The first step is to determine your company’s business objectives, goals and constraints. There are a great many ramifications from getting these answers right (or wrong). They are a very good reason why real business experience can't be over-rated.

We'd like to make some of these answers a little clearer, by taking you through an needs analysis, which you can either complete online or download. Alternatively, you should contact us to sit down and get some answers 'the old fashioned way' (talking).

Here are a few questions to consider:

What specific and measurable benefits do you expect to gain in the first year and subsequent years?

• Will your company achieve more sales because product information is more readily available?
• Could you lower your service or support costs because information is better available on (or because of) your web site?
• Can you take on other projects that you have been too busy to tackle?
• Can you reach out to more, or more profitable customers?
• Can you gain greater management control of information, customer or suppliers?

• Can you increase your capacity, productivity or profitability?

What are your skill and staffing constraints?

• Do you have access to programmers and IT personnel to support the site, or do you need a site that can be implemented with existing staff?
• Do you need the site to be fully managed or simply installed and configured?
• Do you or your staff require training, support, advice, assitance? For how long?

• Can you plan to reduce future outside resources used to manage your web site?

What are your budget constraints in the first year and subsequent years?

• Do you need to justify web- or ecommerce site as an out-of-budget expenditure?
• Will it need to pay for itself immediately, or is it part a broad strategy of business growth?

• Do you have a specific maximum you can spend in each year?

 What are your company’s existing methods and processes?

• Do you have information or databases that can be converted, or are all your records and processes on paper only?

The time to deploy a website can vary considerably depending on the type of site chosen.

• What period of time will you choose when calculating the real costs and benefits of the site?
• When will it need to be operational by?
• What critical projects could be delayed?

• What are the opportunity costs in waiting or delaying implementation?