E-commerce need analysis via quality function deployment

This paper presents a quality function deployment (QFD) application to analyze technical and management requirements as part of a systematic 3-step process that implements e-commerce in a corporation. The rapid growth and advancement of information technology (IT) has opened windows of opportunities for organizations as well as for individuals. One clear example is electronic commerce. It is expected that e-commerce will explode in the next few years, reaching more than $300 billion with a total of 31 million online buyers involving billions of transactions. However, organizations, in their attempt to conduct business over the Internet, face monumental challenges and difficulties. Since e-commerce is a new phenomenon and continues to be in its infantile stage, acquiring the right and required technology and/or personnel presents a huge challenge for many organizations. E-commerce challenges, in general, can be classified into two groups-technical and management. Technical challenges deal with hardware, software and network problems. In addition, payment methods, security and service support are issues that require a great deal of attention. On the other hand, challenges related to management include staffing expertise, change of organization structure and management transition. E-commerce awareness is yet another challenge that requires close attention. In order to meet these challenges, there is a dire need for applying scientific techniques and methodologies to e-commerce. A systematic 3-step approach is developed to better understand the needs of e-commerce. First, the status quo of representative businesses in the public and private sectors are examined. Next, needs of businesses are identified. Lastly, mathematical models are developed to solve specific e-commerce problems. In this paper, the second step is described in greater detail with emphasis on QFD.