A01 chaf6542 06 se fm indd

Part 3  Implementation

Element of 

7S mode

Relevance to digital business 

management

Key issues

Strategy

The contribution of digital business 

in influencing and supporting 

organisations’ strategy

•  Gaining appropriate budgets and demonstrating/

delivering value and ROI from budgets. Annual planning 

approach

•  Techniques for using digital business to impact

organisation strategy

•  Techniques for aligning digital business strategy with

organisational and marketing strategy

Structure

The modification of organisational 

structure to support digital business

•  Integration of e‑commerce team with other management,

marketing (corporate communications, brand marketing, 

direct marketing) and IT staff

•  Use of cross‑ functional teams and steering groups

•  Insourcing vs outsourcing

Systems

The development of specific 

processes, procedures or information 

systems to support Internet marketing

•  Campaign planning approach‑ integration

•  Managing/sharing customer information

•  Managing content quality

•  Unified reporting of digital marketing effectiveness

•  In‑house vs external best-of-breed vs external integrated 

technology solutions

Staff

The breakdown of staff in terms 

of their background, age and sex 

and characteristics such as IT vs 

marketing, use of contractors/ 

consultants

•  Insourcing vs outsourcing

•  Achieving senior management buy‑in/involvement with

digital marketing

•  Staff recruitment and retention. Virtual working

•  Staff development and training

Style

Includes both the way in which key 

managers behave in achieving the 

organisation’s goals and the cultural 

style of the organisation as a whole

•  Relates to role of the e‑commerce team in influencing

strategy – is it dynamic and influential or conservative 

and looking for a voice?

Skills

Distinctive capabilities of key staff, but 

can be interpreted as specific  skill-  sets 

of team members

•  Staff skills in specific areas: supplier selection, project

management, content management, specific digital 

marketing approaches (search engine marketing, affiliate 

marketing, email marketing, online advertising)

Superordinate

The guiding concepts of the 

e-commerce organisation which are 

also part of shared values and culture. 

The internal and external perception of 

these goals may vary

•  Improving the perception of the importance and

effectiveness of the e-commerce team amongst senior 

managers and staff it works with (marketing generalists 

and IT)

Table 10.1

The 7S strategic framework and its application to digital business management

One of the aims of the research was to gain a picture of the organisational processes and 

activities that need to be managed as part of  sell‑  side e‑commerce and the organisational 

structures that had been created to manage this. Figure 10.2 gives an indication of the num‑

ber of operational e‑CRM processes that need to be managed across the three core e‑CRM 

areas (acquisition, conversion, retention) which we reviewed in Chapter 9. It also shows the 

management activities needed to support these. Some large organisations in the study had 

between 10 and 50 specialist staff managing these activities. For smaller companies, there is 

also the challenge that only 1 or 2 people are responsible for these activities, so they will need 

to work smart and outsource many of the activities!

M10_CHAF6542_06_SE_C10.indd   474

7/22/14   1:28 AM

---

475