Matthew Price

1. New international frontiers
2. Recognising the difference
3. Languages go beyond words
4. Cultures in the plural
5. Currencies plus the Euro equal pricing
6. Delivery, wired or wireless
7. Rethinking corporate structure
8. Business rules for privacy law and commerce regulation
9. Why implement an international ICRM solution?

New international frontiers

The functional components needed to achieve viable e-commerce are now, to all intents and purposes, in place. Anyone with the inclination can create a business Web site. However, new challenges are being thrown up at those dot coms that are seeking to fully exploit the access to international markets that the Internet has enabled.

The development of a personalised user experience is now essential within commercial environments on the Web in order to engender user loyalty. The reason is simple. Internet customers can take their business anywhere in the world at the click of a button - without any effort. There are no physical or geographic boundaries to stop them moving on. And, on average, you only have 6 seconds in which to capture their interest.

As a result, companies are now vying for the lead in creating an interactive learning relationship with a global customer base in order to maximise their “share of each customer”. The new goal is to exploit individual customer profiles and knowledge to delivery of highly personalised content, so that consumer trust is quickly developed and additional sales opportunities can be more readily identified.

The failure of HTML to satisfy this need has driven the development and acceptance of XML as organisations have sought a solution that is capable of:

Previous

Table of Contents

Recognising the difference

The problem, of course, stems from the fact that the world is far from homogenous! If businesses are to achieve success in what is a highly segmented, global marketplace then they must over come the challenges of a multi-lingual, multi-currency and multi-cultural environment by customising their operations to accommodate the differences.

However, XML’s ability to capture and transmit semantic and structural data has greatly expanded the range of possibilities for manipulating the way that data appears to the user. For example, an order form that includes information in multiple languages can now be made to show just the language selected by the user. In effect, the arrival of XML means that the possibilities for delivering richly structured data in a standardised way to customers is now only constrained by the imagination of the provider.

Previous

Table of Contents

Languages go beyond words

Local language presentation requires the right framework and infrastructure to manage content and maintain professional business representation. Determining the viewer’s language of choice is just the first hurdle in creating a single site that is internationally accessible - and comprehensible. Language needs will almost certainly include the automatic translating or manual updating of rapidly changing content without the need for site structure reprogramming. Beyond that lie other language-related challenges, such as the sensitive handling of language nuances, and the ability to adjust design and layout to accommodate the fact that languages vary in the amount of words they need to convey the same message - and even in their layout.

Dynamically building page content from the appropriate language source will involve choices on depth of detail. Minority language speakers often have a second majority language. Deeper detail and updating could be confined to the majority language page.

Previous

Table of Contents

Cultures in the plural

Business cultures vary, even between regions of the same country. Consequently, ensuring that your site’s comfort and empathy level is at least as good as native sites requires attention to many subtle factors. A personalisation solution must encompass all of these preferences to generate an authentic local feel.

Creating country- and region-specific sites will involve more than just altering text. Graphics, text styles, and layout order will need to follow national notions of what steps are part of a business deal and what order they go in. For example, purchasing styles differ throughout Europe: the French prefer credit cards while Germans tend to opt for cheques.

It is also worth considering the extremely varied spending profiles between countries. In some areas an Internet sale will be made in one site visit, whilst for others it could involve several visits before a purchase is made. However, in either case, it should be remembered that every opportunity to interact with the customer is an opportunity to widen the site’s learning abilities and deliver an even more personalised service on the next visit.

After all, an online purchase will only ever be completed if the customer believes that the company will deliver what it promises and trusts the company enough to provide their address and credit card details.

Therefore, when a purchase is made there is already a tremendous amount of trust that has been created, so any purchase must be treated as the beginning of the next transaction. In other words, you must consider how the information gained this time can be used to make the customer’s life even easier the next time they visit. For this very reason Amazon.com pioneered the concept of “One click ordering”, whereby once a customer has made their first purchase they do not need to re-enter their personal and delivery details for any subsequent purchases. As a result, customers are less likely to use another company’s services, because it seems too much unnecessary hassle to move.

Previous

Table of Contents

Currencies plus the Euro equal pricing

In addition to each country’s local currency, there is the Euro to be considered. Many financial systems, including some e-commerce software, treat Euro pricing like any other currency. However, because prices for some goods vary from country to country, the equivalent Euro cost will also differ. Local taxes, goods with volatile pricing, preferred customer discounts, volume order and special offers may also call for rapid reflection of changes throughout the involved currencies. Dynamic pricing will be essential, enabling business rule-driven pricing that carefully separates currency issues from regional pricing.

Previous

Table of Contents

Delivery, wired or wireless

While we are primarily considering Web-based content, the near future promises the opening of many new interactive communication channels such as digital TV, wireless applications through smart phones and personal digital assistants, and public kiosks and self-service retail interfaces. Its existing GSM infrastructure and the presence of two of the world’s largest mobile telephone manufacturers means Europe will lead in the rolling out of wireless applications. Businesses that can integrate Web site-developed knowledge bases with expertise in using the new communication channels will be at the crest of the next wave in the communications evolution.

Many new channels already use Internet technologies, such as Java, acknowledging the inevitable convergence of all information delivery systems. Even “traditional” Web browsing will see dramatic changes. The desire to provide bandwidth-intensive content through the Web site will call for content suitable for the speed of the visitor’s connection.

An effective ICRM solution must work for different delivery channels and be accessible from various devices, with tools for long-term compatibility and easy adaptability with other systems - fitting the viewing channel of the moment.

Previous

Table of Contents

Rethinking corporate structure

Multinationals will need to provide an environment whereby local managers can input content for their own customers. However, multinationals will still want a corporate-wide, consistent image and the ability to share knowledge gained through observing user preferences. Any leading ICRM solution will provide a common framework that allows multiple sources of input and sharing in a central knowledge pool.

Previous

Table of Contents

Business rules for privacy law and commerce regulation

Data protection and privacy laws will vary from country to country. Furthermore, electronic commerce regulation is still developing and it is likely to change continuously for the next few years. To operate a cost-effective site while keeping up-to-date with regulations requires a highly secure e-commerce engine that can be easily updated without the need for extensive reprogramming. Moderating site behaviour through e-business rules will be the most effective way to ensure legality throughout all trading regions without reducing site functionality in other markets.

Previous

Table of Contents

Why implement an international ICRM solution?

With so many complex factors to consider you might reasonably wonder if it wouldn’t be simpler to just work on a country-by-country basis, managing all content locally. But there are distinct disincentives for taking that path. Aside from the expense and labour of controlling brand image - and the poorer quality of business information produced by small, separate pools of operation - implementing a separate solution for ICRM in several countries clearly costs more than creating a consolidated solution. Furthermore, providing an effective service in countries where the company has no established presence or only limited resources will eventually mean some form of centralised solution anyway. The best solution is clearly the adoption of a strategic and centralised platform from the start rather than the development of a piecemeal effort.

The answer lies in developing an infrastructure that is scalable, quick to change and has the personalisation of content at its core - a system that allows you to react to changes in your marketplace, across multiple segments, very quickly.

ATG’s Dynamo platform is enabling leading dot.com companies to cost-effectively maintain a site that caters for different countries and different information needs and develop enduring customer relationships. Its fully scalable and open architecture is designed to deliver a highly personalised and unified user experience and enable organisations to respond quickly and effectively to evolving market needs.

ATG strongly supports the use of XML as a mechanism for data integration, content exchange and content targeting. With the release of Dynamo 4.5 ATG customers can now take advantage of the growing popularity of XML as a foundation for sharing information between disparate systems used among companies who have partner, customer and supplier relationships. In addition, XML is also being used as a means for sharing syndicated content such as news feeds and stock prices. Now Dynamo provides the necessary XML functionality to implement these types of solutions.

Previous

Table of Contents