1. Understanding the fast changing business environment

• The Web has a lot of unique characteristics: Interactive, Immediate, Dynamic, Convenient, Extensive, Powerful and Increasingly authoritative...

• The Internet is an extremely competitive market and only those willing to adapt their continued behaviors are surviving and thriving

• Internet is an Open Network and this implies a Global Open Market!

• The information-intensive nature of the Web requires Web editors and Web masters with not only technical skills but also strong editorial, publishing and excellent knowledge of the company to produce and maintain good content that’s organized in a way that customers can use it. They also need a strong foresight and command of the individual markets they are dealing with.

• The Internet is offering an instant and versatile communication across the world

• The Internet provides virtual inventory. This means that any product in the world is available to anyone worldwide

• The Internet has been touted as a force of disintermediation but "portals" (Yahoo, ...) are actually new middlemen and are consuming a large portion of the profits

• Businesses are venturing into the cyberspace (new terrain) without being prepared to live by (new rules)

• The "wait and see" approach is no longer valid. Traditionally, the business world has held a suspicious eye toward technology.  When considering something new, it's often an approach of "wait and see". Let someone else experiment and make the mistakes, and then we'll leapfrog them with the latest and the greatest. But eCommerce is different. It's enabled by technology, but it involves much, much more. It requires fundamental change in strategic direction, reinvention of business processes, new organizational roles and responsibilities and perhaps a change of culture. These things take time and concentrated effort

• When facing any profound change, particularly one as sweeping as e-commerce, businesses have an overwhelming tendency to apply familiar models

• Internet is forcing some companies to pay the "Transition cost" of change, to restructure their strategy or lose to the competition

• Technology is no longer just about automation and cost reduction. It's about information on customers, competitors, suppliers, and partners, and how that information provides competitive advantage in attracting, expanding and retaining customers

• Understanding Internet's impact on business strategy and the global marketplace, and its effect on business culture, organization, and processes not so obvious.

• Internet is forcing a change in companies from the inside out by cultivating an extended enterprise and a more open, forward-looking corporate culture, and by transforming the social structure from the traditional hierarchical chain of command to a  more collaborative environment

• Companies need to look beyond their traditional boundaries. Winning in eCommerce often requires multi-company collaboration within and across industry boundaries

• Customer Service, including supportive interaction, has been underestimated as a core piece of the on-line business model. Those who use it wisely by ensuring feedback and support mechanisms for their customers will guarantee themselves repeat visits and repeat sales

• The Internet is changing the rules of  business more rapidly than most of us can fully perceive. The speed of change in the Internet Commerce marketplace is having a detrimental impact on companies' ability to mainstream many of the new innovations

• The sudden growth of the Internet has only just begun to open new vistas for improving the business. Business models need to be rethought

• What the Internet has done with its scale has been to demonstrate that there are new options that come into play as the network becomes larger and when its customers are allowed to participate in defining the business

• Deregulation in many industries (telecommunications, ...)  is opening markets to new players

• Emergence of non-traditional competitors such as commercial portals (Yahoo, ...)

• Businesses are facing unprecedented challenges: Suppliers are starting to sell directly to customers. Customers are demanding lower prices with more services. And average selling prices are tumbling

• eCommerce is taking place in a new marketplace. Look at the dominant players in the world of eCommerce today: They were the first ones in. Being second comes with the added cost of trying to win share away from the dominant player in the marketplace. If you see a unique opportunity, take the steps to capture its potential value first.

• The power of networks to destabilize relationships between vendors and suppliers in business-to-business markets. Access to a fuller range of information about product availablility and pricing can shift power away from established relationships. The result may be reduced price to the vendor

• Emergence of economies of scale; size does matter! Think about how your network participation would help you. Here's an example. Suppose a visitor lands on a site of one of your partners. Because of this, it is much more likely that the person will end up on your site through a link and a recommendation. Remember, you've got more than a link. Your partner is recommending and advocating you

• Communalism business is to partner up with a company related but not in direct competition with yours. Your business would then sell your partners products or services to your new and existing clients. Rather than simply linking to a site, the idea is to actually try to build a business community of sites and services. This is a form of business communalism.

• eCommerce will continue to dramatically change consumer lifestyles and behaviors. Consider this as a main element in your pursuits

• Opportunity to gather customer data through business-to-consumer electronic networks, and thereby not only improve customer service but also begin to "lock in" particular segments by offering them more finely targeted products and services

• Businesses should consider fostering relationships, networks, and cooperative communities

• Schools can not afford the expense of keeping up with the technology changes, just like many companies. Not enough technically literate employee are emerging from higher education

• Businesses have the newest industrial disease, Data or Information Overload. Current employees for most companies are not technical enough to handle the information overload that is occuring, lots of data available is not information until radical initiative and a revamping of the "data/information" sources

• Emergence of new ways to distribute products across the web with affiliate programs or associate programs