Do Business Well

Analysing the effectiveness of a site is crucial in analysing the strategy and then revising it if necessary to overcome problems. If clear, quantifiable objectives were set, then the evaluation process is facilitated, because it can be easily established whether the objectives were met or not. In general terms, the measurement process can be summarized as follows:

1 Goal-setting — what do we want to achieve?

2 Performance measurement — what is happening?

3 Performance diagnosis — why is it happening?

4 Corrective action — what should we do about it?

Specific tangible evaluation methods that may be used include:

• return on investment;
• operational cost reduction;
• revenue earned;
• site profitability;
• number of new customers gained;
• changes in customer satisfaction levels ascertained through market research.

Kaplan and Norton (1993) devised an integrated measurement system called the Balanced Scorecard which provides a framework with which to evaluate the success of a strategy against the objectives set. The scorecard includes:

• customer concerns such as service quality, cost, response times;
• internal measures such as staff productivity and range of skills;
• financial measures such as revenue, profitability and costs;
• learning and growth/innovation measures such as rate of new product development, availability of staff training.

More intangible measures include:

• corporate image enhancement through online PR;
• brand-building;
• building of long-term relationships with clients.

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