Eryco Putra
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e-business course

E-Procurement History and Definition

Many organisations put their futures at risk by failing to control external expenditure on indirect goods and services. According to Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply CIPS, organisations will typically spend between 30% and 80% of total turnover, depending on their sector, on the procurement of goods and services. Therefore efetive procurement of these is a prime target for cost reduction. Because without effective procurement strategies, organisations can lose their way, cost spiral out of control, customers are let down and the reputation of the organisation is damaged. So, procurement should not be seen as a backroom, peripheral function but alse as a key business process. To achieve effective procurement, many organisations are trying to cut their complexity in business process especially in buying and selling process manually, but in the development of procurement history, now there is a way to using internet in order to make procurement more effective and efficient, it's called E-Procurement.

Basically, E-Procurement is a method that developed to getting rid of paper-based purchasing. This statement was emphasized by many executives that believe if E-Procurement could save them money, eliminate human errors, and also speed up business processes. In the past, E-Procurement generally accepted as a solution between company and supplier (B2B). Now, E-Procurement also used to maximizing the relation among supplier, customer, and or government. So that, it not just including B2B processes but also B2C and B2G.

Generally, in a broader definition, E-Procurement is defined as a system that utilizing internet technology to streamline the purchases of goods and products to reduce cost. In specific definition, according to Wikipedia, E-Procurement is the business-to-business or business-to-consumer or business-to-government purchase and sale of supplies, work, and services through internet as well as other information and networking systems, such as Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Enterprises Resource Planning (ERP). E-Procurement sometimes known as supplier exchange.

From the definition above, E-Procurement software gives possibility to automate some buying and selling processess. It means, an organisation may have a competitive advantage from their competitors. E-Procurement are not just enable automation in organisation, it also help them with decision-making by keeping relevan information neatly organized and time-stamped. This reasons that make their transactions standardized and trackable (I defines it as cross-customer-supplier). In keeping their track of all bids or transactions means they can leverage their knowledge to obtain better pricing, it allows company to focus on their most lucrative trading partners, contracts, and more extend to their customers.

Furthermore, a company who implement E-Procurement can be expected to be able in controlling their part inventories more effectively, reduce purchasing agent overhead, and improve manufacturing cycle. E-Procurement is expected to be integrated with the trend toward computerized supply chain management.

In new development of E-Procurement, there are several companies offers solution in E-Procurement in a hosting way, its called Hosting E-Procurement or Perfect Commerce defined it as On-Demand E-Procurement Model. This way is also defined as a "pay-as-you-go" systemsm instead of committing to an extensive managed and funded program. Using this E-Procurement system, company could only invest in a low start-up to having an E-Procurement in their process. They will realize faster return on investment (ROI) and lower total cost of ownership (TCO).

Benefits of E-Procurement

There are several benefits that many companies experience when they use E-Procurement as one of their key business process. The benefits are :

1. Increase Process Efficiencies
   All process including buying and selling is finished electronically (electronic purchase). Online Procurement also increase time saving because it will shorter order cycle time (and delivery time).
2. Cost Reduction
   Cost reduction give company a cost advantage than their competitors. Cost Reduction allow company to have :
   • Lower Price and Purchasing
     Because company could get the supplier easily. In addition, there is a link between company and supplier involve buying materials. Also they are allowed to cut their price and enable their customer to buy their goods cheaper than before.
   • Good Inventory Control
     Lower inventory levels but always able to fulfil demand from customers. It allows company to have an efficient control in inventory and keeping cost.
   • Free Human Errors and Free Staff for Strategic Activities
     Company can maximizing the source of employee and automation let the process free of human errors
   • Reduce Administration Fee
     Reduce the manual jobs and paper work.
3. Tracking or Monitoring Goods
   With E-Procurement, the company can track the order from customer and also the receipt to the supplier. It allows company to be able to maintain relationship with both customer and supplier
4. Just In Time Processing
   Daily request and delivery communication
5. Improve relationship with partners, customers and suppliers
   Using E-Procurement, company can manage to give accurate data, shipping time, and quality of services and products. Company can providing clear communication to their employees, stakeholders, and suppliers. Company also can easily understanding suppliers' concern and ensuring their continued support. Besides, their good relationship with customers can increase buyers productivity.
6. Improve Decision Making
   Decision maker in a company using this E-Procurement to generate report of their inventories, purchases, and orders
7. Enable Payment Automation if Integrating with ERP or SCM
   If E-Procurement is connected or integrated with ERP or SCM, it will allow company to control their budgeting more wisely.

E-Procurement cause the lower cost with many ways. For example: sale price, admistration fee, inventory cost, and other cost, and that’s why e-procurement can increase company ROI (return on investment). With all the benefit that achieved from E-Procurement, the company can significantly increase ROE (return on equity) dan ROI (return on investment). The price can be reducing directly from the sales price from selling process expense.

Real Effect of E-Procurement Implementation

There are some companies who offers E-Procurement software. The example are Coupa, SalesForce, Perfect Commerce, JCatalog

There are several example of customer testimonial after they have implemented E-Pocurement from Coupa:






From testimonials, we can see that there are many profitability that company could get from E-Procurement both tangible and intangible benefits. E-Procurement still have many possibilities to be developed in many area of business or process.

A name that stands for competence in all sectors of sport around the globe. The vision of company founder Adolf (“Adi”) Dassler has long become reality and his corporate philosophy the guiding principle for successor generations.

Adidas AG is a German sports apparel manufacturer and part of the Adidas Group, which consists of Reebok sportswear company, TaylorMade-adidas golf company, and Rockport. Besides sports footwear, the company also produces other products such as bags, shirts, and other sports and clothing related goods. The company is the largest sportswear manufacturer in Europe and the second biggest sportswear manufacturer in the world, to its US rival Nike[3]

The company's clothing and shoe designs typically feature three parallel bars, and the same motif is incorporated into Adidas's current official logo.



To extend their service to the customers and to having competitive advantage, Adidas decided to make a websites. Nowadays, Adidas have more than one websites serve many of their customers around the world. There are:

• http://www.adidas.com/
• http://www.adidas-group.com/en/home/welcome.asp
• http://www.adidasshoess.com/adidas/
• http://www.harputsadidas.com/
• http://www.subpublic.com/adidas

Six key e-business strategic decision

Decision 1: E-Business Channel Priorities

E-business strategy should be directed by the right strategy objectives that planned by the company, Adidas also feel that there is a need to serve their customer not only in face to face or by phone, but also in an online presence.
Nowadays, Adidas strategic options of e-business channel is still “bricks and clicks”, they have store to handle customers offline and the website to handle customers online. Online website not also use to maximizing their customer services, but they provides it with product information in detail and good presentation.

Adidas take a good chance in maintaining their website to be an e-business stage. They make full integration between all internal organizational processes and element of the value network, in sell-side type, Adidas create a fully interactive site supporting the whole buying process. And in buy-side type, they place orders electronically with full integration of e-procurement, manufacturing requirements planning and stock control systems.

To develop their website, Adidas may use “Right-channeling” model to prioritize their step as approach to build a system which appropriate with current condition, they may considered this applications of “Right-channeling”:

1. Sell to and serve SMEs through online channels
   Adidas using Internet for sales and service through an extranet to lower sales volume for whom that cannot be serve offline.
2. Encourage customers to buy through online channels
   They encourage customers to buy online by reduce the price through sales discount. Adidas also give full information of spec of their products. Besides, the product that produced in other countries can be ordered via this online channel.
3. Selective service levels for different customer types
   Adidas differentiates their customer by directing them to their specific area. For example, they can enter the site that located in Singapore or in Brazil (different in language and or interface).
4. Migrate customer to web self-service
   Customers are encouraged to use the web to manage their account. Customers are also given to see their cart and their orders status.

Adidas prefer to make their website full of flash to give a new experience to their customers so then they feel more easy to use and navigate the website. Adidas offering some easiness to explore their products using flash media, for example:



Decision 2: Organizational Restructuring and Capabilities

Company should restructure or change its capabilities in order to achieve the priorities set for e-business. Adidas is continuously refining our distribution proposition, concentrating on two areas: expanding controlled space and improving retail relationships. Controlled space includes: Adidas own-retail business including e-commerce; mono-branded stores run by retail partners; shop-in-shops that we establish with our key accounts; joint ventures with retail partners; co-branded stores with sports organizations or other brands.

Adidas also do some activities to restructuring their organization. Several examples in which Adidas choose are:

1. In-house division
   Adidas separated their division to become more specific in handling their customer. Also they have divided the menu in their website, so customer can search easily through the website.
   For example, they have more than one website that specific handling their products (adidasshoes, adidas). And this is their navigation of the menu:
   


2. Strategic partnership
   In 2006, Adidas acquire Reebok to extend their products and customers. Adidas also build cooperative activities with football club like Chelsea, Liverpool, and a famous designer Stella McCartney and others.
   


3. Joint Venture
   Adidas also did joint venture with their retail partners in each country.


4. Spin-off
   Adidas separate of their line of business to specify their customer, such as TaylorMade brand name to handle their Adidas-golf.
   

Decision 3: Business, Service, and Revenue Model

BUSINESS MODEL:
Adidas have two type of business model, there are B2C. Their own e-commerce can handle e-procurement, e-payment, company profile, and products information.

SERVICE MODEL:
Adidas provides their website with full of interactive media (Flash Media), and customer can ask anything to them via email or if they want to be notified, they can ask for newsletter from Adidas.

Adidas also provides Adidas.TV to serve their customer related with their products performance or their commercial in television.

REVENUE MODEL:
Direct Product Sales of Product and Service to the customers (e-commerce).


Decision 4: Marketplace Restructuring

Adidas have both sell-side and buy-side marketplace.

Sell-side

• Disintermediation. Adidas has their self e-commerce that support whole buying procedures
• Partner with new online or existing intermediary or retailer strategy. Adidas improve their relationship with other retail or e-retailer to sell their products.

Buy-side

• Disintermediation. Adidas usually buy by themselves without intermediary.

Decision 5: Market and Product Development

Adidas had developed strategies in their market and product. The strength of Adidas brands is a key factor in Group’s success. Within Adidas brand portfolio, they primarily pursue two strategic priorities: Market penetration – gaining market share across all markets in which we compete, and Market development – expanding into new markets and addressing new consumer segments.

Adidas multi-brand approach allows them to tackle opportunities from several perspectives, as both a mass and a niche player, providing distinct and relevant products to a broad spectrum of their consumers. In this way, each brand is able to concentrate on its core competencies. Across all brands, they focus on increasing awareness and visibility, providing clear and consistent messaging and supporting product initiatives at the point-of-sale.

Adidas continuously challenge the boundaries of functionality and performance. It is their objective to launch at least one major new technology or technological evolution per year. By continually expanding their capabilities in R&D and design, they are able to introduce new products at premium price points, thus contributing to Group margin improvement.


Decision 6: Positioning and Differentiation Strategies

Adidas Group will drive future success by engaging consumers with unique interactive product approaches and rewarding point-of-sale experiences. Adidas brands must be competitive in this environment where consumers make their final purchase decisions based on availability, convenience and breadth of product offering.

There are examples what Adidas had done:

• Product performance excellence
  Adidas website gives their potential customer possibility to zooms the product and also to see full information even its technology. Consumer also can choose color and size easily, the website also offer product preferences by consumer behavior.
• Price performance excellence
  Adidas have offer discount for specific product or promotional in their website.
• Transactional excellence
  Process of buying is quite easy and easy to understand by customer. Adidas also provide their website with product tracking and account managing, so that customer cans easily tracking their order and or review their cart.
• Relationship excellence
  In managing their relationship with consumer, Adidas give them services to subscribe their newsletter. Customer can contact Adidas through easy steps and if they aren’t satisfied with Adidas product, they can refund it and Adidas explain the procedure in their website.
  To manage their relation with small retailer, Adidas offer “Affiliate Program” by giving them procedure to get commission in sales.
  

Summary Guide For a Small Retailer In The Creation of a Website and Management Issue Involved

In creating a website for small retailer, there are many steps to do and some of that are vital. The company who want to expand their business, website is a way to go global, but not as easy as thought, creating a website also giving some extra complex tasks but able to be easy if the company know how to do in creating a website.

"Underground Grosir" is a company which working in supply and accepting orders from customer or even another company to provide t-shirt, shirt, t-shirt badge, pin, and mug with unique design or user-preference design. They are located at Bandung and they have huge desire to make their brand become known by many customers around Indonesia. Currently, their customers commonly come from Bandung, Jakarta, and small city in West Java. The owner want to have a website that introduce their company profile, products and also handling online order from potential customers. To build their website, they have to know what to do and also they have to manage the creation or the step carefully in order to maximize their website.

Steps for creating a website

1. Establish Selection Product's Category and Customer / Target Audience
   The company have to define or initiate their product's category and their target audience, so that, they will have good references in finding prescribed menu for their site also the theme of the website.
   In this step, the company also define their goal with this website, by doing that, the company will have a feeling to tight firmly and willing to put good effort in building their website


2. Create the Website's Graphic Design
   After deciding what type of product's category, target audience, and the goal of the website, the owner now consider with the design of the website. The graphic design are commonly like the layout of a website, graphics or pictures to be used, establish hyperlinks, text-formatting and etc. according to the retailer's needs and desires. To make the design more interactive, "Underground Grosir"can use some flash media or scripts.


3. Build (or Rebuild) the website
   
   1. Buy our domain name and sign up for a hosting service.
      This is the first step of developing any type of commercial website. Buying domain name and hosting a website can be done in two way whether we like to manage the server by our own (this type of choice is expensive) or to buy a domain that managed by third party. Usually the companies that offer domain registration will also offer hosting services. The name of the website should be easy to remember and attractive. For example: www.undergoundgrosir.com, www.undergorund-shirt.com, or www.bandung-undergound.com.
   
   
   2. Select website design software for our retail website.
      "Underground Grosir" can use templates for their website design and there are many choices out there, such as Template Monster, Free Website Template, or Arcsin. Then, after searching the template, we can buy shopping cart program or if necessary, we can build it by ourself.
   
   
   3. Pull together a price list and a product description list that include all the items our plan on carrying on your retail website.
      The description of the product must be easy to understand and delivered. Use both of these lists when setting up retail website. For each item we want to host on our retail website you will need a clear color digital image. For more advanced websites we will want to include multiple photographs of each item, with special shots taken of important product details.
   
   
   4. Use our website design software to create the basic layout of your new retail website.
      We will need to use the import image option to upload your product graphics to our website. Then use the text editing tools to name the products, assign them a product number and to enter a product description. Also, we have to make sure that we assign each product a price.
   
   
   5. Upload our shopping cart program to your hosting service.
      After uploading the shopping cart to our hosting service, we need to consider how customer will pay for the products they bought. "Undergound Grosir" and their customers will use bank to do a transaction and it need confirmation from the customer via sms, email, or telephone.
   
   
   6. Manage our retail website.
      To keep our retail website functional, we will need to monitor orders, keep the inventory data up-to-date and you will need to add and modify text, graphics and supplemental information posted on our website periodically.


4. Consider the Security
   Managing website not only to keep it uptodate, but also to keep away our website from internet-attack, such as viruses, hacking, phising, or DoS. Security seems to be important today in e-commerce business, because many e-commerce site use credit-card to do transaction and it is crucial if security is not applied to our website. Also, viruses in our server can make the accessing into our website becoming so slow that can make our visitors reluctant to access it again. So, there are many ways to do such as personalized people who can access private data and perform security-check regularly


5. Testing and Launch the Website
   Testing our website before launch, check the link text or button, graphics, or other element in our website. After checking the website and there are almost no error, we can launch the website. By doing this, our customer will enjoy our site because they comfort with the convenience we offered to them.


6. Website Maintenance
   Managing a website is not too hard but also not too easy. The maintenance including control our website and communication with customer, update information and news, checking error and security issues, always do some improvements in our website if possible (in speed of access, design of our website, or even the easeness of our activity flow such as purchase or buying a products). Customer Relationship Management (CRM) also depend on how good we manage and maintenance our website.

MANAGEMENT ISSUE IN BUILDING A WEBSITE

Defining the purposes of your website is vital to avoid 'mission creep' and thus keep costs under control. But there are management issues to be considered and to be treated well, There are:

Budgeting

It includes: Planning (setting out requirements and perhaps a specification), Design or 'visuals' (sample pages to show the style, maybe leading to changes in livery for web use), implementation (including databases, associated support software, integration with existing systems), Testing (both functional and cross-platform compatibility eg PC, Mac, Internet Explorer, Netscape, Safari), Launch (deployment of component parts, website configuration, marketing, search engine registration), Operational costs (hosting, marketing, CRM, secure certificate), Website content management (in-house, out-of-house)

Frequently thought is only given to the design element, but most serious websites also require databases and perhaps integration with an existing sales order processing system. However there are minimum costs below which you cannot expect a reasonable result. As ever, it's a balance. The importan point is whether the cost that we expend is appropriate with return on investment (ROI) we will get.

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Design issues

Website design has a lot of constraints - notably the shape, size, resolution and color capabilities of the viewing system. Font options are also severely limited at the present time. The accurate placement of design elements that print media allow is not available on web pages, so there are a series of compromises to be made. The following list indicates most of the major design considerations:

• Target market - what viewing facilities are they likely to have?
• Base layout - is there an existing corporate livery to follow?
• Content - how often does it change? How will it be managed? Is it date dependent?
• Databases - do you have corporate data or reports that need to be presented?
• Multimedia - is it appropriate?
• Accessibility - what's appropriate to your market and your legal obligations
• Interactivity - this frequently requires database support to remember visitor details
• Search/drill down facilities
• Multiple languages - French, German, Italian, Spanish, Scandinavian, Arabic, Russian, Japanese
• Locales supported (eg British, US, Australian or other)
• Scope
• Security - particularly for commerce
• Visitor experience - speed, ease of navigation
• Newsletters - collecting addresses
• Forums - creating a community and a reason to revisit

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Commerce

There are specific issues with commerce that can cause problems. Apart from selling something downloadable like software or reports (which are infinitely available) any other system has to take account of stock either in-house or from a wholesaler. Some of the issues are:

• Shopping systems - product management, price list management, baskets, special offers, affiliate schemes
• Payment handling - credit card, cheque, credit transfer, wire transfer, manual or automatic
• Credit card transactions - merchant ID, AVS (address verification system)
• Secure certificates
• Drop shipping - shipping directly from a wholesaler
• Integration with your existing sales order processing system
• Serial number management (software sales only)
• VAT processing - place of supply, place of delivery considerations, EU issues
• Terms and conditions, copyright, privacy policy and securing 'personal information

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Legal

Legislation is starting to catch up with Internet trading and so this is a moving target. At present there are three main sets of legislation that affect websites:

• Disability Discrimination
• Distance Selling Regulations
• Data Protection

The terms and conditions of trade should also be specific about the jurisdiction in force eg England & Wales or Scotland.

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Marketing and promotion
are very difficult to promote because of the wide use of both the words ceramic and tile; a website selling Bewick engravings is going to be much easier to promote, not least because there's a proper noun in there.
Some important considerations are:

• Getting useful traffic to your website - as opposed to inappropriate leads that waste your resources
• Keywords/meta tags - important for some search engines but not the principal one: Google
• Offline promotion - frequently more important than online promotion
• Company livery should incorporate the website and email addresses - unbelievably frequently omitted

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Operational issues

Once the website is up and running there will be costs involved in promoting and maintaining it. Out-of-date websites are a turn-off for visitors and are therefore counterproductive.
Keeping the content of your website fresh may turn into something akin to magazine production where there is a need for continuous input. This requires the content management to be someone's responsibility on a weekly, monthly, quarterly basis as appropriate. In other cases it may just be a question of keeping course data or an events list up-to-date.

MAIN ISSUE	DETAIL
Which Type of e-business applications we develop?	Online ordering and CRM. Customers including B2B and B2C where customer will get every latest update about the products and promo. "Undergound Grosir" are also handling events such as Employee Gathering or something like that. And the unique product always updated every weeks with new product in the future.
Which Technologies do we use?	Online ordering or web-based ordering and also company profile, because "Underground Grosir" want to reach wide customers.
How do we achieve quality of service in application?	"Underground Grosir" will adding this feature to their website: Detail Information. Categories is Defined Clearly. Security Maintenance. Picture Thumbnail for father speed and performance. Compatibility with Browsers or Cross Browser (ex: IE, Firefox, Safari). Using CMS (Content Management System) to Maintain Website. Using Customer Tracking Method to Maximize CRM.
Where do we host applications?	Extranet. We do not have to having server to host our application, but we buy service from other party. This website also dedicated to the customer and not build for internal community.
Application Integration	Integration of e-business solutions with: Legacy systems. Old system will be applied first such as order procedures, contact procedure. Partner systems. In the future, "Underground Grosir" have plan to have a affiliate in other city. Also, they want to connect with their supplier to handle material ordering. In long term plan, they want to extend their facilities in payment using credit card. B2B and B2C.
Which access platforms do we support? Which development technologies and standards do we use?	Windows, Unix. Using personal CMS such as Wordpress or Joomla (especially for shopping cart / e-commerce). To give end-user or customers something more that other website, we plan to added flash video or synchronized the web site with javascript and XML to maximize the speed..
How do we manage content and data	Always do update of the website by administration website (using tools personal CMS). Content and data will be managed regularly according to the specification. And they will appoint two or more resources to respons the customer who contact them via website.
How do we manage employee access to the internet?	Only limited people who are available to have the access to the website, such as: Web Administrator. Owner. These people have the ability to access the private data (update, insert, and delete information).
How do we secure data?	Encryption method and regularly, check website and fix the problem issues. Error log and mallicious activities log.

Source:

• http://www.caz.ltd.uk/bd/wi.asp
• http://www.ehow.com/how_4529681_creating-new-retail-website.html
• http://www.fno.org/jun96/legal.html
• http://www.riedel.com/
• http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7386490.htm/

GRAMEDIA ONLINE

Gramedia founded by P.K. Ojong who are also the founder of KKG in 02 February 1970. The initial purpose of Gramedia is to deliver education and information product in order to improve the quality of education and to make brighter indonesian people towards to the new society of PANCASILA.

It had been from a small bookstore for about 25 m² located at Gajah Mada, Jakarta Barat, Gramedia Bookstore has been growing to have 50 bookstore's branch all over big city in Indonesia in 2002. Anticipate the development in education and information technology, Gramedia Bookstore decided to have a "Gramedia Online".

Gramedia provide many categories of books, besides books, Gramedia also offers variety of products such as stationary, fancy, office tools, sports stuff, electronic products, and etc. Gramedia is supported by hundred of publishers from Indonesia and other countries, its including KKG intern publishers such as Gramedia Pustaka Utama, Elex Media Komputindo, Gramedia Widya Sarana, Bhuana Ilmu Populer, and Penerbit Gramedia Majalah. There are also many publishers from foreign country:

1. United States
   Simon & Schuster, Prentice Hall, McGraw Hill, Maxwell Macmillan, Addison Wesley, John Wiley, Harper Collins, Bantam, Random House, Baker & Taylor, and etc.
   


2. Europe
   Penguin, Cambridge, Oxford, Elsevier, Grossohaus, Hachette, Longman, MacMillan UK, and etc.
   


3. Asia
   Kondansha, Japan Publication, Toppan, Canfonian, Asiapac, UBSPD, S. Chand, S.S. Mubaruk, Pan Pacific, Mighty Mind, Federal Publication, and etc.
   

	DETAIL of PRESENT and RECOMMENDATION
REVENUE MODEL	Present Direct Product Sales of products and Commission-based Sales. Gramedia sell their products and also they get commission because they sell another products which are not produced by themself. Reccomendation Gramedia as a mature bookstore in Indonesia, can build a community among their members. Also, they have to sell other products not only book since they also sell many stuff such as office tools, stationary, and etc. It can invite manufacturer to place ads in their web, so that Gramedia can own new type of revenue.
MARKETPLACE POSITION	Present Manufaturer and Reseller or Retailer. Gramedia got support from intern publisher, that's why they can be described as Manufaturer. Thay also act as a retailer or reseller. Reccomendation From this point, Gramedia Online just sell books, they can extends their web site to sell another stuff like amazon.
COMMERCIAL MODEL	Present Fixed Price. Gramedia like another online bookstore (amazon, bukukita, kutukutubuku). Reccomendation Gramedia Online maybe can create a new commercial model such as auction like ebay where they can offer some books or electronic products like flexi auction in manggamuda.com
TYPE	Present B2C (Business to Customer). Gramedia Online sells books to customer only. Reccomendation Gramedia can offer B2B (Business to Business) because they are not only retailer or reseller but also publisher inside (Elex Media Komputindo and etc). They can offer bookstores to subscribes to them and giving extra discount.
LOCATION / PLACE OR PURCHASE	Present Seller Controlled. Gramedia just sell their products with fixed price and customer buy what they want. They also decides what is the price of the products. Reccomendation Since the recommendation for Gramedia Online also include auction, there will be a possibility to Gramedia Online as a neutral place for customer.

Recommendation to GramediaOnline.com

Gramedia Online layout and user interface is not build so good like their competitor (amazon, bukukita, kutukutubuku), the layout seems to be boring and very standard and no other services offered to the customer such as tracking their favourite products or something else. Also, their layout has an error like this :


this defect just show in their home page only. and I think it needs to be re-designing.

Also, Gramedia Online has very little of user experiences, and it seems that Gramedia not develop their website very well, while other website such as amazon has had done advancement or development in their web site from year to year. The example is their catalogues that not good, this is the screen shoot :


So, I think Gramedia Online should know the competitive market in online bookstore is also important, because I believe, the first time they develop their site, the revenue got from there is good and very helpfull in giving informations to their customer and also to still keep in contact with their members. Besides they have to re-design their website, I also recommend them to build networks among their members such as GramediaForum or GramediaBlog.
With new design, Gramedia are having many possibilities to promote their products and to be better known in society. they also can do some customer relationship management via website, and they can make sure that the level of satisfaction they give to the customers always on the right track.

Meta Services aggregates many other types of services. Meta Services could be defined as taking the content or functionality of a service and repurposing it for another delivery channel, such as taking a feed from a web site about financial news source which is a provider that concentrate in the production of news and all the technology associated with this. The product generally is a feed of news articles in an XML-derived format.

Meta Services also defined as a way of abstracting and mapping a workflow to a service in computational Grid environments. By using this, a workflow could adapt various service concepts such as Grid services, Web services, and Portal services without modification to the workflow. Also, converted Meta Services could be shared and reused by users. Furthermore, Meta Services can making effective execution of the workflow because it can contain historical performance data.

Source :

1. http://www.w3.org/2000/09/Papers/Appelquist.html


2. http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1425312


3. http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=16991395


4. Buraga, Sabin and Lenuta Alboaie. "A Metadata Level for the tuBiG Grid-aware Infrastructure". Faculty of Computer Science, "A. I. Cuza" University of Iasi