Handbook of Strategic e-Business Management (Progress in IS)
If you collect, use or disclose personal information in the course of your commercial activities, this Government of Canada Act applies to your business. Intellectual Property IP is an area of law that protects ideas. With respect to the Internet there are generally four areas of Intellectual Property: Copyright, Trademarks, Domain Names, and Patents.
This handbook will briefly describe the first three areas. If you are setting up a simple website that provides information about your business then one of your primary considerations is protecting your company's Intellectual Property. Copyright is the right to make a copy and applies to pictures and written materials on your website.
In Canada, people who create original works automatically have copyright protection over their work. It can also relate to computer codes used to create computer programs. Trademarks are names or marks that are associated with your products and services. If you have a unique name for your business or product you should seek advice from an experienced trademark lawyer. A domain name a term often used interchangeably with " URL " is a reader-friendly representation of a collection of Internet Protocol IP addresses. Domain names should be carefully selected so that you do not violate the trademark of another business.
Consult a lawyer if you think you might be infringing on another company's trademark. Your domain name should not include the name of another company or product. Your business is subject to the laws of any jurisdiction in which you seek to sell your products or services. The rules for forming a contract can vary from one jurisdiction to another, and there may be special rules for online contracts. It is important to consider those requirements when deciding where to do business online and with whom. In Ontario, the Electronic Commerce Act details some rules pertaining to the forming of contracts online.
Most jurisdictions have legislation in place to protect consumers from unethical business practices. In Ontario, the Consumer Protection Act places obligations on suppliers and outlines consumer rights in undertaking business transactions on the Internet. Under the Ontario Consumer Protection Act a key supplier obligation relates to the provision of specific and clear information about products and services.
If you are selling in other jurisdictions, you will need to consider their rules and laws relating to consumer protection. It is important that you know what taxes apply to various products and services you may be selling. Have you obtained tax advice on which taxes apply to the product or service you are selling to ensure that you are meeting your legal obligations?
Advertising laws require that advertising be truthful, fair and accurate. When developing your Internet advertising or marketing campaign, legal considerations include:. The federal Competition Act, which is one of the key sources of regulation for advertising in Canada, does not contain specific provisions relating to online or Internet advertising. Internet advertising and marketing can also be governed by privacy laws, provincial consumer protection legislation, Canada's new anti-spam legislation, Criminal Code fraud offences and common law defamation rules.
To learn more about protecting your business through legal, security and privacy considerations, please refer to the accompanying e-business booklet called "The Legal and Privacy Issues of Doing E-Business". If you've just started thinking about e-business, it will be useful to identify the types of services that are provided by external e-business service providers. Service providers usually have a specific set of skills. Make sure you understand what those skills are and how they can best meet your needs. One service provider may offer you more than one type of service.
For example, an Internet service provider may also have web-hosting services. It is important that you understand the service provider's area of expertise to help you decide whether they are able to offer you one or many services. To learn more about cloud computing including the various types and service models, the benefits and concerns, and what to consider when moving your business to the cloud, please refer to the accompanying e-business booklet called "Cloud Computing". Finding the right service provider is critical to success. Here are some tips for helping you with this task:.
The key to working effectively with your service provider is to stay actively involved in the project. Your involvement is important to ensure that the service provider adequately understands your needs and that you receive quality service. Clearly communicating your expectations is critical to this process. The following list highlights some key tips for working successfully with your e-business service provider. Websites can range from very simple information-based websites to more complex e-commerce websites that are well integrated with your business.
Your website should be compelling enough to increase customer interest resulting in increased revenues for your business. Increasingly, potential customers will look at your company's online presence before doing business with you — regardless of whether they plan to close the sale online.
Before discussing how to establish a website, let's take a minute to understand the different purposes of a website. You can use the following table to help you decide what types of websites are right for you. The success of your website will depend on the appropriateness of its design, how it is marketed and ongoing maintenance.
Make your website's purpose clear: Start the main page with a one-sentence tagline which is like a sub-title for your domain name that summarizes what the site or company does. Write a window title the text that is displayed at the top of a visitor's browser with good visibility in search engines. Continue to build your website in such a way that it is an integral part of your company's strategy. Also consider expanding your web presence beyond your website using Internet advertising and social media.
A domain name identifies your website on the Internet. Domain names for Canadian businesses typically end with. Selecting and registering your domain name does not have to be your first step. Some web hosts do this service for you. However, if you are looking for a distinctive name that will set you apart from competitors, it is important to think about this upfront and to reserve your domain name.
A domain name is important for promoting your products and your business. The key words in your domain name can help people find your website. Try thinking of words that best describe your business. The domain name you select has to be unique. The following considerations should help you select a domain name:. Once you have chosen a number of possible domain names, you can check online to see if those domain names are already taken. Domain registration sites usually have a search function that allows you to do this.
If you wish to register a. There are thousands of accredited registrars.
The Canadian Internet Registration Authority has a list of accredited registrars on its site. Many sites also have accredited registrar directories, such as InterNIC. Because registrars are also hosting companies see Step 3 , it is often convenient to choose one based on the hosting services it provides.
Domain name registrations are generally inexpensive and usually cost between ten and fifteen dollars a year. You may wish to register several domain names to protect your brand. You must renew your domain name s periodically usually yearly.
Martínez-López, Francisco J.
Some domain providers will allow your domain to "auto-renew" so that when the domain comes up for renewal, you do not have to go through the renewal procedure manually. If the domain name is critical to your business, it is a good idea to have the domain set to renew automatically each year. If you do not renew and the registry removes your domain name from the zone file such as the.
Design the website yourself using desktop or online software many web hosts provide software with templates or charge a nominal fee for website design. Consider that developing your own website is time consuming. It is more than a 'weekend' project.
A professional looking website is critical in providing you with a marketing advantage. Think carefully before pursuing this option. This step will probably be the most labour intensive of the five steps noted above. Regardless of whether you choose to create your own website or hire someone to create it for you, you will need to decide on your site's look and content. The site may be purely informational, or it may allow you to sell your products online. Keep in mind that you can also opt to develop your own website content even if you have hired a web developer to design the site e.
To promote access to your website and expand your market reach, you may want to consider the option of creating your website content in more than one language. Desktop software typically offers fixed templates and no advanced features e. It is best used for simple websites.
Just as important as knowing what to do to create a website is being aware of problems to avoid. A list of five common pitfalls and some tips on how to avoid them are highlighted below. A web host houses, services and maintains files for websites. You will need to select a web host in order to get your site online. As indicated in Step 1, your host can also serve as your registrar, thus avoiding contracting with two different companies for these services.
There are many different web hosting packages available online, and prices vary widely. When deciding on a web hosting package, evaluate your particular business needs prior to purchasing. As your business grows and your needs change, you can update your plan accordingly. Companies like Yahoo Small Business and Google Sites provide economical hosting solutions targeted to small businesses, with additions such as shopping carts that can be turned on e. It is not enough to just create a website. It is important to market your website to ensure you attract enough visitors to your site.
Marketing your site may simply involve displaying your URL on all your promotional materials. You could also monitor the number of visitors your website receives i. You could also market your business through online advertising. The marketing strategies you use depend on your target audience and the nature of your business. While there are some low cost e-marketing strategies, online advertising can be very expensive.
It is important to shop around for strategies that suit your budget and your business needs. Some forms of online advertising are cheaper than traditional forms of advertising. For example, some search engines provide tools to monitor and advertise your website. They also allow you to determine a ceiling on your costs per day. Website maintenance includes a variety of tasks such as modification of website content, regular submission of your site to search engines, software updates, checking to ensure the links are functional, etc.
You can opt to set up a maintenance agreement with your ISP or website developer. There is generally a monthly or annual fee associated with this service. You might consider this option if your website requires frequent updates. You can also hire a service provider to update your website when required. This is feasible if you require infrequent updates. Updating the website yourself can be a labour intensive process. However, there are a number of user-friendly content management system CMS tools that can help you update your website.
A CMS is a software program that allows non-technical users to create, edit, update and maintain a website using built-in templates. There are many good open-source or "free-to-use" content management systems available. CMS may also be provided as part of the maintenance agreement with the service provider. The success of the website as a business tool depends on its design, promotion and ongoing maintenance, and the extent to which the site attracts users and makes it easy for them to do business with you.
A good way to monitor the success of your website is through the use of website analytics, such as Google Analytics. Google Analytics offers tools for measuring the performance of multiple aspects of your website, including:. To learn more about how to create a Web presence and increase traffic to your website, please refer to the accompanying e-business booklets called "Creating a Dynamic Web Presence" and "Increasing Traffic to Your Website Through Search Engine Optimization". Before embarking on any form of online marketing strategy be sure to do your homework.
Check out what the competitors in your industry are doing to reach customers—how they utilize Internet advertising, social media and mobile marketing. Also explore how your customers typically access information about products and services. Using this knowledge you can begin to design an integrated marketing strategy. Internet or online advertising is a form of promotion that uses the Internet to deliver marketing messages to attract consumers.
Examples of the various forms of online advertising include:. To learn more about online advertising please refer to the accompanying e-business booklet called "Successful Online Display Advertising". Social media is a broad term used to describe various online technology tools that enable people to communicate easily via virtual communities and networks over the Internet through sharing and exchanging information, content and resources. Social media has become one of the most powerful platforms for information sharing and exchange. In terms of marketing, it is important to do your research to find out if and how your customers and prospects are engaging with social media.
Certain types of social media may be more relevant than others. To learn more about social media and blogging, please refer to the accompanying e-business booklets called "Social Media for Small Business" and "Blogs for Small Business". Learning how to harness mobile technologies is therefore becoming of ever-increasing importance to businesses. The simplest mobile marketing strategy is to make sure that your business shows up when people use their smartphones to look for local goods or services online. Once your business is found, you want to make it simple for the visitors to see all the information they need right away.
When mobile users visit your webpage, they should see a mobile optimized page also referred to as a responsive design site that loads quickly and easily conveys basic information on your business e.
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Another approach is to create a brand new site that is specific to mobile. This type of site is designed, developed and optimized specifically with the needs of mobile users in mind. A mobile-friendly site can help your business connect with customers and increase sales. This is true whether your business chooses to use a responsive design site that adapts to the screen size or a separate mobile site. Users expect their mobile experience to be as good as their desktop experience. There are tools you can use to test your website's mobile-readiness visit mobiready.
There are also services you can purchase to make your desktop website more mobile-friendly e. Designing for 'mobile first' opens new opportunities for growth, encourages companies to focus on essentials and leads to a better overall user experience of their web-based product or service. For more information and to learn how to leverage the use of mobile technologies, please refer to the accompanying e-business booklet called "Integrating Mobile with Your Marketing Strategy".
Good customer service is an essential ingredient of any marketing strategy. CRM involves understanding, managing and improving a company's interactions with its customers. To have an effective relationship with your customers, it is important to understand their needs and preferences. In an e-business environment, customers tend to expect quick access to information about your business and products. Determine what your customers expect from your website. You may also want to track how customers use your website to help you adjust your business practices. By better understanding your customers, you can determine whether your website is meeting their needs.
To learn more about CRM , please refer to the accompanying e-business booklet called "Customer Relationship Management". The following success story profiles a business that conducts much of its marketing through social media. None of the four founders of Mabel's Labels, a Hamilton-based company famous for its customizable labels and name tags for kids' items, were very tech savvy when they started the company 10 years ago.
We are beholden to the nerds", says Julie Cole, co-founder of Mabel's Labels. After years of using contractors for technical support, they finally hired a full-time IT staff member several years into their growing business. They also employ a full time social media coordinator. Mabel's Labels recognized early on the value of social media as a natural extension of the word of mouth marketing that is so critical to the success of their business. Having won numerous awards for their use of social media, and with more than 60, fans on Facebook, it's no surprise that Julie has some great advice for other businesses looking to take advantage of social media.
For starters, Julie tells other business owners not to delete negative comments on their Facebook pages and other social media profiles. Instead, she suggests using the opportunity to highlight your company's excellence in customer service by responding and showing you are working to resolve whatever issue may have been raised. Julie also advocates being conscientious of what your business puts online. While employees are encouraged to be active on social media, Mabel's Labels has a mandatory internal training course for staff representing the brand online.
For example, they are expected to avoid commenting on highly controversial topics or criticizing competitors. Nothing you ever delete is deleted, and everything you say is reflected on your brand" she cautions. A few years ago, Meghan Anderson noticed there weren't any caterers in the London area that offered online ordering.
Handbook of Strategic e-Business Management
Recognizing the opportunity to claim a market niche, she started building a website with a friend—a student who had studied graphic design and was looking for a final project. A few months later, Meghan began taking online orders, promising "freshness and quality without phone time. Right from the start, thechefshat. Catering customers can view menus and prices online, place orders, receive confirmation of their orders from Meghan, and obtain an invoice, all with a few keystrokes. And by creating an individual profile on the company's website, customers' orders and addresses are saved in the company database, allowing for easy entry of repeat orders.
Special instructions such as "vegetarian sandwiches only" can be included as text in every order. In exchange, Meghan is free to e-mail them information about new products, process changes, etc. Meghan's content management system enables her to easily update her newsletter or change the content on her site without needing to master a programming language. Although she cannot make changes to her site and receive orders at the same time—Meghan has learned to avoid this problem by updating the site on weekends only.
Handbook of strategic e-business management
Meghan's clients appreciate the fact that their companies' information is stored in The Chef's Hat's database. Because they don't need to re-enter any data, they are more likely to return to the site with repeat business. Clients also appreciate the transparency that the site provides—all delivery charges appear on the website, and client feedback can be sent directly to Meghan online. If you have established a website with e-commerce options and most of your sales are derived from your online business, you may want to think about integrating the online shop with your in-house processes such as inventory, accounts payable and accounts receivable.
If you have an e-commerce system in place, you're probably noticing that you have to do a lot of double entries for each transaction. The online sales are recorded and approved online, but you still have to fill out your usual set of records for accounting and ordering purposes. You will want to minimize this extra work.
As another example, if you run out of a particular item in your store, you will also want to stop selling it online in order not to frustrate shoppers with long delivery and wait times. But how does your online shop know that you've sold out? You will have to continually update sales both online and offline. If you integrate these two systems, you will minimize a lot of the work required to keep your information coordinated.
Having a more complex Web presence means you also need to be prepared to deal with the following by integrating your web system with your business:. There are a number of things to consider when setting up an online ordering system. Manual payment processing is appropriate when you expect a small number of orders from your website.
With respect to credit card payment processing , you will have to apply for a merchant account through the bank or through a company contracted by the bank. It is not always easy to get an account, particularly if you are not an established company. In addition to setting up a merchant account, you will also need to obtain the software to allow for credit card processing. InternetSecure and PSiGate are two examples of Canadian merchant account providers that are authorized by the Canadian banks to issue Internet merchant ID s, and process sales for merchants with their own Internet merchant ID s.
Once you set up an Internet merchant account, you will be able to accept credit card payments on your e-commerce site. Debit payment processing or Interac Online is an option that allows your customers to pay for goods and services online, directly from their bank account. To offer Interac Online to your customers, your first step is to contact a participating Payment Service Provider. A popular fourth approach is to process payments through a third-party online service provider.
The service provider collects payments, processes the transactions, and deposits the payments into your account. The service provider charges you a transaction fee for each transaction. It is critical to consider security and privacy issues when considering the use of a third-party online service provider. For example, how does the system protect customer information? Integrated e-commerce platforms for payment processing are increasing in popularity. Companies such as Shopify , Magneto and Big Commerce provide the whole range of services needed to start an online store, including a secure shopping cart.
An integrated e-commerce platform also helps you develop and then hosts your e-commerce store, including a range of services for store design, marketing, and administration. Useful when considering the increase in mobile-based e-commerce, Square is an electronic payment service, provided by Square Inc. Square allows users merchants in the United States and Canada to accept credit cards through their mobile phones, either by swiping the card on the Square device or by manually entering the details on the phone.
This service allows any business to quickly and easily accept credit card payments using their smartphone. To learn more about how to integrate e-commerce please refer to the accompanying e-business booklet called "E-Commerce: Purchasing and Selling Online". The following success story features a firm that has integrated e-commerce into its business operations. Elizabeth Campbell Books was established in and has grown to become the largest bookshop in the Kenora-Patricia District of Northwest Ontario. The company's website was established in , and books have been available for online purchase since that time.
Owner Elizabeth Campbell's foray into e-business was motivated by a desire to compensate for lost business due to budgetary cuts in libraries and schools as well as government job cuts. The Internet provided Campbell with the opportunity to increase her customer base, which, in turn, enabled her to stock a wider selection of books.
Handbook of Strategic e-Business Management : Francisco J. Martinez-lopez :
Initially, the bookshop hired a local service provider to build and maintain its website, but as the site became more specialized, Elizabeth turned to a larger design company for assistance. The company designed software that would seamlessly integrate the point-of-sale system in the shop with the website database. As a result, whatever sells in the shop is automatically removed from the inventory displayed on the website, allowing the website to remain current.
In addition to providing a catalogue of the company's stock, the website also features a shopping cart function. It also links to the bookshop blog, the bookshop dog's blog, and the bibliophile network called Peroosnik. The main challenge Elizabeth has faced as an e-business entrepreneur has been marketing her website.
While she has tried both search engine optimization and search engine marketing, Campbell finds that these marketing techniques only capture people who are looking for specific items. To address this challenge, Campbell distributes ad mail and includes promotional material with every purchase. She also builds awareness of her website with summer tourists, encouraging them to shop at her store remotely after they return home; sells items over eBay; and through fundraisers for local charities. Elizabeth Campbell Books has also become one of the cornerstones of Kenora's book festival, Word on the Water.
The Internet has enabled Elizabeth Campbell Books to flourish in an economically challenged area by facilitating the growth of the company's customer base. According to Elizabeth, "If I were relying on just the local business, I couldn't make it. Having [the Internet] marketplace makes a big difference.
And because I have a broader business base, I can bring in more material to my store. The term "shopping cart" is used to describe software that allows a user to select items from a catalogue and to add them to their cart. A simple Internet search using the key words — Canadian Shopping Carts will yield a number of available shopping carts, including:. Some service providers specifically focus on offering a full suite of flexible, feature-rich services for shopping sites — i. Examples include Shopify , Magneto and Big Commerce.
These companies specialize in turn-key operations so that setting up a store is simple, easy and suited for small businesses. To learn more about setting up online ordering and e-commerce please refer to the accompanying e-business booklet called "E-Commerce: Customer-Oriented Global Supply Chains. Real-time Strategy and Business Intelligence.
Social Media in Strategic Management. Digital Marketing and Consumer Engagement. Competitive Social Media Marketing Strategies. Balancing Time and Workload. Wireless Mobility in Organizations. Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning. Knowledge Management and Organizational Learning. Operations and Service Management. Collaborative Communities of Firms. Social Media in Business. Getting Started with Business Analytics. Business Partnerships and Organizational Performance.
Social Media and Interactive Communications. Practices for Network Management. The Internet of People, Things and Services. Are We On Yet? Innovation and Supply Chain Management. Outsourcing and Offshoring Business Services. Analytical Approaches to Strategic Decision-Making. The Lean Brain Theory. Knowledge Management and Competitive Advantage: Issues and Potential Solutions. The Shame of Reason in Organizational Change. Naud van der Ven.
The Business of the Bees. Future Business Software Joachim Schnitter. Back cover copy This research handbook provides a comprehensive, integrative, and authoritative resource on the main strategic management issues for companies within the e-business context. Table of contents Part A: Evolved Strategic Framework for the Management of Companies. Key Business Processes, Areas and Activities. Emerging Issues, Trends and Opportunities. Book ratings by Goodreads.
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