E-commerce is redefining customer relationships. It is changing the way Syspro connects with its customers, and the way those organisations connect with their customers. Any company not equipped to exploit the crucial issues surrounding e-commerce - such as strategies, customer relations, delivery channels, technology implementations and expenditure - will not remain competitive.
By 2001, the global Internet user population is expected to exceed 140-million people, with on-line business-to-consumer commerce exceeding $20-billion annually. This is clearly the target market of the future!
The impact of e-commerce will vary depending on the processes, technologies and industries involved. As IMPACT Encore is deployed across a broad spectrum of market sectors, every one of Syspro's customers will be affected.
For those organisations whose products and/or services are mostly digital (for example, banking and publishing), e-commerce presents opportunities to develop entirely new forms of products and services. The rare possibility for start-up operations to become market leaders within a year exists.
Consumer-orientated industries (such as grocery retail, telecommunications and office supplies) could see vendors seeking to bypass the middle man and sell direct to end consumers. This, too, could lead to a fair amount of industry restructuring.
Thirdly, the impact of e-commerce is at its least dramatic when physical goods are being delivered and the focus is on reconciling the delivery of goods and information. This signifies less turmoil for many IMPACT Encore users. However, e-commerce will play a role by ensuring accurate, complete and timely specification.
To ensure Syspro and its customers are strongly positioned for the future, IMPACT Encore already incorporates Web applications which facilitate trade across the Internet. Both IMPACT Encore and its Web applications use the same business logic and therefore the same business rules. Failure to do so has been the downfall of many on-line shopping systems, as it is easy to change pricing in the core product and neglect to update the Web catalogue.
In order for Web applications to effectively support business-to-business commerce, a combination of personalised Web sites needs to be tightly integrated to the existing ERP system. This can be achieved by using products such as Microsoft's Site Server to develop the Web site and integrate it directly with IMPACT Encore.
A further step in the evolution of trading over the Internet is Microsoft's BizTalk, a strategy designed to allow businesses to interchange documents easily with trading partners - regardless of platform, operating system or underlying technology.
Syspro's overall strategy for e-commerce centres around three vital elements:
To improve the Web applications currently available, and to provide Sales Force Automation capabilities. This will enable sales executives to place orders over the Internet for any of their customers.
To investigate the feasibility of integrating Microsoft's Site Server directly with IMPACT Encore. This could be done directly (with IMPACT's SQL Server database) or indirectly (through the Web applications).
To allow documents, such as Purchase Orders or Invoices, to flow into and from IMPACT Encore using XML. The strategy is to support Microsoft's BizTalk initiative. This means that IMPACT Encore's schemas will be published at www.biztalk.org, the site which promotes the BizTalk framework.
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