Collaborative E-Commerce: The Future of Online Customer Care
Transcript of Collaborative E-Commerce: The Future of Online Customer Care
If you are one of the millions of people who have
considered buying something online you have probably
been there at least once. Drowning in a sea of irrelevant
information about a product or service in which you are
interested, you thirst like Tantalus for the details about
which you actually need. You sit clicking away in vain,
wondering, where’s the phone number to call? What are
all the products and services this company offers? How
do I negotiate terms and conditions? Once I place an
order, what exactly happens to my form? What if I have
a billing question? And on and
on. Let’s take a moment to step
back consider the crooked path
that led to this state of affairs.
The advent of Internet-
based electronic commerce
commonly referred to as e-
commerce, clearly marked a
watershed for business. Many
observers indeed regard e-
commerce as perhaps the
greatest business opportunity in
history. E-Commerce is likely to
surpass the one trillion US dollar
mark worldwide by early 2003,
according to Merrill Lynch. Some
industry analysts assert that the
Internet will become the backbone
of the world economy in less than
a century. The opportunity costs of ignoring e-commerce
are equally omnipresent, as evidenced by a steady stream of
media accounts describing another corporate giant being
challenged by a start-up with a novel business model.
Today, the Internet is something like an “always
open” global shopping mall, offering everything from
used Buicks and out-of-print books to the latest Pokemon
cards and cutting edge business services. For the vast
majority of consumers, it’s equivalent to shopping from
a gigantic mail order catalog. The rise of the e-commerce
is similar to the Cambrian explosion 500 million years
ago, when, for no apparent reason, life evolved from
single celled organisms to a dazzling array of multi-celled
life forms in an extremely short time span. The Cambrian
explosion is remarkable for another characteristic: it’s
phenomenally high extinction rate.
Evan Schwartz, author of Webonomics, offered
similar observations in his latest book, Digital Darwinism.
Schwartz suggests a great sorting
is occurring as companies try to
adapt or reinvent their approach to
core competencies such as branding,
pricing, marketing, packaging,
manufacturing, and customer ser-
vice for the Web environment. Case
studies in scores of magazines have
illustrated how e-commerce is dif-
ferent than issues most traditional
companies have tackled before, and
how such initiatives can be a huge
challenge in terms of design,
implementation, maintenance and
corporate culture.
Despite all the hype surround-
ing it, e-commerce is just one of
many channels available to the
customer. A variety of sales chan-
nels exist today, as indicated below.
· Call centers
· Resellers
· VARs
· Retail kiosks
· Field sales teams
· Brick and mortar stores
· Tele-sales representatives
Collaborative E-Commerce:The Future of Online Customer Care
By Lewis Ward
· E-marketplaces, hubs and exchanges (extranets)
· Direct to consumers over the Web
Despite record revenues online, traditional stores
and call centers continue to be the most effective sales
channels for the vast
majority of products
and services. Quickly
scanning the range of
possible sales channels,
it’s evident that unless
consumers are purchas-
ing goods from vending
machines or the
equivalent via mail or-
der catalogs and the like,
people generally buy
from organizations (or
better yet people) they
feel they know and trust.
This is arguably the
number one reason
brick and mortar stores
and call centers are as
effective as they are.
date, the Web has basi-
cally evolved to the
point of being the digi-
tal equivalent of a
vending machine, and
one that may eat your
quarters at that!
“Conventional Web
wisdom” is to treat long-
time customers like
first-time customers
every time. The end
result is that many cus-
tomers feel like they’re
being treated like fish
in a barrel. But online
buyers know that alternatives are just a click away.
Ironically, at the moment that Web-based customer
service appears to be emerging as a critical factor in long-
term business success, it is lagging far behind traditional
offline alternatives.
Aside from acknowledging repeat customers, effec-
tive brick and mortar sales people (as well their call
center counterparts) recognize that the sales process is
not limited to the actual purchase of goods and services.
Customers often begin with an information gathering
and exchange phase and then progress into negotiations
with the sales person or account representative. Finally,
a purchasing decision is
reached. If favorable, the
transaction is completed
and post-sales support is
initiated. Research indi-
cates that, by and large,
gathering information to
support purchasing
decisions (rather than the
actual buying of products
or services) is the principle
activity of Web “shoppers”
today. A mature sales
ch a nn e l e f fe c t ive ly
supports the consumer at
every step along the way.
Most web sites are focused
on the transaction, the
point of sale, and not the
interactions that lead up
to a sale or what goes on
after the sale.
Many of the enter-
prises that are striving to
be cutting edge in their e-
commerce initiatives are
leaving customers behind
because there is no inter-
personal collaboration or
communication sur-
rounding the sales process.
For simple items with
which nearly everyone is
familiar, such as books or
gum, a static order entry
form and an automatic credit card transaction may be
good enough to move items in volume (profit margins
are another matter). But as the complexity and price of
products and services rises, people are less satisfied with
“insert your dollars face up in the slot” transactions
Terms and Definitions
e-commerce is the marketing, selling andbuying of products via the Internet (basedon TCP/IP)
e-business is the application of the Internetand its related technologies and servicesto business
While e-commerce may be consideredthe cornerstone of e-business, it shouldbe understood as only one component.The goals of e-business initiatives usuallyare to improve services and reduce cost,rather than simply sell more widgets.Therefore, many more variables are partof an e-business strategy.
CSR is an acronym for customer servicerepresentative; it is often usedinterchangeably with the term “agent”
Thus:
Collaborative e-commerce is theapplication of CSRs or other human agentsto e-commerce, specifically pertaining tothe sales and customer support processes
because more details are relevant to the sale. A vendor
in the guided selling market (part of what CS refers to as
e-commerce automation technologies) describes this
frustrating phenomenon in its sales literature as the
“complexity gap.” (Refer to our for a more complete
description of this phenomenon.)
The basic idea is that there is a divergence between
the amount of information available and how much
customers can absorb and interpret in the context of
their particular needs. As products and services become
more sophisticated, this complexity gap is widening. The
result of the complexity gap is that companies end up
with orders for product configurations that can’t be
produced. Dissatisfied consumers will return these prod-
ucts and are less likely to use the channel again. CS’
research suggests
that several market
observers have cor-
rectly diagnosed the
problem:
There’s an
alarming discon-
nect between the
old way of buying
and the new way of
selling. However,
there is not a con-
sensus on what
constitutes an ef-
fective long-term
solution. And find-
ing such a solution
is inimical to the fu-
ture of e-commerce.
The Path Less Traveled?CS’ research indicates there are two principle ave-
nues ahead. One route favors more self-help and e-
commerce automation tools ad nausea. The second camp
favors the reinsertion of live human beings into the
online sales process. The latter path is collaborative e-
commerce. Simply because the Web is revolutionary in
several respects, it doesn’t follow that it has to be in every
respect. In fact, because it’s radically different it’s critical
that aspects that can be, should be grounded in common
experience. If organizations aren’t selling the way most
people buy, it follows that this disconnect will adversely
impact sales.
Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com, recently
stated in The Wall Street Journal that e-commerce is about
reengineering outward-facing processes, one-to-one mar-
keting/mass customization and the outsourcing of cus-
tomer service to the customer himself. Bezos recognized
the importance of a shift in focus from the product to the
customer. But how can one capitalize on these trends?
From Bezos’ vantage point, increased e-commerce auto-
mation tools may seem the only logical direction.
An analysis of Web self-help and automation tech-
nology that supports customer-facing initiatives reveals
a clear trend: they
are attempting to
reach the efficacy of
a live human being
while minimizing
costs. From custom-
er profiling and
“smart FAQs” to
context sensitive in-
ventory searching
(guided selling, etc.)
and automatic e-
mail responses, the
goal has been to
reach customers
with increasingly
personalized service.
The push has been
to empower cus-
tomers to help themselves, and the faster the better.
While artificial intelligence systems have come a long
way in recent years, there’s still one clear conclusion:
people are the best adaptive problem solvers. Although
intelligent systems approach aspects of being human,
they are not human beings. Therefore, there is a threshold
above which e-commerce automation and self-help tools
provide little additional benefit – and may indeed harm
customer relationships if deployed improperly.
For the moment, let’s set aside self-help tools and
focus on the dynamic between automation tools and live
human agents. As one approaches real time, few could
argue against the notion that a properly trained and
equipped human being can deliver better customer
service than a machine or software application. In a real
time sales environment, one should expect the unexpect-
ed and be prepared to resolve complex issues “on the
fly”. Most sales situations are unique in some way, and
it’s nearly impossible to define enough business rules to
support flawless instant automation. It can cost hundreds
of thousands of dollars for marginally better customer
automation past a certain point, with less and less clear
return on investment (if measured by higher customer
satisfaction). If customer satisfaction is goal, at that point
the question becomes whether increasing the capacity of
call/contact centers is outweighed by opportunity cost of
less satisfied customers.
So while some observers have astutely diagnosed the
complexity gap, they have failed to account for the signifi-
cance of the drive toward real time online customer care.
While additional automation may sound like a panacea, it
in fact declines in efficacy as one approaches real time. At
a certain point, collaborative e-commerce becomes a
superior and indeed more cost-effective alternative.
This dynamic is illustrated in the following figure.
Here, “efficacy of approach” may be understood to be the
level of customer satisfaction (although repeat patronage,
loyalty, or another metric may be similarly equated) divided
by the cost of delivering that support. The general tenet
is that asynchronous forms of customer support – e-mail,
standard mail/delivery services and the fax machine
perhaps being the best examples – deliver a lower level of
customer satisfaction at greater cost as the customer’s
requirements approach real time. Conversely, properly
trained and equipped human beings can potentially deliver
superior support in a real time environment.
It may be worth reiterating that CS does not contend
that automation has no place. Indeed, there are significant
efficiencies to be gained by the proper use of e-commerce
automation and self-help technologies. But we will
certainly make a case that automation has its limits and
should be as invisible as possible. When using a telephone
or an ATM, for example, we don’t care what happens in-
between the moment our friend says “hello” or $20 bills
appear in the slot. Similarly, automation is best when
performing repetitive functions that don’t directly impact
the end user’s experience. Thus, the earlier proposition
that there are two separate paths ahead was an oversim-
plification: CS believes there are a multitude of viable
routes between these two extremes and that each organi-
zation must weigh the pros and cons of these alternatives.
Whether employed as a stand alone instant chat
service or a full-fledged implementation that fuses call
center customer relationship management (CRM) pack-
ages with a consumer’s browsing experience, the general
concept of collaborative e-commerce should be the same:
surround the sales process with live human to human
interaction whenever it is cost effective. Collaborative e-
commerce can be a risky undertaking and there are many
pitfalls along the path. It is not a panacea, and CS does
not contend that it will not help everyone sell more
widgets.
Cisco Systems and Dell Computer Corporation are
examples of companies that blend self-help, automation
and collaborative e-commerce tools into a unified system.
These companies’ approach is to provide sales applica-
tions directly to untrained first-time users – their custom-
ers – and then escalate them to humans if they encounter
difficulties. Such companies are turning complexity to
an advantage, by implementing collaborative e-commerce
as a competitive differentiator. They view the new
possibilities of the Web medium as a challenge to be
surmounted rather than as a roadblock.
ConclusionsCS research indicates that collaborative e-commerce
can help organizations by:
· Illustrating ways to make it easier for theircustomers to do business
· Underscoring the importance of allocatingresources for serving the customer
· Offering a methodology for improving outward-facing business processes
· Suggesting avenues to increase customer loyalty
Some of the benefits of collaborative e-commerce are
that it:
1. Improves customer satisfaction by meeting their needs
on the first point of contact
2. Boosts organizational efficiency by helping to create a
contact center that fuses traditional call centers with the Web
3. Raises Web site traffic “eyeballs” and “stickiness,” and
increases sales by creating a new avenue for up- and
cross-selling
4. Creates a competitive advantage by providing a superior
continuum of services to customers
Collaborative e-commerce may, and perhaps should
be viewed as a critical piece of larger e-business initiatives.
The Web is inducing an increasing number of organiza-
tions to redesign their entire customer-facing business
processes. Just as CRM suites consolidate disparate
customer information for internal purposes, collaborative
e-commerce is an avenue for extending such practices
and benefits to the
customers them-
selves. CRM may be
understood as a
continuation of the
reengineering wave
that broke in the
early 1990s. Such
initiatives stream-
lined business
processes, but they
were uniformly
started from the
inside out.
L i k e e -
commerce and RTC,
collaborative e-
commerce has four
areas of potential application: B2C, B2B, government
and to a lesser degree, consumer to consumer. Like the
others, collaborative e-commerce is intrinsically global
as well. CS new report, Collaborative E-Commerce: A
Market Forecast and Strategic Guide, largely focuses on
collaborative e-commerce from B2C and B2B perspectives.
This approach naturally follows how this marketplace
has emerged over the past few years. Please follow this
if you want more details on this exciting new industry
report. We also have a survey available in which you may
express your opinion about collaborative e-commerce
and have the executive summary of this report sent to
you via e-mail as soon as it is available.
In this holiday season, the promise of eCommerce
is high. What is becoming increasingly clear is that it is
no longer adequate for a company just to put up a web
site with a list, catalog or database of items, and then sit
back and rake in the bucks. The Internet has transformed
our expectations not only as consumers, but also in any
business interactions. We expect access to high quality
content at a low cost, and even more critical we expect
service equal or better than what we get in a traditional
retail institution. Although we have been using the
Internet as a broadcast medium, it was actually
constructed to be an interactive medium. With increasing
sophistication of usage, and the trend towards immediate
interaction the need to interact with customers and
business partners at
a lower cost has
become a critical
t r e n d i n
e C o m m e r c e .
C o l l a b o r a t i v e
Strategies explores
eCommerce from
the point of view of
the interaction
between people via
t h e c o m p u t e r,
rather than just a
person accessing
data web page. This
is because we
believe that for
c o m p l e x o r
sophisticated products, it is people that sell to people, not
web sites or catalogs. Yes, that works for Beanie Babies
and books, but not for network routers, cars or houses.
These larger more complex e-sales often require
interpersonal interaction.
CS defines collaborative e-commerce as “the
application of customer service representatives (CSRs) or
other human agents to e-commerce, specifically pertaining
to the sales and customer support processes.” Collaborative
e-commerce software tools allow human agents to interact
online with potential customers as well as current
customers and business partners in real time. Through
the utilization of text chat, collaborative Web browsing,
call backs (over the Public Switched Telephone Networks
(PSTN), voice over Internet Protocol ( VOIP),
streaming/two-way video, Instant Messaging, and
application viewing/sharing, CS research indicates that
a growing number of organizations are empowering their
CSRs to interact with customers live over the Internet.
This increased level of customer care leads to significantly
higher e-commerce (and potentially offline) revenues
when deployed under the proper conditions.
Despite the stunning progress that e-commerce and
e-business technologies have made over the past decade,
few argue that online customer service is leading the
charge. Indeed, reports, case studies and common
experience all suggest that customer service on the Web
currently lags far behind its offline counterpart. A recent
E-Commerce Times survey of 50 e-commerce retail sites
did not find any that qualified for “excellent” or even
“good” ratings in customer service, for example.
In the process of researching this report, CS found
that there were many different types of online support
available. Self-help tools may be considered the “ground
floor” of customer support. In this area FAQs, search
engines and the like help shoppers and customers find
what they need, assuming it is online in the first place.
The next area may be described as the automation level.
Within this level arel reside automation technologies
including advanced search engines, intelligent/virtual
agents, customer profiling tools, and automated e-mail
response tools.
While automated e-mail responses can help
minimize the quantity and quality of the e-mails that
contact center CSRs/agents must answer (driving
efficiency and saving money in the process), CS believes
that this level of response is far from adequate in terms
of the level of customer service many customers expect
from e-commerce oriented Web sites. A recent
BizRate.com survey found that level and quality of
customer service was the top factor in generating repeat
business. Surprisingly, customer service was found to be
three times as important as price. CS believes the cost
savings associated with self-help and automation
technologies must be balanced against the opportunity
cost of delivering inferior customer support. Not all
automatic e-mail response tools adequately resolve the
initial inquiry. Surely getting the wrong response 24
hours later is worse then as bad asnot getting one at all!
Despite the stunning progress that e-commerce and
e-business technologies have made over the past few
years, online customer service lags far behind its offline
counterpart. A recent E-Commerce Times survey of 50 e-
commerce retail sites did not find any that qualified for
“excellent” or even “good” ratings in customer service.
A ComputerWorld article quoted a survey of 125 sites
that found that over half never responded to e-mailed
customer service inquiries, took more than 5 days to
reply, or failed to offer an e-mail address on their site at
all. Even the best ERM system fails to address the needs
of the customer who wants immediate online customer
care while they are considering the merits of a particular
product or service.
Partially because of these customer care deficiencies,
many people don’t complete online transactions. A
survey of more than 10,000 respondents (from
BizRate.com and the NPD Group) revealed that 75 percent
of online consumers have abandoned shopping carts in
the past three months. When asked why they’re
abandoning online shopping carts, 31% of respondents
claimed they simply changed their minds. How many of
those that just “changed their minds” may have been
persuaded in the other direction by a skilled contact
center agent/CSR? CS research indicates that automation
tools should be as invisible as possible and that escalation
to live human support should occur anytime it makes
sense economically. Before turning to what CS has
determined the size of the collaborative e-commerce
market to be, let’s first create some context for
understanding the complexities associated with the e-
commerce and call/contact center marketplaces.
E-Commerce and Call/Contact CenterMarket Forecasts
Together, business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-
to-business (B2B) e-commerce revenues are anticipated
to climb from $213 billion this year to $1.39 trillion by
the end of 2003 (data derived from public , according to
data from Merrill Lynch, eMarketer and Upside Magazine
sources). The majority of these revenues will be generated
in the B2B sector. B2B e-commerce revenues should
grow to more than seven times B2C revenues by 2003.
Nearly $170 billion will be generated in the B2C
sector by 2003 worldwide. This is a significant increase
from $64.3 billion revenues expected to be generated in
2000, according to Merrill Lynch and eMarketer. The
growth rate for B2C eCommerce between 1999 and 2003
should be 58% CAGR. Merrill Lynch and Zona Research
studies also indicate that the number of actual B2C
buyers is anticipated to pass the 180 million mark
worldwide by 2003, up from 71.5 million in 2000. The
top three B2C verticals in terms of revenue generation in
2000 are travel, hardware/consumer electronics, and
books. The B2C market is characterized by an annual
seasonal sales cycle, culminating the holiday buying
season. A variety of sources believe the 2000 holiday
season will generate between $12 and $20 billion in
online sales.
Despite the success of some B2C “dotcom”
companies over the past several years, the B2B segment
has quietly moved into a position of e-commerce
dominance in 2000. In its most simple form, B2B e-
commerce may be viewed as a triangle, represented by
a consumer/buyer, a supplier, and a reseller or partner
of the supplier, but this may be augmented to include
six or more parties. The B2B e-commerce sector is
expected to grow from $167.2 billion in 2000 to over $1.2
trillion by 2003, according to Merrill Lynch and Upside
Magazine estimates. Over this five-year period, B2B e-
commerce will expand by more than 91% annually. The
top three B2B verticals in terms of revenue currently
include computing and electronics, utilities, and motor
vehicles. Issues of integration with legacy systems and
data magnify the complexities of effective B2B e-
commerce and e-business initiatives among established
companies. However, CS believes these established
companies should have an advantage over the long term
in offline support that pure Internet players cannot easily
duplicate. Thus while such established players often face
the challenge of playing “catch up” with their pure play
Internet counterparts, they also have more to gain in the
long term from the unification of their online and offline
customer services strategies.
An increasing number of traditional PSTN call
centers today are morphing into more flexible and
extensible contact centers, which are readily capable of
supporting collaborative e-commerce and other customer
service functions. The contact center is often closely
associated with customer relationship management
(CRM) packages. Traditional call centers evolved
independently, long before mainstream acceptance of
the Internet. Brick-and-mortar B2B companies tend to
especially have well-established PSTN legacy systems in
place, making the conversion to contact centers
particularly difficult.
But with the added potential for Web-based
interaction with customers – both asynchronous and in
real time – the need to integrate traditional PSTN call
center functions with the Internet is clearly growing.
While many initial efforts were to treat these avenues as
separate, the trend we see is the in the integration of
online and offline service centers. Customers and buyers
may e-mail an agent about a call they placed the previous
week or vice versa. With the advent of live human-to-
human interaction in a sales or support context online,
these complexities are growing geometrically. Thus,
many call centers are being forced to convert into contact
centers, where integration across all customer contact
channels is achieved.
A reported $980 billion in products and services
were sold through call centers in 2000, a figure which is
g r o w i n g 2 0 % a n n u a l l y, a c c o r d i n g t o
PriceWaterhouseCoopers. If accurate, this means that
call centers will generate 4 to 6 times the revenues of B2C
and B2B e-commerce combined this year. A recent
Teleprofessional magazine article stated that there were
2.5 million agent seats in the US in 1998, and would
increase to 2.7 million in 2003. This article also stated that
the total number of call centers in the US was 69,500 in
1998, and is expected to top the 78,000 mark in 2003.
The Collaborative E-CommerceMarket Forecast, 1999-2003
CS estimates that the collaborative e-commerce
software and services market will grow from $760 million
in 2000 to $5.7 billion in 2003. Collaborative e-commerce
vendors that sell directly to other companies are far from
being the only revenue-generating component of the
market. Channel partners come from a variety of
backgrounds and provide a wide range of services that
help customers get the most out of their collaborative e-
commerce technology investment. Channel partners
may be: resellers/VARs, OEM partners, system integrators,
training firms, marketing partners, strategic partners,
consulting firms and other types of organizations.
We believe
that most of the
collaborative e-
c o m m e r c e
channel revenue
over time will be
earmarked for the
B2B space due to
t h e o n g o i n g
complexity of
b o t h t h e
relationship and
the products sold
in this sector. For
vendors in the
collaborative e-
commerce space,
this rapid channel expansion indicates that those with
the most partners – both in terms of quality and quantity
– are more likely to succeed.
3 Methods for EstimatingCollaborative eCommerce
CS research indicates that while the number of
collaborative e-commerce implementations is rising at
a much more rapid rate than the total number of call
centers, it will continue to represent a small fraction of
this total through the forecast period. Our analysis
indicates that between 1999 and 2003:
· Total call center growth will be 2.3% (CAGR)
· Collaborative e-commerce contact centerimplementation growth will be 80.5% (CAGR)
A second way to approach market penetration is to
consider the number of collaborative e-commerce
enabled software agent seat licenses that have been sold
worldwide and compare this to the number of agent
seats around the globe. CS expects the number of agent
seats with collaborative e-commerce functions to rise
rapidly over the next three years. Between 1999 and 2003
our analysis found:
· Total call centerseat growth willremain at 6.5%(CAGR)
·Collaborativee - c o m m e r c econtact centerseat growth willbe 62% (CAGR)
The third
a p p r o a c h t o
penetration is to
consider the total
number of e-
commerce sites
and compare this
w i t h o u r
implementation
totals for collaborative e-commerce. Since there are over
one million e-commerce sites and slightly more than
5,000 collaborative e-commerce implementations to date,
penetration from this perspective is very low. Indeed, in
2000, this means roughly 0.5% of all e-commerce sites
support this function.
Additional FindingsCS completed two surveys that directly bear on the
adoption and use of collaborative e-commerce tools. In
late 1999, CS completed a yearlong project examining
the penetration of real time collaboration (RTC) tools in
Fortune 1000 and Government organizations. Nearly 150
completed surveys were received. One of the findings of
this survey was that 60% of Fortune 1000 employees
thought their organization hads a strong e-commerce
and e-business strategy in place. Furthermore, CS
estimates that 20% to 25% of these organizations have
already adopted collaborative e-commerce tools (an
above average penetration rate). Such systems were not
regarded as being particularly effective, however. This
lukewarm response to collaborative e-commerce tools
was probably the result of several converging factors (see
below). We also asked those already using such tools to
identify the perceived implementation benefits. The top
three responses were: to create a competitive advantage,
boost productivity, and increase customer satisfaction.
CS conducted a second survey in late 2000 in an
attempt to gather additional current data and to better
represent smaller organizations. One finding of this
survey was that an amazing 90% respondents indicated
that they consider collaborative e-commerce to be either
critical or very important to the long-term success of
their organization. Based on parallels between the two
surveys CS has identified several other key points:
· High technology companies appear to be theleading edge in the adoption of these tools
· B2B uses seem to be the “sweet spot” forcollaborative e-commerce for the next few years
· Adoption of these tools is likely to acceleratesignificantly in coming years
More than a dozen case studies from ten industries
are presented in the report including:
· High Technology
· Financial Services
· B2C Retail
· Communications
· Manufacturing
· Professional Services
· Architecture/Engineering/Construction (AEC)
· Healthcare/Pharmaceutical
· Transportation
· Government
Such case studies concretely illustrate the advantages
of collaborative e-commerce as well as showing the
practical limits and implementation issues associated
with such tools. Based on CS analysis, an opportunity
assessment tool is also offered in the report so that
organizations that may be considering the adoption of
collaborative e-commerce products and services may
gauge their readiness and likelihood of success.
Our research indicates the collaborative e-commerce
vendor marketplace is highly fragmented and that none
of the 40 vendors in the market can effectively claim
dominance. CS split the 24 vendors profiled in this report
into three groups or classes based on their tool’s core
value proposition as well as the company’s background
and closest competitors. It’s critical to note that all of
the vendors profiled have some real time online customer
care functionality built into the tool being considered in
the profile. The three classes of collaborative e-commerce
vendors identified by CS are as follows:
1 . Call center: Vendors profiled in this subsection
primarily compete in the call center arena that has
become well established over the past thirty years. The
tools covered may be primarily IP based software, but
these tools are designed to significantly augment – if not
completely replace – existing call center systems. Six
vendors are covered in this subsection.
2 . Real Time Web: This group of tools was designed
from the ground up to support real time online customer
care. They may not support any PSTN call center
functions at all, however, and some of the vendors profiled
don’t even interface with such systems. They generally
support a high level of real time Web interaction. Thirteen
vendors are covered in this subsection.
3 . ERM/Automation: These tools are strongest in
e-mail response management and/or automation
technologies. Self-help tools may be part of these systems
as well. The real time Web care functions are often
positioned for use by CSRs as a last resort. Five vendors
are covered in this subsection.
Each of the 24 profiles provides an abundance of
current details about the vendor company, their tool,
distribution channels, partnerships/alliances and strategic
direction. While the vast majority of the vendors currently
sell server-based enterprise or call center oriented
software licenses, a few utilize the ASP approach. A
feature/function matrix on these collaborative commerce
vendors is included in the appendix.
CS divided the challenges and barriers associated
with the digital marketplace (and collaborative e-
commerce as one aspect of it) into five broad, interrelated
areas. These areas include security/cryptography,
consumer protection and privacy, legal/financial issues,
technology issues and integration with legacy systems,
and corporate culture (behavior). One of the most critical
emerging standards in the digital marketplace is
Extensible Markup Language (XML, or meta data). Other
emerging standards that are similar to XML in some
respects include BOF and CBL.
Basic network infrastructure standards that are
relevant to this space include TCP/IP and HTTP.
Messaging and transactional database standards that
run on application servers include: SMTP, POP3, IMAP4,
IRC, FTP, ODBC, CORBA, and OTS/IIOP.
If implemented correctly, CS analysis indicates that
collaborative e-commerce tools can benefit organizations
in a number of ways. Such tools can:
· Improve customer satisfaction by meeting theirneeds on the first point of contact
· Boost efficiency through the creation of a contactcenter that fuses the call center with the Web
· Raise site traffic “eyeballs” and “stickiness,” aswell as increase sales by creating a new avenue forup- and cross-selling
· Create a competitive advantage by providing asuperior continuum of services to customers
The road to robust online customer care will be
bumpy at best for the next decade (at least). As e-
commerce climbs into the trillions of dollars and e-
business becomes an increasingly critical component of
organizational success, CS research indicates that real
time online customer care will also become paramount.
Collaborative e-commerce strategies may well make the
difference between the success and failure in this age of
immediacy brought about by the Internet. The goal of
this report was to look at the evolution of online customer
service, and specifically the effective introduction of a
people back into the online sales, service and support
processes. It is our view that we have moved from the age
of “personal productivity” into the age of “interpersonal
productivity”, and those that can deal with the increasing
levels of complexity and immediacy associated with this
evolution will be successful. It is clear that people buy
larger or more complex products and services not from
Web sites, but from other people. It is the inter-
personalization of e-commerce, not just the infrastructure
and technologies that support e-commerce that we see as
the next critical stage in this evolution.
For those interested in additional information about
CS latest publishing effort, there are more details available
online. We believe the Collaborative E-Commerce: A
Market Forecast and Strategic Guide report will be an
invaluable asset to vendors in this market as well as user
organizations that are interested in implementing such
solutions. If you complete our survey on this topic, you
may also have the executive summary of this report e-
mailed to you.
© 2000 Collaborative Strategies, LLC. All rights reserved.
Lewis Ward is a Senior Research Analyst at Collaborative Strategies. Mr. Ward joined the company in the fall
of 1997 and has since written functional and technical analyses of over fifty IP-based software applications.
He received a BA in English from the University of California at Berkeley in 1994 and continues to write articles
for a variety of internationally distributed magazines including IT Professional, Knowledge Management and
e-Business Advisor. Always willing to extend a helping hand, Lewis can be reached via e-mail at