The Smarter Commerce-The Value Chain

by Elmer Buenavides - Saturday, 11 May 2013, 03:33 PM

(1) Video 1- Smarter Commerce and the Value Chain

(2) Video 2- Redefining the value chain in the age of the customers

(3) My Insights

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(1) Summary on Video 1- Smarter Commerce and the Value Chain

The commerce has always been almost driven by supply and demand. But because of the trends of

the different IT tools, this supply and demand has quickly became a new norm for key reason, the

customers who are considered the bread and butter of the business firms. Customers today are

becoming smarter and demanding, they are empowered, highly informed and connected. Their

expectations for products and services options are soaring, thus making the business firms to do

constant researches with the new approaches and strategies just to keep their customers.

The customers must be put at the center of all operations. Their behaviors must be studied well if

you want your business to stay competitive. Most of these customers are also take time to study

what are the business firms doing by using the different technologies available for them and demand

back to the business management of their needs and wants. They always wanted to be given a lot of

options where they can experience comforts and advantages. Because of the trend today, where

Internet is very influential that makes the increasing number of the cyber customers even doubled,

the business firms should need now to transform virtually every phase of the e-commerce life cycle.

It is to make a smarter commerce according to IBM. It is an innovative approach to buy, market, sell

and service.

Smarter commerce is about serving customers on their terms using timely insights. The activities

such as adapting, sourcing and procurement of goods and materials required delivery of products,

goods and services based on demand is critical because it requires a connected, agile and secured

supply network that can be dynamically reconfigured and responds to trends. The example from the

video, if a company needed a more efficient and accurate way to predict and respond to the

customers’ needs with the vast majority of sales occurring in single season, it could be costly making

visibility critical, It is suggested by the IBM as their practice, that the business firms should

implement an integrated supply chain solution that connects to company suppliers and thousand of

customers with automatically updates to inventorious products results. With accurate, real-time

visibility the business firms can proactively and efficiently respond to the demand with suppliers,

trading partners and customers.

To find an effective ways to drive demand and to connect with customers and prospects is an

ongoing business imparity. Because today’s customers interact with new business across many

channels and increasingly expect personalize experiences, the business firms must be creative to

keep the customers engaged in order to build loyalty and drive sales. The ability to deliver tailored

messages to your customers based on their personal preferences and measure responses and

behaviors in real-time is very essential. It needs also to monitor their social media behavior and as

well as interactions to drive personalized interactions. It is not easy to do business with highly

intelligent customers, you need to be very professional to deal with them. The delivery of right

products or services at the right time, place and price is very important part of the equation, and

providing intuitive business-to-business and business-to-consumers storefronts with mobile access

as well as seamless experiences with sales representatives in call centers is the key. To give the

customers several options of serving what they want, you need to consider the phone, cables, and

internet providers a wide network, a direct sales center, call center representatives and reseller must

be orchestrated with the constant introduction of new offers delivered across the video, voice and

internet. Keeping the customers happy, it requires seamless customer experiences in which self

service options are integrated in the call center and driven by timely and relevant offers all to

promote loyalty and keep customers coming back for more. Providing efficient and value-added

services is a way to get more lifetime value from customers, and flawless customers’ services hinges

on your ability to accurately predict, capture and quickly respond the customer needs or changing

situation that affect satisfaction. The integrated capability for functions such as delivery, service

scheduling and return management must be considered.

The video is all about the advocacy of the IBM for a smarter commerce. In order to survive in an

increasingly competitive marketplace, the right strategy and solution can make all the difference.

(2) Summary on Video 2- Redefining the value chain in the age of the customers

The business is always been about of customers. The world of commerce used to be

predictable. You produced the goods, distributed to the market, sold and then you provided the

service. You can easily count the supply and demand economics, but that was before the

revolution.

Today, the power has shifted to the customers, who expect to engage with companies, when

and how they want it, in person, online or on the go. These are the new breed of customers who are

savvy, informed and empowered. These are the customers who are detecting a new set of terms in

the dynamic between buyers and sellers and in an increasingly complex network of global

transactions and creating a revolution that eventually reshape the entire value chain. To succeed in

business today you need a 360-degree approach and the smarter commerce defined, is the way

forward. The customers must always be at the center of operations. There is a need to analyze

critical customers and operations of data across multiple channels, leverage the wisdom of crowd to

hone the messages and products, collaborate and engage with business partners, suppliers and

vendors, fully integrate the way you buy, market, sell and service your products in a way to put your

customers at the center. Discover and capture new opportunities by venturing into smarter

commerce, it means a greater customer loyalty, revenue and profit margin growth, increase agility,

lead greater customer value no matter what you sell. Surprising and delighting your customers will

take more than an email marketing campaign in the FB page, it is going to take depth customers

insights. Visibility and integration throughout your supply chain, serious cross channels executions is

going to take turning insights into action. In order to take a better system of doing business, it is

going to take smarter commerce.

(3) My Insights

I have watched the two videos repeatedly and I was able to write down the contents. Based

on the videos, the business firms today must take the challenge of embracing the smarter

commerce. Since business world has been revolutionized by the Information technology and the

globalization, the need of immediate change on the business strategy by most of the businesses

must be their utmost priority. Putting customers at the center of all their operations is important. They

should be considered as the key or main reason of change. It must be understood that the

customers now are no longer just an ordinary customers. They are more savvy, informed and

empowered. A thorough study on their behaviors especially in the social media must be number one

in the list in order to strategize their business approaches in favor to them. The business firms

cannot deny the fact that these customers are the lifeblood of the business operations and its growth

and survival. They must prioritize the value added activities on their e-commerce websites as their

media to reach out the customers at the large spectrum in order to increase their sales. These

customer support services are what the customers always looking for from the e-commerce

websites, that can give them comfort and convenience. If the business firms do not provide those

features for customers they cannot keep their loyalty and trusts, thus, a big loss on their revenues

Looking into the new dimension of value chain with the smarter commerce, it would be

advantageous in the part of the business firms because all transactions from suppliers to the delivery

of products will be manageable, because of the IT infrastructures it will be easy for them to receive

and send the information. It is the information that binds them together, interact and collaborate with

one another.