Authors: James Craig & Dawn Jutla Publisher: Addison-Wesley, Inc., 2000 (ISBN 02017110064)
The emergence of E-Business requires a new structure for customer interaction and company focus for achieving the benefits of this new method of conducting business. Many organizations are
struggling with the concepts of customer relationships, e-business, technology application and are not taking full advantage of the data and information they currently control. Customer
Relationship Management (CRM) can offer significant benefits to companies who adopt a customer-centric focus for the transformation into a fully functional enterprise with e-business operations.
The questions is “How does a company understand the customer and what do we do once we have that understanding?”
This question is addressed and answered by the book “E-Business Readiness: A Customer-Focused Framework”. The authors, e-business consultants, offer a strategy for assessing a
company’s customer focus, its readiness to accept and adapt to changing an old focus to a customer-oriented one, and the steps to take to achieve the final goal: a customer-focused approach
to their business (and e-business) operations. This framework, reminiscent of the outline of the Zachman Framework in its stakeholders and processes, addresses each key area involved in e-business
and the role that area plays in e-business success. It incorporates each business’ own unique strategy and rationale in determining the correct method for analyzing needs, setting goals,
implementing decisions and managing change.
Case studies show how varied organizations have developed e-business initiatives, with illustrations to demonstrate how their successes (or failures) can be used by companies large or small, in any
industry. These cases are invaluable in relating, at a practical level, the concepts set forth by the authors in their framework.
This fine book is strongly recommended for all e-business consultants, managers of e-business and CRM initiatives, information management professionals who want to explore the ramifications of
e-business on traditional information management practices and senior management who are planning to enter or expand their e-business operations.
