Bob Williams

Where operations, projects, and innovation collide and divide

September 27th, 2011 | Leave a comment | Tags: , , ,

To build it or to maintain it. That is the question. It’s a classic question in organizational design. The answer of course is you have to do both. I’m not talking about the decision of a product nearing the end of its life cycle where you decide between adding additional features or putting it in maintenance mode. Rather, this is about allocation of people and teams within an eCommerce organization to maintenance or operational activities versus allocation to projects.

I’ve seen terms like “run the business”, “keep the lights on”, and “operations”.   Those terms refer to activities that an organization does to maintain service to existing customers or to maintain …Continue reading >>

Bob Williams

Rethink competitive analysis

January 5th, 2011 | Leave a comment | Tags: , , ,

Solution owners have the responsibility of performing a competitive analysis for an eCommerce team. It’s the process of knowing exactly how your site compares to the competition. We define if we are ahead, behind, or on par with key features that the industry and customers require. I’ve seen projects justified in the name of competitive alignment and at a larger scale entire strategies formulated in order to copy the competition.

But who says the competition is right? Are they right because they are your competitor? If a competitor has an eCommerce site with a certain feature does that mean that my site must have it also? The answer is maybe. …Continue reading >>

Bob Williams

eCommerce solutions ownership – customer focused results

November 1st, 2010 | Leave a comment | Tags: , , ,

An important role in an eCommerce operation is responsibility for solutions ownership and the results delivered to senior management and other stakeholders. It’s a senior role that focuses on the macro level results that  define the success and viability of the eCommerce team. In addition to the traditional financial and market metrics, the solutions owner must deliver customer focused results. It’s the customer focus that provides the building blocks for the traditional results and helps to set an eCommerce team apart from it’s competitors.

Traditional financial results

A solutions owner is responsible for profitable results with positive contribution margins. The contribution margin of a product is defined as the revenue …Continue reading >>

Bob Williams

Defining an eCommerce Operation – Experience and Usability

March 30th, 2010 | Leave a comment | Tags: , , ,

UPDATE 10/27/10 – I posted a mind map of my eCommerce Operation on mindmeister that replaces the original map contained in this post. This includes the latest updates to my organizational thoughts on an eCommerce team.

This is my seventh and final post in the series on the topic of defining an eCommerce operation. Certainly I’ve not covered every detail or function of an eCommerce grouped tasked with operations,

An eCommerce Operation Team Structure

maintenance, and new growth. However, this and the previous posts provide a baseline of the most important functions needed in an eCommerce model and provide guidance on the eCommerce team structure.

The area tasked with …Continue reading >>

Bob Williams

Defining an eCommerce Operation – Release Management

March 17th, 2010 | 3 comments | Tags: , , ,

UPDATE 10/27/10 – I posted a mind map of my eCommerce Operation on mindmeister that replaces the original map contained in this post. This includes the latest updates to my organizational thoughts on an eCommerce team.

This is my sixth post on the defining elements of an eCommerce Operation. Previously, I’ve written about management in the areas of solution ownership, content management, product management, demand management and metrics management. In this post I’ll explore elements related to release management activities.

Release management provides for the justification, prioritization, and specification of software that comprises your eCommerce portfolio. Certainly software development is a discipline unto itself, but these elements cover the basic disciplines and functions of the …Continue reading >>

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