Start Right in E-Business : A Step-by-Step Guide to Successful E-Business Implementation (E-Business Solutions)

Rating:
Summary: excellent step by step approach for e-commerce
Review: I must have purchased 10 different e-commerce books. Typically, they have concepts and buzzwords, but are short on how to implement e-commerce. This is one of the few books that really deal with putting in e-commerce. It gives excellent details about how to implement--from creating a strategy to expanding your site. A best buy.

Rating:
Summary: Deals with real implementation
Review: One thing that I liked about the book was the analysis of specific issues across an entire part of the book. There is a chapter on outsourcing as well. The steps in the book can be carried out in parallel. We have been using the book to lay out our project. The book really gets into business and politics as well as technical issues. The book points out that e-business is a program not a project. Commitment from the bottom of the organization is as important as upper management support. This is an important point that the book makes. Another thing--the book does not assume that you have an ERP. A company used the method that had an ERP and found it very useful, however. The book contains little of the "chain" and business model jargon--thankfully. As an example of common sense, the book suggests that you keep searching for the answer to the question "What is success?" This turns out to be critical in e-business since you gain a better understanding as you work your way through installing e-business. The examples and lessons learned in the book are of real use. They are detailed and specific. We have found that there are also good hints on how to manage vendors and consultants and what the roles of consultants and business departments should be. Overall, an excellent read.

Rating:
Summary: good method for e-commerce implementation
Review: Our firm employed this method to implement business to business e-commerce. It really works. We had tried another approach before which did not work. Some benefits of the method are that it encourages a group approach to implementation. It also provides a way to address political issues which we have many of. I found the book very readable and useful. We are now using the book as the basis for doing intranets within our firm. Chapter 2 presents the idea of a project concept. This is valuable in getting consensus on the scope of the work. Chapter 6 is one of the better ways to understand technology without getting into too much detail. Fitting e-commerce into normal business is important and often not covered in other books. It is covered well in chapter 9. Perhaps, one of the most useful chapters is 12. That is where the implementation strategy is developed. This was a turning point in our effort. You can plan all day, but if you do not have a solid approach for putting e-commerce in, you are going to be in trouble. The book also addresses how to use suppliers in a pilot effort to get other suppliers involved-very useful in political terms. Marketing of e-commerce internally and with suppliers is not given much attention. Here an entire chapter is devoted to it. E-commerce is more complex than most people think. This book provides one of the most useful step by step methods.

Rating:
Summary: good method for e-commerce implementation
Review: Our firm employed this method to implement business to business e-commerce. It really works. We had tried another approach before which did not work. Some benefits of the method are that it encourages a group approach to implementation. It also provides a way to address political issues which we have many of. I found the book very readable and useful. We are now using the book as the basis for doing intranets within our firm. Chapter 2 presents the idea of a project concept. This is valuable in getting consensus on the scope of the work. Chapter 6 is one of the better ways to understand technology without getting into too much detail. Fitting e-commerce into normal business is important and often not covered in other books. It is covered well in chapter 9. Perhaps, one of the most useful chapters is 12. That is where the implementation strategy is developed. This was a turning point in our effort. You can plan all day, but if you do not have a solid approach for putting e-commerce in, you are going to be in trouble. The book also addresses how to use suppliers in a pilot effort to get other suppliers involved-very useful in political terms. Marketing of e-commerce internally and with suppliers is not given much attention. Here an entire chapter is devoted to it. E-commerce is more complex than most people think. This book provides one of the most useful step by step methods.

Rating:
Summary: e-business on a reasonable scale
Review: Rather than portray e-business as a huge effort that will consume everything and will transform the world, this is a solid book on getting down to the nuts and bolts of real world. If most e-business books are geared to business suits and theories, this book is down to working uniforms and getting things done without a lot of people or time. It does not assume that you have some fancy systems or technology or that you are a big company with hundreds of IT people. It can fit start up firms and small firms as well. The book provides a detailed roadmap and tells you how to deal with the pitfalls that you will find along the way. The extensive experience of the authors in doing e-business really shows in this book in the issues, lessons learned, and examples. In using the book we have already used 40 of the guidelines and run across over twenty issues. If you want to do e-business, buy this book. If you want theory and vague concepts go elsewhere.