James Alexander, Ed.D.
Consulting Director of Professional Services
AFSM International
AlexCons@aol.com
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Q: What is the current state of e-business initiatives?
I recently conducted a study with more than 200
managers and executives from the Association For Services
Management International database of individuals with interest in the high-technology
services industry. The purpose of the study was to follow-up
on a white paper (The e-Impact on Business
Performance: Leveraging the Internet for Competitive Advantage") and
report on how people were doing in integrating E-Business into
their business strategies.
The results revealed the following conclusions:
- As a whole, participants felt that their organizations were
not very effective in using e-initiatives to meet organization
objectives.
- Most organizations have a long way to go until their
e-initiatives permeate their business.
- There is a direct relationship between the progress of the
e-initiative implementation and positive business results.
- Low performers may have over-emphasized
the technology
side of things, neglecting some other important implementation
factors.
- Organizations that identified their main business activity
as professional services and organizations that have an
international sphere of operations have a higher proportion of
high performers.
- Fourteen best e-practices distinguish the high performers
from the low performers.
The study yielded the following recommendations:
- Speed things up.
- Obey the laws of organization change.
- Pick good partners.
- Proceed holistically.
- Measure and market.
- Persevere.
The full report
is available for purchase on the AFSMI website. It contains comparisons of
the behavior of high performers versus low performers regarding
success with e-business initiatives.
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