Humans are complex beings! There are hundreds of specialty doctors to treat one human body. Amazing amount of complexity is involved in the heart pumping blood, huge amounts of complexity is involved in the mind processing thousands of thoughts everyday, on and on. Yet when you see a human being the form and functionality are simple yet capable of tremendous ability. A person can play tennis, ride horses, fly airplanes, jump on a trampoline, swim and so much more.
Yet, day after day humans deal with software at office that is quite complex, rigid and incompatible. Although, in the last 10 years software has gotten much simpler and flexible. We are only at the tip of the iceberg. We yearn for simple, well designed, applications that are reliable, scalable, and flexible. A software can have all the bells and whistles but if no body in the office uses them, then it is of no use. Senior management must make it their goal to continually drive out complexity from software.
Here are some simple suggestions on embracing simplicity and eschewing complexity,
1. Business teams and IT should meet at least once a month for at least 1 hour to discuss the complexity in the software
2. Identify the top 2 or 3 complexities involved and brainstorm ways to try and eliminate them. Then execute those strategies
3. Brainstorm and come up with strategies to cut down the system proliferation. Then execute those strategies
4. If possible, appoint one or more point persons who will make sure the action items in this context are accomplished
5. Talk to other companies in the market place and see how they reduce complexity
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Thursday, November 12, 2009
E-Commerce Fraud Management companies should take cues from PC anti-virus firms
The anti-virus companies such as Symantec, McAfee, TrendMicro etc. have come a long way. With the ubiquitous network connectivity (wireless and wired) available PCs can be up to date with the latest anti-worm, anti-virus, and other security software and patches. Many times the updates are transparent to the PC owner. As the owner is working away on the PC or goes away for a break the PC stays updated with the latest security updates.
McAfee for instance has relatively new products such as McAfee SiteAdvisor that not only rates websites according to their risk profile but also protects PCs from Instant Messaging threats and Phishing treats. They claim to work with 19 search engines including the big ones such as Google, Bing, Yahoo etc. Obviously a database is maintained by them to constant update the risk profiles of the billions of websites out there. Value added services such as these reflect a highly innovative "product management" at McAfee. Hope they and other security software companies continue to be customer centric and develop great products.
What does this have to do with e-commerce fraud detection, prevention, and management. In the former scenario, individual consumers are protected from the vast Internet juggernaut. The idea being not all emails, instant messages, websites, are to be trusted by the individual consumer! In the fraud management scenario not all site visitors can be trusted by the e-commerce site! The e-commerce company cannot blindly allow any individual consumer to transact on the website. The biggest contributor to the problem is, unless a lot of software and resources are put in place, distinguishing between malicious individual person and a bot or automatic script/program.
In the last few years many e-commerce fraud companies have poped up. Some of them are Accertify, Kount, Iovation, 41st Parameter, Actimize, Retail Decisions USA, CyberSource, and ClearCommerce etc. There are many more companies in the space.
Here are some pointers that I believe, the e-commerce fraud management companies can learn from the PC security software companies,
1. Continuously learn about the individual consumers and web bots. Aggregate the data among all their customers and keep the list of potential fraudulent customers up to date.
2. Develop software that is able to adapt and self learn as new threats arise. May mean the use of artificial intelligence software.
3. Make the creation and implementation of new fraud business rules in the fraud processing engine very easy.
4. Try to stay constantly ahead of the fraud schemers, although it is next to impossible to be ahead of Internet shysters all the time.
The e-commerce fraud management industry is poised for growth in the future and the true innovators will prosper. It will definitely be interesting to see which companies will will.
McAfee for instance has relatively new products such as McAfee SiteAdvisor that not only rates websites according to their risk profile but also protects PCs from Instant Messaging threats and Phishing treats. They claim to work with 19 search engines including the big ones such as Google, Bing, Yahoo etc. Obviously a database is maintained by them to constant update the risk profiles of the billions of websites out there. Value added services such as these reflect a highly innovative "product management" at McAfee. Hope they and other security software companies continue to be customer centric and develop great products.
What does this have to do with e-commerce fraud detection, prevention, and management. In the former scenario, individual consumers are protected from the vast Internet juggernaut. The idea being not all emails, instant messages, websites, are to be trusted by the individual consumer! In the fraud management scenario not all site visitors can be trusted by the e-commerce site! The e-commerce company cannot blindly allow any individual consumer to transact on the website. The biggest contributor to the problem is, unless a lot of software and resources are put in place, distinguishing between malicious individual person and a bot or automatic script/program.
In the last few years many e-commerce fraud companies have poped up. Some of them are Accertify, Kount, Iovation, 41st Parameter, Actimize, Retail Decisions USA, CyberSource, and ClearCommerce etc. There are many more companies in the space.
Here are some pointers that I believe, the e-commerce fraud management companies can learn from the PC security software companies,
1. Continuously learn about the individual consumers and web bots. Aggregate the data among all their customers and keep the list of potential fraudulent customers up to date.
2. Develop software that is able to adapt and self learn as new threats arise. May mean the use of artificial intelligence software.
3. Make the creation and implementation of new fraud business rules in the fraud processing engine very easy.
4. Try to stay constantly ahead of the fraud schemers, although it is next to impossible to be ahead of Internet shysters all the time.
The e-commerce fraud management industry is poised for growth in the future and the true innovators will prosper. It will definitely be interesting to see which companies will will.
Friday, November 6, 2009
Is Customer Service An Afterthought?
For retailers with e-commerce operations, there is almost a direct correlation between promotional campaigns (web ads, email, mobile, radio etc.) and the call volume to the customer service department. In this day and age where retails present compelling "deals of the day" to customers and bombard them with emails, the customer does come to the website to save a buck or two!
And the customers pour in via all channels and try to grab merchandise things can go wrong, such as, orders not received on time or errors on website. The natural upshot of this is an overwhelmed customer service department because the customers will call in.
Here are some ways the pain points for the customer service department can be alleviated,
1. If customer is truly comes first for the company, then do things that highlight that lofty goal. When undertaking any project, whether it be adding new payment types such as, Bill Me Later, or changing returns policies, provide lot of self help tools and guidance to the customer. Any process automation or IT project should include a phase for providing self help tools to customers.
2. The marketing department has to work closely with the customer service department. This is much easier said than done. It sounds so simple but difficult to do it religiously. The problem is departments in a typical company are silo ed. Every one is busy and so people are comfortable in their own islands. Cross functional interaction is the key and must be done
3. Top management must be aligned with the "customer comes first" principle. Without the top management buy in nothing will happen. Every one can feel warm and fuzzy but nothing get done without buy in.
These three points should get any company started in scaling greater heights and truly pleasing the customer.
And the customers pour in via all channels and try to grab merchandise things can go wrong, such as, orders not received on time or errors on website. The natural upshot of this is an overwhelmed customer service department because the customers will call in.
Here are some ways the pain points for the customer service department can be alleviated,
1. If customer is truly comes first for the company, then do things that highlight that lofty goal. When undertaking any project, whether it be adding new payment types such as, Bill Me Later, or changing returns policies, provide lot of self help tools and guidance to the customer. Any process automation or IT project should include a phase for providing self help tools to customers.
2. The marketing department has to work closely with the customer service department. This is much easier said than done. It sounds so simple but difficult to do it religiously. The problem is departments in a typical company are silo ed. Every one is busy and so people are comfortable in their own islands. Cross functional interaction is the key and must be done
3. Top management must be aligned with the "customer comes first" principle. Without the top management buy in nothing will happen. Every one can feel warm and fuzzy but nothing get done without buy in.
These three points should get any company started in scaling greater heights and truly pleasing the customer.
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