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Key Indicators for Successful Internet Commerce 139
opportunities, and competitive threats. This implies that the e-commerce enterprise
should be able to implement new business solutions quickly. This impacts on the
implementation of applications, and, ITQuadrant (2001) asserts that this requires
an adaptive application architecture that maximizes reuse.
Kandiah et al. (2000) in an exploratory study identified some key variables that
contribute to IS project failure. Some of them are poorly communicated goals, lack
of corporate leadership, inadequate skills, poor project management, deviation
from timetable and budget, data collection strategies, sampling approach and
principal component analysis. They argued that IS projects such as e-commerce
often fall short of expectations.
Systems Development
Methodologies for developing information systems (IS) have matured considerably
over time. Years of experience have culminated into various packages of
good practice, and these are evidenced in a multitude of software engineering
literature. There are, however, many common do’s and don’ts advocated for
sensible development of information systems. There is no reason that this should be
thrown out of the window when developing information systems that use ecommerce
as the primary driver. Bragg (in Highsmith et al., 2001) argues that worst
practices in developing the e-commerce software itself vary widely, and many of
them are no different from worst practices in developing other kinds of software.
For example, carefully defining the business problem and scoping the system is
advocated by many analysis and design authors (see Whitten et al., 2001; Satzinger
et al., 2001). It is therefore not a new problem, because recent reports of ecommerce
implementation problems have pointed to similar issues. Additionally,
sticking to a sound methodology rooted in the systems development life cycle
(SDLC) is one aspect that really should not be neglected. There are, however,
alternate points of view. For example, Highsmith et al. (2001) claim that even though
these new practices often fly in the face of conventional wisdom, they survive
because they are better adapted to the new reality. They propose three essentials
for e-commerce success: adaptive enterprises, adaptive software, and agile IT
professionals.
When incorporating e-commerce platforms into existing business practices,
various strategies could be used. For example, e-business reengineering is finally
leading companies to consider the deep, radical redesigns that Hammer and other
BPR gurus first advocated in the early 1990s (Harmon, 2002). What was radical
then is now necessary for survival. He (Harmon, 2002) argued that a company
cannot transition to an e-commerce strategy without creating a new company
software architecture and an extensive new suite of software applications. To
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