www.yourcompany.com.Now's the time to get your business in the Web. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY * NOW'S THE TIME to consider launching a commerce site on the Internet. You can bet that many of your competitors--at least the smart ones--are either on the Net already or are rushing to get aboard, because that's where the business is. * THE INTERNET IS providing new ways to sell, to advertise, to communicate with customers, suppliers, employees and shareholders. It's not only creating new business, it's creating new ways to do business and to be in business. * DON'T ASSUME THAT the Internet is just a venue for selling goods and services In economics, economic output is divided into physical goods and intangible services. Consumption of goods and services is assumed to produce utility (unless the "good" is a "bad"). It is often used when referring to a Goods and Services Tax. . It's also where a business can post its financial statements for investors and product catalogs for potential customers. In addition, it can be a place to gather inventory data and messages for out-of-the-office salespeople sales·peo·ple pl.n. Persons who are employed to sell merchandise in a store or in a designated territory. and other staffers, and where suppliers can receive purchase orders and submit invoices. * WEB SITES COME IN multiple styles--from a simple billboard-like design to a flashy interactive, customer-friendly store. Your job is to find the style that meets your unique business needs. The basic styles: * Static billboards, which are simple display ads that describe an enterprise's products and services and list prices, hours of operation and phone, fax or e-mail information. They are easy to set up. * Dynamic billboards, which are sites that contain information that needs frequent updating. * Database site, which links to a home-office database--provides inventory-status information to remote sales staff. * Virtual stores are sites where products can be displayed and sold. Detailed information is only a click away. * IF YOU'RE WAITING for the Internet to "develop" before you join this fast-moving trend, you may be waiting a long time. The Net will continue to grow and change, so get a move on. If your business hasn't launched a commerce site on the Internet or, worse yet, hasn't even considered one, it may be on the path to obsolescence ob·so·les·cent adj. 1. Being in the process of passing out of use or usefulness; becoming obsolete. 2. Biology Gradually disappearing; imperfectly or only slightly developed. . You can bet many of your competitors--at least the smart ones--are either on the Net already or are rushing to get aboard, because that's where the business is. Forecasts of Internet business--variously called e-commerce or e-business--are so astronomical as·tro·nom·i·cal also as·tro·nom·ic adj. 1. Of or relating to astronomy. 2. Of enormous magnitude; immense: an astronomical increase in the deficit. that, frankly, they strain credibility. For example, Internet sales between Thanksgiving Thanksgiving annual U.S. holiday celebrating harvest and yearly blessings; originated with Pilgrims (1621). [Am. Culture: EB, IX: 922] See : America Thanksgiving national holiday with luxurious dinner as chief ritual. [Am. Pop. and Christmas this past year were four times that of the comparable 1997 period and double the forecast for the season. Whether last year's sales totaled $2 billion or $22 billion or whether next year's sales will be triple or sextuple sex·tu·ple tr. & intr.v. sex·tu·pled, sex·tu·pling, sex·tu·ples To multiply or be multiplied by six. adj. 1. Consisting of six parts or members. 2. that volume isn't the point. The point is Internet commerce is growing, the growth is exponential 1. (mathematics) exponential - A function which raises some given constant (the "base") to the power of its argument. I.e. f x = b^x If no base is specified, e, the base of natural logarthims, is assumed. 2. , and it's creating new ways to sell, to advertise and to communicate with customers, suppliers, employees and shareholders. In short, the Net is not only creating new business, it's creating new ways to do business and to be in business. For those who aren't plugged into the Net and are chary char·y adj. char·i·er, char·i·est 1. Very cautious; wary: was chary of the risks involved. 2. about the move, the following may provide incentive to suspend skepticism skepticism (skĕp`tĭsĭzəm) [Gr.,=to reflect], philosophic position holding that the possibility of knowledge is limited either because of the limitations of the mind or because of the inaccessibility of its object. and hang out a new shingle shingle Thin piece of building material made of wood, asphaltic material, slate, metal, or concrete, laid in overlapping rows to shed water. Shingles are widely used as roof covering on residential buildings and sometimes also for siding (see Shingle style). : www.yourbusiness.com. CLICK UNTIL YOU DROP One of the Net's success stories is amazon.com (see exhibit 1, at right), which has become an icon of e-commerce innovation. In just a few years, this David of retail booksellers has made the publishing Goliaths tremble and then, wisely, clone clone, group of organisms, all of which are descended from a single individual through asexual reproduction, as in a pure cell culture of bacteria. Except for changes in the hereditary material that come about by mutation, all members of a clone are genetically their fast-growing competitor's e-commerce methods. [Exhibit 1 ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The Amazon site is more than a virtual store that sells books: It tracks customers' buying habits; greets each log-on by name; offers a custom menu of titles based on past purchases; and, finally, when customers have made their selections, processes each order with a few mouse clicks. In fact, once you become a customer, all your essential data (reading interests, shipping address and credit card information) are stored in Amazon's computer, and a sale can be consummated con·sum·mate tr.v. con·sum·mat·ed, con·sum·mat·ing, con·sum·mates 1. a. To bring to completion or fruition; conclude: consummate a business transaction. b. with just a single mouse click. But don't assume e-commerce is merely a virtual mall for selling goods and services. It's also where a business can post its financial statements for investors (see exhibit 2, page 67) and product catalogs for prospects. It's also a place to access password-protected inventory information and messages for out-of-the-office salespeople and staff, and purchase orders and invoices for suppliers. In short, it's a bulletin board for business intelligence, an advertising billboard trolling (1) Surfing, or browsing, the Web. (2) Posting derogatory messages about sensitive subjects on newsgroups and chat rooms to bait users into responding. (3) Hanging around in a chat room without saying anything, like a "peeping tom." for prospects, a virtual store for customers and a message board and back office for staff. [Exhibit 2 ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] SPINNING WEB DIVERSITY Not all commercial Web sites have to be as technically sophisticated as amazon.com. Web sites come in many styles--from a simple billboard-like design to a flashy interactive, customer-friendly neighborhood store with hyperlinks to an extended information base and related products. As you read this article choose a Web page style from the selections below that meet your unique business needs. Static billboards: Most Web sites are display ads, like billboards, that describe an enterprise's products and services and list prices, hours of operation, and phone, fax or e-mail information. While such a site is not usually very exciting or technically innovative, it provides basic information about a business. Many Internet service providers Internet service provider (ISP) Company that provides Internet connections and services to individuals and organizations. For a monthly fee, ISPs provide computer users with a connection to their site (see data transmission), as well as a log-in name and password. (companies such as America Online See AOL. , for example, which rents access to the Net to individuals and organizations) also will host--Web jargon jargon, pejorative term applied to speech or writing that is considered meaningless, unintelligible, or ugly. In one sense the term is applied to the special language of a profession, which may be unnecessarily complicated, e.g., "medical jargon. for operating a commercial Web site for a customer--for as little as $25 a month. Since such a site is static (the information hardly ever changes), it needs almost no maintenance and the Web page creation is so easy, in fact, that with little or no training Internet novices can do it themselves using any up-to-date word processor such as Word or WordPerfect. Those who want to get fancy might use Microsoft's FrontPage or a half-dozen other applications designed specifically to create Web pages. Such Web pages also can include mouse-activated buttons that, when clicked, take the viewer deeper into the site for other information, or they can include hyperlinks that transport the visitor to related sites. Dynamic billboards: A step up from the static billboard is the dynamic billboard--a page that needs frequent updating because an enterprise's prices, services or products change often. Again, you can construct it yourself, or if the changes are frequent and extensive, you may want to hire an Internet consultant. Some economy-minded enterprises even engage a Web-savvy student at a local college (or even a high school) for the task. For both static and dynamic billboards, consider adding a site on the Web page where customers or prospects can respond to your display with e-mail questions or comments. In addition, you probably want a way to acknowledge those messages immediately with an automatic but personal-looking e-mail thank you note. Most Internet providers Internet provider - Internet Service Provider can provide such a feature with what's called an autoresponder service, for about $10 a month. Database site: If you have huge amounts of information on your site or it's complex or changes frequently (real-time inventory status, say), you probably want to link it to your organization's database. SoftSearch, a software database (see exhibit 3, page 68) invites customers to search its massive index of 110,000 programs. [Exhibit 3 ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] With a database link, anyone--from a salesperson on a sales call to a major industrial customer--can tap into your Web site with a password, link to the database and immediately discern dis·cern v. dis·cerned, dis·cern·ing, dis·cerns v.tr. 1. To perceive with the eyes or intellect; detect. 2. To recognize or comprehend mentally. 3. whether the needed product is available. If you have the right accounting software, when the Internet sale is consummated, the transaction information automatically can plug into the accounting system. However, not all databases or accounting software applications are Internet compliant, so if you decide to offer this feature, check with the vendor of your current applications. You may have to switch programs. Virtual stores: This is a more complex design. Like amazon.com, a virtual store is a place where pictures of products can be displayed, and detailed information about them may be only a click away. If customers want to place an order, all they do is provide either a password (if they have an account with the business) or credit card and shipping information, and--click--the order is processed. FIND IT ON THE NET Unless you're particularly Internet savvy, setting up and running a virtual store is not a do-it-yourself project. Nor is it a project you want to farm out to a college student. For this kind of service, turn to an organization that specializes in setting up and maintaining virtual stores. There are many such services and you can easily find them on the Internet. Two popular ones are Merchandizer (www.merchandizer.com) or the Yahoo Store See Yahoo! Store. (http://store.yahoo.com). For an idea of what's generally available from contractors that build and maintain sites for customers, go to Yahoo's shopping site at http://shopping.yahoo.com (see exhibit 4, page 69). Yahoo provides all the necessary tools and there is no software to install. Since the entire site is maintained on the Yahoo computer you don't have to upgrade your own hardware. The site can have your own URL URL in full Uniform Resource Locator Address of a resource on the Internet. The resource can be any type of file stored on a server, such as a Web page, a text file, a graphics file, or an application program. (address)--such as "www.yourname.com"--or you can use "www.stores.yahoo.com/yourname." [Exhibit 4 ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Using the latter URL has a major advantage: The www.stores.yahoo.com address is, in fact, a virtual shopping Virtual shopping is a form of e-commerce giving the ability for individuals to shop remotely via a computer network connection, normally on the Internet using the World Wide Web. mall, with nearly 381,000 products (see exhibit 4, page 69). You might worry that your product or service would get lost because the site draws so much traffic and contains so much potential competition. Yahoo solves that problem by including an easy-to-use and speedy search engine so prospects can locate you or your product with a few mouse clicks. Yahoo doesn't charge a start-up fee for the service. Instead, it has a monthly maintenance fee. If your site contains up to 50 items, the fee is $100 a month; a site containing 1,000 items costs $300 a month. A great advantage for those who are just starting out and feeling their way with e-commerce is that they can cancel whenever they want, either to find a new vendor or to upgrade their marketing plans. With the Yahoo software you actually create the virtual store yourself, entering such information as the names, prices and descriptions of the items you want to sell. It takes less than a minute to add a new item, and an image can be plugged onto a page with a single click. Credit-card orders are accepted securely, using an industry-standard encryption The reversible transformation of data from the original (the plaintext) to a difficult-to-interpret format (the ciphertext) as a mechanism for protecting its confidentiality, integrity and sometimes its authenticity. Encryption uses an encryption algorithm and one or more encryption keys. program that relieves most shoppers' security concerns. You can retrieve orders over the Web via Yahoo's server or, if you wish, they can be faxed to you. In addition, you may want to have your site carry the WebTrust imprimatur to alleviate any customer concern about its legitimacy LEGITIMACY. The state of being born in wedlock; that is, in a lawful manner. 2. Marriage is considered by all civilized nations as the only source of legitimacy; the qualities of husband and wife must be possessed by the parents in order to make the offspring . If you want to see how other companies use the Yahoo Store, check out the following enterprises at www.store. yahoo.com: Ben &Jerry's, Egghead and FAO FAO, n See Food and Agriculture Organization. Schwarz. If you enter a phrase such as "design a web page" in Yahoo's search engine or another search engine on the Net, you will get a list of vendors, consultants, books and magazine articles that will help you develop a site. Such sources are especially helpful if you want a Web design that's more sophisticated than Yahoo offers. SHOPPERS' GUIDE For more help in shopping for site developers, have a look at the following addresses--none of which is affiliated with any host service: www.webhostlist.com and www.tophosts.com. Following is a general pricing guide for setting up an e-commerce site and then hosting it. Competition for Web design and maintenance services is very keen, so it's worth shopping around to get the best combination of price and service: When you're ready to get into e-commerce, one of your immediate decisions is to determine how much disk storage space your site will need or data-transfer volume it will generate. These two variables will determine the cost of anything but the most simple site and, in fact, are the two variables almost impossible to forecast. You need flexibility: room to grow and change your plans. For that reason, resist signing a long-term contract with a host and insist on a flexible arrangement. That shouldn't be too difficult because it's a buyer's market A Buyer's Market is the second novel in Anthony Powell's twelve-novel series, A Dance to the Music of Time. Published in 1952, it continues the story of narrator Nick Jenkins with his introduction into society after boarding school and university. . Shop around to get a deal you're comfortable with. Most Web hosts provide detailed reports on who and how many visitors came to your site. Some hosts tell you only the number of "hits"--that is, how many individuals viewed the page. Such information is interesting but not particularly useful. However, if you like your host's major services and its prices and still want more detailed information--such as what visitors look at once they arrive at your site--you can get that information yourself by installing a $300 software program called Web-Trends (www.webtrends.com). If you're going to accept credit-card orders, you must add software to process the transaction; in addition, you need an arrangement with a bank to clear those orders. Most hosts will install the processing software for a fee and help you arrange a bank relationship to clear the orders. Bank charges vary widely, but typically it's between 2% and 3% of the sale; in addition, processing fees are between 25 to 30 cents per order, plus a monthly fee of about $10. Timing: A typical simple site should take no more than a week to develop. A storefront site where visitors select products and place orders may take a few months--so plan ahead. Also, insist that the final product be both readable read·a·ble adj. 1. Easily read; legible: a readable typeface. 2. Pleasurable or interesting to read: a readable story. and identical in appearance when browsed with either Netscape Navigator An earlier Web browser for Windows, Macintosh and X Windows from Netscape that provided secure transmission over the Internet. Soon after its introduction in 1994, Navigator, or just "Netscape," as it was commonly called, quickly became the leading browser on the Web. or Internet Explorer Microsoft's Web browser, which comes with Windows starting with Windows 98. Commonly called "IE," versions for Mac and Unix are also available. Internet Explorer is the most widely used Web browser on the market. It has also been the browser engine in AOL's Internet access software. , the two leading browser browser Software that allows a computer user to find and view information on the Internet. The first text-based browser for the World Wide Web became available in 1991; Web use expanded rapidly after the release in 1993 of a browser called Mosaic, which used products. A developer may try to cut corners by constructing a site to work well with only one browser. Don't accept that--many of your graphics could be lost when visitors view the site with an alternate browser. Promotion: Just because your site is on the Web, don't assume that the world will now beat a path to your door. You've got to do something to let prospects know you exist and where you are. The most effective way, aside from advertising in newspapers, magazines and company literature, is to be sure the leading search sites have you listed. If your host can't or won't undertake the effort to ensure your business is listed on these search sites, contact the search sites yourself and ask to be listed. The leading ones are AltaVista, Excite, HotBot, Infoseek, Lycos, Magellan, WebCrawler and Yahoo. You will have to negotiate the listing order--that is, what priority you are given when the search results are flashed on the screen--otherwise your site may end up at the bottom of a large search-result list. HIGH-END USERS The main weakness of many of the commercially hosted e-commerce solutions is lack of integration with accounting systems. To complete the business transaction once an order is placed, an accounting entry to record the sale must be made. To address this concern, some accounting software vendors are developing e-commerce systems that tie into e-commerce management systems such as Microsoft's Site Server for Commerce (www.microsoft.com/siteserver/commerce), IBM (International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, www.ibm.com) The world's largest computer company. IBM's product lines include the S/390 mainframes (zSeries), AS/400 midrange business systems (iSeries), RS/6000 workstations and servers (pSeries), Intel-based servers (xSeries) HomePage Creator for E-business (www.ibm.com/hpc), Netscape's CommerceXpert (www.netscape. com) and Pandesic Web Business (www.pandesic.com). With properly integrated accounting software, all of the accounting transactions flow into the books as soon as an order is posted. In addition, accounting clerks can update prices, inventory information or other details, and the information will be accommodated automatically. One example of an application using Microsoft's technologies to integrate an electronic storefront with an accounting system is Dynamics Commerce from Great Plains. Large organizations may want to do all the site development work themselves. There's a wide selection of software available to do that. Vendors can be searched on the Internet, and here's a list of the more popular ones: * Catalog catalog, descriptive list, on cards or in a book, of the contents of a library. Assurbanipal's library at Nineveh was cataloged on shelves of slate. The first known subject catalog was compiled by Callimachus at the Alexandrian Library in the 3d cent. B.C. (www.catalogint.com) * iCat Electronic Commerce Suite (www.icatcorp.com) * Intershop 3 Merchant Edition (www.intershop.com) * estro Commerce Suite (www.bitsoftware.com) * Net. Commerce Start (www.ibm.com) THE FIRST STEP If you're not familiar with the Internet, the Internet, the, international computer network linking together thousands of individual networks at military and government agencies, educational institutions, nonprofit organizations, industrial and financial corporations of all sizes, and commercial enterprises thought of getting into e-commerce may seem daunting daunt tr.v. daunt·ed, daunt·ing, daunts To abate the courage of; discourage. See Synonyms at dismay. [Middle English daunten, from Old French danter, from Latin . Many businesses are afraid to take the plunge Take The Plunge was an early evening game show that was produced by Thames Television and aired on the ITV network for one series in 1989, the programme was hosted by comedy actress Su Pollard. , holding back until they investigate the subject in detail. That may be a wise move for other ventures, but the Web is a moving target--new technologies and new marketing methods appear almost daily. If you wait to get all the facts, you may feel stymied. Instead, take a bold step--but make it a simple step, such as creating a static billboard. Advance slowly from there. You will learn more by testing than by sitting back and studying the subject. You'll probably make mistakes, but they aren't likely to be very costly if you begin small; the experience will serve you well. Once you browse (1) To view the contents of a file or a group of files. Browser programs generally let you view data by scrolling through the documents or databases. In a database program, the browse mode often lets you edit the data. See Web browser. around the Net, you'll find that many of your fears will ease. Just looking at the variety of sites will stimulate you to create ways to apply e-commerce to your organization. If you're waiting for the Internet to "develop" before you join this fast-moving trend, you'll wait a long time. The Net is ever changing--and unpredictable. The longer you linger lin·ger v. lin·gered, lin·ger·ing, lin·gers v.intr. 1. To be slow in leaving, especially out of reluctance; tarry. See Synonyms at stay1. 2. , the harder it will be to get started. So get going now--if only to experiment.
Approximately Web Business Costs (Estimated)
With
Static Dynamic database Credit-card
Service billboard billboard ink processing
Web site
setup fee $30-$50 $30-$50 $40-$75 $50-$125
Monthly
hosting/
maintenance 20 35 $50-$175 $100-$500
Secure
server NA NA $100-$125 $100-$125
For More Information Places on the Internet to get more general information on e-commerce: * http://e-comm.internet.com * www.zdnet.com/icom/e-business * www.techweb.com/netbiz STANLEY ZAROWIN is a senior editor on the Journal. Mr. Zarowin is an employee of the American Institute of CPAs and his views, as expressed in this article, do not necessarily reflect the views of the AICPA AICPA See American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). . Official positions are determined through certain specific committee procedures, due process and deliberation deliberation n. the act of considering, discussing, and, hopefully, reaching a conclusion, such as a jury's discussions, voting and decision-making. DELIBERATION, contracts, crimes. . The Journal acknowledges assistance from WAYNE E. HARDING, CPA (Computer Press Association, Landing, NJ) An earlier membership organization founded in 1983 that promoted excellence in computer journalism. Its annual awards honored outstanding examples in print, broadcast and electronic media. The CPA disbanded in 2000. , a vice-president of Great Plains Software, Fargo, North Dakota “Fargo” redirects here. For other uses, see Fargo (disambiguation). Fargo is a city in Cass County, North Dakota in the United States. It is the county seat of Cass County, located in the Red River Valley region. , and a member of the American Institute of CPAs information technology research subcommittee sub·com·mit·tee n. A subordinate committee composed of members appointed from a main committee. subcommittee Noun . |
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