Class 9, 10 and 11

Strategies for web development,

7 Cs framework

Friday, 26 February 2016 1

Components of the Strategy


The Charter (Who)

• Focus: Governance and Authority

– What group/person is the primary “champion”?

– Who are the stakeholders?

– What group is responsible for each phase?

– Who will define success?


The Web Action Plan (When)

• Focus: Timeframe and Schedule

– What time period will this strategy cover?

– What are the development and consultation steps?

– When will development of the next version begin?


Guidance (Why)

• Focus: Vision and Principles

– Why will this work be undertaken? For whom?

– What are the principles that guide the work?

– How are these principles prioritized?


Direction (What)

• Focus: Goals and Strategies

– What are the goals that will achieve the vision?

– What strategies will lead to these goals?


Management (How)

• Focus: Projects and Resources

– How will the strategies be accomplished?

– What staff will be required for each?

– What funding is needed?


User Experience (Where)

• Focus: Interfaces and Interactions

– Who are our Web users?

– Where are they using the Web (home, work, wireless)?

– What are their needs?

– Are their needs being met by our Web experience?


Essential Web Design Strategies

• Responsive Design

• Use Software Prototyping

• The Team

• Versatility

• Customization

• Aware of the Marketplace

• Look for Inspiration

• Step Back

• Design from a Different Perspective

• Test and Validate


Implementing Strategic Design

• Establish your goals

• Identify your audience

• Determine your brand image

• Goal-driven design direction

• Measure results

• Kaizen


Measure results


Seven C’s of Website Design

• Context

• Content

• Community

• Communication

• Connection

• Commerce

• Customization


7c’s of Website Design


Context (look and feel): the “How” of the site

• 2 main dimensions: Function and Aesthetics

• Function - site layout and functionality– Section breakdown - the way the site is organized into sub-categories

• make them clear, and customer focused

– Linking structures - navigation• where am I?

• how do I get back to where I came from? (breadcrumbs)

– Navigation tools - search functionality and methods, browse capability, site index/map

• Use terminology the customer can understand

• Make sure your search tool works - configure it

• Aesthetics - visual characteristics such as colours, graphics, fonts etc


Content: the “What” of the site

• Text, pictures, sound and video

• both the type of content, and the media with which it is delivered

• The offering mix: products, information, services etc

• The appeal mix: promotional and communications messages

• The media mix: the multimedia elements included on the site– Be careful with adding too many multimedia elements that require plug-ins unless you

have good market research that shows that your users expect it.

• Content type: time sensitive information versus “evergreen” information– Freshness keeps bringing customers back

– Archives provide a useful service to users

– Watch out for “What’s New” sections


Community

• Community: the way sites build relationships between users. Strong

community encourages people to return to the website again and again

– Community can create attractive content (for free!)

– Web communities can make the user feel that they are valued by the firm

– Community can satisfy needs not otherwise able to be satisfied individually (eg.

finding people)

• Common tools are message boards, customer reviews, chat with

special guests, corporate blogs, members areas

• Other examples: Lands’ End “Shop with a Friend”,


Customization

• Customization is the site’s ability to self-tailor to different users

– The way customization can be achieved is divided roughly into 2 types (although

many sites use both)

• Personalization - preferences actively selected by the user

• Tailoring by site - automatically generated customization based on a user’s previous

behaviour, and the actions of other similar users


Personalization

• Personalization is usually used to refer to customization of a site by the user him or herself.

• Promotes stickiness and customer loyalty

• Once a user has selected preferences, they must be saved and can then be accessed by use of registration/log in.

• Examples of personalization:– E-mail accounts or storage space

– Content and layout configurations - mytelus.com

– Software agents - can be configured to notify a user when an item is in stock, or to act as an alert service

• Cookies are often used in tandem with personalization, but they can identify only the machine on which the cookie is stored, not the individual person. Hence the need for log-in.


Tailoring by site

• The second type involves automatically generated customization

based on a user’s previous behavior, and the actions of other similar

users

• Interface software dynamically publishes different versions of the site in

order to better address users’ interests, habits, and needs.

– The technologies to achieve this include cookies, and recommendation engines

that use collaborative filtering. This is all completely automated, but can be

improved by using active user input.


Personalization/customization using a combination of

tools

• Amazon.com provides a very good example of this combination of

methods to customize the user experience using collaborative filtering

and a recommendation engine

• Lands’ End - My Model (allows you to configure a model to your body

type and appearance and try on clothes) and My Personal Shopper

(uses “Conjoint analysis” - presents alternatives for selection)


Communication

• Communication refers to a firm’s dialogue with its customers

– Dialogue can be one-way (broadcast) or two-way (interactive)

• Broadcast communication

– Mass mailings (opt in only!)

– E-mail newsletter

– Content update notifications

• Interactive

– e-commerce dialog using email to exchange information re orders etc

– Customer service - email or live chat

– User input - content, reviews, feedback etc


Connection: how does a firm connect to other

businesses?

• Links to other sites

• Outsourced content - eg. news feeds, stock quotes, weather etc

• Affiliated sites - complementary products/services etc


Some things that really damage Customer Experience on

a commerce site

• Badly implemented search

• Not telling people an item is out of stock until late in the process

• Shipping cost not given until late in the process

• Asking for personal information too early in the process

• No contact information

• Can’t print properly


Webpage Layout

• Layout of web pages is very important

• Poor layout makes for -

– Difficult navigation

– Hard to locate information on page

– Visually unappealing


Tables, tables, tables!

• Use tables to lay out your pages!

• Make the table borders invisible

• A 2x2 table works well


Areas of a Web Page


A 2 x 2 Layout


Table within a table


Centred with three columns


Really complicated design!


Building an E-commerce

Web Site


Right-Sizing a Web Site

• What are the factors you should take into account when sizing a Web

site’s infrastructure?

• Why is peak usage an important factor to consider?

• What did eBay discover from its use of OPERA?

• How can operators of smaller sites deal with the right-sizing issue?


Building an E-commerce Site:

A Systematic Approach

• Most important management challenges:

– Developing a clear understanding of business objectives

– Knowing how to choose the right technology to achieve those objectives


Pieces of the Site-Building Puzzle

• Main areas where you will need to make decisions:

– Human resources and organizational capabilities

• Creating team with skill set needed to build and manage a successful site

– Hardware

– Software

– Telecommunications

– Site design


The Systems Development Life Cycle

• Methodology for understanding business objectives of a system and

designing an appropriate solution

• Five major steps:

– Systems analysis/planning

– Systems design

– Building the system

– Testing

– Implementation


Web Site Systems Development Life Cycle


System Analysis/Planning

• Business objectives:

– List of capabilities you want your site to have

• System functionalities:

– List of information system capabilities needed to achieve business objectives

• Information requirements:

– Information elements that system must produce in order to achieve business

objectives


Systems Design:

Hardware and Software Platforms

• System design specification:

– Description of main components of a system and their relationship to one

another

• Two components of system design:

– Logical design

• Data flow diagrams, processing functions, databases

– Physical design

• Specifies actual physical, software components, models, etc.


Logical Design for a Simple Web Site


Physical Design for a Simple Web Site


Build/Host Your Own versus Outsourcing

• Outsourcing: hiring vendors to provide services involved in building site

• Build own vs. outsourcing:

– Build your own requires team with diverse skill set; choice of software tools; both

risks and possible benefits

• Host own vs. outsourcing

– Hosting: hosting company responsible for ensuring site is accessible 24/7, for

monthly fee

– Co-location: firm purchases or leases Web server (with control over its

operation), but server is located at vendor’s facility


Choices in Building and Hosting


Testing, Implementation, and Maintenance

• Testing

– Unit testing

– System testing

– Acceptance testing

• Implementation and maintenance:

– Maintenance is ongoing

– Maintenance costs: parallel to development costs

– Benchmarking


Factors in Web Site Optimization


Web Site Budgets

• From $5,000 to millions of dollars/year

• Components of budget:

– System maintenance

– System development

– Content design & development

– Hardware

– Telecommunications

– Software


Simple versus Multi-tiered Web Site Architecture

• System architecture

– Arrangement of software, machinery, and tasks in an information system needed

to achieve a specific functionality

• Two-tier

– Web server and database server

• Multi-tier

– Web application servers

– Backend, legacy databases


Two-Tier E-commerce Architecture


Multi-tier E-commerce Architecture


Site Management Tools

• Basic tools

– Included in all Web servers

– Verify that links on pages are still valid

– Identify orphan files

• Third-party software and services for advanced site management

– Monitor customer purchases, marketing campaign effectiveness, etc.

– E.g. WebTrends Analytics 9, Google Analytics


Dynamic Page Generation Tools

• Dynamic page generation:

– Contents of Web page stored as objects in database and fetched when needed

• Common tools: CGI, ASP, JSP

• Advantages

– Lowers menu costs

– Permits easy online market segmentation

– Enables cost-free price discrimination

– Enables Web content management system (WCMS)


Application Servers

• Web application servers:

– Provide specific business functionality required for a Web site

– Type of middleware

• Isolate business applications from Web servers and databases

– Single-function applications increasingly being replaced by integrated software

tools that combine all functionality needed for e-commerce site


E-commerce Merchant Server Software

• Provides basic functionality for online sales

– Online catalog

• List of products available on Web site

– Shopping cart

• Allows shoppers to set aside, review, edit selections, and then make purchase

– Credit card processing

• Typically works in conjunction with shopping cart

• Verifies card and puts through credit to company’s account at checkout


Merchant Server Software Packages

• Integrated environment with most or all of functionality needed

• Key factors in selecting a package– Functionality

– Support for different business models

– Business process modeling tools

– Visual site management and reporting

– Performance and scalability

– Connectivity to existing business systems

– Compliance with standards

– Global and multicultural capability

– Local sales tax and shipping rules


Building Your Own E-commerce Site

• Options for small firms

– Hosted e-commerce sites, e.g., Yahoo’s Merchant Solutions

• Site building tools

• E-commerce templates

– Open-source merchant server software

• Enables you to build truly custom site

• Requires programmer with expertise, time


Choosing the Hardware for an E-commerce Site

• Hardware platform:

– Underlying computing equipment that system uses to achieve e-commerce

functionality

• Objective:

– Enough platform capacity to meet peak demand without wasting money

• Important to understand the different factors that affect speed, capacity,

and scalability of a site


Right-Sizing Your Hardware Platform: The Demand Side

• Demand is the most important factor affecting speed of site

• Factors in overall demand:

– Number of simultaneous users in peak periods

– Nature of customer requests (user profile)

– Type of content (dynamic versus static Web pages)

– Required security

– Number of items in inventory

– Number of page requests

– Speed of legacy applications


Right-Sizing Your Hardware Platform: The Supply Side

• Scalability:

– Ability of site to increase in size as demand warrants

• Ways to scale hardware:

– Vertically

• Increase processing power of individual components

– Horizontally

• Employ multiple computers to share workload

– Improve processing architecture


Vertically Scaling a System


Horizontally Scaling a System


E-business strategy

What is strategy?

• ‘Defines how we will meet our objectives’

• ‘Sets allocation of resources to meet goals’

• ‘Selects preferred strategic option to compete within a market’

• ‘Provides a long-term plan for the development of the organization’.


Sell-Side E-Commerce Strategy

• Sell-side e-commerce is a channel strategy

• Objectives for online contribution percentageshould drive our strategy

• Our e-commerce strategy defines how we should– Hit our channel leads and sales targets

• Acquisition, Conversion, Retention, Service, Profitability

– Communicate benefits of using this channel

– Prioritize products available through channel

– Prioritize audiences targeted through channel

– Select partners for this channel

• Channel strategy thrives on differentials

• BUT, need to manage channel integration.


Buy-Side E-Commerce Strategy

• Buy-side e-commerce strategy is about maximizing operational

efficiencies while improving customer service quality

• Operational efficiency KPIs should drive our strategy

• Our buy-side e-commerce strategy defines how we should

– Automate internal processes

– Link internal resource management systems with external purchasing systems

– Prioritize suppliers/partners collaborating using this channel

– Prioritize applications for E-SCM – create a roadmap

• Involves selection of appropriate strategic partners.


What Happens Where There Is No E-Business Strategy?

• Missed opportunities for additional sales on the sell-side and more

efficient purchasing on the buy-side

• Fall-behind competitors in delivering online services – may become

difficult to catch-up, for example, Tesco, Dell

• Poor customer experience from poorly integrated channels.


A generic strategy process model


Dynamic e-business strategy model


Elements of strategic situation analysis for the e-business


Using the Internet to support different growth strategies


Matrix for evaluating e-business strategy alternatives


Strategic options for a company in relation to the

importance of the Internet as a channel


Class 9, 10 and 11

Business

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