Integrating with Back-end IT

You can't get there from here:
Integrating Web Marketing with Business Operations

Working with Back-end IT and Operations Groups

(Sample of Agency-to-Client Sell Piece for Teleshuttle services - 8/6/96)

The days of the simple, stand-alone Web site are over. Advanced interactive marketing, electronic commerce, and customer support services increasingly require linkage to back-end information technology (IT/MIS) systems and operations infrastructures. To get what you need, when you need it for a Web site, requires special integration planning and project support services and skills that can bridge the culture gap. That is a management problem, not a technical or creative problem, and we can help you solve it.

The need:

As Web sites move from free-standing "brochureware" and simple promotions to add direct support of sales transactions and substantive customer dialog for sales support and service, close coordination with operating departments becomes essential.

Dependencies include linkages to or from:

customer service
- e-mail routing and workflow processing
- call center/Web integration
databases
transaction systems and status reporting
- order entry and status inquiry
- fulfillment, inventory, production, and purchasing
- pricing and costing
- billing, payment, and account management
- accounting
operations / support staffs and their control procedures.

These linkages may be to inflexible legacy systems, or they may depend on complex reengineering and development efforts with broad business process impact. Either way, they make most Web developers cringe.

We can help manage these dependencies and prevent disconnects. Successful deployment and operation requires early and continuing involvement of impacted units to gain necessary cooperation and support. This requires people who have that rare combination of expertise in interactive media with major corporate IT and operations experience--to understand the issues faced by IT and other operations units, gain their confidence, and work with them to find win-win solutions that meet marketing needs.

The services:

Staff resources with this dual experience can be brought into our team to be used as needed to help proactively identify and address these special issues. This involvement is at a facilitation and project coordination level. The objective is to liaise with, not substitute for, the client's existing IT and operations resources. We can manage this can of worms so the creative, technical, and business people can do their thing without colliding or dropping the ball.

A basic planning assessment would typically include a review of interactive programs (planned and in-place) to review dependencies and identify platform compatibility issues and technical and operational support requirements, as they relate to the specifics of the client infrastructure, and to specify solutions. Follow-on reviews would occur at key stages in ongoing planning and implementation.

Specific planning and coordination tasks which can be supported as required include:

Basic coordination with IT to address server support or outsourcing and electronic mail gateway support. This includes their issues regarding security and operational controls, documentation, and operations procedures.
For customer service and support: coordination of messaging and tracking systems. These may range from e-mail and real-time chat to specialized incident tracking, messaging, and reporting systems. For heavy message traffic applications, mail sorting services and programmed-logic workflow processing can be used to direct correspondence and even perform complex automated handling. Advanced solutions may include integration of Web sites with outgoing call centers that can provide live voice service (over ordinary telephone lines), so that customers can click on a "call me now" button from specific pages with specific contexts.
For database applications: coordination of access techniques and data availability. Often negotiation and creative solutions may be required when available data does not match marketing specifications.
For transaction applications: coordination of interfaces to existing back-end or legacy systems. This may take the form of linkage to existing transaction systems and status databases, or outsourcing of first-level processing, with secondary linkages to related systems for some or all of fulfillment, billing, accounting, inventory / production / purchasing, and service.
Ongoing project coordination to monitor schedules and deliverables, meet documentation and QA needs, and negotiate implementation issues as they arise.
Business process / online opportunity consulting to identify and develop new opportunities in interactive selling and service. This would deepen the creative view of interactive approaches to the business, evaluate strategies in terms of current and emerging capabilities (both internal and external), and coordinate with business and support units in the associated reengineering of operational processes. Deepening, mutually interactive relationships with customers, suppliers, partners, and channels may be addressed as appropriate.

The skills:

In addition to their creative staff, most interactive media agencies have high-quality, clever technical specialists, but these people are rarely prepared to address complex back-end integration, support, operations, and business process issues. Their skills typically relate to content presentation using UNIX or NT servers, C and Java programming, and specialized tools such as Shockwave, as well as dial-up and TCP/IP communications in non-mission-critical environments.

What they generally lack is knowledge of large-scale business systems, databases, and networks, including the mainframes and non-UNIX midrange systems (IBM AS/400, DEC VAX, and HP-3000) that support most major commercial IT systems.

What they also generally lack is appreciation of the rigorous organization, procedures, and controls used to manage mission-critical business operational systems, as well as the desire to wrestle with these ugly details. Leading edge technicians in interactive media find it hard not to view IT staffs as bureaucrats doing dull work with outdated technology, and they often lack the business and organizational experience and discipline that is needed to gain the confidence and cooperation of IT and operational management.

Conversely, corporate IT and operations management and staff often lack the appreciation of interactive media content and dynamics needed to work most effectively with interactive marketing and creatives, and they have limited respect for hot-shot technicians. Even the most enlightened and creative of them have pressing day-to-day concerns and project backlogs that leave them short on time and patience.

We can provide senior consultants who combine high-quality experience and insight in both interactive media and business systems / operations, and who bring proven skills at coordinating complex multi-party projects. We can round out your team--to minimize culture clashes and ensure timely, effective deployment.

Please contact us to explore how we can contribute to meeting your particular needs.

Contact Information

Richard R. Reisman, President, Teleshuttle Corporation
799 Broadway, New York, NY 10003
(212)-673-0225 fax: (212)-673-0226
e-mail: info@teleshuttle.com