Who should be involved?

Due to its widespread nature, e-commerce impacts upon almost every function within a business. Externally, a variety of suppliers will also need to be involved within an e-commerce project.

The range of specialist skills required will be dependent upon the scale and complexity of the proposed e-commerce system. However, these skills are likely to include experience of:

• servers - Microsoft, Sun, Linux etc
• firewalls and security
• graphic design and production
• HTML and XML coding
• programming languages
• database technologies

The interested parties within a business include:

• board-level management
• purchasing
• inventory management
• manufacturing
• service provision
• direct sales
• sales channel management
• fulfilment
• post-sales support
• marketing and PR
• accounting
• training
• legal

External parties with a potential involvement in an e-commerce project include:

• existing hardware and software suppliers
• specialist Internet hardware and software suppliers
• programmers, web designers and consultants used on an "as required" basis
• ISPs
• domain name registrar
• telecommunication providers
• major suppliers
• major customers
• advertising/marketing design agencies
• specialist business media
• accountants/auditors
• solicitors
• training companies