Includes bibliographical references (p. 271-279) and index.

E-Commerce Changes Everything -- Go Online or Go Out of Business? -- Understanding E-Commerce -- E-Commerce Comes of Age -- Why E-Commerce? -- E-Commerce in Action: Reality and Myth -- Where Are Businesses Applying E-Commerce Solutions? -- How Are Organizations Using Their E-Commerce Sites? -- E-Commerce Myths -- The E-Commerce Obstacle Course -- Cost/Benefit Analysis -- Technology Issues -- Going Global -- Legal Issues -- Security -- Staffing for E-Commerce -- Measuring Success -- What Criteria Must E-Commerce Solutions Meet? -- Judging Solutions -- Determining Decision-Making Factors -- Measuring a Solution's Success -- E-Commerce Business Solutions -- E-Commerce Building Blocks -- Hardware Basics -- Software Basics -- External Service Providers -- Interfaces and Integration: Leveraging Existing Systems -- Building an E-Commerce Program -- E-Commerce Site Essentials -- Your Opening Line: The Home Page -- Show Some Style! -- Extranets for Business-To-Business Transactions -- Content Management Tools -- E-Commerce Best Practices -- Managing the Visitor Relationship: Profiling and Personalization -- Managing and Maintaining Visitor Privacy -- Make Your Site Easy to Use -- Managing Visitor Perceptions -- Give 'Em What They Want and Don't Insult Their Intelligence -- Site Consistency -- Managing Business Knowledge Using E-Commerce -- The Road to Enlightenment -- Brand Management Strategies -- Passing from the Brick-and-Mortar to the Virtual World -- Using the Internet Grapevine -- Managing E-Brand Risk -- Partnering with Everyone -- Protecting Your Brand -- Innovating Constantly to Beat Competitors -- Acquiring and Retaining Customers -- The Microsoft Total E-Commerce Solution -- Microsoft's E-Commerce Strategy -- Strategy Statements -- Microsoft and the Future of E-Commerce -- The BizTalk Framework -- Using Knowledge Management to Improve E-Commerce Success -- Adapting Business Operations to Improve E-Commerce Success -- Microsoft's E-Commerce Platform -- Doing Business on the Internet Through Collaboration -- Creating and Managing Internet Content -- E-Commerce Platform Foundation -- Processing E-Commerce Transactions -- Microsoft E-Commerce Security Initiatives -- Web Portals -- MSN: The Microsoft Network -- MSNBC -- Advertising and Sponsorship -- Small Business Services -- Enterprise Information Portals -- Partnering -- Partnering Issues -- Independent Software Vendors -- Web Developers -- Enterprise Services -- Commerce and Application Hosting.

In the coming years, digital technology will radically increase the speed at which business is conducted. Ultimately, digital technology will transform three major elements of any business: relationships to customers and business partners (commerce), information flow and relationships among workers within a company (knowledge management), and internal business processes (business operations). "E-Commerce Strategies" deals with the first of these elements by providing IT decision-makers with a broad education about the benefits of implementing e-commerce solutions in the enterprise. It also provides case studies of successful e-commerce implementations using Microsoft technologies that offer benefits such as increased productivity, faster order cycles, lower manufacturing costs, and lower total cost of ownership. The book leads the reader through each case study, describes and quantifies its benefits in detail, and provides an evaluation guide to help the reader determine whether the case study and implementation is relevant to their own business. It also describes a set of consistent e-commerce business applications and ties them together chapter by chapter. The end of the book describes how these solutions can be woven together into a comprehensive, enterprise-wide system of digital solutions -- what Microsoft calls a Digital Nervous System (DNS).