Page 42: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (June 15, 2000)

EARbook • E'COMMERCE the perspective of an Internet startup, lacking the assets and infrastructure that you have. How would you conduct busi- ness differently without your asset base?

Then consider how you can leverage this model to enhance your business. •Build a road map — Careful planning with aggressive milestones and regular monitoring of progress will help ensure a timely rollout. The plan should not stop with the first development of the

Web site. It should continue on to a long-term vision of what value the site can provide to customers and to your company. • Prioritize — The possibilities are nearly limitless for the functionality and services you can offer. Start with those that your customers need and desire most and that can be put in place most quickly and cost effectively.

Expand from there based on the value provided to customers, cost, and speed of implementation.

A ., gMir

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WORTHY

When you're in the water and your life is in danger, you must be seen to survive. ACR survival lights strobe or beam with such intensity, they cannot go unnoticed.

Our new DistresS.O.S.™ even signals a Morse code /

S.O.S. that's five times brighter than the brightest flare and is visible for 22 miles. It's also USCG-eom- pliant so you can use it in place of flares. The Doublefly™ emits a blazing strobe or steady incandescent target light. 5jjv In fact, there's an ACR light in every price range for just about any emergency on land or sea. Each is made with the latest in automated technology and

ACR's dedication to quality. Call now for details.

YOUR ULTIMATE WAY OUT

ACR Electronics, Inc., A Chelton Group company • 5757 Ravenswood Road, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33312, U.S.A.' For information call (954) 981-3333 • e-mail: [email protected] www.acrelectronics.com ACR Electronics, inc. is registered by UL to ISO 9001. • Develop partnerships with your customers — customers can be your greatest sales tools if they believe in the product. Enlist their comments and get them involved through on-line chat sessions, beta sites, or up-front interviews to determine the design.

Why haven't more maritime business- es advanced beyond the basic level-pas- sive, vendor-on-demand information made available on the Internet? In a study covering more than 250 e-busi- ness efforts, KPMG Consulting and

Cisco Systems Inc. have identified some basic issues that cut across industry type as well as organizational size. They included the following:

Companies lacked a strategy. • Companies neglected to estab- lish a comprehensive rollout schedule with benchmarks. • Market pressures have pushed e-business initiatives to the side.

So before a company can successfully implement an e-business plan, it must first ask a key question — what is the business itself about?

Answering that means more than just examining the company's market. It involves exploring the business' current position, where it will be in the future and how it plans to get there, and how it relates to customers. It also means ensuring that top management, includ- ing the CEO, COO, and CFO, supports a review of the corporation's culture, with a willingness to make it over to a more customer-responsive model.

While the actual transformation process will be unique — reflecting the individ- ual circumstances of each enterprise - there are sets of services and solutions that ease the process of end-to-end e- business transformations.

A successful approach leverages strat- egy, architecture and integration ser- vices to enable new ways of doing busi- ness with a company's core constituen- cies: customers, suppliers and employ- ees. Under this model, clients achieve their e-business vision and goals by developing a strategy that addresses key business elements and constituencies.

Each business element is evaluated for impact and contribution to the overall strategy, and is mapped to key strategic goals including: customer and partner intimacy, revenue growth and cost reduction, new products, services and markets. This vision-creating step lays the basic foundation for an e-enterprise.

The next stage consists of setting up

Internet-powered architecture. This involves installing foundation technolo- gy, acquiring the requisite systems and enabling technologies, and merging them all together in networked applica- tions. The goal in this stage is to create an integrated, self-running "engine" that

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