Customer Reviews

E-Profit: High Payoff Strategies for Capturing the E-Commerce Edge

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3 star:		(2)
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e-Profit

Cohan wastes no time introducing and then explaining a number of "high payoff strategies for capturing the e-commerce edge." He wrote this book to suggest how to remove the "blocks" that inhibit the progress of e-commerce. The material is organized as follows:

Part I: Winning the Economic Case for E-Commerce (eg How to Avoid Low-Payoff E-Commerce Applications)

Part II: Managing the Transition to E-Commerce (eg Principles of Managing E-Commerce-Induced Change)

Part III: Building the E-Commerce Infrastructure (eg Principles of Successful E-Commerce Management)

Throughout the book, Cohan includes a number of "Case Lessons" derived from corporate initiatives which include those of Cisco Connection Online, the Ames Research Center, Charles Schwab, W.W. Grainger, Chase Manhattan, Microsoft E-Procurement, Merrill Lynch, HP Inkjet Printers, Weyerhaeuser, Eastman Chemical, eBay, Horizon Healthcare, Allied Signal, and American International Group (AIG). I rate this book so highly for three main reasons: It is especially well-organized; most of the content (to the best of my knowledge) has not as yet been provided elsewhere in a single source; and finally, Cohan's brilliant analysis of the material enables virtually any organization (regardless of its size or nature) to avoid or overcome the aforementioned "blocks" that inhibit the progress of e-commerce.

All of his advice seems to be anchored in a wealth of real-world experience. Better yet, each of the many clusters of specific recommendations is provided within a directly relevant frame-of-reference. For example, in the final chapter, "Managing the Implementation", Cohan prepares his reader for an immensely difficult process before offering these suggestions: Identify the capabilities needed to make the e-commerce project successful; analyze the company's capability gap [or gaps]; if necessary, hire an outside consultant with a compelling track record and experienced people; anticipate the effort of integrating back- and front-end systems; fix the time and cost of the e-commerce development process; and finally, be prepared to modify the e-commerce system after it goes into operation. Of course, how easy it is for Cohan (or anyone else, for that matter) merely to stockpile all manner of suggestions. As noted, Cohan anchors all of his suggestions within a context. Moreover, the clusters are arranged in a logical sequence.

If your organization is about to become significantly involved in e-commerce or if its involvement in e-commerce (thus far) has been unsatisfactory, and you need the best single source of information and advice to guide your initiatives, look no further.

This book offers very down to earth advice for using the internet and other IT in any size business. The sections of the book I enjoyed the most dealt with the type of attitude the CEO and Senior Management Team of any company must have toward IT to make a substantial difference in the use of the internet.

Cohan did not just deal with the usual "big names" like Amazon, Cisco, Schwab, Microsoft, eBay, etc. There were some other examples from smaller companies dealing with contract fulfillment for IT projects. Threre was not a lot of new information on some of the internet "greats" like Amazon, because so much has already been written, but the information was still good and clear, and frankly I enjoy rehashing it anyway.

What was a substantial contribution from this book is the chapters on the use of internet systems for procurement and accounts payable and the amount of money saved with the system, as well as the amount of money saved with internet stock trades and insurance purchases. This information is out there in the business press, but not in this form making the points of this book.

I highly recommend this book for anyone thinking about expanding their use of the internet in their business.

i m currently in the midst of implementing a click and mortar set-up and have been scouring the book shelves for a book that gives u a strategic and at the same time realistic roadmap. i hv come across quite a number of books on this - metacapitalism by G Means & David Schneider; Executive's Guide to EBusiness by Deise, E-loyalty, loyalty.com, etc, etc.

I found that most books were either 1) too theoretical and ivory-towerish or 2) too process-oriented (almost a DIY guide). THe first is good for brainstorming and stress-testing your ideas but they are ultimately still at the idea stage. The second type is like having a map for you to explore the amazon jungle (pardon the pun). Sure it's all written in clear type there but what do you want really if u r about to dive in to the jungle? you want to know why you are going in (strategy), you need to have a good roadmap (process/skill-sets) but mostly you want an experienced guy to warn you of the dangers ahead - the pitfalls ... afterall do not forget when amazon, yahoo, ebay, priceline, boo.com debuted, they were the toasts of the theorists. You can never find fault with a theorist, but how much value is there unless you hv been thru it and live to tell. The devil is in the details. Cohan has succeeded in painting an informative wealth of these trenchant realities within the limitations of his well-written book, trenchant because he incorporates the need and analysis for financial returns vis-a-vis strategy and model. His training is in finance (wharton) and comp science/E Eng (MIT/Swarthmore)plus some years of his own consulting so i hv bet my dollars on his book and it has been a well placed bet and read.

`e-Profit' is aimed at executives/consultants, to clarify the e-business landscape, learn from others, and embark upon e-business projects.

The lightly referenced, confusingly typeset and verbose chapters span:

++ Part I- Winning The Economic Case for E-Commerce (evidence, financials, and competitive advantage).

++ Part II- Managing the Transition to E-Commerce (senior management, applications evaluation, and leading & sustaining change).

++ Part III- Building E-Commerce Infrastructure (architecture, suppliers, deals, and implementation).

Strengths include: the wide range of secondary source anecdotes and case studies; and the confident style & structuring of materials.

Weaknesses include: 40% redundant words for content; relative lack of useful illustrations/tables; irritating use of fonts/sizes; and superficiality of analysis.

Other alternatives texts in this area include: Deise et al's deep KPMG `E-Business' (ISBN 0471376396); May's technical focus `The Business of E-Commerce' (ISBN 052177698); Hoque's opinionated `E-Enterprise' (ISBN: 052177487X); Siegel's glossy brainstorms in `Futurize Your Enterprize'(0471357634); and Bloor's marketplace spin in `electronic B@zaar' (ISBN185788258X).

Overall, `e-Profit' felt a bit like a draft literature review in need of editing, after which would be a useful look-up resource.

This book was loaned to me by a colleague. Now I want my own copy!

Cohan doesn't just examine the state of the E-Commerce gain (though he does that well), he also explores on the issues that make businesses loathe to actually dive into the e-commerce pool: Lack of knowledge about the technical issues involved; fear of change to the organisation; and lack of management buy-in.

An E-commerce venture requires input from technical and commercial staff. This book seems geared more towards the commercial guys, but as a computer nerd I found the business issues discussed with clarity.

Similarly the financial guys will find the technological issues are well discussed without getting into the dirty details and TLAs that we love to confuse y'all with :-)

Great book! Well researched, has a lot of good information, and very accessible.

First off, this book really needs a good edit. I suspect that its publication schedule did not allow time for sufficient proofreading. Second, the book contains nice anecdotes of various companies' adventures in e-commerce, and anecdotes are certainly useful, although the anecdotes don't always seem to support the points that the author is trying to make. In any event, too much of this book is regurgitated from the trade press, without any value-added contribution from the author. The author may spend 2 or 3 pages "summarizing" an article from the trade press, which was only 2 or 3 pages long to begin with. This book is not nearly as good as one might wish, but it is "consistent with reality," which is more than you can say for some e-commerce books.

The business world is rife with wild forecasting about the possibilities of utilizing Internet technology. But how do you identify ways to use the internet in your business? How can you use e-commerce to create real competitive advantage for your organization? Peter S. Cohan provides a seven-step evaluation plan to map out costs and benefits of an e-project for your company, as well as tips for involving the CEO and management. Additionally, he has guidelines for designing an architecture and evaluating E-Commerce suppliers.

Seven steps for your E-Commerce evaluation:
1. Diagram you current business process.
2. Measure the time and cost of your current process.
3. Map out the e-engineered process.
4. Estimate the time and cost of the e-engineered process.
5. Develop a plan for the e-engineering project.
6. Calculate the cost of implementing the e-engineering project including time and infrastructure investments.
7. Prepare an integrated cash-flow analysis of the e-engineering project.

David Cohan's book is too useful to read in linear progression. Each chapter is a self-contained unit composed of an e-commerce problem, a case study analyzing how one company attempted to solve the problem, and a series of principles for effective problem solving. The book presents all aspects of e-commerce in useful detail, from motivating the reluctant CEO to managing the implementation of an e-commerce project. This book is for senior executives and change leaders, but it is useful to anyone who wants to learn more about the process of designing, developing, and implementing an e-commerce project. Project managers and consultants also will find the book useful because it presents the e-commerce buyer's perspective in straightforward detail. We[...] recommend this book to senior executives, change agents, business managers and students.

Everybody talks about the potential of E-commerce. E-profit shows how big the impact of this new business model. Many companies that want to jump to e-commerce world often lack of support from the top management. The author clearly shows how many experimental effort from the brave employee can transform almost the part of the company. So at every level implementation of the company that want to shift to e-commerce, this book give a clear model that easily be followed by every company. It also suggest the contingency model of top management support to launch e-commerce business. In short, this book is must have for every company that want to jump to e-commerce but unsure with path to follow...

All I can say is: "It's the best I've read when one is setting up E-Business Model".