order to have the information.
The ability to actually purchase the magazine on-line is also an area that needs improvement. Currently, any visitor to the website can purchase a subscription to the magazine, with three trial issues, and then cancel with no payment. This falsely increases the amount of accounts receivable revenue because a majority of the subscribers cancel upon receiving the invoice. The contractor suggested that Selling Power change its on-line payment process for subscriptions.
Implementing a website with all of the envisioned capabilities at Selling Power is an ongoing process that will take approximately eighteen months to complete (the projected completion date is March 2002). The contractor has presented many ideas that might improve traffic and increase sales on the website. However, not all of the proposals will work for the company. It will take time to introduce different ideas and monitor the response from the customers. To-date, Selling Power has had success in making the following improvements to its website:
1. The company has implemented the on-line credit card processing. The customer can no longer order a product without paying first. By eliminating the pay later feature, the number of subscriptions has been slightly reduced, but the value of receiving paid subscription orders is a positive step for the company.
2. Selling Power now offers product specials to increase sales. Sales have greatly increased because of this option. It also encourages customers to return to the site on a regular basis to purchase products. This has definitely been a positive enhancement to the website.
3. Contests offering thought provoking challenges to people within the sales profession, with a chance to win money, seems to have increased traffic on the site. These visitors are not necessarily buying products but they are reading the information provided and it has the potential to attract subscribers in the future.
Currently, Selling Power is working on enhancing the website by making navigation easier. More color has been added to the site and more links have been added, but more work is still needed in this area. The company is also creating an on-line career channel as another enticement to attract visitors. This is a new area for Selling Power, and will take several months to develop.
Overall, the corporate website for Selling Power has improved, and the results have been very positive. Sales have increased from approximately $6,500 per month to approximately $12,000 per month. The traffic to the site grows every week. The company is receiving positive feedback from its customers. There will still be a period of trial and error, but the company realizes that, while not every proposal will benefit the company, the money invested in this contractor will be far less than the benefits it will receive. Creating a corporate website definitely appears to have been the right decision for Selling Power.
A Javier Romero Design Group Web Implementation Plan
The Appendix contains an actual website implementation plan proposed by JRDG. The plan is extremely lengthy (160 pages) and detailed. It was also prepared specifically for an organization titled the Strategic Research Institute (SRI), a conference and information company. The plan addresses SRI?s needs, and it is not generic in nature. Still, the research team believed that it is a good example of an experienced web developer?s development proposal.
The research team studied the JRDG plan to ascertain whether it incorporated the textbook steps cited above. The purpose of making this comparison was to determine whether real world website developers actually practice the methodology described in the researched text sources. An exact procedural match was not anticipated, so the team searched for substantial similarities to, and significant differences from, the methodology cited above. Because of the SRI specific nature of the proposal, the reader is forced to interpret some of the material and make inferences regarding similarities and differences.
Embedded in the plan (see Appendix) are proposed steps for incorporating the following characteristics into the SRI website: (a) value for the customer and SRI, (b) user friendliness, (c) ease of use, (d) site organization, (e) making the site ?sticky,? (f) leadership, (g) professional appearance, (h) global capabilities, (i) value as an informational source, (j) value as an educational source, (k) resourcefulness, (l) E-commerce capabilities, (m) security and (n) reliability. The plan also proposes detailed methodology for incorporating the following capabilities: (a) the ability to access and retrieve company, product and service information, (b) customer support for conference and information management, (c) the ability to interact with customers, and (d) the ability to conduct transactions for products and services electronically. The plan does not appear to address methods (i.e. data warehousing) for personalizing interaction with customers or for developing a community among customers. It is not clear whether the latter characteristics have been omitted intentionally or not.
Analysis
Selling Power analysis.
In comparing Selling Power?s experience in with the textbook steps described above, the research team made the following findings:
1. Selling Power does not appear to have conducted any significant research before initiating its movement into the E-commerce arena.
2. Initially, the company did not develop a strategic plan for entering into the E-commerce arena. Only after experiencing initial failure did Selling Power seek professional help in developing its plan.
3. Selling Power had little success with the first few contractors hired to help develop its E-commerce site. The research team assumes that these contractors had experience as website developers but little or no experience in E-commerce.
4. Based on the interview results provided during research, it appears that the strategic plan, developed by the contractor and Selling Power, did incorporate the majority of the steps and elements required for a successful venture into E-commerce.
5. Selling Power?s plan appears to provide a competitive edge over its key competitor.
6. Although Selling Power?s transition into E-commerce is still ongoing, initial indications are positive, and the website progress so far has yielded significant success.
7. Developing and executing a strategic plan for E-commerce appears to be the key factor in the E-commerce success that Selling Power is currently enjoying.
JRDG analysis.
In comparing JRDG?s SRI proposal with textbook steps described above, the research team found that the steps and elements included in the proposal are substantially similar to the textbook solution. However, the plan does not appear to address methods for personalizing interaction with customers or methods for developing a community among customers. It is not clear why these two stages were omitted. Possibly, the strategic plan did not require either capability. This might be the case if SRI?s customers are not enticed by personalized interaction or community activities (e.g., corporate entities). It might also be that SRI is not prepared to manage these capability levels.
Research Limitations
The research group encountered several limitations during the course of researching and writing this paper. Time, limited resources, and the necessity to rely on secondary data were the most significant of these limitations. This was to be an in-depth analysis on a subject of the group?s choosing. But with only a few weeks to research, develop an approach, construct and write the paper, time became a major, limiting factor. In order to develop a viable strategy and construct a more developed research paper, more time is need for the planning and research process.
Two factors caused resources to become a limitation. First, E-commerce is still a relatively new business methodology. Thus, even secondary data is limited to those companies who were around at the onset and survived the initial E-commerce boom. The other limiting resource factor was the lack of reasonable facilities and vehicles for conducting research. The Simpson Library at Mary Washington College is an excellent resource library, but due the holidays and semester break, the facility was closed. The Marine Corps Research Center and the Central Rappahannock Regional Library also had limited operating hours during December 2000 and January 2001. On-line resources were a great help, but unless one was a subscriber to most publications found, one could only obtain summary information at best.
Due to lack of time, the group was forced to rely primarily on secondary information. In order to develop, validate, distribute, gather and analyze survey information, more than a few weeks are needed. Even simple interviews were difficult to arrange due to both holiday schedules and the need to de-conflict the calendars of both the interviewee and the interviewer. Hence, secondary data became our primary resource for data gathering. Finally, we found that we could not depend on inter-library loan services to collect secondary data source documents. We attempted to retrieve texts that were not available in local libraries throug
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