By Tom S. Noda
Published in the CWP November 2009 issue
As the Internet continues to evolve and improve with technologies such as Web 2.0, the expectations of the growing number of netizens are also changing as they expect improved features from websites they patronize—putting pressure on companies with online storefronts and a market opportunity for technology providers.
A big reason for the heightened expectations is that sites like YouTube, Amazon, eBay, Flickr and Facebook continue to push the envelope in terms of new features and the online experience in general, says Gene Alvarez, Gartner’s vice president of e-commerce and CRM research.
In fact, Gartner reports that although IT budgets are shrinking anywhere between 5% to 25%, companies are expected to sharpen the online shopping experiences of their companies’ customers.
“That’s the real big challenge here for e-commerce organizations: The bar keeps rising despite the economy,” says Alvarez. “Whether in business-to-consumer or business-to-business e-commerce, as customers are exposed to new capabilities, they expect those at all other Web sites.”
The demand for new features in websites has not gone unnoticed by many technology providers who have launched software and services that aim to improve the online storefront of companies.
Only recently, Google launched its Google Checkout store gadget that can be embedded in any website without the need to engage in “complicated coding.” It helps people create an online store “in a matter of minutes” with the gadget application using Google’s Checkout electronic payment service and its Docs spreadsheet application.
In the Philippines, a number of technology vendors are currently moving towards the development of e-business applications both in the B2C and B2B space.
For example, ePLDT, Inc. a local ICT firm and wholly-owned subsidiary of the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT), is now in the process of developing a suite of business applications that will be available online. It will be a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) type of service which the company will announce probably by the 1st quarter of 2010.
Meanwhile, two other firms, DataOne Asia Philippines Inc. and Ripple E-Business International, Inc., are both offering products and services for business organizations to benefit from e-commerce. DataOne claims to empower company websites, while Ripple claims to be one of the fastest-growing software companies catering to the retail and distribution industry.
Jojo Colina, head of the product management and development group at ePLDT, explains the difference between e-commerce and e-business. He says the placing of one’s information online for promotions is already e-business. But when one starts selling online, it crosses the line of e-commerce.
“Marketing and site optimization all fall under e-business but it may still be called e-commerce but e-commerce is very specific. It is the negotiation of the exchange of value of goods. And that’s the traditional definition of e-commerce,” says Colina.
E-BIZ PARTNER
Servicing a wide range of enterprises across various industries, ePLDT has tools that enable e-commerce and e-business, says Colina. He describes ePLDT at present as more of an infrastructure-enabler type.
Colina explains ePLDT’s portfolio of products is all Internet-related and everything the company offers can be employed in an e-business infrastructure.
“We do not yet make our services available in an e-commerce form, where you go to a portal and click to just sign up for services,” he says. “But our services right now are more geared towards enabling those who are into the e-commerce and e-business fields.”
Colina says from its security certificate authority services, ePLDT has its own payment gateway services and a hosting data center facility.
He says ePLDT is affiliated with the largest certificate authority (CA) firm VeriSign, Inc., a known issuer of digital certificates worldwide. It offers trust services that accelerate the deployment of secure e-commerce applications.
However, for its payment gateway services, ePLDT offers the GetLoaded online PIN purchasing portal that allows an entity to accept online payments. And for its hosting facility, it has its own data center called Vitro.
“As an affiliate of VeriSign, we offer all sorts of certifications. We also provide managed security, firewalls, antivirus, and anti-spam which are all essential to any entity that wishes to participate in e-business,” says Colina.
Colina adds ePLDT can go as far as providing application development as well.
“We have right now customers in the banking sectors and companies that have online stores that use our certificate authority to ensure the authenticity of the transactions,” Colina says, although declining to name the clients.
Colina advises that when selecting a vendor for e-business or e-commerce solutions, one must look for a vendor with a track record and financial capability.
“There has to be a relationship of trust, and that is usually established by an e-commerce site employing the services of a trusted certificate authority that will issue a certificate to verify that it is a real organization and it has gone through some process of verification of its identity,” he says. “It’s a matter of statistics, whether your IT service provider will be there or not.”
EMPOWERING WEBSITES
Meanwhile, DataOne, which envisions itself to be the leading provider of the so-called “new generation telecommunication services” aims to cater to companies engaged in e-business.
“Our company is supported by a carrier-grade technology which offers flexible and innovative solutions to deliver all the potential of convergence,” says Cyril Rocke, president and CEO of DataOne.
Rocke says DataOne offers VoiceOne solution and the WebTalk service, two technologies that are not only meant to aid companies in e-business but to others as well who are involved in sales and customer service, firms with toll free hotlines, multinationals with extensive channel distribution, corporations with global customers, and other companies with extensive mobile workforce.
“VoiceOne goes beyond the traditional voice-based system. It serves as the voice service provider to the enterprise, outbound, inbound, and domestically,” he says. “It’s the converging of voice and data over a single network.”
Rocke explains what VoiceOne does is that it eliminates complexities such as integration with legacy systems and also voice quality problems. It is a solution that offers PBX-like features without the high costs of purchasing and maintaining PBX systems.
However, Rocke claims companies that are into e-business can take advantage of DataOne’s WebTalk service which enables a website to become “the entry point for all business communications.”
In using WebTalk, Rocke says there is no need to have a phone number or download applications, only easy-to-use buttons. Its other features are: No complex IVRS (Interactive Voice Response System), no per minute charges, no expensive toll-free numbers, and no complex integration with existing systems.
“WebTalk empowers your website by turning it into an active site. Voice communication and interaction can take place via a customer’s click in your website,” Rocke says. “Your website won’t be static anymore if you use WebTalk.”
Rocke shares DataOne will soon be targeting around 50,000 companies, or “all” companies in the Philippines with the dot.ph domain for its WebTalk service.
E-BIZ FOR SMES
Yet for Ripple, it has a flagship product called Barter Retail Solution – an end-to-end solution for mid-tier supermarkets, departments store, hyper-marts, depots and other retail establishments.
Some of the well-known clients of Ripple at present include Ever, Super 8, and Gaisano Mall of Davao.
Victor Javier, president and CEO of Ripple, says “Barter solution is ‘online’ since it connects multiple establishments (branches and warehouses) together, allowing retail businesses to capture real time performance of every location.”
Javier says the e-business solution captures the processes from purchasing of goods to point of sale (front end and back-end operation). It also handles customer relationship management and promotion management, covering the entire retail operation.
“Barter provides retail owners real time information of their sales performance and efficiently tracks their inventories to the item level, thus, maximizing revenue and profitability, as well as minimizing loss,” he says.
Among its list of mid-tier clients, some of Ripple’s clients already have existing systems while others are starting from scratch. “We are able to help both types of clients by implementing best practices or transform their existing process to become more optimized and efficient.”
Focusing on retail technology, Ripple is pushing itself to become more than just another enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions firm.
“There are many IT companies offering different solutions. As a retail solutions company, we extensively invest in research and development of different technologies that can be applied in a retail environment,” Javier notes. “While most local IT companies focus on reselling foreign packages or being a box pusher, Ripple continues to innovate and develop Barter solution which I believe is fit for the Filipino sharp trader.”
A member of the Philippine Software Industry Association (PSIA), Javier comments that “e-commerce is slow in taking off in the Philippines.”
Javier says the traditional way of buying things, like going to supermarkets and malls is still the norm of today’s consumers. It is the reason on why Ripple is focused on becoming the IT arm of retail firms, mostly small-and medium-size enterprises (SME).
“Although e-commerce experienced a major hype in the past, not many people are making their purchases online,” Javier notes. – With notes from Juan Carlos Perez (IDGNS)
SIDEBAR:
Tips to Stretch the E-Commerce Budget
In order to stretch their resources and meet management’s expectations, e-commerce units can take various steps, including reducing the money they spend on developing in-house applications, says Gartner, Inc..
In particular, IT departments shouldn’t invest on creating their own applications for basic e-commerce functions, since those can be implemented at a lower cost through commercial “off the shelf” software.
Specifically in the case of rich Internet applications (RIAs), the custom development work should be limited to those applications that will generate high sales conversion rates.
“You waste money if you have developers supporting commodity capabilities,” says Gene Alvarez, Gartner’s vice president of e-commerce and CRM research. A company’s e-commerce developers should be focused on building the types of made-to-measure applications that will give the company an edge over its competition.
In addition, IT departments must make sure that their e-commerce groups are maximizing the use of technology tools and products the company already owns.
At the negotiation table, IT departments should be merciless when dealing with their e-commerce software vendors and aim to lower their 2009 license fees between 20% to 50%.
Finally, IT managers need to take stock of their e-commerce staff to see if there are employees elsewhere doing the same tasks, such as separate marketing people for online and offline operations, in which case the work can be consolidated and personnel reduced, according to Gartner. –Juan Carlos Perez, IDGNS
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