All businesses today realize the importance of the Internet, and we won't dig into that now (goodbye to the 1990's), but the real question here is: Are businesses truly leveraging the opportunities the Internet has to offer to empower their business?
The answer, in most cases, is a big NOPE!
Sure, all businesses now have a website and embed their URLs on their business cards and email signatures, but how good is the website? How effective is its contribution to the corporate strategy and to business goals? It's the old debate of efficiency vs. effectiveness; most businesses today are missing out on many opportunities, just because they don't have an e-strategy. Being e-gyptians and obsessed with pyramids from our early ancestors, we developed the e-pyramid framework for going ‘e' the right way.
This e-pyramid involves 3 stages: strategy and planning (e-xist), execution and implementation (e-xecute) and measuring and feedback for continuous enhancement (e-volve). The E-Pyramid Framework by LOJINE Consulting:
E-xist: The base of the pyramid is where the basic infrastructure is setup. It is the base upon which all other future aspects are built. Knowing that proper foundation is essential, this is the e-strategy and planning stage which typically starts with an assessment of the organization's current situation and where it's heading. This begins with e-strategy setting, which involves integrating with existing strategies, business goals, operations and logistics processes. E-strategy sets the direction for the entire organization. E-strategy is a subset of business strategy and it is NOT ‘IT strategy' for the Internet. Much like business strategy drives IT strategy; e-strategy drives IT strategy. E-strategy helps create shareholder value by identifying new business models to compete in the modern world that includes the Internet as an integral part of any business today. In parallel, an e-benchmark is to be done by viewing industry standards, understanding the best practices within the industry and thoroughly studying competition. E-xist also involves creating the right web presence; the marketing part of the e-strategy, whether through a website or multiple websites, portal or portals, putting into consideration vital issues such as the website's structure and sitemap, the user interface and usability requirements, modules, security and hosting requirements and quality control. A website requirements document is thus compiled, clearly explaining what is to be done, what is to be avoided and how the web presence will be developed. E-xistance is now ready for e-marketing plan preparation. This is done by integrating e-activities with the existing marketing plan, which lists the e-tactics to be used, as well as projects and campaigns, in a comprehensive marketing calendar with budgets and KPI's.
E-xecute: E-xecuting the steps needed for successful e-presence is a vital step in our framework and involves implementation of the e-business goals discussed and covered in e-xist, and effectively managing and executing the e-marketing plan.
E-volve: Businesses need to identify what to measure and how to measure it so there would be room for improvement. There also has to be constant measurement to the organization's results and ratios, and avid work on improving them month after month. E-volving is basically the maturity stage where the aim is to constantly measure, improve, maintain and enhance all efforts that have been accomplished before, and then exploring new areas and opportunities.