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Message from Taos CEO and Founder, Ric Urrutia,
and Co-Founder, Alexis Tatarsky
Back in 1997 Taos acquired a company called Intranet Partners which, among other offerings, had a pioneering e-commerce consulting practice. IP worked to help sort through the myriad opportunities to utilize intranets and the Internet to improve the relationship between a company and its customers and supplier networks. Those were the early days of e-commerce, and the past seven years have shown a great maturing in the understanding of what
e-commerce is, what it shouldn't be, and what it might become in the near future.
That potential to impact the way businesses relate to their communities -- especially the tremendous disintermediation of sales channels, the downward pressure on prices caused by easy comparison shopping, the reduction in business costs through self-service customer support, and the introduction of far greater transparency into the loose supply chain supporting one's business -- have had both greater and more modest effects than had been anticipated a decade ago. On the one hand, most of the big-name brick and mortar firms (remember that term?) have successfully navigated into the internet age without reinventing themselves as "dot coms". On the other hand, e-commerce has become part of the fabric of nearly all commerce. No longer is one "brick and mortar" or "online": one is both simultaneously, which is why the term has begun to seem as archaic as the model it describes. And this is the challenge for businesses today: making optimal use of opportunities in the electronic world, while remaining firmly grounded in what has made them successful in the first place. For most businesses, this is neither optional nor easy: it requires a sophistication beyond what was needed just a short while ago, and without it your competitors will eat you alive.
In this issue of IT Intelligence we are pleased to share with you three different perspectives on the challenges and opportunities in introducing e-commerce to a traditional business.
Knight Ridder is a newspaper publishing company with products in print and online. It publishes 31 daily and 53 non-daily newspapers in 28 US markets, with a readership of approximately 9 million. Its Internet operations develop and manage its online properties, including real Cities, a national network of city and regional websites1. The person charged with leading the improvement, development and acquisition of technology at Knight Ridder Digital is Dean Denhart, who graciously agreed to interview with Taos for this issue of IT Intelligence. As we often find in talking with people who really get it, Mr. Denhart emphasizes the integration of technology with business processes - especially the simplification of those processes to map into the online world. Among many gems of wisdom in the interview, his words of caution about exposure of the brand are well worth contemplating as one makes the move online.
One of the terms bandied about these days is "Service Oriented Architecture". Taos customer, Francis Juliano, of Wine.com contributes a short piece describing the genesis and relevance of the concept and just what it means to adopt it.
Finally, George Herbert of Taos's own Professional Services group shares some of his insights into the requirements, opportunities and implications to a company wanting to do e-commerce right. In his broad-ranging discussion he covers specifics from how to go about user-interface design, to technical issues in both infrastructure and tools selection, to some of the unique demands that running a 24x7 e-commerce operation place on a company's IT operation. George also goes into two specific case studies of how Taos has assisted customers successfully in making the move into e-commerce, including real-world comments on what went right, and some of the gotchas that come up in a project like this.
We hope you enjoy and benefit from reading this month's issue. As always, if you would like to explore further how Taos can be of assistance to you in navigating these demanding waters, please contact me, Ric Urrutia, directly at (408) 588-1200, or at ric@taos.com.
Sincerely,
Ric Urrutia
CEO & Founder
Alexis Tatarsky
Co-Founder
"delivering excellence in IT”
1Reuters for Business Information
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