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I have received several emails recently pointing my attention to some extremely important things to consider before you digitize your business. The number one item that almost everyone has pointed out as absolutely critical in any business process, and even more so in e-business, is differentiation. The reason I’m dedicating this column to differentiation is the fact that the speed at which companies have had to or are implementing e-business programs has sometimes resulted in a difficult situation. Specifically, in some cases, putting an ‘e’ in business has become more important than paying attention to what we have always considered as the core element of doing business, i.e. differentiating yourself from your competitors.

In our industry, we have not prided ourselves on exploiting IT. We are still an industry obsessed with materials and engineering and have come up with some great solutions for our customers. Of course, some IT tools like design software or communication channels have helped us in doing our jobs faster and better, but these tools have not been the drivers of innovations. What that means is that as an industry, our IT resources are rather weak. We have changed only when we had to.

This impacts us in two ways. By not having strong, internal IT resources, we have been slow to embrace technological changes. Secondly, we are forced to rely on outside agencies to help us with some of these programs. While I am a strong advocate of outsourcing, effectively managing your IT provider is still your responsibility. A provider can only know so much about your business and, while this company may have only good intentions for your business, it may still end up providing you with a solution that is no different than what they sold to half a dozen of your competitors.

The solutions providers have another interest in selling you a standard product. If you do not know enough and also do not want to select a customized product, the only way that you can be served is by using an off-the-shelf product that requires minimum tweaking. The outcome is that, while your packaging products may be significantly superior to your competitors, your website is unable to convey that message.

Why is differentiation crucial even in e-business?
So far the pressure on us has been to develop an online platform to conduct business. However, very soon everyone will be there, and the issue will no longer be if you have an online channel, but how effective it is in highlighting the differences and advantages that you have over everyone else. If that is not clearly apparent, the dot com mantra that ‘your competitor is only few clicks away’ is actually true.

As I have indicated in my previous columns, with the elimination of business inefficiencies through better information management, commercial friction will largely disappear, further squeezing our margins. As a result, retaining customers will be predicated on how much value we can create for our customers and what differentiates us from our competitors. Thus, the basic rules related to differentiation from competitors still apply.

Suggested road map
While e-business may be a new channel, the principle of competitive advantage remains essentially the same. You still have to differentiate yourself from your competitors, no matter what. If not, your customers will simply select the supplier with the lowest price every time they have to make a selection.

While developing an online strategy, make sure that you have your strategy managers on the team. If you do not have good internal IT people who understand your business inside and out, get some help from industry experts who understand the packaging business as well as IT. Putting together a team with such diverse backgrounds will enable you to work more effectively with your e-business provider so that you will be able to develop an online presence that duplicates your offline strengths.

Labels: competitive advantage, ebusiness, information technology, strategy

posted by eCreativa Media  # 2:02 PM 0 Comments

I am often asked by packaging industry executives how they can exploit the Internet as a source of revenue generation because, when they present a case for integrating Internet in their business process, this is the first question that is asked of them. There is no simple answer to this question because it depends on such factors as type of business/products/customers that a company has, typical order size, degree of customization required, and nature of relationships with customers.

Since most companies in the packaging industry have not made e-commerce a significant part of their business activities yet, it is difficult to say what the potential savings can be and how much of their business can be moved online. There is still too little information available to us. However, there is some learning to be had from companies in other industries that have taken a more aggressive approach to making the Internet a tool to find new customers, improve customer relationships, and reduce the cost of transactions.

Some of the companies in other industries that have realized huge savings by exploiting the Internet in their core business are Cisco Systems, Oracle, General Electric, and Dana Corporation. Some of these companies actually do a lot more customization than we do in the packaging industry. Most of them also have long-term relationships with their customers and have to regularly worry about proprietary information. Thus, these companies have quite a few similarities with us.

Why not the packaging industry?
The key question that packaging industry executives should ask is, “If other industries like ours can take this approach, then what is stopping us from doing it?” My discussions so far lead me to believe that the delay in implementing these initiatives is being caused by both packaging industry executives and providers of IT solutions. For instance, one of the areas with potential for cost reduction is package design and taking it to manufacturing. With the number of teams and steps involved in the process, some of which may not be in the same physical location, the Internet provides a perfect opportunity to move these functions online so that different participants in the process can work remotely.

The problem is that packaging industry has a process in place for doing this today, and there is resistance to change it, as there is for any change. The problem gets compounded by the fact that there is no simple IT solution available today for us to do it. Until the day such solutions become as simple as entering your user ID and password to access the design system, companies will not be receptive to investing thousands of dollars in developing proprietary systems.

Why do some companies still think it is wise to make huge investments and develop proprietary systems? In my opinion, this has been prompted by three considerations: these companies recognize that inefficiencies in business processes can be minimized by use of new tools; secondly, they believe in using information technology as a competitive weapon; and finally, they want to keep pace with the changes in business environment.

While I have talked about these issues in my previous columns, let me reemphasize why proactively driving inefficiencies out of the business processes should be every executive’s priority. For centuries our economic system was built on making profits simply because somebody else could not find information fast enough – for instance, information on who the suppliers are, what prices are they willing to offer, does someone have excess inventory to unload, and how soon is it possible to get a large enough number of suppliers to compete for a piece of business to receive a lower price? The rate at which information flows today (and this is just the beginning) has made it so much easier to get these tasks done within a matter of hours at practically no cost.

Our goal of using the net should not be limited to revenue generation. It should actually encompass higher sales, lower costs, and better relationships (which eventually translate into higher sales and lower costs).

Labels: ebusiness, ecommerce, information technology, internet, packaging industry

posted by eCreativa Media  # 2:00 PM 0 Comments

The advantages of connectivity, e-commerce and exploiting other tools for more effectively purchasing products or reducing supply chain inefficiencies are clearer to small businesses than to larger ones. The reason is simple: small packaging suppliers, in many cases, compete with some of the largest companies but do not have the same bargaining power when it comes to purchasing raw materials or being able to force suppliers to expedite a delivery when absolutely necessary. If they can do anything to get that extra penny out of their costs, they are in a more competitive position.

The major problem facing small suppliers in our industry, however, is the lack of availability of suitable products that enable them to do that. As e-marketplaces are trying to build their businesses, their focus is on increasing the number of transactions. Since large companies typically conduct more business transactions, there is a greater tendency to design products for them and to pursue their participation more aggressively. To many in the packaging industry, this means that the game has not changed a whole lot. Wasn’t the Internet supposed to be the greatest equalizer?

Issues before small- and medium-sized suppliers
While discussing the unmet buy-side needs of this highly diverse and fragmented group of packaging companies, I came up with the following themes that were consistent across the industry:

• Need for relatively simple system requirements for e-commerce. They simply do not have the resources to build a new IT department and then be forced to update their systems every quarter because of revisions and upgrades.
  
• Flexibility with regards to minimum requirements to participation — for instance, the number of transactions or the value of business conducted in a given period.
  
• Less stringent requirements for approval to be included. Small suppliers generally need more cash-flow and credit help.

An equally important, but not as critical in the industry yet, is enabling these suppliers to sell online and to streamline their back-end processes. Most estimates put the number of small businesses at this stage at just 10%. This does not appear to be a serious problem right away since customers in our industry continue to buy through traditional channels and the point at which they will no longer do business with a company that is not integrated into their system is about 12 to 18 months away. (This period can shrink somewhat as the slowdown in the economy puts increasingly higher pressure to cut costs.)

Recommended roadmap
The turmoil in the business world is not likely to subside any time soon as we see slower growth in the economy, higher competition from global suppliers and, consequently, pressure to reduce costs. Some of the tools available today already enable small businesses to take advantage of purchasing over the Internet (though I am told that only about a quarter of the companies use the Internet to procure even office supplies, airline tickets and other similar products that every company should be doing today). While it may be difficult to procure specialized raw materials for small-volume buyers right now, they can definitely start with other products. This will not only reduce cost but also make the company’s executives more web-savvy and hopefully speed up the implementation in other areas.

The second solution that I am proposing may appear to be less practical right away but I would like to generate an industry debate on this issue. The larger packaging companies are already making or are planning to make significant investments into their IT infrastructure to address the realities of business today. Since the new economy thrives on partnerships and alliances, the larger companies should allow smaller companies to take advantage of their bargaining power, IT infrastructure and memberships of e-marketplaces. This will be a win-win situation for everyone because once the IT infrastructure has been set up, the marginal cost of an additional transaction approaches zero.

I am convinced that we can still compete in a healthy environment while enabling everyone to grow.

Labels: corporations, ebusiness, ecommerce, information technology, internet, packaging industry

posted by eCreativa Media  # 1:46 PM 0 Comments