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158
C H A P T E R 1 2
Digital business service implementation
and
optimisation
Table of contents
Learning outcomes 158
Management issues 158
Chapter at a glance 159
Learning outcomes
After completing this chapter the reader should be able to:
Produce a plan to minimise the risks involved with the launch phase of a digital
business application
Management issues
Implementation and optimisation of digital business systems raises these issues for
management:
What actions can we take to minimise the risks of implementation?
How do we select the most appropriate systems?
How do we achieve transition from previous systems to a new digital business system?
What techniques are available to measure and optimise our services?
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Chapter at a glance
Main topics
Alternatives for acquiring digital business systems
Development of web-based content and services
Focus on
Web analytics: measuring and improving performance of digital business services
Measuring social media marketing
Case studies
12.1 Learning from Amazons culture of metrics
Suggested teaching and learning approaches
This chapter is intended to highlight some of the practical issues in implementing digital
business solutions. For this reason, a basic introduction to HTML coding is given. A basic
knowledge of
HTML coding can be used by students to assist them in building simple
websites that give a
practical expression to an assignment based on applying the principles
of user interface design
outlined in the previous chapter (
Focus on User-centred site design
and customer experience management
). Topics:
Context Figure 12.1 places implementation in the context of the systems
development
life cycle. Implementation (labelled as development and testing) occurs
in parallel with analysis and design as part of prototyping.
Chaffey, Digital Business and E-Commerce Management, 6th edition,
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Changeover again similar issues to traditional BIS, although the results of system
failure are
more damaging to business.
Content management this is a new issue, so is covered in more detail. A full lecture
should
be spent on this topic. It is a rich source of discussion amongst mature students
Case studies
Case study 12.1 Learning from Amazons culture of metrics
Questions
1. By referring to the case study, Amazons website for your country and your
experience of Amazon offline communications, evaluate how well Amazon
communicates its core proposition and promotional offers.
Worldwide, the proposition is summarised by the well-known brand-identity, which
features
from A to Z suggesting the range of products and breadth within categories.
Amazon used to
refer to itself as the Worlds largest bookstore.
In the article, this sentence gives an idea of the different aspects of the custom value
proposition to watch out for:
It believes the main competitive factors in its market segments include selection,
price,
availability, convenience, information, discovery, brand recognition, personalised
services, accessibility, customer service, reliability, speed of fulfilment, ease of use and
Amazon.com: Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, etc.
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2. Using the case study, characterise Amazons approach to marketing
communications.
With reference to the six e-communications tools described in Figure 9.6 (p. 403), probably
the
key techniques are search engine marketing, affiliate marketing and partnerships
3. Explain what distinguishes Amazon in its uses of technology for competitive
advantage.
The following are characteristic of Amazons use of technology:
Use of in-house technologies for personalisation
Early adopter rapid adoption of new techniques, for example, Jeff Bezos has talked
4. How does the Amazon culture of metrics differ from that in other organisations
from your
experience?
This question asks students to reflect on their own experiences. From the case, the following
are
characteristic of Amazons approach:
Passionately driven from the top by Jeff Bezos
Chaffey, Digital Business and E-Commerce Management, 6th edition,
Instructors Manual on the Web
Questions for debate
Debate 12.1 Control of web content
Website content organisation and standards for page design and copy must be centrally
controlled to achieve consistency across any organisation, regardless of size.
Summary of arguments for are as follows:
Can damage brand if there are errors and inconsistencies
Exercises
Self-assessment questions
1. Summarise how the activities involved with implementation and maintenance
relate to
analysis and design activities in previous chapters.
2. What are the risks of launching a new e-commerce site if implementation is not
conducted
effectively?
Low conversion rate to outcomes, high attrition rate (due to inadequate testing of design)
3. Distinguish between static and dynamic content and methods of achieving them.
Static web content
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Dynamic web content
4. What are the objectives of testing? How do these relate to an e-commerce site?
Identify errors in requirements analysis, for example, poor interface design, wrong
5. Summarise the advantages and disadvantages of the different changeover
methods.
Method Main ad
v
anta
g
es Main disad
v
anta
g
es
1. Immediate cutover
Rapid, lowest cost High risk. Major disruption if
2. Parallel running
Lower risk than immediate
Slower and higher cost than
3. Phased implementation
Good compromise between
Difficult to achieve
4. Pilot system
Essential for multinational or
Has to be used in
6. What are the issues for managers of content management?
7. What are the main elements of an e-commerce site measurement plan?
The framework described in the text is as follows:
Channel promotion
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8. What are the elements of a budget for an e-commerce site enhancement?
Tangible business benefits:
Intangible business benefits:
2. Improved customer satisfaction/brand equity.
Tangible costs:
2. Planning costs
4. Operational costs including staff, hardware and software.
Essay and discussion questions
1. Write a report to a manager recommending particular techniques that should or
should not be implemented on an e-commerce site. Examples may include
frames, Flash or Shockwave
plug-ins, JavaScript, Java and active server pages.
Cost
User experience
Performance
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2. Develop a plan for measuring the marketing effectiveness of an e-commerce site.
This question should be structured around the Focus On section (p. 628) and the
different components of Figure 12.11, that is:
Channel promotion
3. Discuss the balance of using a website and traditional methods for marketing
research.
Key issues to be included are:
Cost of techniques
Responsiveness (speed)
Bias is the sample representative?
4. Choose an example of a simple brochureware website. Develop an
implementation plan for
this site, recommending development techniques that will
be used to enhance the site.
Implementation issues include:
Interface designs
Authoring package
Examination questions
1. You are developing a testing plan for an e-commerce site. Outline five key aspects
of the site you
would test.
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Customer orientation/relevance of content and services
Usability
2. Data migration is often overlooked in implementation planning. Explain what
data
migration is and explain when it may need to occur for creation of an e-
commerce site for an existing business.
Data migration is the transfer of data from old systems to new systems. It will need to occur
to
transfer the following from old to new system:
3. Analyse the advantages and disadvantages of a soft versus hard website launch.
4. Explain the following terms and suggest which is the most useful in measuring
the
effectiveness of a website.
(a) Hit
(b) Page impression
(c) Site visit
5. Why are conversion and attrition rates important in evaluating the
performance of an
e-commerce site?
Conversion rate
It is the percentage of site visitors that perform a particular action such as making a
Chaffey, Digital Business and E-Commerce Management, 6th edition,
Instructors Manual on the Web
Attrition rate
6. Suggest three key measures that indicate the contribution of an e-commerce site
to overall
business performance for a company with online and offline presence.
Internet contribution (direct) percentage of online sales
Internet contribution (indirect) percentage of sales influenced by site
Reach of site percentage of market achieved by site.
Activity answers
Activity 12.1 Selecting applications software for a small business
To aid understanding of the different factors to assess, when selecting applications software
and
their relative importance.
A start-up office supplies business which specialises in supply of printers is reviewing
its
alternatives for different types of digital business system. Form groups with each group
Digital business service types:
2. Supply chain management application.
4. Web analytics software (see later in chapter).
Issues that could be referenced for each of these applications include:
Reliability must be accurate
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Activity 12.2 Understanding e-commerce and digital business
1. Identify the variables which will determine the choice of changeover method.
Table lists the main variables Table 12.2, p. 610.
2. Which changeover alternative would you recommend for a B2B company if it
introduces a new intranet-based virtual helpdesk?
This activity is intended to show that it is often not a clear-cut decision on which
changeover method to use, and each of the methods may be used in the course of the
whole project. For
example:
During prototyping there is likely to be the use of piloting in one area of the company,
for a
single country.
3. Justify your answer by analysing in a table the degree of risk, from high to low for
each factor across each approach.
The following table also assigns a risk for each variable.
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V
a
r
iables Di
r
ect Parallel Phased Pilot
2. Time Fastest Slowest Intermediate Intermediate
3. Quality of new
system after
Highest risk of
errors
Potentially best,
since do not
Still has
elements of
Better than direct, not
as certain as with
4. Impact on
Minimal unless
Could reduce
Can still have
Limits effect to one
5. Impact on
employees
Lowest More work required
to run systems in
Lower risk than
direct
Helps employee buy-
in since know system
6. Technical
May be only
May require two
Not always
Activity 12.3 Optimising the content review process at a B2C company
The extract below and Figure 12.4 illustrate a problem of updating encountered by a B2C
company. How can they solve this problem?
In one word, the answer is empowerment. The only way to increase the speed of the
Activity 12.4 Creating a measurement plan for a B2C company
This activity acts as a summary to this section on digital business measurement. Review
Table 12.10 and assess the frequency with which metrics in each of the following
categories should be reported for a sell-side e-commerce site and acted upon. For each
column, place an R in the column for the frequency with which you think the data should
be recorded.
Chaffey, Digital Business and E-Commerce Management, 6th edition,
Instructors Manual on the Web
The following are suggested, but the main issue is for a management team to agree to
what
applies to them.
Promotion monthly
