Over the years, the Peppers and Rogers duo have made an outstanding contribution to the field of marketing and the process of developing relationships with customers. "One to One B2B" is yet another installment. This well-written book builds on their earlier works and does a great deal to define in a tangible fashion the new "customer relationship mentality" that is so essential for all organizations to consider in today's real economy. This book is thought-provoking and stimulating. It is evident that the authors who have pioneered the bulk of the original thinking underlying customer relationship management want to share their compelling philosophy. They are very convincing in citing numerous advantages that accrue to those who embrace their way of operating a business. And, this book seems to be committed to showing a straightforward, direct blueprint for implementation. The initial chapters of the book provide an updated version of the principles and philsophy found in their earlier works. These early chapters constitute a worthwhile review, but the also offer some different slants that are extremely valuable supplements. The later chapters are integral to the book's mission. The authors offer very detailed coverage of companies and organizations that have adopted the "one to one" way of doing business. The book provides detailed description in a case study format illustrating the steps of implementation and explaining the benefits associated with each implementation phase. In keeping with their well-established literary character, in the final section of their book Peppers and Rogers have an eye to the future they share with the reader. For example, they don't shy away from offering advice to Dell on future direction in light of the challenges posed by the current environment. And, they take time to weigh the eventual impact of a B2B world that is rapidly extending its scope, offering conjecture from their very informed perspectives. As an academician who has spent significant time studying the CRM movement and consulting with companies that embrace the same, this book definitely offers value and is a must read for anyone that is committed to preserving lasting customer relationships.

Those who have already read any of Peppers and Rogers' previous books (The One to One Future, Enterprise One to One, The One to One Fieldbook with Bob Dorf, and The One to One Manager) no doubt share my high regard for their uniquely creative as well as highly analytical thinking about CRM within the global marketplace. They continue to draw upon an abundance of real-world experience. This book may well be their most important thus far. In it, they suggest and then explain a number of strategies to create and then sustain solid relationships with B2B customers. Even if your organization is not currently involved in such relationships, these same strategies can also be of substantial value. Once again, the authors' essential idea (hardly original, they realize) is that businesses as well as most other human communities (e.g. a political constituency, a religious following, a military force) share at least this in common: Each is built one believer at a time to serve mutual self-interests. In this sense, the term "B2B" is a misnomer because people do business with other people. (Rest assured, I fully understand the differences between and among B2B, B2C, and B2B2C.) Even when purchases are completed electronically, they are initiated and fulfilled by people. Goods are manufactured by people. Services are provided by people. And so forth.

Over the years, when customers have been asked to cross-rank attributes of greatest importance to them, "Feeling Appreciated" and "Convenience" or "Ease of Doing Business" are either #1 or #2. (Remarkably, "Price" is usually ranked between 9th and 14th in order of importance.) It is also worth noting that, as Peppers and Rogers carefully explain in this book, as new efficiencies are created by breakthrough technologies, the quality of one-to-one human interaction becomes even more important. They include five case studies, including one which examines the policies and procedures of Dell Computer. Somehow, they gained access to information which is probably otherwise unavailable, except to those involved in the Dell organization. Each of the case studies reads as if it were a one-act play. However different their "characters" and "plot" may be, all five companies are literally customer-driven. Their ultimate objective is not to achieve "customer satisfaction"; rather, as Jeffrey Gitomer and others have insisted, their ultimate objective is sustainable "customer loyalty" (indeed "customer passion"). Peppers and Rogers provide a cohesive, comprehensive, and cost-effective system to achieve that objective. They would be the first to recommend that each reader make appropriate modifications of that system to accommodate the specific CRM needs, interests, and resources of her or his own organization.

Earlier, I suggested that this may well be the most important book Peppers and Rogers have written thus far. The system they provide in it is worthless, however, unless and until an organization involved in B2B is wholly committed (top to bottom) to doing everything possible to make each customer feel appreciated. One of the best strategies to accomplish that is to make doing business with it as convenient (as "easy") as possible.

Here's another key point. Based on my own extensive experience working closely with all manner of organizations, I have become convinced that organizations cannot be "customer-driven" unless they are first "employee/associate-driven." Those who feel mistreated cannot be expected to treat others well. Therefore, effective CRM depends almost entirely on the quality of relationships within a given organization...and each of them is also, inevitably, one-to-one.

After reading many books about CRM/Marketing One-One, my opinion is this book has to be read as soon as possible. You might have read others like me but this one is a plus. Buy it, read it, apply it, let it pass 6 months, then read it again. Finally, post here how much it helped you. It includes pratical stuff (case studies) of leading companies (Dell, Convergys, etc). This book has to be seen as a complement to others previously written by same authors.

"Prescription for Success" not only reviews the industry of network marketing itself, but it spotlights the industry's leading frontrunner: the preventative healthcare/natural medicines division of the well-known original Rexall Drug Corporation, Rexall Showcase International.

This is a great "behind the scenes" look by an unbiased, well-informed and savvy observer of both the industry and what it is that makes a network marketing company GREAT. The testimonies are captivating and the success-track of the company is portrayed in a story-like, yet business-oriented fashion.

The information is factual and down-to-earth, and makes the book an easy read. I thought I already well-understood Rexall Showcase International's background and strengths, since I'm an "insider" of sorts, leading (with my husband) one of the fastest growing RSI independent distributor organizations in the country--so I expected to be a bit bored. However, I was delightfully surprised and continually fascinated by what I learned from this book. If you want to understand the industry and the mechanics of what may end up to be the most successful MLM of all time, don't pass this one up--whether or not you are a current distributor, or care to become one.

Mr. Robinson gives a peek inside one particular company in the industry called network marketing. His experienced comments combined with those of several leaders in Rexall Showcase Intn'l. combine to really let one see what goes on, how it's done, and why. I found it to be a portrait of a group of very diverse individuals who have discovered a common way to do more good than they could have, by branching out into this type of business. The enthusiasm revealed is similar to that in the autobiograhical book by Mary Kay Ash.

This is a well written account of the rise of Rexall Showcase International and the vision of the people who made it work. Distributors stories are inspiring and encouraging and reveal that with the available tools and support, it's up to each individual to determine how far up the ladder he wants to go. Robinson presents some pros - and some cons - of network marketing in general and the entepreneural opportunity of Rexall Showcase International in specific.

This is one of a series of books about performance and capacity metrics by the authors. Each of their books covers a specific environment (client/server, mainframes, web services), and each explains the theory, quantitative methods and practical approaches using common tools like Microsoft Excel.

This book's focus is on performance and capacity of applications in the e-commerce infrastructure, and like the other books by the authors, it covers every facet while explaining the what's and why's. More importantly, this book will not overwhelm readers who are rusty in math because the authors weave in refresher material as they go along.

What makes this book valuable is the blend of business and technical topics, particularly in Part I where business models are thoroughly discussed. I personally believe that this material is as important as the more technically focused material in subsequent chapters because it wakes up the technical reader as to why their job of developing scalable solutions is important by linking the technical aspects to business imperatives.

Parts II (Evaluating E-Business Infrastructure and Services) and III (Capacity Planning for E-Business) are the heart of the technical matter, and the chapters systematically dissect each aspect of an e-commerce infrastructure from the application layer point of view. This is where quantitative methods are introduced and where the value of the spreadsheets on the CD ROM increase. Note that there are more up-to-date versions of these spreadsheets on the book's associated website, as well as errata for the book.

Practical considerations that blend the business and technical perspectives are presented in Part IV (Models of Specific E-Business Segments). This chapter consists of case studies that tie together all of the preceding material using real world examples.

Because this book is more focused on performance and capacity at the application and business model layer, you should read the authors' newest book, "Capacity Planning for Web Services: Metrics, Models, and Methods". That book covers the lower level details of the infrastructure
to round out the picture of an end-to-end view of performance and capacity management.

A Excellent Book witht a lot of examples and mathematical models that will help to found the correct way to implant a dot com business, Every IT must read it

This book is an excellent application of formal methodologies for e-business cases. The examples are useful according to the explanations. I was expecting more emphasis on cost of IT resources or methods in order to calculate. But, the authors guide the book in the resource and performance chapters showing an approach on how to measure from regular sites not from new e-business projects which begin from nothing, without any data from logs or similar metrics. However, the estrict compliance with the methodology presented and the explanation about security provided me with a good reason to have it.

In just a few years the Internet has revolutionized the way we do business. Email, online shopping and digital music downloaded from the Internet are now integral parts of our everyday lives. Technology aware companies have now turned to wireless web for the next big leap in commerce and communication. The race is on for deploying cutting-edge wireless technology.

As a business and technology consultant I am often asked by clients to provide some guidelines on how to proceed in this new and fast moving industry. Is trading stocks using a wireless PDA really a secure transaction and are electronic coupons delivered to customers via cell phones a technical feasible marketing solution? What communications provider should I use when connecting my sales force via WAP based browsers to a wireless CRM solution? And should we look to Europe and Japan for the future in wireless communication, or will it turn out to be another bursting bubble as we have experienced with too many dot.com business ventures?

"The Wireless Web", unlike so many other books covering technology topics, provides an easy to read and well-structured roadmap on how to develop a winning wireless strategy. Bergeron starts off explaining the history of this industry and it's economic drivers and then provides an overview of the current state of technologies, the various systems, protocols and technical standards used in the US and compares them to the more cohesive and further developed Japanese and European technologies. The latter part of the book focuses on the future, introducing the reader to opportunities and potential risks wireless technologies will offer as well as technical and political limitations it will face as this technology matures He closes with a well structured guideline on how to develop a wireless strategy of any scale.

In summary, this book will familiarize the reader with this new and dynamic industry and provide the knowledge required to develop, communicate, and execute a successful wireless strategy. Although written for the non-technical executive, I recommend this book to every one confronted with wireless technologies, the corporate executive implementing a wireless enterprise information portal as well as the cell phone user confronted with evaluating roaming charges, communication protocols and coverage areas when selecting a calling plan. This book definitely deserves a place on the bookshelf of any technologist.

Wireless Web is a refreshing kind of book. I'm tired of books that introuduce a new technology, paint a rosy picture, and then leave the reader dangling three months later. This isn't one of those books. It tells it like it is. Wireless isn't easy. In fact, implementing a Wireless Web solution is nearly at the bleeding edge of what's possible, as the author states. There are traps at every corner, and you'd better know what to expect. In this respect, the Wireless Web provides a map of the "speed bumps" along the way. If you're going to give it a go on the Wireless Web, you'd better have this book or some other roadmap with you.

A good read. The title is a little misleading, however, because the book also covers wireless without the Web. In other words, peer to peer networks inside buildings, outside buildings, and to the home seem like the most promising aspects of the wireless revolution, as described in this book. As the author states, it's simply a matter of time, not if, wireless will touch every aspect of our lives.

This is a clear, well-written book on building an e-commerce sites. Even though I have already written a few commercial sites in asp.net, mostly using IBuySpy as an example, this book explains all the details that are useful to know to more fully exploit asp.net and Visual Studio.net.
Highly recommended, go for it!

Well by now most of us know that wrox is no longer with us ...

But I am VERY VERY VERY thankful that this book was published before they went under. Just sad that this book will no longer be in publication becasue it is VERY well written and easy to understand.
I am an experienced Software Engineer and have read a lot of books (Good & Bad) and this one does exactly what it says. It is useful to BOTH Experienced Developers developing their first e-comm site AND Novice Programmers with a little additional effort looking at MSDN to understand some stuff they don't go into detail about(if you want to know how things really work and be able to customize the solution to your taste/needs)

It would be worth twice the cover price in the amount of time it saves in laying out a plan for developing an e-comm site, if you have never done one.
This book is a steal and I just hope that Darie & Karli got their money for the book. I also hope another publisher picks up this title and continues it. Better yet, maybe Darie & Karli can get another deal to rewrite the book for another publisher as well as put out an advanced version.

A MUST HAVE!!! WOULD NOT EVEN CONSIDER SELLING MY COPY!!!

I'm a classic ASP developer seeking to both transition into ASP.NET development work, and also, to get my own Commercial Web site up, and running. I'm only on page 90, and I've already learned so much from reading this book. All the code has been working, and the authors have done a tremendous job of explaining exactly what you need to know to get an e-Commerce site going. The book is divided into three sections, and at the end of each section you have a working e-Commerce site, and as you advance through the sections, your Web site becomes more complex. Reading this book is a real pleasure as everything is expressed clearly, and the content is full of valuable information. I hope these two(2) authors will continue their work in writing more books about e-Commerce. This book is so well thought out, and has a real business focus. There is so much to say about this book, but I'll just end by saying this book is "Absolutely" one of the best programming books I have ever read!

I bought a whole library of Ex/Im titles to learn the trade, and I must tell you that starters in this business will not find a better book.

It is very well written, holds your hands, yet very entertaining and indeed you learn the whole business of Export-Import. A decent high-school student can read through this book and right away open his own Ex/Im startup. And by the way, there is absolutely no riches overnight. If you hussle, and stick with it, you'll triumph.

Isaac

This book was excellent. I wanted to start an import/export business and this book was the most comprehensive I have read so far. The author tells readers what periodicals to read, how to find business opportunities and what to look out for. It's a must read for anyone entering the business.

I liked this book. I was disappointed that it did not recommend specific strategies for specific markets. As some one engaged in export/import, for an understanding of the Asian market I was really helped by "New Asian Emperors: the Overseas Chinese, their Strategies and Competitive Advantages" by George T. Haley, CT Tan and Usha C. V. Haley. When supplemented by richer, more-area specific material like this, this book provides real insight.

It is a thorough analysis of the technological advances of our era and the depth of the internet industry. I was particularly interested in the implications for Latin America and the technological transfer from liberalization. It is a useful book for practictioners and for more academic minds.

Creative Destruction presents a fascinating revival of an old concept in the context of recent technological developments and innovation. It offers a brilliant account of how information technologies accelerate the process of creative destruction today and helps understand how information society articulates with in a wider framework of economic history. Those interested in Latin America will appreciate, in particluar, the recent developments in the telecommunications industry in the region.

This is an outstanding collection of articles. These papers combine scholarly depth with usefulness for practitioners. They will help you understand where we've been and forecast where we are going with the Internet. I teach courses on Internet Business Strategy and will use this collection next year. My favorites are Baumol's "Innovation and Creative Destruction; McKnight's "Internet Business Models: Creative Destruction as Usual" and Lehr's "A New Theory of the Internet Firm." They provide a solid conceptual basis for understanding the implications of the Internet economy. One thing truly unique about this book is the thoughtful and detailed discussions of the implications of the Internet on international business. There are six papers that focus on these issues. I have not seen this anywhere else. In a world where people publish books peddling derivative nostrums about the network economy, it's a pleasure to finally find one that deals with these issues in a serious, thoughtful and, most of all, useful way.

An excellent book. The early chapters reveal solid solutions to oft-encountered COM problems - error handling, string manipulation, smart pointers, multiple-reader single-writer locks, streaming and marshal-by-value etc. The later chapters concentrate mainly on design techniques for building scalable applications. In my (humble) opinion, chapter 13: The MTS Revolution is worth the price of the book alone. This chapter describes the evolution of technologies for building scalable systems, introduces the single-concurrent-client model and explains how to write scalable systems keeping code maintainable and in the general case, lock-free. All would-be COM+/MTS developers should read this chapter! I've read both this and Tim Ewald's Transactional COM+ - both excellent books and compliment each other very well. In my opinion, Brown's chapter 13 is far superior to Ewald's chapter 1. Both attempt to acheive the same thing, coaxing the regular developer into the COM+ mindset, but Brown's offers logical facts and reasoning as opposed to Ewald's non-real-world convoluted IPerson examples.

This is an excellent book; a little pricey, but worth the money if you are serious about COM+. And I mean serious! This is not a beginners book, for that I would recommend "Inside COM+ Base Services" by the same publisher. This book is a little too biased towards MS development environments. For example they compare VC++, VB, and VJ++ and casually mention there are "other capable environments". Hmm. Then again, this is a Microsoft press book, and COM+ is a Microsoft technology, so its to be expected.

This book picks up where introductory COM books left off. The first chapter is about error handling in your COM+ objects - not a good place to start learning COM :)

Particularly useful to me was the last third of the book, the design patterns. Here, the authors give us a meaty example of a "real world" COM+ enterprise solution. What other book gives you this? Answer: none. Get this book!

This book, is without a dought, the best COM book ever done. In my seven years as a working COM engineer and some say expert, I have read and bought every single book on COM. And when you come right down to it, even Don Box's book, they are all the same: explaining IUnknown over and over again, rehashes of available documentation and books with esoteric and useless ICat and IDog interfaces. None of them deal with the real COM world and the problems we really face every day. This book does. This book assumes you are a working COM developer and focuses on the hard problems: Smart Pointers, Strings, Enumeration Interfaces, Streaming and trying to deal with the world of STL. It offers real solutions and real code that can be used today to bridge to the STL world and to deal with things like enumerations. It offers code to deal with COM enumerations and collections, a topic scarcely covered. This book has become my number one resource.

TechnoFutures is written by Dr. James Canton. Dr. Canton is one of the leading technology futurists, and he is editor-in-chief of the Canton Technology Report. This book is about how technology will continue to bring impacts and changes, both economically and socially, to our lives. With the evolution of technological development, the interaction between human and technology will become inseparable.

According to the author, in terms of economic changes, e-business will eventually dominate the traditional business practice. The industries that will be transformed by e-business included stock brokerage, insurance, travel, auto, chemicals, media and entertainment, computer and electronics, telecommunications, real estate, medicine and health care, etc. As Dr. Canton suggested, if we want to survive through the 21st century, we must learn how to adopt e-business technology.

In terms of social impacts, technology will bring impacts at both the personal and collective levels. In the future, our personal lives will involve computers, robots and virtual reality. Robots and computers will play a role as a companion such as a housekeeper, a secretary, or even a friend to human. And as for human, we will engage more activities via virtual reality such as playing golf. For the latter one, educational changes will be a good example. Educational institutions will change their formats of teaching. Instead of the traditional classroom learning, students and teachers will meet via virtual schools.

By means of frequent sidebars, the author has provided readers an insight of our evolving technological world with vivid scenes and dialogues amongst the robots, cyber companions and human. However, the design and placement of these sidebars, often of similar fonts right in between the texts proper, could sometimes be confusing. Also, the author could have arranged the hierarchy, if any, of the sub- and sub-sub-titles of his chapters better, so that the readers can better digest the often far-fetched subject matters. Indeed, the subject matters discussed sometimes verged on science fiction rather than scientific prediction. This is most evident in the author¡¦s discussion of cyborgs and androids, all, perhaps coincidentally, also prominently featured in Star Trek: The Next Generation. I do appreciate, however, the author¡¦s efforts in making technical matters easier to understand for lay persons. There is, as far as I can see, no one single formula in the book. The author is also good in presenting moral issues for deeper thoughts, such as that concerning eugenics.

Although Dr. Canton¡¦s future world may seem too advanced for most of us, we are in fact living in an information society. This book has provided me a chance to be aware of our technological developments and dare me to envision our future world from a non-traditional perspective. Overall, I enjoy reading the book.

As a manager for the advanced technology practice of one of the world's leading executive search firms, I found Dr. Canton's book comprehensive, illuminating, and deeply insightful. It is a beautiful work of art, a majestic tour de force of what is to be, detailing how technology will impact our lives beyond our wildest expectations. The material is comprehensive, yet easily understood. I came to appreciate life in this era of aggressive change and discovery. Dr. Canton's book is a must-read for any inquisitive mind, young or old, and is actually difficult to put down. I have purchased additional copies as gifts for clients.

Dr. Canton is Heinleinesque in the way he weaves a coherent, congruent, knowledgeable and thoroughly entertaining story about the future of technology and its influence on our lives. I believe his predictions serve as a blueprint for where to position your career, investments and personal interests over the next half century. I was blown away by his insight into the future of medicine, specifically and quite selfishly, his prediction that I may clone my favorite dog right down to its personality. Dr. Canton forced me to my learning and dreaming edge, right where you want to be if your goal is to endeavor into the technological fray, but aren't sure exactly how and where.

Not too trendy, not too trite--just right, which is unusual in business books. Yeah, lots of companies have flamed out, and values are way down, and there's this Enron thing. But the Internet is still changing, if not everything, a lot of things. And perspicacious executives will be looking for ideas about how to stay ahead, because it isn't getting any easier or any less competitive. Citrin's book offers a lot of real, practical insight gleaned from an assortment of businesses that, whatever the stock price says this week, seem pretty likely to survive and prosper.

For those looking for a roadmap for sucessful businesses, Zoom is the book for you. With Zoom, Jim Citrin insightfully reveals the important success factors for successful businesses, and how companies have deployed them. The lessons of Zoom are not time dependent; they transcend business and technology eras. Zoom could also serve as an important aid for companies that have become derailed and provide a roadmap to get them back on the success road. I thought Zoom was excellent - insightful, actionable, and enjoyable.

James M. Citrin draws his new business wisdom from detailed studies of 12 successful start-ups and blue chips. Identifying the common threads in these two groups, he comes to a simple conclusion: To win in the modern marketplace, companies must combine traditional management techniques with cutting-edge methods and technology. Even if some the conclusions presented here fail to surpass the obvious, we from getAbstract recommend this book for its cross-section of best practices, old and new.