Key facilitators for online enterprises

AS THE impact of the global e-marketplace becomes more pervasive, the need for companies based in Pakistan to derive full benefit from the gargantuan business potential offered by the internet cannot be overemphasised.

Coupled with developing their traditional core competencies what other capabilities should Pakistani enterprises engender or further develop in order to exercise a more pronounced presence in terms of leveraging the internet to compete globally?

What other factors are intrinsic to enabling Pakistani companies to achieve a global presence through cyberspace? This article will attempt to provide some key indicators, which address both questions.

Companies need to treat the internet as another channel to market, designed to complement existing channels, and should integrate its capability within the realm of their overall strategy thereby enabling a seamless service to be delivered to their customers. An integrated strategy would meld the physical and cyber worlds so that enterprises could deliver maximum value added to the most crucial assets in the new e-conomy equation, namely customers. This strategy needs to be driven by a corporate vision centrally inspired by the experience that the customer cherishes.

To leverage their competitiveness enterprises in Pakistan need to generate goods and services that consistently deliver value to the customer and which are, very significantly, delivered on time and therefore achieve excellent order fulfilment. This is all part of enhancing the quality and longevity of the customer experience, as is ensuring the highest levels of online security (discussed below). One of the perennial complaints echoed in the new e-conomy worldwide is the failure on the part of companies not to conform to the very highest levels of order fulfilment. Clearly, companies need to develop [either in-house or through partnerships or a combination of both] back office systems e.g. order processing, logistics, warehousing, etc, that relate seamlessly to the front end, for instance, the website, e-commerce, etc, to which customers are exposed. Innovation in this regard would lead to operational efficiency and significantly help to mitigate the frustration experienced by many customers who have become accustomed to receiving goods and services beyond the due date. Receiving a customer order is one thing; delivering an order on time is quite a separate challenge!

Efficient order fulfilment is crucial to fostering high levels of customer experience and lends to good customer retention. It therefore profoundly helps to minimise the degree of customer promiscuity, which is that much dreaded malaise feared by all companies.

The company web site itself should be constructed so that it offers convenience in terms of navigation and relevance in relation to content. Both attributes again are seminal to creating good customer experience, and are equally applicable to the business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) spaces. Enterprises should focus on e-personalisation to foster a market of one experience and deliver to the customer a value added experience driven by their (the customer's) needs.

Online security is a key factor in determining the degree of trust that a company can develop in the e-marketplace. Pakistani enterprises seeking to establish a conspicuous online presence need to be conscious of how crucially integral security is to delivering superior customer experience, both locally and globally. Payment mechanisms e.g. paying by credit card, etc, need to be nurtured against the backdrop of investing in a robust security-led cyber environment. Corporations with high brand equity are at an advantage since they have already built up high trust in the physical marketplace, which is easier to transfer online. The crucial question is whether companies (large or small) can create electronic trust online! This is key to delivering unique customer experience on a recurring basis!

The business community needs to invest heavily in building up viable brand recognition globally, developing sound all-round market intelligence, including in-depth customer segmentation knowledge inventories that seek to capture the needs profiles of different sets of customers both locally and globally, and implementing robust customer relationship management (CRM) systems that would enable enterprises to deepen their relationships with their customer base and maximise the customer experience imparted. The CRM strategy of a company should strive to aggregate all customer data in one central database, which is available and accessible to all relevant stakeholders [internal and external] in the business. This is imperative for continuously improving the customer value proposition and for enhancing the essence of the customer experience.

Companies in Pakistan need to engage in partnerships, which enable them to refine their value chain so that the customer experience element in it is reinforced. Attendance at trade shows and exhibitions, both at home and abroad, is important to identifying potential partnership opportunities where companies may work together in the interests of the customer. For example, in terms of local companies establishing distribution channels in relevant geographical markets, amongst other things, the distributor too should have a proven track record in terms of online activity and order fulfilment. Networking in the physical space is still critical to networking in cyberspace! Communication between chambers of commerce on a cross-border basis and trade associations likewise is equally important. Inter-governmental dialogue at trade and industry level is another facilitator to cross-border interaction.

Unwavering attention needs to be directed by businesses to providing and sustaining the provision of outstanding customer service around the clock, which has become the signature tune of online giants, such as Lastminute.com, Amazon.com, and Tesco.com. As a consequence, these companies have built up e-trust, that most invaluable and sought after asset, through which they essentially continue to consolidate their online presence.

In terms of the potentialities offered by the internet, ISPs, which generate in specific markets significant traffic profiles that are relevant to the customer segments being targeted, could be earmarked by Pakistani enterprises as suitable vehicles through which to market and advertise their presence online, with links built between these ISPs and the company's web site.

Finally customers want a fast, reliable and efficient internet service. Speed of transmission inevitably means scaling up the country's bandwidth capability, which is vital, both locally and globally, given the bandwidth hungry nature of the digital economy. Creating a robust, scalable, broadband and world class communications infrastructure should be an overriding national strategic priority for all governments and the local telecommunications industry so that the needs of customers in the B2C and B2B milieus, both locally and globally, may be appropriately addressed in line with their expectations. After all, the new e-conomy is all about placing the needs of customers first!