24 × 7 @ full speed: accelerated time to market

Abstract

‘It's only a web site. What could be so difficult about that?’ This quote is from the cafeteria of a start-up business funded by a North American retailer, after the disastrous ‘Black Friday’ of 2000, during which its web site experienced systemic failure. This case describes the dynamics, complexities and consequences of fast tracking an e-business start-up. This consumer electronics retailer created one of the most visited retail web sites, from concept to operation in 6 months. Market analysts were predicting a major increase in online sales while consumers were adopting the Internet at a rate faster than any previous technology. Meeting the multi-channel demands of the dynamic and competitive environment required operational balance, stability, innovative flexibility, organizational fit and the alignment of resource capabilities with technology. This case challenges the reader to comment on how a large company positioned itself and integrated the necessary competencies to compete successfully in a developing market by establishing a spin-off operation, separate from the main company.

Appendices

Appendix A

See Figures A1 and A2.

Appendix B. About the research

The SellWell case is the result of a programme of research at the Australian Graduate School of Management⁶ into the business value of information technology. The objective has been to describe how e-businesses initiatives can be effectively developed and executed, and to explore influencing factors on why some survive and prosper while others do not. SellWell.com is one of the largest retail sites in the world and the lead researcher worked there during its establishment, adding personal experience to the case study.

Data collection followed two approaches. One focused on SellWell.com, developing a narrative time line and detailing the operating structures. The other focused on events in the wider industry and competitor performance. The research team collected multiple types of data, drawing on the considerable publicly available information.

Within SellWell.com, the researchers selected respondents based on a purposive sampling to develop an understanding of the company from the executives to the engineering and support functions. Respondents were involved in the decision-making, execution and benefits capture. The wide range of respondents provided maximum diversity to enable the research team to compare and contrast data (Carson et al., 2001). The collection procedures involved reflection on experience, telephone calls, public and private database searches, emails, questionnaires, and both individual and group online chat sessions, to assist in triangulation of findings.

The lead researcher initially communicated with people in SellWell.com by email. The response was enthusiastic, reinforced by the purpose of the research and the confidentiality agreement, but perhaps also buoyed by a sense of pride. Participants included the CIO, the Director of Systems Operations, managers from marketing, merchandizing and fulfilment, and key members of the Creative Development and Technical Operations groups.

All respondents received an email containing a two-page questionnaire to establish the timeline of major events. The researchers compared the results and consolidated a narrative timeline that they then sent back to the participants for confirmation and/or revision. This process iterated until a timeline was substantially agreed.

The researchers needed a more interactive mechanism than asynchronous email to enable richer exchanges, but visits to the physically distant SellWell.com were not a viable option and demands on the respondents' time made it difficult to secure appointments for telephone calls. Further complicating communication was the large time zone difference between the subjects and the researchers. Internet chat was the solution.

Participants received an invitation to join an Internet chat group. Nine accepted, which may reflect the technical background of the participants. Those who did not join remained accessible via email and telephone. Chat sessions lasted for up to 4 h and were active at various times of the day and night (approaching 24 × 7), to conform to the respondents' availability. Sessions had up to five participants, who sent documents, diagrams and other information back and forth, as discussions took place, providing timely responses to questions and confirmation on specific information. The researcher recorded all chat sessions with the application's tracking function and kept a journal reflecting on conversations and information. The journal's unformatted conversation data is 2 Mb and the journal contains 10 Mb of file transfers.

In parallel to the focus on SellWell.com, a separate enquiry established the operating structure of both SellWell and SellWell.com. The lead researcher used questionnaires focusing on the structure and emphasizing how SellWell.com fitted into the operations of the larger parent company. In addition, company reports, past and current organizational charts, financial and sales performance figures, sales growth estimates, profits, transaction volumes and other relevant figures were collected and reviewed.

The industry-focused approach was simultaneously building an understanding of the state of the industry and the dynamics of the e-business market in which SellWell.com competed. Here, the objective was to establish a separate timeline to represent the external events influencing alignment of the case organization. To accomplish this, the researchers extensively scanned and collected relevant published materials on consumer electronics retailing, online retailing (e-tailing), Internet consumerism and trends in information technology. Although the researchers referenced academic and proprietary databases, the most relevant information was publicly available on the Internet. More than 32 articles provided reference data for the industry timeline and analysis of direct competitors' performance.

As the SellWell.com timeline and operating structure and the industry timeline and competitor performance data developed, so the research moved into an analysis of the findings. The first step was to synchronize the two timelines, which surfaced and validated external factors affecting the organization. Rich local events then attached to the consolidated timeline. In a hermeneutic process, this illuminated the industry events, allowing adjustments to preserve and strengthen the joint narrative timeline. All respondents then received the resulting narrative for review. Several chat sessions discussed and validated the case and further resolved the data. The CIO and the Director of Systems Operations, the most senior participants in the study, approved the final case transcript.

The research took place over a 3-year period with data collection concentrated in the 6 months January 2003 to June 2003, and analysis undertaken over an extended period from July to December 2003. Further refinement and input from a number of academic sources and the 2005 Americas Conference on Information Systems contributed to the case.