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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
Handing
Over the Keys to the IT Kingdom
Analysts told NewsFactor that some IT
functions, such as desktop services, have become highly commoditized and offer
little in the way of a differentiating factor for enterprise. Other functions
and initiatives, they said, particularly cutting-edge technologies, require the
specialized expertise that outsourcing can offer... Author Says
Retailers Get Better at Seamless Online, Offline Customer Service
In
his book "Anytime, Anywhere," Seattle retail expert Robert Spector argues
that brick-and-mortar stores are as important as ever, and the Internet joins
the mail-order catalog, storefront and telephone as another channel that retailers
must master to satisfy customers. "The challenge for companies is to deliver
a consistent multichannel customer
service experience." The Dangers of
Outsourcing Customer Service
The case for outsourcing customer care can
be stated easily, but Gartner Dataquest analyst Debashish Sinha told CRMDaily
that "the idea that outsourcing will always save you money ... is not true."
How does a corporate decision maker know when to hold projects and when to turn
them over to outsiders?... Report:
Search Engine Wars Heating Up
The search engine wars are heating up,
with Google joining Yahoo! and MSN as leaders in the race for control of this
important Web sector, according to a report released by Nielsen//NetRatings. In-Skin Microchip Approved
Companies
are allowed to market computer ID chips which can be embedded under a person's
skin in the U.S., after the Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave the
technology its qualified approval. The FDA said yesterday it would not block use
of such devices as long as they contain no medical data. Business'
Killer App: The Web
No, this isn't Dot-Com Delusion Act II. It means adding
a couple of points to profit margins -- and that's nothing to deride these days MasterCard
to stop third-party transactions Services such as PayPal could be hurt
A new rule by MasterCard could crimp online commerce by stopping merchants from
taking credit card payments via third parties, such as popular PayPal, USA TODAY
has learned. MODEL:
PARTICIPANTS Amazon, Borders
Ink In-Store Pickup Deal
Amazon.com has announced the expansion of its
year-old partnership with Borders Group, in which Amazon operates the Borders.com
Web site. Now, customers who buy certain books, music and movies through the e-tailer
will be able to pick up their purchases in Borders stores nationwide. Islanders
put their faith in another kind of Net
Online: Hoping to market their
specialty on the Internet, residents team to form a co-op to sell the blue crabs
they catch and the crab meat they pick.
You Too Can Be a Radio Station
Streaming
media outfit RealNetworks Inc. launched a turnkey subscription solution that it
plans to market to companies as a "customizable, revenue-generating business
solution" through its Real Broadcast Network content delivery network. Five E-Commerce Trends To Watch
The seeds of the trends now taking hold in e-commerce were planted in the industry's
early days, long before the shakeout began. But only now
are they starting
to point the way clearly toward the future of e-commerce... BroadVision Goes Wireless
BroadVision has
launched software that adds mobile support to its self-service CRM applications.
"This wirelessly enables the BroadVision Web site and extends the site to
many more touch points," Carol Greenstreet, company vice president of product
marketing, told Wireless NewsFactor. SAP Ties Future to Collaborative Applications
SAP is once again preaching interoperability. The latest message
comes as
it folds its SAP Portals and SAP Markets divisions into the
main body of
the company. The goal is to use application connector
interfaces and Web
services technologies to integrate back-end SAP
applications and non-SAP
applications together, and then present them
via the SAP Portal interface.
STRATEGY:
MANAGED GM shifts gears
Many automotive companies are rethinking
their e-business initiatives, especially when it comes to online retailing. For
its part, General Motors has rolled its dedicated e-business group, eGM, back
into its regular business units, although it claims that's a sign that e-initiatives
are now a part of everyday business. Will
E-Commerce Ever Beat the 1 Percent Problem?
The Internet accounts for
just 1 percent of total U.S. retail sales, according to the U.S. Department of
Commerce, and is not expected to grow beyond 5 percent of the total in the foreseeable
future. As sales channels continue to intermingle, however, the Internet will
influence more offline sales... CIO Role
As IT becomes a primary driver of business strategy
and profits, it makes sense to put the CIO in charge of the company's supply chain.
E-BUSINESS
ECOSYSTEM: At Financial Risk
In business, as in life, there's no reward
without a risk. However, getting visibility into risk scenarios and their impact
on the enterprise doesn't have to be a matter of guesswork. In verticals like
financial services and energy, companies are increasingly using e-business software
to extract and store data as a foundation for modeling future outcomes. Although
there's no crystal ball for risk, e-business could be letting the enterprise predict,
rather than react to, changing variables. How
Much Is Too Much To Spend on E-Commerce?
A couple of years ago, money
was no object when it came to e-commerce technology spending. Now, Giga Information
Group analyst Andrew Bartels told the E-Commerce Times, "The realization
has sunk in that while B2C sales are growing and will continue to grow, they will
not take over the retail world..." The World Map of E-Commerce
Where's
hot and where's not in terms of global e-commerce growth? Experts told the E-Commerce
Times that regional e-commerce reach seems to correlate closely with affluence
and education -- but that first-world status by no means guarantees first-place
uptake. Furniture.com Returns from Dot-Com Graveyard
More than
18 months after becoming a symbol of the sharp rise and spectacular fall of many
pure-play e-commerce ventures, Furniture.com is poised to return from the dead
under new ownership with a new business model. Web is the future for business
Business use of the
web is about to get serious. The next two years will see businesses start to remake
the software they use to run their organisations as they start to put the net
at the heart of everything they do, says a report by consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers. About
the Author: Mitchell
Levy, is President and CEO of ECnow.com (http://ecnow.com),
an e-commerce management consulting company helping start-up, medium and large
enterprises transition its employees, partners and customers 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), an on-line E-Commerce
Management (ECM) eZine, Chair of comdex.biz at Comdex Fall and the Founder and
Program Consultant of the premier San Jose State E-Commerce Management Certificate
Program (http://ecmtraining.com/sjsu),
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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