eCommerce: Formulation of Strategy (Paperback)

by Robert Plant (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"An excellent primer for executives, business strategists, and CIOs."— Bob Clinton, Director, Internet Business Group, Motorola, Inc.

"Do not fool yourself. The Internet is global. eCommerce: Formulation of Strategy is the first book I've read that provided me with empiric models that helped me structure successful frameworks for our clients to compete online...globally."— Andre Vanyi-Robin, President and CEO, Visualcom.Com

"A strong blend of academic research and practitioner pragmatism that provides substantive research-based models that CEOs and e-commerce strategists can use immediately."— Daniel E. O'Leary, Ph.D., Professor, Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California

"A must-read for executives planning to implement and e-business strategy."— Winston Estridge, President of Nortel Networks Enterprise Solutions, North America

Product Description
(Financial Times Prentice Hall) Helps executives understand their e-commerce objectives and define metrics and processes that help every team member stay on track. Drawing on research at more than 40 top e-commerce organizations, this text helps optimize brand, technology, service, market, and development. Softcover. DLC: Electronic commerce--Case studies.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR (July 8, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0130198447
• ISBN-13: 978-0130198440
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #339,559 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Buy the book skip hiring the expensive consultants, July 12, 2000

By A Customer

There is so much about the Internet, and how everyone is making/loosing on the Internet. This book clears all of the clutter with real life examples, and has allowed me to develop a strategy that expands my business, not just opens my checkbook!

The book balances technical and organizational needs into a clear methodological framework of business strategies that I am using in the real world. Helping me understand the relevance of technology as not only the way to change the business, but using technology to build brand, market and service strategies.

I really liked the books scorecard approach that assisted me in the implementation of my Internet strategy.

I think that the book is a good book for the professional to help focus their Internet strategies, and someone just starting to look at developing an Internet plan.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Required reading for IT professionals too!, April 12, 2001

By	Linda Zarate "IT Ops Consultant" (Azusa, CA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

My expectations from this book were twofold: (1) gain insights into the business value of e-commerce so I could have a fuller understanding of how my role as a service delivery consultant fit into the bigger picture, and (2) see the implementation strategy from the business process owner's point of view. This book fully met my expectations and provided further insights that I did not expect.

An an IT professional my point of view is different from the intended audience of this book and this is reflected in my review. First, this book provided my with an opportunity to observe the business forces that drive the systems that I support. I gained a good understanding of the business imperatives, as well as the challenges that the business face when developing an e-commerce strategy. From this I gained an appreciation of how the projects that IT initiate are first conceived and was able to see the direct link between these projects and how they ultimately relate to business objectives. These insights are valuable and inspire me to seek ways to better align my domain, service delivery, to business goals.

I also gained a much greater understanding or the many faces of e-commerce, such as the unique requirements of business-to-customer as contrasted with, for example, business to business. From my vantage point prior to reading this book it was just a collection of applications and interfaces. After reading this book I see beyond the technology itself to the real purposes and their associated goals.

This book also contains information that is directly applicable to my profession. The ownership issues and e-strategy leadership chapters gave me a clear view of who the real stakeholders are, which is of the utmost importance to service delivery. This information sparked some ideas about support strategies and other issues that I need to consider with respect to e-commerce systems from an IT perspective. Equally important is the chapters on the roll out strategy, which is a space where I have a definite role, and the scorecard approach to measuring the effectiveness of an internet strategy. The latter gave me some clear ideas about how to align IT service delivery to business stakeholders in the e-commerce domain.

In my opinion this book is as applicable to IT professionals as it is to business process owners and decision makers. It gives the business side a clear understanding of the factors and issues that go into an e-commerce strategy, and an approach to developing and implementing the strategy. It gives the IT professional some unique insights on that drives the requirement to develop and implement e-commerce systems and shows areas where we can add value to the process and help assure a successful implementation.

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars From Freedman and Porter to Dr. Plant's eCommerce insights, July 12, 2000

By	Alex J Funkhouser "[e-mail]" (Miami Beach, FL United States) - See all my reviews

Building upon the economic pillars of Milton Freedman and the strategy formulation techniques of Michael Porter, Dr. Robert Plant's "eCommerce: Formulation of Strategy" delivers valuable insight to business professionals who must learn the dynamics of the New Economy in our new millennium.

Based on empirical analysis of the world's cutting edge eCommerce companies and the rapidly evolving brick and mortar powerhouses, Dr. Plant presents an Executive level education for eCommerce strategy formulation. This book should be required reading for all business leaders and professional academics of 21st century business.