In complex business-to-business sales processes, buyers are rewriting the rules. Today's instantaneous access to an online array of information and resources from brochures to portals to Web 2.0 social media - means buyers can quietly self-educate and autonomously direct the pace, direction, and timing of the purchase (not sales) cycle. For companies accustomed to relying on trained sales professionals to act as trusted advisors and guide buyers through a defined, structured process from the very inception of the sales opportunity - these changes are potentially disruptive on a massive scale. In this virtual marketing environment, a savvy sales rep can no longer read the room. Today, B2B marketers must decode a buyer s digital body language to understand the roles, information needs, timing, and buying intentions of its largely faceless and elusive target market. In this thoughtful and groundbreaking book, Steven Woods helps B2B marketing professionals understand the new dynamics of marketing complex products and services. He walks through the new tools available to buyers, how to read digital body language, and how to respond most effectively to maximize the volume and quality of leads. Woods shows that, by embracing the concept of digital body language, marketers can re-engage with sales colleagues on a more strategic level and increase their value to the enterprise.

Explores global m-commerce strategies and technological standards, and provides cases of the subject from a global perspective.

After a decade of treating the topic of e-commerce with awe and confusion, we can now step back and analyze the subject more objectively. From launching an electronic storefront to managing complex supply chain operations, most companies have ventured into e-commerce; but even the best-run bricks-and-mortar enterprises have run into snags in the virtual world. Even mighty Wal-Mart, for example, took its website through several redesigns and sales strategies, and Borders eventually outsourced its Internet sales activites to rival, Amazon. Despite the horror stories of abysmal customer service, lost information, catastrophic meltdowns, and the excesses of the dot.com boom, the Internet is now an essential tool and medium for conducting business. Today, the key question is not whether your firm should invest in e-commerce, but how you can do so most profitably. In Implementing E-Commerce Strategies, Marc Epstein goes beyond the hype to focus on the practical angles of designing, executing, and successfully managing an e-commerce strategy that works for your company. While many books have addressed the "what" and "why" of e-commerce, Epstein zeroes in on the elusive "how." Showcasing the experiences of 32 companies (both successes and failures) in a wide variety of industries, he explores such issues as: Corporate culture and strong leadership from the executive suite Integrating e-commerce into corporate strategy Aligning goals, accountabilities, and performance metrics to support e-commerce initiatives Building systems that can measure the value of your e-commerce investments. No business can avoid e-commerce--and its capacity for creating spectacular opportunities or wasting precioustime and resources. How your firm handles these challenges may very well determine whether or not it will survive.

Recently, e-business applications have evolved beyond business transactions and services to include customer relationship management (CRM), mobile computing, Web mining, e-healthcare, social networking, and Web 2.0. As e-business continues to create new business models and technologies, researchers, higher education faculty, and practitioners are in great need of appropriate reference resources to enhance their understanding of all aspects of e-business technologies and management.""Emergent Strategies for E-Business Processes, Services and Implications: Advancing Corporate Frameworks"" is an authoritative collection of original, in-depth, and innovative research articles on e-business concepts, models, processes, services, and applications. This book presents an integrated view of emerging issues and technologies addressed by renowned scholars, providing researchers and practitioners with the state-of the-art reference for future research and practices on a wide range of topics including e-CRM, e-business model, multi-channel management, e-health, m-commerce adoption, offshore outsourcing, and e-business innovation.

This book identifies and discusses the main challenges facing digital business innovation and the emerging trends and practices that will define its future. The book is divided into three sections covering trends in digital systems, digital management, and digital innovation. The opening chapters consider the issues associated with machine intelligence, wearable technology, digital currencies, and distributed ledgers as their relevance for business grows. Furthermore, the strategic role of data visualization and trends in digital security are extensively discussed. The subsequent section on digital management focuses on the impact of neuroscience on the management of information systems, the role of IT ambidexterity in managing digital transformation, and the way in which IT alignment is being reconfigured by digital business. Finally, examples of digital innovation in practice at the global level are presented and reviewed. The book will appeal to both practitioners and academics. The text is supported by informative illustrations and case studies, so that practitioners can use the book as a toolbox that enables easy understanding and assists in exploiting business opportunities involving digital business innovation.

Implementing e-government services can give governments a competitive advantage by reducing operational and management costs, increasing transparency, and fulfilling their commitment to good governance. Yet, advances in e-government technologies and their applications present complex managerial and technological challenges. E-Government Service Maturity and Development: Cultural, Organizational and Technological Perspectives discusses important concepts for public administration reformation, taking into account the complex social, administrative, cultural, and legal problems of implementing modern digital systems. The book helps define empirical studies and methodologies for e-government research and identifies factors affecting the development and proliferation of e-government. Researchers and practitioners will gain an understanding of managing e-government; meeting their strategies and objectives; building trust, confidence, and security; providing interactivity and community; developing personalized experiences and content; increasing service selection; and other issues essential to adopting, implementing, and sustaining e-government.

E-supply chain is the use of information technology, electronic means, or cyberspace to bring together widely dispersed suppliers and buyers, to enhance coordination and knowledge sharing, and to manage upstream and downstream value chain channels. ""E-Supply Chain Technologies and Management"" offers the most comprehensive analysis of the concepts, models, and IT infrastructures of electronic supply chains. This Premier Reference Source provides a broad understanding of issues pertaining to the use of emerging information technologies and their impact on supply chain flexibility and management. Professionals, researchers, and practitioners who want to explore the concepts and principles of e-supply chain, or want to apply various e-supply chain models and systems to solve business problems, will find this reference book to be an indispensable tool.

Strategies and Policies in Digital Convergence is the authoritative reference source describing issues in business strategy and public policy rising from digital convergence. Cutting-edge descriptions of mobile communications, broadband networks, and digital multimedia broadcast services are provided. This Premier Reference Source presents new business opportunities generated by digital convergence, and raises governance issues caused by this union. It provides a comprehensive overview of the technological aspects of digital convergence and the resulting business strategies and public policies.

This book combines the three dimensions of technology, society and economy to explore the advent of today's cloud ecosystems as successors to older service ecosystems based on networks. Further, it describes the shifting of services to the cloud as a long-term trend that is still progressing rapidly.The book adopts a comprehensive perspective on the key success factors for the technology - compelling business models and ecosystems including private, public and national organizations. The authors explore the evolution of service ecosystems, describe the similarities and differences, and analyze the way they have created and changed industries. Lastly, based on the current status of cloud computing and related technologies like virtualization, the internet of things, fog computing, big data and analytics, cognitive computing and blockchain, the authors provide a revealing outlook on the possibilities of future technologies, the future of the internet, and the potential impacts on business and society.