Error 404--Not Found |
From RFC 2068 Hypertext Transfer Protocol -- HTTP/1.1:10.4.5 404 Not FoundThe server has not found anything matching the Request-URI. No indication is given of whether the condition is temporary or permanent. If the server does not wish to make this information available to the client, the status code 403 (Forbidden) can be used instead. The 410 (Gone) status code SHOULD be used if the server knows, through some internally configurable mechanism, that an old resource is permanently unavailable and has no forwarding address. |
Cisco is not alone. 3Com garners about $2 billion, or 30% of its revenue, from e-commerce sales, and it wants to increase the percentage to 80% by year-end. 3Com executives estimate e-commerce boosts the productivity of its sales organization by 25% to 30%.
For Cabletron, an electronic order saves 96 cents on every dollar in processing costs. Compaq's successful Prosignia PC e-commerce sales - which had been averaging $1 million per day as of March - have led the company to launch a new division, Compaq.com, to consolidate and expand its efforts. The company has declared it will become an online market share leader by 2001.
Overall, Forrester predicts business-to-business sales of computing and electronics equipment will soar in the next four years - increasing from about $50 billion in orders this year to more than $395 billion by 2003.
Customers have clearly spoken. When e-commerce is offered, it is typically the sales method of choice for network hardware. Customers who purchase online say they save money through price comparisons, vendor discounts for buying online and by getting what they want the first time.
"You specify exactly what you want - no communication problems. So in some aspects, I actually trust using the 'Net to make my purchase rather than direct contact," says Robert Hoonjan, manager of Customer Integration Americas for SITA in Atlanta.
Double-dealing
But little network hardware is sold to end users through vendors' Web sites, despite the benefits. Even for Cisco, roughly half of online sales come from resellers - not direct from end users. Customers who purchase from the Cisco site must qualify in advance for the privilege, says Scott McMahan, senior manager of Internet Business Solutions for Cisco.
Exactly what is the electronic deal here? The answer depends on how a vendor plans to balance e-commerce with its current sales structure. For a direct-sales company such as Dell, selling through a Web site is a no-brainer. But the issue is more complex for vendors that use reseller channels.
E-commerce reverses the sales process. Rather than customers coming to a vendor through a reseller's sales efforts, the customer is driven directly to the vendor by brand-name recognition. Familiar brand names give users a sense of security about the vendor from which they are making purchases, Hoonjan explains.
Vendors with reseller channels then must hand off the customer to a reseller. The issue is politically sticky. Big network vendors have thousands of resellers. Which reseller gets the sale?
E-commerce sales are also technologically sticky. Until Extensible Markup Language came along, there was no way to begin a transaction on one site - the vendor's - and have it completed at another - the reseller's, says David Atakins, manager of e-sales at 3Com in Santa Clara, Calif. He is currently updating the 3Com site to provide this function.
There are other sticking points for e-commerce.