From the business perspective, we know why we need e-commerce, we can prove it but ‘what’ will things look like with e-commerce?
e-Commerce affects systems, processes, people, platforms, product, promotion and price. Let’s remember, it’s sales process automation at the end of the day.
It is essential to facilitate analysis workshops which scrutinise the current situation and identify the specific areas->actions needed to reach the target state defined in the previous ‘Why’. It is vital to analyse the affects on the organisation to guarantee success. Roles of staff could change, systems are needed, platforms can be ramped down, new processes, and so on. The target is to identify the areas or improvement and the specific actions needed to be taken.
When we have specific actions, we can devise a plan with priority that has value chain mapped. It is very important to maintain the ‘Why’ statements throughout the planning (and delivery) so we can ensure the value chain is secure, that e-commerce is delivering promised value to customers, suppliers and the company with reduced time-to-market and faster return of investment. Note that very much OK to move forwards and backwards (Why/What) to re-evaluate actions, we have seen turbulent times recently, things change rapidly during projects and work estimates are often miscalculated.
eCommerce Planning can be achieved by workshopping (with stakeholders) using the A3 analysis template or a Lean Service Creation adaptation. This of course, something I can facilitate for you.
An example of an action could be for the IT Department to run a selection round for vendors, platform selection. In smaller businesses this would be smaller scale, such as to be able to identify, target customers, how to reach them and what does our sales funnel look like.
Hey- I’m offerering a free 30 minute sparring session with no obligations. We can use our sparring session time to discuss anything you wish.
So why wait? Let’s spar and generate some eCommerce ideas for your business today.