Connecting to Customers

Establishing a basic e-commerce site is easy but building an online relationship management system to evaluate transactions, manage customer interactions, and extend your business reach offers far greater business benefits. Learn about the latest customer-centric Internet strategies, technologies, and tools in CONNECTING TO CUSTOMERS. This practical, insightful book will help you understand how an Internet-based solution can provide powerful, direct links to customers so that you can deliver the products, services, and information they want—exactly when and how they want them. Learn about:
• THE BUSINESS ISSUE: Get the facts on how to do a needs analysis for an Internet solution, learn how the right Internet solution can improve your business processes, and read real-world case studies about the business problems that Internet solutions solve.
• THE BUSINESS VALUE: Learn about the rules for return on investment in customer-focused projects, and see how an Internet solution can create value through efficiencies in production, increased speed to market, extended reach of products, and other benefits.
• THE MICROSOFT SOLUTION: Explore the benefits of a basic, secure Web presence or of an online retail site with advanced capabilities, and learn how businesses, partners, and technologies work and fit together in solutions with the Microsoft Solutions Framework.
• PLANNING AND PROJECT MANAGEMENT: Discover what's involved in Internet solution deployment, including roles and responsibilities, infrastructure requirements, typical project schedule, choosing team members, complementary tools and solutions, technology trends, and more.

Contents

Foreword ix

• Acknowledgments xv

• What This Book Is About xvii
• Who Should Read This Book? xviii
• How This Book Is Organized xix
• Feedback xx

• Define the Technology and Market Segments 3
• Identify Your Stakeholders 6
• Evaluate Common Customer Themes for Relevance 8
• Create Your Plan 13
• Summary 16

• What Contributes to a Successful Internet Presence 18
• Large Internet Presence 19
• Medium-Sized Internet Presence 26
• Summary 29

• Content Management 31
• Personalization 32
• Business Analytics 35
• Reporting 36
• Common Systems Management Infrastructure 36
• Modular Architecture 37
• How Microsoft Can Minimize Customer Pain 45
• Summary 48

• Defining Return On Investment 51
• Recovery Periods 52
• Measuring Costs 54
• Cash Inflows 55
• Calculating ROI 55
• Going Beyond ROI 56
• Summary 58

• Internet Solutions Business Issues and Return on Investment 59
• Value Chain 67
• Summary 69

• Content Management: Customer, Partner, and Business Benefits 74
• Developing Online Collaboration and Community 75
• Providing Solid Search Capabilities 76
• Creating a Personal Internet Experience 77
• Building a Robust Internet Presence 78
• Customer Relationship Management 78
• Collecting Business Analytics on Key Performance Indicators 80
• Reducing Development and Management Costs 81
• Providing Enterprise-Level Services and Support 84
• Summary 87

• Catalog Management 89
• Data Mining Tools 91
• Customer Targeting Tools 93
• Customer Self-Service and Management Applications 95
• Expanding Internet Presence with Transactional Capabilities 95
• Shifting Implementation from Development to Marketing 96
• Improving Manageability 97
• Summary 98

• Microsoft Readiness Framework 101
• Microsoft Solutions Framework 107
• Microsoft Operations Framework 122
• How the Frameworks Work Together 127
• Summary 129

• Roles and Responsibilities 135
• Baseline Infrastructure 142
• The Project 143
• Project Team 153
• Summary 153

• Solution Introduction 157
• Software 161
• Services 171
• Support 172
• Solution Summary 174
• Summary 180

• Economics 101 181
• Proof Positive 186
• Microsoft Internet Solutions in the Future 190
• Summary 197

• Problems with the Site 199
• The Business Case for Change 200
• The Solution: The Microsoft Solution for Internet Business and the Microsoft Technology Center 201