Five best practices when buying and implementing new platform technology
As e-retailers upgrade their e-commerce platforms from outdated or homegrown versions, there are five key best practices they should follow when purchasing and implementing new technology, according to a new Forrester Research Inc. report.
“While e-commerce platforms have evolved significantly since initial investments by e-retailers in the mid-to late ‘90s, the implementation environments have grown far more complex, increasing the difficulties associated with replatforming,” says Tamara Mendelsohn, a Forrester Research consumer markets analyst who authored the report with fellow analysts Carrie A. Johnson and Brendan McGowan. “We retailing executives often underestimate these complexities, resulting in deployments that quickly run over budget and behind schedule.”
To avoid technology buying and implementation pitfalls, e-retailers first must assemble a comprehensive team, says the report, “The Top Five Things E-business Executives Need to Know about Commerce Platform Implementation.” E-retailer executives must involve relevant people upfront if they are to avoid revisiting decisions later in the process, the report says. For some merchants, this means involving both business and I.T. executives; for others, it involves business executives across channels or leaders at the very top of an organization; and for a few, it means involving everyone, the report suggests.
Second, e-retailers must ensure they choose the right technology. While this best practice may seem obvious, the commerce platform market is changing so rapidly that it’s easy to make the mistake of selecting a product based on outdated knowledge, the report says. “The consequences,” Mendelsohn adds, “are prolonged implementation, lengthy and expensive customizations, and the gradual process of outgrowing a platform after one or two years. To avoid getting stuck with the wrong platform, firms should not underestimate the value of clearly defining current and future requirements upfront with input from all stakeholders and then building out request for proposals that reflect those requirements.”
Third, Internet retailers need to clearly define the scope of a project. The most common reason for a delayed launch is mismanaged scope; while this is a best practice for most technology implementations, it is especially important in e-commerce because business requirements change at a more rapid pace due to the evolving nature of the channel, the report says. “Determining and agreeing upon what will and will not be included at launch is fundamental to managing expectations and ultimately success,” Mendelsohn says.
Fourth, e-retailers should set a realistic timeframe. “Once the scope of the initial launch has been set, implementation teams need to set a realistic timeline, which is a difficult task given the seasonality of selling,” Mendelsohn says. “Avoid the temptation to discount the need for crucial yet time-intensive steps like usability testing, performance tuning and quality assurance in order to launch before the holiday season or other arbitrary calendar dates set by marketing.”
And finally, web retailers must not underestimate the impact of change. It can be easy to underestimate the impact of process and organizational change, as well as the impact of technology change, especially when retailers had to scale so many processes inefficiently during the rapid growth of e-commerce, the report contends. “On the people and process side, it’s well worth the effort to investigate and document current processes to understand potential impact on roles and responsibilities,” Mendelsohn concludes. “In most cases, new platforms bring new capabilities, so employees will need to learn how to use the new tools and learn new business processes. This requires training to fully leverage an investment and may even mean replacing talent.”
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