Some Companies Lacking in E-Commerce Strategy
According to a new study from Cutter Consortium, 25 percent of organizations have not developed an overall e-commerce strategy. Only 4.2 percent stated that their organizations do have an e-commerce strategy.
Of those that did not currently have an e-commerce strategy, 25.4 percent expect to develop one by the end of 1999, another 17 percent expect to have a strategy by the first half of 2000 and an additional 11.3 percent expect to have an e-commerce strategy by the end of 2000.
Greg Sabatino, Senior Consultant for Cutter Consortium, says "Although many companies have acknowledged the role that the Internet can play, they have not taken the steps necessary to fully realize its potential. Consequently, companies should still have the opportunity to gain competitive advantage from developing and implementing an overall e-business strategy that is aligned with its business objectives."
Sabatino continues, "Cutter’s study shows that most companies use the Internet for external communication (86.3 percent), internal communication (73.9 percent) and research (69.3 percent). Nearly half (49.7 percent) use the Internet to advertise products, although only one-quarter sell over the Internet and 38 percent deliver products over the Internet. So there are huge opportunities that many companies just aren’t taking advantage of right now."
One-hundred-fifty-four respondents from the U.S. and other countries participated in this survey. These respondents are representative of organizations that have access to the Web; responses to the survey were obtained solely via the Internet. The data collection for Cutter Consortium’s study on e-business trends and strategies is ongoing. The survey can be found at www.cutter.com/consortium/survey_ead.html.
For more information, visit the Cutter Web site at www.cutter.com/consortium.