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Strategies for Teletrade (eBusiness, eCommerce) This free of charge service is made possible by our sponsors: Strategies for Teletrade Electronic networking on a global scale changes many of the fundamentals underlying traditional methods of doing business as we know them. Most significantly, use of electronic networks overcome the limitations of time and distance. It also dramatically reduce the cost of business communications. In a study of open electronic networking (OEN) conducted by Management Technology Associates, users of electronic networking, such as electronic mail, cited the speed of communications and efficiencies (getting your messsage through first time) as the main business benefits. Other studies show the opportunities presented for reconfiguring business processes and the supply chain - opportunities that many managers, steeped in conventional ways of doing business, are often blind to. The short history of electronic commerce shows that small innovative enterprises can compete on an equal footing (or even better - since they can often quicker on their feet) than large established enterprises. Developing effective strategies for teletrade means rethinking the basics and understanding the strategic choices in enabling technologies Rethinking the Basics However you conduct your business now, reconsider the following dimensions: Time reduction - How long does it take to get a message or a document to your potential customer? With electronic mail it may be only minutes or even seconds. Time currency - How current is the information your potential customers have on your products and services? Using the World Wide Web, they can always access the latest and most currrent information. Several companies are doing this for product catalogues, and also saving on print and distribution costs. Time independence - With a telephone call, both parties have to be free and by the phone at the same time. With electronic communication, the sending and receiving are asynchronous. It is often possible to send and reply several messages a day. Time displacement - By using people during their normal working hours around the world, it is possible to support your customers around the clock. Distance diminishes - Reaching someone the other side of the world, and sending information or exchanging messages costs virtually the same as someone locally. You don't need to pay expensive courier bills. Spatial rearrangement - Why have suppliers visit your office? Why insist on recruiting local workers? Comapnies can save costs, access skills wherever they are, provided they care connected and have the necessary networking skills. Reduced communications costs - With electronic networking it cost virtually the same to send a message to 100 people as to one. Costs are also (generally) distance and bulk independent. Therefore you can reach more people for much less than using conventional mail (typically in Europe an email message can be sent for 50 to 80 per cent less than its postal counterpart) New sequences of activities - Your supply and distribution chain can take advantage of shared resources (such as online databases) so that activities can take place in parallel, creating speed and cost advantages over sequential processing. Supply chain reconfiguration - With careful thought you can use electronic market places to cut out inefficiencies in your supply chain. Many companies now reach potential customers direct through the Internet. New business networks - Using effective networking skills, it is possible to create virtual corporations to meet specific customer needs or gain access to resources. These new dynamic relationships are giving companies flexibility and speed over conventional contracting relationships. These are just some of the ways that the business landscape is altering. During the course of the ETD initiative, we expect to highlight cases and examples of exploiting such fundamentals. We are always pleased to hear about examples that we can feature in these pages. Please send your inputs to email: eto-info@eto.org.uk with the subject line: Teletrade Examples. Developing Teletrade Strategies Developing successful strategies for teletrade requires a systematic approach that reviews the following: The opportunities and challenges - how can my organisation (and me personally) exploit the changing fundamentals described above? How are our established practices affected by others adopting the new methods and competing with us? New ways of marketing - for targeting prospective customers and guiding them to the right product and service choices (yours!). Enabling Mechanisms and Technologies - including EDI, payment mechanisms. New Ways of Marketing The following Web pages provide some useful background and ideas on how electronic networks are changing the face of marekting. We are indebted to the FEI (Federation of Electronic Industries) for permission to use material from their pages. The Future of Marketing - an "interactive exploration" of the changes in marketing that parallel the development of the Internet by Brady Nemmers, a lecturer at the university of Michigan. A bit light but has a useful bibliography and what the experts say. Business Guides, published in Word format by the Queensland (Australia) Information Industries Bureau: How to plan for and implement a business web site (Word format, 64kb) How to maximise the effectiveness of a Web-based marketing strategy (Word format, 73kb) How to Plan for and Implement an eBusiness Application (Word format, 47kb) How to Plan for and Implement an eBusiness Solution (Word format, 44kb) Marketing in Computer-Mediated Environments - a good discourse on new marketing models enabled by the Internet (138K). The Changing Face of Marketing - Mary Fair-Taylor. Useful introduction, including changes in marketing perspectives and strategies for interactive marketing and its advantages. The Extended Enterprise - by Yves Pigneur and Michael Bloch, University of Lausanne. Good overview of technology impacts and cases - what is it good for, gaining competitive advantage, information gathering, virtual corporations, customer/supplier links, extended distribution and marketing, electronic markets.