Here we are - today we have finished the IS class with a double session on ERP systems and IS strategy of a company in general...
Although the raw content of the class sessions was familiar to me at most part, the overall experience was highly enjoyable. I would say that the best days I've had in Term 1 were when we had OB and IS sessions the same day.
I know that many people would disagree with me about one of or both classes, but when it comes to the particular class, with all "disorganized" and "unclear" structure and professor (you've been warned at the 1st session, remember?), the most important thing that was achieved - to make people AWARE.
This blog would probably continue, depending on the workload during the course, but I'd rather prefer LiveJournal for more informal posts.
To those who are interested - read more at El Blog de Enrique Dans (yes, you can use Google Translator on that one!) - and that page is definetely going to be in my bookmarks.
Thanks, Professor!
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Casa del Libro
Spanish nationwide bookshop chain Casa del Libro was established back in 1923. By 2003, it had 12 specialized bookshops in all major cities, successfully competing with general retail chains, such as native El Corte Ingles or French FNAC.The company had established a very comprehensive database, comprising over 1 million articles from over 1600 suppliers. With new technology becoming increasingly popular, they started selling their books online in 1995. In anticipation of rapid expansion of online trade the owners of Casa Del Libro, large editorial group Planeta had acquired a strategic partnership with AOL to launch a dedicated e-commerce company, casadellibro.com, in 2000.
The new company was almost destined to be a market leader, owning state-of-the-art equipment and premium software (Oracle/Excalibur/Vignette on Sun cluster) solutions, backed up by the new management and prominent consulting company...
But then came Dot-Com and 9/11... Following global market, Planeta revenues plunged, newly developed platform had serious integration issues, and new venture was barely surviving the initial stage.
The proposal was to forgo the part of set-up costs and switch to Microsoft SQL solution with a far cheaper setup and mainteinance, but, as analysts argued, less scalable capacity to support the market upturn.
Should the company eventually go for cheaper option? To make an educated guess, one needs to compare fixed costs of maintaining the existing equipment (bear in mind - it's not really working yet!) and anticipated revenues in foreseable future.
If I was to make a decision - heaven forbid - I'd go for Microsoft...
Honestly, because it's less haute-couture type of thing, you are not the hostage of one system integrator and can bring in the tech guy you can afford. In addition, for online business the variable cost is far less than the fixed one, so it's easier to survive with less drag on infrastructure.
Today the things are easier - Microsoft Dynamics provides a fairly sophisticated solution for medium businesses to play with, and if you really hate it - you can convert your databases a bit easier, due to well-known format and exporting options.
Speaking in general, when planning a major switch of platforms one should consider a list of factors (not exclusive):
- Analyze existing situation - is there really a problem (see here, for example)
- Check costs vs. benefits, both in time and money dimesions
- Think about your personnel - if you have established business processes, prepare for drop in productivity and have a good coaching plan handy - people like the way things are.
- Consider sustainability: are you serviced by a one-of-a-kind system integrator? Is he the one who optimizes the system of your competitor?
- Think about external user, should you have any (yes, it's obvious!)
... and it goes on! (that's why IT consultancies prosper, by the way).
But don't think too long - in the high-tech environment the winners and loosers are separated by hours...
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Tesco
Tesco
plc is one of the largest UK retail chains, competing with Sainsbury and ASDA, but it is more than that. Tesco provides a handy pack of extra services, from being cell phone operator to energy saving consultant and DIY legal advisory (!).
It all started about a century ago, when Sir Jack Cohen, a retiree of Royal Army, invested into a grocery store in East End. Soon he began expanding his presence under the brand "TESCO", originating from "TE Stockell", a tea importer, and CO from his own surname. By the end of 1930's there were over 100 stores in country, and today Tesco operates in UK, US, Ireland and Eastern Europe, claiming to be a 3rd largest retailer in the world.
During the 1980's company began to implement a number of technological advancements in an effort to gain markket share and minimize operating costs. Despite a loss oof about 4,5% of the profits, they managed to increase market share from 15 to 18% in just over 6 months.
How? They created a Club Card, which gave customers an ability to gain points on every purchase over 10 pounds, which later could be transferred to cash-back and other benefits.
Simple as that, it allowed Tesco to gain more loyalty from the clients, but also the company started to gather customer profiles, based on the purchasing pattern, frequency and amount of money spent.
By gaining such knowledge, Tesco was able to project sales volumes, optimize and minimize inventories at hand and discover potential customer needs, not yet covered by shop's portfolio.
During 1998, company sent out 80000 variations of product offer booklets to over 8M customers, creating probably the most personalised off-line marketing campaign so far.
Subsequently, during the period of 1996-2001, Tesco introduced Tesco.com, becoming UK's largest e-grocer in just 5 years. By adding a number of value services, such as mentioned earlier travel agency, or making the website accessible for people with sight problems, (not to mention a network of gas stations and a finance institution with Royal Bank of Scotland) they became almost one-stop-shop for most customer needs.
The questions that remain open, though:
- Does optimization of product portfolio according to (majority of) customer's preferences leave such porfolio too generic?
- Is the quality of value-added services worth the time one saves by not doing competitive research?
The answer is probably not that simple. Most of the customers will enjoy shopping at such places, many others will prefer to search for cheaper insurance or favourite cereal brand...
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Meneame
Meneame? Ever heard of it? Think again - Digg was used as an inspiration to this Spanish on-line news digest. This is the page where many internet users are free to post the stories that they encounter while sufing the net, or even heard of somewhere and went online to check out what's going on.
Resources of this kind remind of some periodicals - like Reader's Digest, etc. However, is it the same when it comes to Internet thing? Maybe, and maybe not.
Many of current "news sites" are, in fact, a compilation of each other, sometimes even repeating the typos of peers. So, when it comes to content, it should not be a great deal if another compilation site appears. But this one is comprised of stories which are rated by people, so you are not likely to read about another wild party with Lindsay Lohan for 2 weeks in a row.
So, when it comes to difference, Meneame has its point, especially considering a part of Spanish-speaking audience that is not English-speaking. Should they worry of "clones"(did I say, it's an open-source project)? Not likely. These will appear, but as one my friend said - "If I subscribe to everything, I end up reading nothing". This place belongs to the first one - unless the owner decides to close domain.
Now, let's consider commericialization of Meneame - after all, it went straight-line from 0 to 300 000 users in less than 6 months. You could sell ads on the webpages - true, but what if propose to make a "also featured" exhibit on the news page of top-quoted newsmakers? Say, you're reading an article from El Pais posted by Jose this morning and you're able to get more headlines on their webpage...
Resources of this kind remind of some periodicals - like Reader's Digest, etc. However, is it the same when it comes to Internet thing? Maybe, and maybe not.
Many of current "news sites" are, in fact, a compilation of each other, sometimes even repeating the typos of peers. So, when it comes to content, it should not be a great deal if another compilation site appears. But this one is comprised of stories which are rated by people, so you are not likely to read about another wild party with Lindsay Lohan for 2 weeks in a row.
So, when it comes to difference, Meneame has its point, especially considering a part of Spanish-speaking audience that is not English-speaking. Should they worry of "clones"(did I say, it's an open-source project)? Not likely. These will appear, but as one my friend said - "If I subscribe to everything, I end up reading nothing". This place belongs to the first one - unless the owner decides to close domain.
Now, let's consider commericialization of Meneame - after all, it went straight-line from 0 to 300 000 users in less than 6 months. You could sell ads on the webpages - true, but what if propose to make a "also featured" exhibit on the news page of top-quoted newsmakers? Say, you're reading an article from El Pais posted by Jose this morning and you're able to get more headlines on their webpage...
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Searches...
Speaking of relevance of Google's search results and the way the people can re-define the dictionary on the Net...
Sometimes, when you are searching for something very obvious, you'd just first type the www.(destination).com - like www.dhl.com, for example. So, without a second thought I did type the www.whitehouse.org into my web browser...
Well... the result was not exactly the one I was expected (check out for yourself).
Coming back to Google - this very page goes on the 6th place in the search results, right after the Google maps, official site(s) and Wiki!
Sometimes, when you are searching for something very obvious, you'd just first type the www.(destination).com - like www.dhl.com, for example. So, without a second thought I did type the www.whitehouse.org into my web browser...
Well... the result was not exactly the one I was expected (check out for yourself).
Coming back to Google - this very page goes on the 6th place in the search results, right after the Google maps, official site(s) and Wiki!
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
To blog or not to blog....
Almost a Shakespearean question?
Yes, so it was to Vichy Cosmetics, a French subsidiary of L'Oreal, who once (back in 2005) decided to open the "blog" for the purpose of promoting their new product, a skin care line "Peel Microabrasion".
The blogs phenomena appeared (in late 90's) a perfect tool for idle graphomans to express their ideas, or, more importantly, a free-to-use platform for every concerned speaker, who then was able to express their vision in a sort of mass-media, available to a vast (and growing) population of Internet users.
While some of the blogs are still anonymous (the author disguises his/herself under a fictious nickname, and still gets figured by most tenacious followers), personal, "named" blogs have become a personal mass-media with rights and obligations of a real hardcopy. Some of not-so-lucky bloggers got fired, fined, or brought up to court for expressing their opinions (which contradicted their employers' vision of proper conduct).
So, while being an "unofficial" form of expressing oneself (as perceived by many), the blog has its obligations...
Now, shall we go back to Vichy?
They started a "blog", which idea was proposed by some well-known promotion agency - that is, to have a fictional character ("Claire") "post" or "blog" about the effect of her using the new "Peel Microabrasion" product. However, the blog took a little more than 2 weeks to reveal it's being "too professional" and "made up". Then, the havoc started to unroll.
So why did this happen? Well, blog-readers usually expect an objective (and biased) opinion of a real person who's behind the blog, and they really feel as being "set up" if this is just a trick of a bunch of marketers... Just because they can pick up a nice booklet in a nearest cosmetics shop to know about how nice the product is! To read the blog is much like asking a stranger what he/she thinks, and what if the stranger is just a sales agent?
As a result, Vichy tried to gather all the negative feedback and converted the blog (with the help of Loic Le Meur) to something else - an online consultancy, which, as they claim, is how it was meant to be from the very start.
But should they have done the "blog" (or flog="fake blog") at the first place?
I believe not. Since this type of media is believed to be "real" by nature, and is exposed to a variety of critics - he truth is too easy to uncover... Then everyone's hurt - readers in their feelings, publisher (the Vichy) - in renommé.
What could be done afterwards? Apologies? Yes, probably. Asking feedback from "betrayed" users in a tight timeframe? Maybe not. Personally, I would run for a transparency campaign, squeezing "feedback" sections in every webpage of a real product, or even at the shop's counter. They have done it good - since they asked their consumers, and, they stayed on-line - after all.
Yes, so it was to Vichy Cosmetics, a French subsidiary of L'Oreal, who once (back in 2005) decided to open the "blog" for the purpose of promoting their new product, a skin care line "Peel Microabrasion".
The blogs phenomena appeared (in late 90's) a perfect tool for idle graphomans to express their ideas, or, more importantly, a free-to-use platform for every concerned speaker, who then was able to express their vision in a sort of mass-media, available to a vast (and growing) population of Internet users.
While some of the blogs are still anonymous (the author disguises his/herself under a fictious nickname, and still gets figured by most tenacious followers), personal, "named" blogs have become a personal mass-media with rights and obligations of a real hardcopy. Some of not-so-lucky bloggers got fired, fined, or brought up to court for expressing their opinions (which contradicted their employers' vision of proper conduct).
So, while being an "unofficial" form of expressing oneself (as perceived by many), the blog has its obligations...
Now, shall we go back to Vichy?
They started a "blog", which idea was proposed by some well-known promotion agency - that is, to have a fictional character ("Claire") "post" or "blog" about the effect of her using the new "Peel Microabrasion" product. However, the blog took a little more than 2 weeks to reveal it's being "too professional" and "made up". Then, the havoc started to unroll.
So why did this happen? Well, blog-readers usually expect an objective (and biased) opinion of a real person who's behind the blog, and they really feel as being "set up" if this is just a trick of a bunch of marketers... Just because they can pick up a nice booklet in a nearest cosmetics shop to know about how nice the product is! To read the blog is much like asking a stranger what he/she thinks, and what if the stranger is just a sales agent?
As a result, Vichy tried to gather all the negative feedback and converted the blog (with the help of Loic Le Meur) to something else - an online consultancy, which, as they claim, is how it was meant to be from the very start.
But should they have done the "blog" (or flog="fake blog") at the first place?
I believe not. Since this type of media is believed to be "real" by nature, and is exposed to a variety of critics - he truth is too easy to uncover... Then everyone's hurt - readers in their feelings, publisher (the Vichy) - in renommé.
What could be done afterwards? Apologies? Yes, probably. Asking feedback from "betrayed" users in a tight timeframe? Maybe not. Personally, I would run for a transparency campaign, squeezing "feedback" sections in every webpage of a real product, or even at the shop's counter. They have done it good - since they asked their consumers, and, they stayed on-line - after all.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)