|
|
|
March, 1997 |
  
|
NEW PRODUCTS WITH A FUTURE....At Gartner’s Internet & Electronic Commerce Conference & Exposition on March 18-20 in New York, there were many products on display that would enhance web site performance. However, I came across two products I have not seen before that should prove to impact positively on operations and customer support. "Letters, we write letters....."Brightware of Novato, CA previewed a product they initially developed for Chase Manhattan Bank that is now for sale to other companies. BrightResponse is an automated electronic mail processor that enables companies to provide faster e-mail replies and handle significant increases in e-mail volume without increasing staff. Artificial intelligence (AI) is what drives the product. AI is a technology that enables the automation of human reasoning processes, such as communicating with natural language, making judgments and solving problems. With preset guidelines for sorting through incoming e-mail, an automated sales agent can answer questions, make suggestions, or re-route e-mail to the right department for an answer that the agent does not have. "These automated agents can help service customers and manage sales and marketing activity in a Web ‘office,’ almost as if it were a physical location," Chuck Williams, president of Brightware, said. "Most companies are not equipped to handle the overwhelming number of electronic messages that often follow a successful Web site opening or advertising campaign." The Wall Street Journal actually confirmed this e-mail dilemma in its 10/21/96 issue. A survey conducted by Matrixx Marketing Inc. in Cincinnati did a random check of 100 Web sites of the 500 largest U.S. companies. Only 17 of them sent back electronic mail replies. Almost half of the sites didn’t include any e-mail capability. BrightResponse is a product to investigate if you’re planning a highly interactive web site, or if you’d like to conduct more of your customer service online. (Contact: Brightware, Inc. 800-532-2890, info@brightware.com) TopEDI over the Internet...By merging online catalogs and Internet EDI, the Retail Catalog introduced by Electronic Commerce Systems (ECS) provides a direct link between purchasers and most order entry systems. Currently, orders received via most online catalogs must be printed out and rekeyed into order entry systems, an inefficient and time consuming process. This new Retail Catalog product produces end-to-end automated transactions that eliminate human intervention, increase accuracy and speed responsiveness. The Retail Catalog consists of a standard Internet site that consumers/trading partners can use to select items they are interested in. Each item is coupled with a specific EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) price/sales transaction set. ECS hosts corporate catalogs in an Internet Mall format, which means suppliers don’t have to maintain a dedicated Web host. Fees are based on storage, per item and per transaction charges. Potential users of the Retail Catalog include retail chains and their suppliers, third-party fulfillment houses, sales departments, catalog houses and firms that want fulfillment capabilities on their intranets. (Contact: Electronic Commerce Systems, 404-876-5654, sales@ecweb.com) TopInstant Online Stores on a Budget....The most fascinating product at the DMA show was from Cambridge, MA-based Viaweb Inc. Using an ordinary web browser, a merchant can log into Viaweb’s site and build a store right on Viaweb’s server. Building a store requires no web expertise and takes as little as ten minutes. Merchants can log in to edit their sites or retrieve orders 24 hours a day. Among Viaweb’s list of clients are Frederick’s of Hollywood, Rolling Stone Magazine and Dean & DeLuca. Finished sites are hosted on Viaweb’s server, which accepts orders over a secure connection, and automatically submits each user’s entire site to all major search engines. Sites made with Viaweb are listed on Viamall, now one of the busiest Web malls, with over 2.3 million page views per month. Reports created on the fly online allow merchants to see statistics like page views, sales, and conversion rates. The software can track what links visitors are coming from thus helping merchants track the effects of promotions, holidays and site makeovers. Rates are more than reasonable: $100 a month for a store with 20 items and $300 a month for a store with up to a 1,000 items. (Contact: Viaweb, 1-888-4-VIAWEB)
|
