Use of outside expertise

The planning process includes defining the business and considering the type of image that the organisation wants to project online. Goals and objectives to be achieved through the organisation's online presence should be formulated and contractors should clarify how they see these being delivered. Decisions need to be made about what business resources will be allocated to online activities and a budget constructed. Part of this will include assessment of the current in-house expertise and how much will be outsourced both initially and once the Web site goes live.

A Gartner Group survey (cited by Diederich, 1 999) expressed surprise that the firms surveyed didn't get "almost everything they needed" from their e-commerce

application vendor. On average, most corporations used two or more external firms; usually including a nationally recognised media firm as well as local systems

incomplete design brief and subsequently realising once a system is in place that either the organisation's needs have not been met or that they have changed. Either way, the situation could have been remedied by careful planning, ensuring the different parties know what roles and tasks they will be required to perform, having a detailed brief with milestones, frequent project briefing meetings between the organisation and the external design agency and holding realistic expectations.

2.6.2.3.1 Web site designers

The relationship with the Web designer should be considered as an extension of the public relations and marketing arms of the operation. The Web site designer needs to understand the organisation's culture rather than just working from a series of briefs. While a Web site design company may have the design skills and software tools, the organisation has knowledge of how employees work, what they need to know and the types of information required by their customers and suppliers.

2.6.2.3.2 Internet Service Providers (ISPs)

Access is gained to the Internet through companies known as Internet Service

Providers or large companies called online services. Most small business use an ISP as the online services, while excellent for businesses, tend to be too slow and expensive for efficient business use. There are a range of IS Ps in New Zealand that provide access either nationwide or a regional geographical area. While finding an ISP and gaining access to the Internet is relatively straightforward, finding the right ISP for a particular business has been more difficult (Booth, 1 999).

All communications on the Internet to or from any part of the world begin with the fabled Root Server A, sometimes called the White Pages of the Net. Every computer directly connected to the Net, a so-called host computer- needs a numerical address. The addresses for the whole world are stored in Root Server A. Most individual users connect by subscription through an Internet Service Provider, or ISP. Some familiar names of ISPs are AOL, CompuServe and AT &T, although there are about 6,000 others providing local or regional services such as Clear, Xtra & IHUG in New Zealand.

Newman (200 1 , p 1 2) said !lISPs have been forced to lift their game from basic dial­ tone providers to specialist development houses able to provide technical expertise, online applications, higher speed bandwidth and transaction-processing capabilities." He saw that ISPs have realised that their survival depends on diversification and being able to offer new levels of service such as fast Internet access, virtual private

networks, secure extranets and intranets, security software or becoming an Application Service Provider hosting remote software for their clients.

E-business is linked inextricably with the Internet and Web-related technologies. Companies may use an Internet Service Provider (ISP) to manage their connections. In addition to maintaining the physical network, a service provider may also play a key role in hosting Web sites, acting as a fire wall or operating electronic commerce servers. Reliability of connection, security, scalability of architecture and overall

capacity are areas where service providers can offer the assurance that an e-business requires (Dei se, Nowikow, King & Wright, 2000). The network structure that underlies the e-commerce operation requires careful consideration in terms of selecting an ISP, network security and server availability. Some companies are not content to entrust to the Internet their business-critical connections with supply-chain and demand-chain partners and customers and seek to establish an extranet involving these groups using a virtual private network, a public data network or a private line. 2.6.2.4 Summary

This section discussed aspects pertinent to the design phase and drew attention to the range of complex issues that need to be covered as part of the design process. Graphic design, technical expertise, Web content and business requirements are some of the areas that need to be considered when an organisation decides whether to contract out or develop the Internet site and accompanying infrastructure themselves. The decision is dependent on a range of factors such as cost, scale, time and available expertise. There does not appear to be much documentation of the process organisations go through to make this decision or how the decision to proceed is made. Anecdotal comments to the researcher have tended to be along the lines of "we just got on with it", "we went for it", "some of us decided to have a go" and "they (management) gave us free rein so we thought we'd see what we came up with".

Both anecdotal and documented research stresses the need for careful research and consultation with employees, customers and suppliers to determine their current and future needs for the Web site. Web site content and layout that are designed for users' needs determine site "stickiness"; the ability to retain visitors for future sessions. Clear goals are also essential so the desired impact can be measured and progress assessed. Other lessons learnt include the need to place the Web site itself in the wider context of the organisation's operations and back office systems as well as the need to budget carefully. The section discussed the use of expertise from outside the business and the skills that Web designers and ISPs can provide.