Re: EDI vs. E-Commerce -- MIDRANGE-L

Some of your questions are 'politically loaded,' and need to be disarmed:

>Enabling our distributors to order "on-line"
>
>1.  Do our distributors want to order "on-line"?  If so, how do we
>know?  Was a formal survey done?  Do we know what systems our
>distributors have?  Do they have Internet connectivity?

Remove the first 3 questions, about "Do our distributors want to order
"on-line?"  As much as I appreciate your position, these questions are
implying poor planning on the part of the people who gave you the project
in the first place.  NOT good!

>4.  If distributors are automatically faxing from their systems, what
>benefit would be derived for them from having to now enter information
>twice (once for their systems, once for ours)?

Re-phrase this to disarm the political side:  "How can we accomodate
distributors who use automatic fax systems to prepare and submit their
orders to eliminate duplicate entry (once for them, once for us)?"

>6.  Is our goal to make business easier for our internal or external
>customers?

Watch your career!

>9.  Will this project have the biggest bang for company bucks?  Internal
>resources are not free and appear to be somewhat over-allocated at this
>time.  MIS, Customer Service, Marketing, and the Color Group may need to
>be involved.
>
>10.  No one likes change.  Is "buy-in" an issue?  Most technical people
>are not known for their extraordinary PR abilities, which is why a
>Marketing profession exists?  Who will market/sell the benefits of this
>project?


Questions 9 & 10  suggest that this questionnaire is not aimed at anyone in
particular, but everyone in general.

I think you need to split your questionnaire into at least 3 parts:

        - To your Customers - what systems are they using, how do they
prepare orders, etc.  How do they like the idea of on-line ordering?

        - To your management - (asked -very- gently) - What is driving this
project-- someone read an Airline Magazine about how much business improves
using Internet Ordering?  Do we have the funds to hire rent-a-programmers
since our own staff is over-allocated?  Are there other projects that
should be deferred in order to complete this project?

        - To your internal customer service organization - Where do your
orders come from (ie fax, mail, phone)(how many of each)?  How much re-work
in necessary for each order?

        - To your internal management - (asked less gently) - Since your
order process is so complex, can the process be streamlined or simplified,
at least for on-line orders?  Are we expecting a different group of
customers to order on-line compared to traditional methods?  Does the
on-line process need to have a 'public' and a 'private' version, the
private version to handle the top 20% of your customers (the ones with the
special pricing and special handling)?
---

Do you currently use EDI for any of your major customers?

--Paul E Musselman
PaulMmn@ix.netcom.com



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