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272 Part 2 Strategy and applications

through transactional e-commerce. In fact, stage models could be developed for a range of
different types of online presence and business models each with different objectives. In
Chapter 1, we identified the four major different types of online presence for marketing: (1)
transactional e-commerce site, (2) services-oriented relationship-building web site, (3)
brand-building site and (4) portal or media site. A stage model for increasing sophistication
in each of these areas can be defined. As a summary to this section Table 5.3 presents a syn-
thesis of stage models for e-business development. Organizations can assess their position
on the continuum between stages 1 and 4 for the different aspects of e-business develop-
ment shown in the column on the left.

Table 5.3 A stage model for e-business development

1 Web presence 2 E-commerce 3 Integrated 4 E-business
e-commerce

Services available Brochureware or Transactional Buy- and sell-side Full integration between
interaction with e-commerce on integrated with all internal
product catalogues buy-side or sell-side enterprise resource organizational
and customer service planning (ERP) or processes and
legacy systems. elements of the value
Personalization of network
services
Organizational scope Isolated departments, Cross-organizational Cross-organizational Across the enterprise
e.g. marketing and beyond
department (‘extraprise’)
Transformation Technological Technology and new Internal business Change to e-business
infrastructure responsibilities processes and culture, linking of
identified for company structure business processes
e-commerce with partners
Strategy Limited Sell-side e-commerce E-commerce strategy E-business strategy
strategy, not well integrated with incorporated as part of
integrated with business strategy business strategy
business strategy using a value-chain
approach

When companies devise the strategies and tactics to achieve their objectives they may return to
the stage models to specify which level of innovation they are looking to achieve in the future.

Application portfolio analysis
Analysis of the current portfolio of business applications within a business is used to assess
current information systems capability and also to inform future strategies. A widely applied
framework within information systems study is that of McFarlan and McKenney (1993) with
the modifications of Ward and Griffiths (1996). Figure 5.7 illustrates the results of a portfolio
analysis for a B2B company applied within an e-business context. It can be seen that current
applications such as human resources, financial management and production-line manage-
ment systems will continue to support the operations of the business and will not be a
priority for future investment. In contrast, to achieve competitive advantage, applications for
maintaining a dynamic customer catalogue online, online sales and collecting marketing
intelligence about customer buying behaviour will become more important. Applications
such as procurement and logistics will continue to be of importance in an e-business context.