Strategic and Tactical Consulting Case Study

The Background

A successful media company had web sites in around 20 countries in Europe, but all were locally managed with different design, content and technical platforms. The company was seeking to launch a more cost-effective, dynamic and successful web site featuring e-commerce, advertising, personalisation and several unique features. The company had scarce Internet development resources but was keen to move quickly in this competitive area. The system was to be designed in such a way as to enable multi-platform access to the content (via SMS, WAP, Interactive TV) to be simple and cost-effective to implement at a later date.

The Brief

Internet Vision was requested to provide assistance in defining an appropriate technical infrastructure to host the web sites, the software applications best suited to providing the desired features, and appropriate hosting facilities for the European user base. Additionally, we were asked to assist with determining appropriate IT budgets for the client, identifying key strategic and technical partners, and assisting with IT staffing.

What Internet Vision did

Internet Vision provided strategic and tactical consulting services at a senior level within the organisation in the following areas:

• Helping to define expected usage and functionality for the web sites.
• Analysing and determining the appropriate hardware for the project (taking into account scalability issues).
• Analysing and determining the appropriate software components for the project (taking into account scalability issues).
• Analysing and determining the optimal Europe-wide hosting facility.
• Identifying key staff roles for the implementation and ongoing management of the web site.
• Determining budget projections for the implementation and ongoing management and growth of the web site.
• Assisting with identifying key strategic partners.
• Assisting with negotiations with key strategic partners and vendors to achieve the optimal terms for our client.
• Assisting with hiring and handover of responsibilities to key staff.

The Results

As a result of our rapid and effective involvement our client was able to deliver on its business goals. We helped to manage the transition to a re-designed web site incorporating the required features. The underlying hardware platform met the scalability requirements. The relationships with partners and vendors were in place to facilitate further growth. The client was now able to accurately budget for the future and to develop and extend its systems with minimal cost and effort.