By Ron Helms, Director of the Iowa Western SBDC in Council Bluffs
If your e-business strategy is to ¡°leave it all up to the technology guy,¡± you might as well plan for failure-- One of the most common mistakes businesses make when developing an e-business strategy is assuming one person can do it all.
If you¡¯re serious about using e-business strategies to boost profits and increase efficiency, you¡¯ll need more than just somebody who knows who to build a Web site. You¡¯ll need a team of individuals that not only know your business inside and out, but who also have a variety of skills and knowledge necessary to thoroughly examine your business goals and see how technology can help you get there.
Your e-team doesn¡¯t have to be comprised of 15 IT wizards either. All you really need are 3 or 4 people that can work together and utilize their unique skills and talents to develop a real plan of action tailored to your business¡they might even be people on your staff right now. To have a really solid e-team, you¡¯ll need to assign responsibility for the following:
Systems Administration
Content Development
Business Integration
Employee/Customer/Partner Service
So, if, for example, you¡¯re going to start selling your products online, in addition to the ¡°technology guy¡± that¡¯s going to build your new e-commerce Web site and make sure all the bells and whistles are working correctly, you¡¯ll need someone that can write the content for your site that will help you to get and keep customers.
You¡¯ll also need someone who can ensure that when orders come off the site they are processed efficiently and correctly and are shipped in a timely manner. Finally you¡¯ll need another person to deal with all of the questions your potential customers send via email after visiting your site.
The bottom line: If you think one person can handle all of these responsibilities well and in a way that reflects your business¡¯s best interests¡think again. Doing e-commerce is a lot more than simply slapping up a Web site and waiting for the orders to roll in¡ªyou¡¯ve got to plan it to death with people who understand your business and your business goals.
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