Supporting a new e-comm infrastructure

Management has asked us to expand our intranet/extranet infrastructure to support a new e-commerce initiative but has not provided any specifics about what it wants. How would you recommend we get started?
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I recommend a three-step exercise that starts with a needs assessment. Establish in writing the overall goals, implementation objectives and operational characteristics you expect. Will you take the existing business model online or does e-commerce call for a new process?

Next, information and process-flow analysis identifies the who, what, when, where, why and how of presenting information to prospective customers, taking orders, collecting payment, confirming fulfillment, tracking shipments and providing customer service under the proposed model. The result is a map of where the required data comes from; who creates, owns and manages it; how electronic transactions flow through business processes; and why particular e-commerce system interfaces are necessary.

The last phase is a readiness assessment during which you examine the current computing environment's ability to support the functionality documented in the previous two steps.

After completing these discovery activities, you should have a clear understanding of where the company wants to go, what it will take to get there, how it is going to work when it's done, and what kind of foundation there is to start building on.

As a network architect at Change at Work in Houston, Blass understands the strain of developing and managing intranets. Send your problems to dr.internet@changeatwork.com

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