It is not only about being able to sell.
Online store should also provide you parameters of business
performance. From web-store to e-business platform, Net4India
led the transition for one-of-its-kind boutique of handmade-paper
products.
Background
Our Client is a well-established handmade paper boutique
market in India as well as in United States. While traditional
channel, markets the business on the domestic front, the
international servicing is conducted through the Internet.
Initially, NIH had a web-store, which with growing business,
exposed serious limitations in terms of functionality,
flexibility and scalability. The iAD team at Net4India
was engaged to conduct an assessment of the existing system.
A preliminary audit revealed that the Client was being
deprived of two main things:
Manageability - They were entirely
dependent upon their solution provider for every single
change update of their website, however minor they were.
Absence of MIS - The system
could not provide the requisite data for analysis even
at the basic level.
Finding the way out
In brief, what the Client was looking for not merely an
online store but a full scale e-business platform with
a storefront and backend operations management unit.
Net4India proposed the platform architecture keeping in
mind two important issues.
Firstly, replicate the limited-scope web-store and transfer
it from the existing solution provider to Net4India infrastructure
with minimum downtime. This was perceived as an interim
measure
Secondly, seamlessly integrate the interim site on to
the e-business platform and enhance its capability.
Doing it right!
Net4India, as a strategy partner, works closely with their
Client's business development team to understand the business
process and form a near-term view for the purpose of scalability.
The same was done in this case. Instead of implementing
the entire concept at one go, it was decided to implement
in phases. The first step was to engineering a base that
can hold the expectations and requirements of the Client
in the future and as well as the functional platform to
move away from its current solution. The full swing implementation
of the first phase - from initial design to service switch-on
- was conducted in 25 days. Within the next two months,
the entire business-platform was done, tested and made
ready for commissioning. The outcome was the most happening
E-marketplace for handmade papers products.
The final solution offered the Client incremental scalability
option so as to allow flexibility of accommodating changes
in the business functions. The solution incorporated J2EE
architecture based on open standards running on the Macromedia
(erstwhile Allaire) J-Run application server. The combined
technical platform laid down the foundation of the robust,
scalable, flexible large-scale enterprise applications.
Benefit stream
The need that triggers business transformation often seem
simple, but while planning strategy (imbibing business
logic), myriad of other requirements crop up. Same happened
in this case, and the solution stood up to all of them.
The most significant benefits that emanated were:
- Benchmarking business performance (with graphical exposition)
- Adding new revenue lines with scope to multiply the
same
- Administering the entire shop-front through a consolidated
control panel
- Integrating online sales to enterprise's internal departments
in a seamless manner
Today, our Client has successfully graduated from running
an E-marketplace to running its own 'Virtual Enterprise'.
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