In the Cloud

Anywhere, anytime.

This is what the cloud promises its user. But what exactly does it mean?
Cloud computing is a server or system that is fully established online. Users can access their information from the server literally on-demand. As of late, cloud computing has become increasingly important, not only for the individual user, but for corporations as well. On an individual level, cloud computing can be seen for GoogleDocs, where an individual can have all of his or her documents and files stored through this one server. However, on a larger scale, we can see systems such as Salesforce, SAP, Citrix, Lightspeed, amongst others who propose similar solutions, but in a different manner.

Let's take a look at Salesforce for a minute (since I have first-hand experience with this system). Salesforce is used for companies to track many things within the institution. In my experiences, I have used Salesforce to track client information, input my weekly hours into the system, run reports, and communicate with my co-workers. In terms of tracking client information, we can track information from both an internal level (budgets for their projects and hours inputted), to external (client personal information such as, email, phone numbers, etc). This is extremely beneficial because as users, we are able to see the progression of the client & keep all the data on them in one space. Further, weekly hours can be be categorized into specific segments (billable, non-billable, and by project). Through this, we can see that the maintenance of worker hours is made automatic and simple. Finally, a user can run reports from topics such as marketing, to clients and even worker hours.

However, what I have mentioned here is not the most important aspect of a cloud based server. As employers are slowly permitting their employees to work from home, this cloud based system (since it is accessible through the internet) allows for users to do just that!

Business Disasters

When conducting a business (especially in eCommerce), the main platform for the business is all digitized and electronic. Nonetheless, there are 2 main ways in which a company that uses IT can run into issues. These 2 main concepts are (1) incurring physical disasters which would damage the physical business, and (2) when there is a problem with the system you are using to operate your business. Employees must always think: "What this building was destroyed, where would we set up next?" or "What if my computer got hacked, and all confidential information was leaked, what would be the next step?". These two questions encompass two of the main points. Nonetheless, the topic of natural disasters is an umbrella for a number of physical issues such as:natural disasters, war, fire, power outage, etc. On the other hand, however, more technical disasters include: Hacking, equipment failure, application failure, and customers. Prime examples for a physical disaster could include tornado's in Texas, which demolish everything in it's path. Often employees will have to think about where they will decide to set up a new office. A great example of a technical disaster was when Xbox was hacked, and all of their customers credit card information was leaked. The employees were immediately thinking about what they could do to resolve the problem - this is what we would call a disaster recovery plan (DRP). Whilst it is important to understand what to do in dire situations such as the ones above, it is just as important to be prepared for any possible disaster that comes your way. Therefore, Business Continuity Plans (BCP) are important to keep business going at a normalized rate without a hitch. Employees take certain measures such as anti-virus software and firewalls to prevent such issues from arising.

In any given company, there is a mix of both of these plans. However, often times it can become expensive, thus a company may choose which software they will want to make a plan. For example, a company living in the New Orleans, where the possibility of hurricanes is quite high, they may be more inclined to pay money to have a good BRP. Or tech companies that have a lot of their consumers confidential information. The company would lose a large share of their reputation and brand equity if an event such as the one mentioned happened.

The table on the right suggests that the business continuity must come before disaster risk. This is because without the core competencies to initially run a business and keep in productive, the business would not survive, let alone exist. Further yet, the disaster recovery plan is on the bottom, because these types of disasters are sometimes unavoidable, but happen rarely. Further, if you focus more on ensuring that nothing actually happens to your business (preventative measures), then your business will have less problems, consumers would be made happy as there are no problems with the business, and lastly because you will have better and stronger business.

eCommerce Trends and the Long-Tail

As technology improves, the trends in eCommerce increase as well. Not only is it becoming better for the company, but for the consumer as well. The use of Big Data is helping with the customer's experience with eCommerce. Website's are picking up trends that the consumer is making in order to serve his or her needs better. Now, this is mutually beneficial for the client and the company. The company can benefit, as they are no longer a brick-and-motor company with unlimited shelf space. Take Amazon for example, they have a vast variety of products for sale, with unlimited shelf space. This allows for them to not only capture the "Hit's" market for popular products, but it allows them to squirrel the long tail as well.

Now what is the long-tail?

The long tail consists of products that may be less popular, but have a large audience and demand. For example, when Record Label companies sign an artist, they market this artist as a "Hit" artist. Their music plays multiple times a day on the radio, and companies that sell albums such as HMV have to selectively choose which CD's they want to sell on their shelves. Now, what happens to all the indie music or the music that is not a "Hit". There is still a demand for this type of music. iTunes, Beatport, and other music eCommerce websites allows for consumers to buy individual tracks (as supposed to a whole CD), and there is an unlimited amount of music genres and artists because they are not limited by shelf space.

So this Long-Tail, allows for Amazon to capture 100% of the market, as supposed to brick-and-motor companies with limited shelf space. They can only put a certain amount of products on their shelves, and therefore must be selective with the products they choose to sell. Amazon is now using Big Data to recommend products to their customers that are in the long-tail (that might not be as popular as the "hit" products). In the end, both the consumer and the company are happy.

SEO and eCommerce

Last night I was doing some research on how to best utilize social media functions for better recognition on the web. A few things stood out, such as; the proper use of websites (which one's you should use to reach a big audience), using blogs to reach out to customers, having a company who would like to partner up and put your link on their website, using LinkedIn to reach out to the professional audience, apply to be in electronic journals/articles, and last but certainly not least, utilizing SEO. Now, what does SEO stand for? I asked myself the very same question - it means "Search Engine Optimization". The more important question, however; is what it is and how you use it. There's a lot to look into when considering SEO, so I'll just skim the surface here.

In any website, there is an important "theme" or audience you want to target. For example, if I was a head-hunting company, and most of my clients were start-ups who were looking for software engineers, some key things I would do to optimize the search engine are: (1) having very dense keywords, (2) having different variations of the same key word, (3) closely related topics in the same website. These three things help to gain attention and clicks on your website. Further, the more people look at your website, the higher in the ranking on Google (or any search engine for that matter) you go. 

Now, why is this important for eCommerce? If I began an eCommerce company, and I wanted to attract customers, using SEO would be a great way. Appearing further up in a search would definitely attract more viewers, and ultimately more customers. It is truly a cycle, the better the SEO, the more clicks, the more viewers, the more buyers! 

Get cracking with SEO!