Summary
Building an e-business involves looking after all the front- and back-end
processes involved - creating reasons for people to visit, pathways and
signposts which direct them to their destinations, and the transactions, payment,
delivery and monitoring backup which gets the job finished.
Until sufficiently appropriate
Enterprise-Wide Solutions
come in to integrate front- and back-office systems completely, a lot of this
is going to stay in the human-mediated domain - so expect to work quite hard to keep
the components from floating apart..
Tips
One aspect of using the Internet is that you can often ''chain'' your
e-business, by using further, ''downstream'' e-businesses as sources for your
component materials. This especially applies to the ''Outsourced Resource'' type.
Check the Internet regularly for possible suppliers and partners.
Choose site builders with established track records in setting up your
kind of e-business. Do not be fooled by people who tell you
''this is how you should do this'' and ''you need to change this''. Ask them
the (usually mortally wounding) questions: ''Have you done this before? Can
you show me an example?''
Resources
Fergal Byrne is Director of Information Design at
Adnet, which he co-founded in 1994.
Adnet, builders of several highly successful commercial and information
sites, received Ireland''s highest award in 1997, the Golden Spider
Agency of the Year. He can be reached at
editor@adnet.ie
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