Brief Notes on Business Administration & e-Company

Dr.  S.  Maurer,  
MBA Professor

Make a list right now of the ten accomplishmënts in your life or in the past year that mean the most to you.  Haven't taken a sick day in months? Give yourself credit for it.  Are you a loyal friend who would drop everything to help out? Include that.  When the list is finished,  keep it and read it daily.  

In the past,  CEOs focused on functional optimization.  Now we see them looking at end-to-end process improvement,  integrated processes all along the supply chain,  and the concept of the extended enterprise.

With a general view of every angle,  the customer relationship management [crm] computer system interacting directly with the clients through voice by phone [and voice recognition if necessary] without human actions,  for marketing,  sales,  support,  accounts,  etc.

BPM reduces the time elapsed in a business process

The future debate will be crucial in understanding the respective contributions of information technology [it] and finance in controls and risk management,  business-operations improvement,  and growth—and the interdependencies of the chief information officer [cio] and CFO roles.

Besides integrating with legacy applications,  web Services are beginning to help enterprises integrate multiple SaaS applications.   Up to now the most ubiquitous integration problem,  user management,  has either been ignored by enterprises using SaaS or has had to be cobbled together by in house teams.   I can tell you,  we use everything from SalesForce to NetSuite to RightNow and we’ve had to put some pretty tricky things in to [imperfectly] manage users.   Now we are seeing ready built solutions from TriCipher and Symplified that are making this easier and easier for both the SaaS vendor and the enterprise.

The name you choose for your product will be around for a long time and can have substantial impact on your products are perceived.  Therefore,  seriously consider some basic forms of market research to glean impressions of different names.  For example,  convene several focus groups to glean their reactions to various names.

“Security is a vital part of planning for and deploying a new UC system,” says Trent Waterhouse,  vice president of marketing for Enterasys Networks,  a ShoreTel partner and maker of secure network infrastructure.

Supervisors typically have strong working knowledge of the activities in their group,  e.g.,  how to develop their product,  carry out their service,  etc.  Many also use the term supervisor to designate the managerial position that is responsible for a major function in the organization,  for example,  Supervisor of customer Service.

Shipping options.  Before signing up with UPS,  FedEx,  or other carriers,  find out what value-added services they offer beyond shipping.  Some carriers provide small businesses with an array of online fulfillment services.  These include the ability to track orders not only by the carrier-assigned tracking number,  but by your enterprise's internal order number.  This way your customers can track their shipments,  while you use the internal order number to facilitate your accounting.

The Clinger-Cohen Act of 1996 required agencies to have CIOs,  and Congress has since said it is committed to ensuring they are given adequate authority and responsibility.

CIOs are really nervous about outsourcing.  Although the majority said they are doing it and they fully understand the business reasons for it,  they worry about where their replacements are going to come from if enterprises ship out the it departments overseas.

Participants in the distribution channel believed that if you got the forecast right,  good things would follow.  But in reality,  the forecast seldom presented a correct assessment of what customers actually purchased,  thereby introducing variability and the resulting bullwhip effect.

Daily price,  promotion,  and markdown optimization ensures that items are priced for optimal profitability,  both preseason and in season.  

No matter how much planning you do,  you will need to be ready for change.  Software development rarely goes as planned,  so don't get discouraged if you get off schedule.  Executing and controlling are two sides of the same coin.