ProjectWorld 2001 Workshop Presenter: Yogi Schulz

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ProjectWorld 2001 Workshop Presenter Yogi
Schulz
Managing e-Business Projects Risks, Issues
Solutions
Case Studies
June 2001
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E-tail Gleaming Storefronts with Nothing
InsideCase Study

• Read the Business Week article
• May 1, 2000, pages 97 - 98
• Consider major issues/difficulties
• tactical
• strategic
• Brainstorm solutions to
• solve immediate marketing/operational problems
• strengthen the brand/product/service offering
• What would you recommend as a project manager?

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E-tail Case Study Major Issues/Difficulties

• Ordinary/boring/pedestrian web sites
• print/TV ad expectations not met by web sites
• Lavish spending on promotion
• excessive customer acquisition cost
• Over-emphasis on growth
• neglect of profitability
• Poor order fulfillment
• neglect of back office infrastructure
• Flawed business model

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E-tail Case StudySuggested Solutions

• Improve web sites
• deliver a superior customer experience
• Reduce promotional expenses
• reduce print/TV advertising
• increase Internet marketing
• Invest in back-office infrastructure
• warehouses
• inventory management systems
• order fulfillment capability

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H R BlockCase Study

• Form into groups
• Read the Business Week article
• April 17, 2000, page 200
• List major issues/difficulties
• tactical
• strategic
• Brainstorm solutions to
• solve immediate problems
• strengthen the product/service offering
• What would you recommend as a project manager?

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H R Block Case Study Major Issues/Difficulties
- 1

• Inadequate data confidentiality
• able to see other peoples tax returns
• Site outages/availability lapses
• inadequate infrastructure
• Software bugs
• inaccurate results
• little or no software testing
• Slow to poor performance
• inadequate capacity/scalability
• Missing functionality
• couldnt handle some states

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H R Block Case Study Major Issues/Difficulties
- 2

• No online help/support call center
• able to see other peoples tax returns
• Rush to market
• late to market
• Poor user interface
• users became confused abandoned tax preparation
• Inadequate operational monitoring
• users called in to report seeing tax returns of
  others
• Inadequate backup/recovery
• took days to recover from a problem

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H R Block Case StudyStrategic Issues

• Me-too web strategy
• reactive to Intuit trying to keep up
• not a unique/differentiated strategy
• Franchisees wary of cannibalizing their business
• slowed development of the Web alternative
• involve Franchisees in Web initiatives
• Intuit - competitor with a years head start
• threatens H R Blocks traditional market share
• Inability to promote related products
• will slow revenue growth and profitability of
  mortgage and financial services

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H R Block Case Study Suggested Solutions - 1

• Strengthen the infrastructure
• capacity to improve response time
• security/privacy
• Improve the tax software
• fix bugs
• widen the scope to meet needs
• Build services
• mortgage
• online trading
• real-time quotes
• stock and mutual fund research
• portfolio and retirement planning

Rebuild consumer confidence and trust Expand the
business
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H R Block Case Study Suggested Solutions - 2

• Develop a distinct strategy. Consider
• a separate brand for the web initiative
• active support/participation of the franchisees
• Create a call center
• consider directing calls to local franchisees
• Consider a more modest web start
• tax information/help pages
• tax information/help chat room
• appointment booking service for franchisees

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Holt RenfrewCase Study

• Form into groups
• Read the Globe Mail article
• September 13, 2000
• List major issues/difficulties for
• Holt Renfrew
• its customers
• its competitors
• Brainstorm solutions to
• selling through the web
• providing superior customer service
• What would you recommend as a project manager?

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Holt Renfrew Case Study Major
Issues/Difficulties

• Inadequate cost/benefit
• expensive site
• poor rating
• mixed customer reaction
• Customer profile
• high fashion/service expectations
• urban residence near store
• price is not a significant consideration
• Product characteristics
• need for touch/feel in buying process
• need to fit/adjust product

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Holt Renfrew Case StudySuggested Solutions

• Marketing not sales oriented web site
• showcase products
• advertise new offerings
• design a custom product
• offer customer registration for e-mail
  notification
• offer e-mail which contains a specific page link
• Strengthen bricks mortars
• upgrade customer service staff

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Emulex Corp.Case Study

• Form into groups
• Read the National Post articles
• September 2 and 4, 2000
• List major issues/difficulties for
• Emulex
• Internet Wire
• investors
• Brainstorm solutions to
• react to crises caused by fraud, mis-information
• minimize likelihood of a re-occurrence
• What would you recommend as a project manager?

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Emulex Corp. Case Study Major Issues/Difficulties

• Fraud/deception is easy to perpetrate
• Fraudulent press release panicked investors
• investor confidence undermined
• Poor authenticity verification processes
• obvious text quality problems not corrected
• pressure to issue news quickly
• Legal precedents unclear
• potential for defamation liability
• No personnel exit process
• user id still active

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Emulex Corp. Case StudySuggested Solutions

• Define Emulex crisis response plan
• assign crisis leader
• orient staff about plan contents
• prepare communication templates
• Improve IW wire service processes
• verify authenticity through confirmation
• change passwords regularly
• implement certificates/encryption
• institute an employee exit process
• Improved IW authenticity verification process

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Boo.comCase Study

• Form into groups
• Read the Business Week Online article
• June 12, 2000
• Read the E-Business article
• July 2000
• List major issues/difficulties
• tactical
• strategic
• What would you recommend as a project manager?
• solve immediate problems
• strengthen the product/service offering
• Be prepared to share analysis solutions orally

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Boo.com Case StudyMajor Issues/Difficulties

• Too much promotional spending
• TV, radio and fashion magazines
• cash consumption rate too fast
• Technical glitches
• innovative 3D product photography slow
• multi-lingual, multi-currency ambitions not
  delivered
• slow performance high expectation of client
  workstation capability
• Mis-read customer profile
• impatient young female
• desire for social aspect to shopping

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Boo.com Case StudySuggested Solutions

• Build understanding of customer expectations
• Promote via the web
• Design for fast response
• Contain scope
• begin with few languages currencies
• begin with targeted/limited product line
• Plan for business profitability
• Build a bricks component to the business plan

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Nike - i2Case Study

• Form into groups
• Read the InternetWeek article
• March 1, 2001
• List major issues/difficulties
• tactical
• strategic
• Brainstorm solutions to
• strengthen e-commerce software package
  implementation projects
• What would you recommend as a project manager?

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Nike - i2 Major Issues/Difficulties

• Highly customized implementation
• Production use before testing is complete
• Inadequate vendor knowledge of customer and/or
  industry

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Nike - i2 Suggested Solutions

• Implement software packages with minimal
  customization for first release
• Production use starts after User Acceptance Test
  sign-off
• Support project team/software vendor in achieving
  customer/industry understanding

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Future ShopCase Study

• Form into groups
• Read the Network World article
• July 14, 2000
• List major issues/difficulties for
• Future Shop
• its customers
• Brainstorm solutions to
• react to crises caused by fraud, mis-information
• minimize likelihood of a re-occurrence
• What would you recommend as a project manager?

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Future Shop Case Study Major Issues/Difficulties

• Undermined customer confidence
• Hoax panicked customers
• undermines customer confidence
• Sensitive customer data managed poorly
• mass-mailing vendor not in control
• not managing outsourcing relationship
• Slow crisis response
• customer service notified well after incident
• time zone differences created difficulties
• timing of bank notification unclear
• correcting E-mail sent 2 days later

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Future Shop Case StudySuggested Solutions

• Improve outsource vendor selection
• assess vendor stability/capability
• review business process and security
  infrastructure
• Manage outsource vendor relationship
• test security measures
• include phony names forwarded to Future Shop
  staff
• Provide some customer restitution
• Define crisis response plan
• assign crisis leader
• orient staff about plan contents
• prepare communication templates

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Future ShopGuaranteed Safe Shopping
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You Know Youre Taking Computers Too Seriously
When...

• Youve never bought one of the "dummies" books.
• You refuse to delete programs off your hard drive
  that you havent used in two years.
• You buy 50 new floppies rather than go through
  the 300 used ones you have and delete the files
  on them.
• You get in the elevator and double-click the
  button for the floor you want.
• You consider reading in the bathroom to be
  Multi-tasking.

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MSNHome Page
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One Minute e-Business Strategy

• Stakeholders
• audience
• sponsor
• publishers
• builders/developers
• infrastructure support
• Goals
• sell
• inform
• influence
• Content
• domain
• components

• Personalization
• personal data to collect
• features to offer
• Promotion
• media
• web
• mail
• Operation
• collecting, managing publishing content
• software maintenance
• infrastructure operations

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Elements of ane-Business Strategy - 1

• The right goal
• Profitability
• A unique value proposition which is defensible
  against competitors
• What can the company do differently that
  customers will pay for?
• A distinctive value chain organization
• Must links company functions and partners across
  major business processes

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Elements of ane-Business Strategy - 2

• Trade-offs outlining what the company will and
  will not do
• A fit between the different parts of the
  organization's activities
• Seeing the business as a system of value with
  activities that reinforce each other
• Continuity, even in the face of a fad
• This takes leadership and discipline

Dr. Douglas Reid Professor of business
strategy Queen'sUniversity School of
Business http//itworld.ca/rx.cfm?vJ,H,2001178002
3S108297
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One Minute e-Business Security

• Potential Threats
• External internal sabotage
• denial of service
• viruses
• malicious hacking
• Fraud
• credit card
• assumed identity
• Application security vulnerabilities
• Lax physical access

• Actions
• Physical access control
• Userid management
• Security consciousness of
• partners
• suppliers
• employees
• Tracking suspicious actions
• high surfing activity
• high return rate
• high credit denial
• Attack recovery plan

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Web Privacy PolicyDevelopment Considerations

• Policy Inclusions
• type of info collected
• plan for info
• re-sell/give intent for info
• customer rights
• takeover/bankruptcy consequences
• problem resolution process
• Information access
• display
• update/correct
• remove/delete
• userid/password

• Information collected
• personal identification
• personal profile
• credit profile
• purchase history
• view/click history
• correspondence history

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Traditional vs. CollaborativeProject Management

• Traditional Project Management
• Internal and local
• Fixed plans
• Tasks and processes
• Planning and scheduling
• Low uncertainty and risk
• Low-to-moderate speed
• Low-to-moderate change
• Uniform project teams
• Project leader makes decisions

• Collaborative Project Management
• External and distributed
• Fluid plans
• Results
• Interactions and knowledge management
• High uncertainty and risk
• High speed
• High change
• Diverse project teams
• Distributed decision-making

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DefinitionApplication Service Provider - ASP

• A software vendor that delivers applications over
  the Internet or a private network
• A company that delivers digital data using
• software
• hardware
• network
• content
• services

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The last of theComputer Viruses list

• Elvis Virus Computer gets bloated, self
  destructs, and appears in malls all over America
• Schwarzenegger Virus Terminates whatever you
  have running, and it will be back
• Gallup Virus 60 of the PC's infected will lose
  30 of their data 14 of the time (plus or minus
  a 3.5 margin on error)
• Sears Virus Your data won't appear unless you
  buy new cables, power supply and a set of shocks.
• LAPD Virus It claims it feels threatened by the
  other files on your PC and erases them in "self
  defense".
• Prozac Virus Scrambles your RAM and your
  processor and doesn't really care
• Politically Correct Virus rephrases the "Abort,
  Retry, Fail" prompt as "Choice, Retry,
  Success-Impaired".
• Consultant Virus Type in a question, and it
  responds "What would you like the answer to be?"
• Freudian Virus Your computer becomes obsessed
  with the motherboard
• PBS Virus Your computer interrupts the program
  you are running and starts making
  passive-aggressive pleas ("If you don't help, I
  guess I just won't be here anymore") asking for
  money every 55 minutes
• ATT Virus Every 3 minutes it tells you what
  great performance you are getting
• MCI Virus Every 3 minutes it reminds you that
  you're paying too much for the ATT virus
• Bureaucratic Virus Divides your hard disk into
  hundreds of little units, each of which does
  practically nothing, but all of which claim to
  be the most important part of your computer.

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Managing e-Business ProjectsRisks, Issues
Solutions

• Yogi Schulz

700, 400 - 5th Ave. S.W. Calgary, Alberta
Canada T2P 0L6 Phone/Fax [phone] E-mail
YogiSchulz_at_corvelle.com Web www.corvelle.com
Management Consultants

• President of Corvelle Management Consultants
• Information technology related management
  consulting
• Project management and systems development
• Computing Canada Calgary Herald columnist