Lecture 3: Final Comments on Lesson 1

Web Site Performance Superstars

Call it the CTO's top 10 list. Every week, Keynote Systems releases a list of the top-performing Web sites in terms of load times, separating the lightning-quick from the sadly sluggish. Read the rest of this article....

Study Tip

I am trying something new this term and will release interacitve exercises, quizzes, and other materials through the lecture mails (what you are reading here!) Let's see how it goes....

Notes from The Lesson Plan

The third learning objective for this lesson was to understand the management challenges of e-commerce. During the week 19 of you (only 19!!) voted on the list of action items. Here are the results.

42% (8 students) thought that Reengineering your company was the most important. I tend to agree (actually, I am the 8th voter!). Without redesigning your company's thought processes in general, you will not be able capitlize on the advantages of e-commerce.

Refining your business model is going to be an important part of reengineering your corporate activities. Internet commerce will give rise to new kinds of business models. That much is certain. But the web is also likely to reinvent tried-and-true models. Auctions are a perfect example. One of the oldest forms of brokering, auctions have been widely used throughout the world to set prices for such items as agricultural commodities, financial instruments, and unique items like fine art and antiquities. The Web has popularized the auction model and broadened its applicability to a wide array of goods and services.

Business models have been defined and categorized in many different ways. This is one attempt to present a comprehensive and cogent taxonomy of business models observable on the web. The proposed taxonomy is not meant to be exhaustive or definitive. Internet business models continue to evolve. New and interesting variations can be expected in the future. As the article states:

Ultimately, the Net promises to change our whole manufacturing process. Dell Computer, for instance, lets customers configure their own PC online and track assembly and shipping status. The result: happy customers. Even with a recent slowdown, sales for the build-to-order pioneer, are still growing 38% a year, more than double the industry's 15% average. And lest you think this is just a silicon sensation, get this: Ford Motor and Weyerhaeuser are at the head of the pack.

It is interesting that the business model that Dell follows is based on the efficiencies of the Internet. Can this model be applied to services? Dell seems to think so:

But when asked whether Dell can do in services what it did in PCs, Kevin Rollins says, "Absolutely." The Model isn't just about making cheap boxes; it's also about freeing customers from overpriced relationships. "Our direct model has basic principles: Don't let anyone come between us and the customer. Keep clear communication, and no extra costs." Those tenets apply even when Dell is selling services, Rollins says, and they enable the company to give service customers a better experience than the competition. That is an opportunity Dell is programmed to seize.

So, is there model nothing more than keeping clear communication through the Internet? Quite possibly! Make sure that you have read the materials relating to the Dell case. It would help on the quiz.

Now, speaking of the quiz and such. I delayed the quiz and popquiz until this week for one primary reason. As of Friday, most of you had not yet registered for the course and I have the invariable drops and adds for the first week. But now, we have the final roles and it is time to get started. Here is the link to the first popquiz.

Interactive Exercises: Triggerstreet streaming video

In the next lesson, we will examine the triggerstreet.com case. Make sure that you read the case materials and then you can click here for Video on Triggerstreet.com