When the company was first immersed in e-commerce, because they thought that success means cutting out middlemen. This approach does not work, partly because the e-business to understand the role of intermediaries. Mediators are not expensive, necessary evil. They solve the problems of customers and, thus, allow sales and create value for manufacturers. INSEAD Philip Anderson and Erin Anderson shows how the mediator helps smart companies realize the promise of the Internet. They explain intermediaries nine ways to increase the value, assuming that the three changes, three survive in a new form, and three (reducing the uncertainty in terms of quality, customer anonymity, and tailoring offers to customer needs) present opportunities for growth. Resellers can co-opt the Internet, offering services that would have been too difficult for individual producers to provide. However, the authors warn, intermediaries should be open to new ways of doing business with suppliers and vice versa. Web turns but does not eliminate the advantages of a central position in the search for a mediator. But what was once thought of as a direct distribution channel from the supplier through an intermediary customers are now more accurately described as a service center. A player who receives a customer order - perhaps a website - is in the center and interacts with many partners. The authors specify the appropriate, fair incentives (for example, Ethan Allen quasi-independent furniture stores that customers see before they buy directly from the manufacturer's Web site will automatically receive a 10% tip). And they describe the service control center, which will generate sufficient confidence to allow producers to get closer to customers -. Indirectly "Hide
by Philip Anderson, Paul Anderson, Erin Anderson Source: MIT Sloan Management Review 12 pages. Publication Date: July 1, 2002. Prod. #: SMR086-PDF-ENG