I have a bias which Zemke and Connellan apparently share: Literally anyone who has any contact with a customer (or client) is a "customer service representative." They include whoever answers the telephone; whoever greets visitors at the door or encounters them within the building; whoever delivers anything to a customer; whoever has direct contact with a customer's own customer, vendor, or service provider (e.g. banker, attorney, accountant, management consultant); and whoever in any other situation has an opportunity to add value to the customer relationship. You get my point. The authors of this book focus on a major challenge to all organizations: keeping customers, especially now when "the competition is just a click away." Customer retention is the name of this "game" and almost everyone within a given organization is a "player."

Zemke and Connellan organize their excellent material within fourteen chapters, presenting and then explaining 24 "key" strategies to maximize customer retention. These "keys" range from "Master the ETDBW [i.e. Easy to Do Business With] Design Basics" in Chapter 5 to "Use Incentives to Increase Spending" in Chapter 11. They then provide "A Seven-Lesson Crash Course in E-Service Improvement" in Chapter 12 followed by a thought-provoking chapter "The Future of the Net: Take These Predictions to the Bank" and, in the final chapter, a "Browser's Guide" which offers 80 "tips" such as "the long-term winners...will be those that have done the best job of supporting their customers and delivering that value in a way that seems effortless." I also appreciate the inclusion of "Notes" and "Additional Resources."

For small-to-midsize organizations especially, here in a single-volume are information and guidance sufficient to assist the design, launch, implementation, and refinement of an e-business customer service program. I think this book can also be of substantial value to much larger organizations which, I am convinced, should constantly re-evaluate such a program already in place. Recall the "bias" to which I referred earlier. Recent market research (generated by several million respondents) has revealed what is most important to customers: "feeling appreciated" and "ease of doing business" (or "convenience") were ranked either #1 or #2 among the attributes. Revealingly, "cost" is ranked anywhere between #9 and #14.

Do Zemke and Donnellan address all the "right" questions? No, but they don't miss many. Are all of their answers to various questions the "right" ones? Read the book and judge for yourself. In fact, I urge you to consult a number of other books which cover much of the same material. It would be imprudent (perhaps even stupid) to rely entirely on a single source. The authors identify several in the "Additional Resources" section to which I presume to add Treacy and Wiersema's The Discipline of Market Leaders (who have a great deal of value to say about "customer intimacy") as well as Customer Equity co-authored by Blattberg, Getz, and Thomas who provide a brilliant analysis of what could be called "the ROI of customer relationships."

This book lays out exactly what you need to do to keep your buisness alive and thriving on the Web. It's got great site examples, useful research data, and lots of easy-to-follow advice on how to design and manage a customer-friendly e-commerce site. I'd encourage anyone who does business online to buy a copy.

My career, delivering training for organizations throughout North America, not only requires I prepare in detail the specific programs I am hired to deliver but to keep up with other relevant issues in the training marketplace. This is one of the reasons I enjoy readinig and using Ron Zemke's books. He writes on relevant topics. This is the case for Tom Connellan and Ron Zemke's newest book E-SERVICE. Recently I loaned E-SERVICE to one of the Customized Training Coordinators for South Central Technical College, North Mankato, MN. Her first reaction was, "He (Zemke) has done it again. He has written a book with immediately useful and relevant information." I concur.

The content of this book is so valuable. We encourage organizations to make their processes, forms, and voice mail systems warmer and easier to use. Once you read this book you will see how important it is to keep these same principles (and practices) in mind when you encourage customers to conduct e-business with your organization. The book is literally a HANDS ON manual on what you want to consider and what you might do to make your website, your e-commerce site more effective, efficient, and productive.

The statistics and research are very valuable and validate how important it is to give your on-line commerce site serious consideration. The book becomes a great HANDS ON tool when you combine the research with what to do NOW and what to do NEXT.

This book presents a smorgasbord of technologies applicable to the B2B domain. These technologies are described very clearly and at the right level for system architects.

The structure of this book is similar to Linthicum's previous book on EAI. Also much of the content overlaps with that book, with new chapters on typical B2B Application Integration standards as XML, BizTalk, RosettaNet. This is both a strength and a weakness I suppose. A strength because a lot of typical EAI technologies also apply to B2B. A weakness because the book is something in between a second edition of a previous book and a really new book.

I was missing a chapter about EDI. EDI is historically one of the most important B2B technologies and by far not dead yet. Despite its shortcomings there are still EDI implementations going on (often as part of ERP implementations, ask the system integrators such as AtosOrigin).

This book also pays minimal attention to front-end B2B technologies with only one chapter about portals with a tiny paragraph about digital exhanges. I would rather have read more about e-marketplaces, and integrations via Ariba/CommerceOne. Also I would like to read more about other front-end and Web technologies as CGI, JSP and servlets, ASP / ISAPI / IIS, control brokers + implications of front-end integrations on back end integrations.

Two of the appendixes deal with integrations with COTS software: the ERP packages SAP and PeopleSoft. It would have been nice if there were also appendices on integrations with the other important ERP packages as Baan, Oracle and JDEdwards, a CRM vendor as Siebel, and SCM vendors as i2 and Manugistics.

The structure of this book is very technology oriented and many technologies are presented very well. However, now you have to consult your customer on which technology to choose, and which EAI/B2B vendor to select. Why do I choose for a portal, or RPC and distributed objects and not for a message broker? And if I choose a message broker, how do I select the right product from the right vendor? How do I formulate my requirements and selection criteria? The book is not very clear on these topics, and it would have been nice if there were chapters on a)relation between business strategy and B2B technology b)selection of B2B technologies and products.

Overall, a good and readable book, but there is always information you want to read that is not covered in this book.

If you're looking for the bible on B2B application integration, or just application integration in general, this is the book for you. The author does a great job in bringing very complex subject matter to an understandable level, including the illusive notion of middleware. I've read other books on middleware, and this book beats them all.

However, the value of this book is not the middleware discussion, but the overview of application integration and its use as a mechanism to move information, in real-time, within and between businesses. The author covers the types of application integration for B2B, enabling technology, approaches, use cases, patterns, and emerging standards including XSLT and RosettaNet. I really liked the discussion of supply chain integration and how it relates to B2B application integration.

It's a winner. I'll be going back to this book time after time. My copy already appears a bit raged out.

Mr. Linthicum has given us a gift in the form of a book that thoroughly covers the technical aspects of B2B, and shows how it is vastly different from more traditional methods of application integration.

If you carefully read and assimilate the information contained in this book you will have a clear path laid out for moving from older architectures that use EDI, point-to-point integration and other partial integration schemes to a true B2B architecture that is glued together by an encompassing middleware layer and driven by business events.

Here are some of the key areas of the book that made a deep impression on me: the clear definition of B2B application integration and what it entails, a wide survey of methods based on their orientation (data, interface, method, portal and process), and the balanced discussion of both middleware and integration standards.

Strengths and weaknesses of the oriented methods described in this book are particularly invaluable because the author shows the choices and trade-offs of each choice as an integration strategy. He gave the same comprehensive treatment to middleware strategies. I especially liked the discussion of integration standards because until I read this book I had the impression that XML was *the* way to extract data from databases, transform it into a common format and promote a standard for communicating among trading partners. Mr. Linthicum discusses the strengths of XML, but wisely warns against trying to make it do everything. Sort of like the adage that when all you have is a hammer everything looks like a nail.

The thrust of this book is transforming existing systems into an integrated application infrastructure that will fully support the notion of awareness of business events across all applications. This is a daunting task for architects and integrators who do not have a clean slate with which to design a ground-up architecture. The author addressed the fact that we have to live with that in which we have made heavy investments and proceed from there. This is done in the appendices that show how to integrate SAP R/3 and PeopleSoft into a cohesive B2B architecture. These examples are excellent choices with which to illustrate how it's done because they are realistic examples as opposed to contrived examples of "ideal" situations that other books show.

This book is for architects and IT technical strategists, and for those of us who have technical backgrounds and need to fully understand the technologies and imperatives that are springing up around us. Mr. Linthicum is an engaging writer who packs an incredible amount of information and wisdom into this 408 page book. It easily earns 5 stars and my highest recommendation.

I got this book as a free gift for attending a CRM conference. Some of the author's points are valid--the book was probably written before a lot of this material became obvious. (One of these days, I'm going to find a book that says "People issues don't matter if your company's managers don't have a customer focus or your firm doesnt have the necessary IT infrastructure in place." Can't wait for that.)

I worked for Lucent in the 1990s and would swear that we coined the phrase "People Process and Technology." Anyway, it's been worn pretty thin. The tone of the book was a bit pedantic and stiff and so I found it a bit hard to to get through. I like Paul Greenberg's and Jill Dyche's CRM books much better, though, and would recommend them over this one, along with a new book called "Why They Don't Buy" by Max McKeown that is definitely the go-to book for CRM automation!

Barton provides a three dimensional blueprint of how to define, select, integrate, and roll out the best CRM solution for you. With the author's global CRM expertise, he will guide you to the proper solution for your organization. Technology is only one third of the story! It is 70% People and Processes which are the most often overlooked roadblocks to achieving CRM success. Read this clearly defined blueprint and you will get the total picture, with all the interferences spelled out. Bottom Line ... read the book before you invest the time and money!

This book is essential reading for anyone who is considering heading down the CRM path. Barton has a wealth of knowledge and understanding that is reflected in his writing and he provides an excellent blueprint for what it takes to successfully implement CRM systems. He rightly points out that successful implementations require a balance between people, process and technology and while there are challenges, they can be overcome if these three elements are integrated appropriately.

His book is pragmatic from start to finish and contains example after example from companies that have implemented these types of systems. He gives advice on the types of issues you can expect to face and he talks through the lessons learned. It is a book that will both educate and inform, so if you're interested to learn more about CRM, this book will be an excellent resource.

Some books about business explain the emerging critical concepts of the day. Other books about business teach the details of implementation for a new technology. It is very rare to find one book that does both. E-Process Edge does both. It covers the new world of E-commerce at the conceptual level. It also provides a wealth of practical how-to material on how to apply the new concepts in a particular situation. This is one book that should be read by both executive management and the e-commerce project team.

Carl Longnecker Visiting Executive Loyola Graduate School of Business

eCommerce has both blinded and charmed many business people into focusing on the wrong issues and actions for their companies, customers, and investors. Fewer than 20 eBusinesses have achieved consistent eCommerce profitability, and created real customer value.

There are very few worthy how-to books about eCommerce. Customers.com is one such book. However, many other books adopt a "white ivory tower" mentality that fails to explain the nuts and bolts of the eCommerce explosion, and fewer even give clear guidelines on becoming successful in eCommerce

What book should you read to understand the what's and how's of eCommerce?

The eProcess Edge is a must-read for managers (technical and non-technical), C-level officers, consultants, academics, and industry analysts. It is useful to both professionals, and anyone who wants to be a well-informed online customer and potential investor of eBusinesses.

The eProcess framework offers logical and compelling analyses of eCommerce success and failures for the past 5 years, and is based on the lessons learned from a large sample size (80+) of companies across different industries to support its reasonings.

Keen and McDonald provide strong inferential arguments for the importance in eCommerce of: - commerce fundamentals - relationships building - business process excellence - collaborative value networks - electronic interfaces - capabilities sourcing - customer experience.

Technology does not provide all the answers. The integration of people, process and technology is necessary to achieve the eProcess edge for high customer value, and high company profitability.

This is a very practical book. It offfers many lessons-learned, and recommends specific actions. It addresses the challenges and issues for both pure-online only, and traditional "bricks and mortar" companies. It leverages the expertise and insights of two veteran eCommerce experts - backed by the research, analyses, real-world experiences, and talents of their respective companies (Keen Innovations, Andersen Consulting).

Execution matters! The eProcess Edge enables businesses - both start ups and established companies - to move from Internet innovation to eProcess execution.

It is designed to help professionals prioritize, coordinate, and implement electronic commerce processes. Targeting key relationships is addressed and building a value network as a basis for organizing and competing is covered in detail. If you aim to manage an eCommerce business successfully, the tools provided in this book will be helpful. For example, Keen and McDonald offer an 'eProcess capability matrix' that guides appropriate operational sourcing of capabilities.

Managers, technology decision-makers, and academics that want to understand exactly how processes and capabilities may be improved to gain competitive advantage must read this book.

This is by far the best book I have read for online marketing tips, strategies, and know-how. As the author aptly points out, most online marketing books focus on web site creation, search engine placement, or even mass-emailing (SPAM).

Well-thought-out, this book covers everything from basic web marketing ("Web Marketing 101") to the strategic planning of your web promotional activities ("Forming a Strategic Website Marketing Plan"). The "101 Web Marketing Ideas" section is worth the cover price alone!

I hightly recommend you purchase this book if you plan to or already have a web site! If you have someone who's maintaining and promoting your site for you, GET THEM A COPY! (...)

I read this fine book while our new Website was being constructed, and since our launch I have referred to it many times. There are dozens of tips and techniques of which I was made aware, and some have already been extremely beneficial in our marketing. They do work. Others are on the back-burner, and will be implemented as we grow. The author not only reveals many useful aids, but also stressed several universal truths for sucessful marketing (honesty, promptness, etc), and it was refreshing to review them in print as web-marketing principles.

About three weeks ago I read a glowing review of this book at the Website Promotion Central web site. I went to a local book store first to see if it was suitable for my needs. The first book store did not have a copy but the second one did. Looking through the book I was pleased with the amount of information on each page. The purchase decision was easy.

I like the step by step format of the book, the marketing plan guide, the chapter on public relations and I particularly like the second chapter of 101 tips and the way it is organized. The cartoons at the start of each chapter are also a nice touch. I have looked through many marketing books at the book store in the past but this is the first one I have purchased. I doubt I'll ever need to read another one. +dana+

I was disappointed in this book, as it contains very little information that is applicable to trading strategies. The only information in this category is very general and would be found in virtually any trading book. Primarily, this book seems to be one big advertisement for the futures industry. A large section of the book is devoted to the history of online trading and the companies who shaped it as well as interviews with principals of these firms.

If you are a new trader, you may find something useful here. If, however, you are a seasoned trader, there is virtually nothing in this book that you will find helpful.

I have been trading futures for over 5 years and have had very limited success until I read this book by Kaiser and Green. They are the true pioneers in electronic trading, but more important they know what the components are that make up a successful trader. Their combined 50 years experiance in the futures markets only adds to the overall perspective. I highly recommend this book for both the novice and seasoned trader.

I have an advance copy of this book and the pages are allready dog-eared. This insightful book will point out the pitfalls beginning traders face as they enter the futures markets. All in all this book is indispensable.

First let me say that this book and its previous version saved me thousands -- I'll never buy retail again. For the simple xreference and "all in one place" numbers -- the book is worth its price.

Now for why I gave it only a 3. I bought this version because I thought it would be up-to-date (now I see there's a 2003 version!) but it wasn't. Almost no one had a web site or e-mail listed but through my investigation I found most of the companies did. In searching for a vendor that carried a maker of furniture, I heard "we stopped carrying that line 3 years ago" == fine for the older version but not what I expected. I suggest you check out the 2003 version -- hopefully they've scrubbed the listing.

The blurb under almost every outlet reads the same "great prices, worth a phone call" but I found that the same outlets seem to always be the cheaper so don't take the author's word -- call around.

This book is an excellent guide for anyone wanting to save money on furniture. It gives excellent reviews of each furniture outlet, and became the crucial foundation for planning a trip to the furniture capital--North Carolina. Telephone numbers along with the lines of furniture carried at each outlet helped me save time by knowing exactly which outlets I wanted to visit prior to arriving. It also distingushed which outlets accepted telephone orders. Excellent source for information in one location. I saved $650 on 3 pieces of furniture; it was well worth the cost of the book!

I love fine furniture and I don't pay retail for anything. I was planning on going to North Carolina this month to pick up a new living room set when I saw this book. It probably saved me over $[money]. Thanks to Kimberly and her marvelous guide I saved time, money and wasn't overwhelmed by all the outlets. Having read the book and highlighted the most interesting stores I got exactly what I wanted in a timely fashion and within my budget.

I have adopted this book as a required text for an Ecommerce and Marketing course that I am teaching during the Spring 2000 semester at Boston University. The text is well-written and presents a fine blend of theory and practice. Hanson is true to the title of his book as he provides some "principles" that should indeed endure. Given the rapid pace of change in e-commerce, this is commendable. I believe that this book offers a great introduction to anyone who wants to either practice or simply learn about Internet marketing.

Principles of Internet Marketing is the best book that I have ever read concerning Internet Marketing. The Quality of exemples and the scope of chapters make the book a "must read" for everyone envolved in e-commerce.

This book overwhelmed me with its broad coverage of internet marketing principles. It is required reading for my MBA students in marketing strategy because it is so clearly written. Many Internet books are either too technical or too shallow to hold my interest as a marketing professor. Every time I return to the book, I learn more about the Net. Hanson provides tremendous value and should be commended for including so much relevant information in an easy to read format.

Most books published on internet marketing lack timeliness or drag you through the basics of the internet first. This book contains information and concepts that are timely and written for an intermediate or advanced internet surfer. The concepts explained in the book are necessary foundations for effective web marketing.

Written from a marketing, rather than a technical perspective, this book is a "must-read" for anyone who has designed or who is contemplating setting up a Web site. Although much of the technical information will soon be out-of-date, the marketing advice is sound. Jim truly understands the dynamic, interactive nature of the Internet. He incorporates that vision into a well thought out and well written Web marketing bible. The book is directed primarily at Web sites marketing products. However, much of the advice is equally applicable to sites marketing services

I found this book to be extremely informative about marketing strategies on the internet. It provides useful tips on how to get interest in your company, without falling into the can of spam. It is also a book that can be read by non-technical people, a real plus in getting marketing-oriented people involved in your web site plan. I am hoping to see a second edition of the book; minor touches will make this book a perfect 10. Still, an excellent book to have

A must for editorial and/or stock photographers. A bible of contact information. A few photo buyers, like those who only buy one or two photos from freelancers a year, could be left out of the book.

Photographer's Market is often refered to as the "Bible of stock photography" and this title actually fits quite well. This tremendeously valuable resource gives the photographer access to a wide market of photobuyers in all categories. Photographer's Market comes out with a new issue every year and there's always something new in every new issue. The latest one is no exception. Writer's Digest managed to find 480 new markets where photographers can sell their work in the 2001 edition. But, Photographer's Market is so much more than a mere listing of photobuyers. The book contains valuable information no photographer should be without. Things like information on names of people to contact at the various markets, how much the various photobuyers normally pay, what format they want submissions in as well as tips and hints. If you're only planning to invest in one photography book this year, do yourself a favor and make that book the 2001 edition of "Photographer's Market". Chances are you will get back the money you paid for the book faster than you can say "oups I didn't know that magazine had changed to accepting digital submissions this year..." For those of you out there who are thinking "I've been in this business for 20 years and know all there is to know", I must sadly inform you that you don't. New markets where photographers can offer, and sell, their images pops up all the time. One of the best ways to keep track of those markets is to make sure you get your yearly dose of Photographer's Market.

First time I have heard about this "Bible of stock photography" was 4 years ago. I was a keen photo-enthusiast wishing to find markets for his work, which after going through this book and using it become a reality. It took a lot of effort and patience to go through the all entries, then choose and address final "matches", but finally it paid off. I have started to buy the book every year and allways found it very useful. It is really topic and kept "up-to-date" every year and the one for 2002 is not an extemption. Should there be only one book I will keep buying every year I know it is going to be this one. I do recommend it.