Founded in 1962, Mary Kay (marykay. com) has about 1 . almost 8 million consultants selling their cosmetics and fragrances in 34 countries. In 08, the company got about $2. 4 billion in inexpensive sales. Being a company which includes based their reputation in personal connections through door-to-door visits and home gatherings, one may possibly think that Martha Kay would not benefit from EC. Actually, the contrary is true. Currently, more than 96 percent of Mary Kay’s independent sales agents place orders via the Internet.
The situation The cosmetic makeup products market is incredibly competitive, nonetheless it is growing speedily, especially in expanding countries.
Mary Kay is trying to capitalize on this pattern. The Jane Kay business model enables rapid growth in new markets. By the early 2000s, consultants found more and more consumers wanted to use the internet. With a lengthy and global supply cycle and the need to manage practically 2 million consultants, it was clear that automation was needed, nevertheless Mary Kay’s existing computer was outdated and weren’t getting Web or perhaps e-commerce applications.
Therefore , a major overhaul of the information devices was necessary. Finally, it has become clear the fact that emergence of social computing might give a golden chance for Internet marketing by the company. The answer Mary Kay’s IT division is now split into three categories: e-commerce, supply chain, and back-office support. Because of pressure from the consultants, the reorganization, rearrangement, reshuffling focused on e-commerce. The company’s goals and objectives were collection based on sector best practices.
Objectives determine what, how, and when the organization is operated, and these likewise apply to EC initiatives. Mary Kay’s EC solution included the creation of an digital service table that supports consultants in 30 countries in a standardised way. Mary Kay also introduced a worldwide electronic placing your order system, called Atlas, that allows the consultants to get in touch with company warehouses. An intelligent data repository that dynamically maintains a logical type of the EC environment could be accessed by Mary Kay IT personnel.
Mary Kay and its consultants are also making extensive usage of social computing. The following are some representative examples of how Martha Kay uses social computer: The company articles job beginning announcements about several sites, including Myspace . com Jobs ( classifieds. bebo. com/job). Movies and videotapes are available on YouTube (youtube. com) and on movies. go. com. Several blogs are available, both equally for and against the organization (e. g., marykayandrews. com/blog). Auctions and fixed-price goods are available for sale in eBay. Mary Kay supplies a consultant locator on the Net.
All of these innovations are maintained an extensive hardware and software infrastructure, together with a wireless remote control management system on the 760, 500 square-foot business headquarters, an extensive wide region network (WAN, see Phase 8), and a large info center. Some of the EC devices are used organization wide (e. g., services desk, ticketing system to get consultants going to events, and service demands made by consultants). Others are functional (e. g., accounting, finance, promoting, and products on hand control).
The corporation uses a great intranet to get internal sales and marketing communications as well as a large number of other EC applications. Furthermore to rendering better support to consultants, the EC initiatives made other rewards, such as greater efficiency, decreased costs and downtime, and improved assistance. In terms of recruiting, it allowed the company to deal with its rapid growth without a substantial embrace staffing. All of the changes also have allowed EC employees to focus on tactical tasks. Martha Kay found that it is engineers and technical people now have the perfect time to spend on new innovations.
Referrals:
Bowman, Mary Kay, ain al. “Intelligent and organization currency alteration. U. S. Patent No . several, 747, 475. 29 Jun. 2010.
Meuter, Matthew T., et ‘s. “The effect of technology anxiety on consumer work with and encounters with self-service technologies. Journal of Business Exploration56. 11 (2003): 899-906.
Dholakia, Ruby Roy, and Nikhilesh Dholakia. “Mobility and markets: growing outlines of m-commerce. Journal of Business study57. 12 (2004): 1391-1396.
Kay, Jeffrey, et al. “Information things system, method, and pc program corporation. U. S. Obvious No . 6th, 473, 893. 29 April. 2002.
Finn, Mary Kay, Karen Lahey, and David Redle. “Policies Underlying Congressional Approval of Criminal and Civil Immunity for Active Computer Companies Under Provisions of the Communications Decency Work of 1996-Should E-Buyers Beware. U. Tol. L. Rev.thirty-one (1999): 347.
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