Ten key obstacles to successful e.business

This list is designed to focus the attention of all those who will use, support or enable e.business on the main areas which need to be understood and tackled to achieve the profitable application of e.business.

1. Lack of senior sponsorship, because of:
   1. lack of clearly defined relationship to near-term profitability or performance. Other avenues for investment seen as being higher priority.
   2. non-understanding of subject and potential
   3. reaction to over-selling, hype, dot.com failures, e.exchange unprofitability, Internet as instant panacea, Y2K exaggerations, Enterprise Resource Package costs versus benefits, etc.
2. Successful e.business requires a thorough review of key objectives, business processes, and value chains, which e.b can then enable alongside other actions. This is hard work and is not a favourite subject for CEO’s. Also this work requires skills which are in short supply.
3. Requires organisations to collaborate with value chain partners, which is difficult if you are not a dominant player. It is hard work to alleviate the Silo Syndrome across functions and organisations and to reward collaborative behaviour, while retaining competitive edge. There is too often a lack of trust between organisations which inhibits collaboration, and therefore full e.business.
4. Lack of security perceived, particularly in relation to governmental and financial transactions. Difficulty in confirming identity of who is about to take part in a transaction – status, security clearance/confidentiality, credit- worthiness, etc.
5. Lack of widespread, high speed, low cost access to the Internet and other e.b facilities. It is essential to ensure that end-users and consumers are cost- effectively on-line to key applications. Shortage of investment funds to provide effective infrastructure, systems and facilities.
6. Lack of standards and of awareness of standards. Inadequate separation of e.b. standards from technology. Lack of awareness of whom to turn to. Inadequate communication of relevance and status of standards..
7. Uncertain regulatory environment. Are international transactions to be governed by the laws of the buyer’s or the seller’s country, and therefore which consumer protection and fiscal regimes apply, for example?
8. Poor appreciation of the importance of accurate data and especially of master data. Current poor quality of data and integration of systems in companies and government. Insufficient use of standard coding.
9. Inadequate presentation of the real and substantial benefits. Need to promote use of benchmarking tools and to publicise best practice more widely and effectively. Insufficient cross-fertilisation across industry boundaries.
10. Need to improve education and training in e.b and in value chain management