IDIOM TECHNOLOGIES,
GLOBALIZING E-BUSINESS: A 360-DEGREE RETURN ON INVESTMENT (ROI)
PERSPECTIVE
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This paper explores the
range of returns that companies can expect on their investment in
e-business globalisation. The 360-degree approach considers factors
such as improvements in customer service, brand equity, market effectiveness
and the ability to adapt quickly to changing market conditions.
Main Findings
Globalisation Newbies
- Many firms see an opportunity to use the Internet to serve their
"foreign" customers better. However, most of these firms
have not yet made significant Web investment outside their domestic
markets.
Wiser veterans - Some firms have created international sites
in response to real or perceived market needs, but found they
were unable to effectively manage their new locations. Such firms
now seek more efficient and cost-effective ways to manage their
international sites, eliminate cost, improve the quality of their
offerings and reinforce their brand.
Sidelined Global Travellers - Firms that allowed local business
units to set their own on-line agendas, have a resulting fragmented
international presence.
The Web is one of several critical channels for communicating,
collaborating and transacting with customers, partners and employees.
Thus, a firm should seek the means to create, manage and deliver
their value to global audiences - regardless of the medium.
The 360 degree analysis of ROI should consider:
- Revenue share
from global and multicultural markets. Even as US Web growth
slows down, Internet usage in Latin America, Asia and Europe
is on the rise. Furthermore, planners need not look only abroad
for new markets. For example, ethnic Americans online represent
opportunities, with the Census Bureau noting that although 3%
of Americans are Asian, Web researchers estimate that 69% of
them already use the Web. Similar on-line cultural dynamics
can be found in Canada, Germany and the UK;
- Improved Customer
Service. Companies like Sony and BMW offer their international
customers the ability to serve themselves with features like
frequently asked questions (FAQs) and product information in
their preferred languages. This localisation of information
has become a cost of doing business;
- Improved Brand
Penetration and increased brand equity.
On the Web, visitors go to names they know. Last year, the top
10 Web sties accounted for 60% of all customer traffic. The
challenge for firms is to ensure that the brand attributes are
correctly and consistently represented in each of their target
markets;
- Lower cost of
business operations. Cost reduction is a major driver as
companies automate key business functions like product catalogues.
An AMR Research study found that cost reduction is most often
cited by CIOs and IT executives as the principal driver of their
e-business investments. Companies will seek to improve their
supply chains and their network of trading partners; and
- Improved time
to market.
A company can roll out and publicise revisions to its service
offerings much faster through its Web sites than it can through
updating and publishing hardcopy collateral.
For firms undertaking
their first globalisation project, questions to be addressed include:
"Which competitors are in our target markets? Which markets
should we enter first? Is what we offer appropriate for the market
that we are targeting?"
For firms with more globalisation experience, they will be focusing
on how to eliminate costs and reduce the inefficiencies of current
processes.
Implications for eVET
It is important that
the markets eVET is planning to enter have sufficient infrastructure
in place or at the very least, the capacity to supply, to support
eVET's on-line products.
If eVET is considering setting up branches in overseas markets,
it is essential all business units create, manage and deliver
eVET products in a consistent, cooperative manner so as not to
communicate a fragmented international presence.
EVET could consider different target markets within a particular
country, such as different cultural and learning needs. This presents
an opportunity for eVET.
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