Nueronic Consulting

With these next few posts i will outline a number of techniques,tools and models that busienss analysts use during the problem investigation,requirements analysis and design phases.

C.A.T.W.O.E
C-Customer: the beneficiary of the business system.
A-Actor: the people who perform the tasks in the system.
T-Transformation: the core activity of the system, or the primary change brought about as a result.
W-Weltanschauung (or worldview): the underlying belief about the system, whether it is the priority, the type of system or the objective of the system.
O-Owner: the person or body that has the power to approve/cancel the system.
E-Environment: the factors outside the system that might impose constraints on how it operates, e.g. legal or regulatory rulings, business environment, workload etc.
[Courtesy of http://www.acca.org.uk]
By identifying these six categories we can have a better understanding of the problem, the key players and the environment in which the new system will adapt to. Using CATWOE, we can identify what each actor in the Rich Picture thinks of the existing system, and the new system that may be needed.  Thus, CATWOE will aid us in better addressing the user needs, and client requirements and form a conceptual representation of the system.

Value Chain
Value chain analysis is based on Michael Porter’s Five Forces Model. This model is used to model the business “competitive advantage” (Porter, 1985) to analyse how value is created in an organisation and to investigate the role of information technology in the value driven activities.
Porter [1985] argued that these activities are divided into two categories:
1. Primary activities. Activities that are used to produce, a product or value.
2. Support activities. Activities that are not directly linked to production but can increase organisation effectiveness.
By analysing these activities, we can specify what value each activity adds to the organisation.
[http://www.themanager.org]

Value Network
Following the Value Chain, I have decided to include a value network, because it is vital to know not only how value is created but also how value flows in the organisation.
“The key to reconfiguring business models for the knowledge economy lies in understanding the new currencies of value”(V.Allee, 2000). Value internally and externally is exchanged between organisations, customers, operational staff, suppliers, partners and the community. But value is not limited only in goods and services, but also includes knowledge (such as, business strategies, business processes, policies) and intangible benefits (such as, customer loyalty, brand name, satisfaction etc).So in order to capture these values a Value network must be applied to incorporate these values so that we can have a full picture of “what is going on” internally and externally in the company”, I identify problem areas and try and enhance these by providing a corrective solution.

Having done some research online this is a list of tips from the consumer’s that can help you make your e-commerce site succesful.

1. Never leave unanswered emails for more than 48 hours, or your customer is gone.
2. Let the customer see the shipping charge without registering! Preferably on the basket or at an FAQ page.
3. Ensure your forms use common names for fields so that they’re recognised by toolbars that have an autofill function. Do not use jargon as this can confuse consumers.
4. If you have  a country drop-down box, please list it in alphabetical order, and don’t put United States at the top
5. Don’t just accept payment through PayPal. Many people have had bad experiences with PayPal and prefer to use alternative, simpler payment methods
6. Make your site incredibly easy to buy from - no registration if possible (this is a latest trend -user buy as visitors)
7. 3-Clicks rule-don’t bury your products in several pages of clickthroughs, implement a working search mechanism so the user can get to what they seek ..
8. Give the user a sense of who you are. The web is a cold, anonymous place. Anything you can do to bring a sense of personality and assurance to your website will help. Trust is very important.
9. if you use a site search, make sure it works better than expected. It should search more than product names. Make sure it can find products by SKU, Model Number, and even misspellings if possible
10. Navigation - Use the same visual theme for every action required of the customer
11. Product options - Make them clear and comprehensive. Answer every possible question on the product detail page,provide specs,reviews,pictures etc.
12. Keep the customer informed about the status of their order before they ask
13. Make sure your site search can also search by size and color or tp be product specific when necessary.
14. If you only ship to USA say that right off and several times
15. Goes without saying that spelling must be perfect.
16. If you’re new to ecommerce NEVER mention that. This is a clear invitation to scammers.
17. Get the most web un-savvy person you know to test your site
18. Show good sharp graphics. Learn to use basic photo editing software or pay a designer to this for you.
19. Remove all non essential navigation elements from the checkout process. Have a single page checkout if possible
20. If the customer has entered some incorrect information,  let them know this without them having to type in all their details again.Mark required fields clearly.
21. Have a “best sellers” or “most popular” listing.
22. When using thumbnails to link to larger images give your customers larger images-not similar size to the thumbnail.

There are of-course more to this list, you can find a lot of this on the web, i beleive however that this list set’s the basis for a succesful site.

Invitation for articles/posts!

I would like to invite everyone that visit’s this site to submit any articles they think would be relevant to this site; these could be on the following subjects:
- Business and IT
-E-marketing
-General Web
- Business Systems Analysis
-Web design
-Software development
- Software engineering
- Usability
-E-commerce
-IT strategy
-Project Management
-IT architecture
- Systems Design
-E-governance
-Entrepreneur/Business Start Up
-anything else!
 
I would like to include material form different perspectives for visitors of this site from different authors, while promoting the author’s site and work.
Links to your site, blog and any promotional material you would like to include is welcome. E-mail me for details  : andreas AT nueronic.com or use the contact form.

Thanks!