An evaluation of your e-procurement efforts will
follow three steps:
1. Consider Expansion of E-Business Efforts
This may be as simple as upgrading from an ADSL network
connection to a cable connection, or working to obtain more customers
via the Internet once you have demonstrated success with a single customer.
Or, expansion of your e-business efforts could simply involve moving
from static to dynamic web pages, meaning that your web pages could
be dynamically generated by a database each time a user clicked on a
link on your site. This allows you to update your site simply
by entering new information into a database, which then populates the
HTML web page templates. Unlike static pages, you do not have
to enter any updates or changes in HTML. Dynamic web sites also
allow you the sophistication of programming in advance the exact date
and time at which you want certain changes to be entered on your site
Expansion could also mean larger tasks such as installing
an ERP system to connect the various software systems of your organization
and thereby prepare for fully automated e-procurement.
2. Recognize When Your E-Business Requirements
are Fulfilled
It is important not to blindly follow the marketing
and media hype regarding e-procurement development, but to start with
a step-by-step process, stopping along the way to evaluate how each
step meets the needs of your company, and stopping once your Internet
efforts satisfy your business goals.
3. Re-Strategize
Return to the Strategy step, armed with new information.
For example, depending on the results of your evaluations, you may want
to consider:
