Back Ground Information of SAP Entrepreneurship
Service Advisory Partnerships Entrepreneurship is a consultancy firm focusing on offering advisory services to local businesses. This firm was started in the year 2006 as a partnership business by three individuals whose professions were entirely on business ventures. Starting as a small business, this business organization has largely expanded, since it has established permanent clients; implying its potential growth if its services are expanded to the global market. Since many businesses which the organization has been serving have closed down recently as a result of the massive global financial crisis, this business has found it necessary to go global to expand its customer base; which would, in turn, facilitate the growth of the organization (Holschuh et al 2002: 31).
As the information system continues to advance significantly, there has been a rising need to bridge the gap between Information and Communication Technology in commerce and the SAP business practices. With the current generation becoming technologically oriented, ICT in business has not only become effective but also a part of the current capitalist culture. With the rising of online communication among businesses and their clients, there has been needing for interface designers to focus on the usability of the interfaces developed for e-commerce to enhance efficiency.
Since business transactions are virtually conducted between the encoders and the decoders, the efficiency of the entire system depends on the usability of the heuristics involved. According to Landauer (2000: 37), frequent evaluation of the usability of the interfaces of online involved the online education system is very important to facilitate consistency and coherence towards the achievement of the anticipated goals and objectives of the business organization.
The Rationale for Developing a Website for SAP
Considering the currently revolutionized markets towards the digital world, SAP has largely reviewed its marketing strategies and subsequently found the use of Blogs for marketing its services quite useful. Since the global systems being quite dynamic, various heuristics should be applied in the testing of e-business interfaces to make sure that they meet the customers’ needs (Chaffey 2009: 42). This is done to remove any barrier which may interfere with efficiency in the e-marketing system.
The usability of the interfaces has for long remained an eminent issue among online marketers to make them meet the needs of the users. To match the systems with the actual world, evaluation of interface usability should be conducted frequently to enhance the viability and validity of the systems among the learners. More so, some errors within the systems may interfere with the continuous flow of information between the business organizations and their virtually located clients.
In designing the online marketing blog for SAP, the accessibility of the websites used in the online marketing program was highly considered. According to Inglis et al (2004: 131), accessibility of the usability heuristics used in designing online systems is perceived in various platforms like the physical ability of the clients or marketers to make effective use of the interfaces involved.
In this case, the graphics involved in displaying various pieces of information relayed between the marketing organization and the clients were carefully designed to accommodate a wider variety of individuals. For instance, the site was made to be compliant to individuals with different inabilities visually challenged users like color-blind people among others (as shown in Figure 1).
In this case, the graphics color involved in displaying information was carefully designed to help in curbing any shortcomings users with such disabilities may face (Eisenstadt 2005: 61).
According to Chaffey (2009: 59), social dynamics are also quite significant in evaluating heuristics usability for online marketing systems. Particularly, communication tools about synchrony and asynchrony were evaluated to enhance effective management of the information shared between the marketing organization and the clients. Quite importantly communication protocols were designed to enhance their easy reviewing in order to make it easy and effective to control the activities involved (as revealed in Figure 1).
In this case, a variety of services relayed through the websites had to be made in a way that would enhance easy evaluation in terms of their accuracy in marketing (Orange & Dave 2000: 105). Further, the usability heuristics should be evaluated based on the instructional content involved in online marketing processes. Quite importantly, the usability of the heuristics had to be evaluated based on the relationship between the real-world and the content involved in the marketing. By so doing, efficiency and effectiveness would be realized between the marketers and the clients.
As revealed by Nielsen (200: 15), there is a very close relationship between usability heuristics and the designing of online marketing blogs. Since some errors are often expected in online communication channels, the design employed should be able to enhance error-support feedbacks to enhance efficiency and accuracy in the online marketing system. More specifically, the e-business design was carefully made to enhance notification of any errors which may arise during the communication process, which would enhance efficiency and accuracy in marketing. To achieve high efficiency in the online marketing process, usability heuristics for such systems had to be carefully considered in designing the websites involved. By so doing, it would be more effective to conduct successful online marketing processes among geographically dispersed clients (Hawisher & Selfe 2001: 149).
More so, the customizability and maintainability of the usability heuristics of a website design meant to facilitate online marketing system were also highly considered. As Nielsen (1994: 39) suggest, the quality of the display of the screens involved in the web sites for e-marketing is quite important to enhance efficiency in the entire system. To optimize presentations made in the online marketing profile, web designers need to consider making the displays involved customizable to enhance self-efficiency among the users.
This application was highly considered in designing the website for SAP to make it user-effective and efficient, to capture customers’ trust and confidence with the services offered. In this case, the design has a template indicating the directions for the processes involved while customizing the usability of heuristics involved in the online marketing process. By so doing, it would be more efficient for the users of such web sites since each user will be able to modify the display settings of the contents being displayed at his/her optimal level (Newell & Simon 2000: 75).
In designing the websites for e-marketing, it is very important to consider the usability of such web sites based on user-control or error tolerance. In evaluating the efficiency of a design, the users should be directed on how certain errors which may occur on the interface among the users. Particularly, Chaffey (2009: 72) considers an efficient usability heuristics of a website for online marketing as the one that has task support templates.
Since the users expected have diverse and complex abilities and orientations to technology, the usability heuristics of a website for online marketing should equitability in the usage of the interface by all users. Quite importantly, the interface should promote a clear understanding of multi-dimensional aspects by having the capacity to produce desirable results among the users. By so doing, navigation and user movements would be made to facilitate easy manipulation of the contents being displayed for a deeper understanding of the information being displayed (Lehman & Koedinger 1999: 326).
According to Williams (1998: 232), the visibility of the features displayed on the websites should be considered to enhance the effective usability heuristics of online marketing systems. In this case, various numbers of objects or actions should be made discernible to all the interface users about a wide variety of technological appliances used. In designing the interface for SAP, it was found quite important to make it easier for users from one part of communication to another.
More specifically, sustained dialogue between the users was facilitated to enhance accuracy and efficiency in achieving the desired goals and objectives of the entire system. If an interface used in online marketing can enhance a sustained dialogue between the various parts of the presentation to another, efficiency and accuracy in conveying the information from the marketers and the clients would be enhanced (Vosniadou et al 2000: 90). To avoid congesting the area containing the contents, there should be ‘breathing space’ between various texts being displayed. Generally, the usability heuristics of an online learning interface is largely dependent on the visibility properties and self-explanation nature of the information being displayed on the screens.
According to Orange & Dave (2000: 107), the usability heuristics of an online learning site should be considerate of the authority and authenticity of the information being displayed. In this case, Palloff & Keith (2007: 94) considers the ability of an interface to remind its users of the security and privacy issues involved as an efficient strategy to ensure the reliability of the sites.
Having considered this requirement for an efficient online marketing system, the interface for SAP blog was created in a way that it can support and help and support in the documentation of various information while upholding the highest degree of privacy and security of the information being relayed within the system. Precisely, the usability heuristics of online learning sites is determined by their reliability and functionality in all applications involved. In this case, all the links and icons used are made capable of working across all the platforms involved (Newell & Simon 2000: 77).
As held by Miller (2005: 138), all interactive features within an online marketing system should be able to coordinate with each other effectively for sustained and accurate relaying of information across the network. Generally, an online marketing context should be evaluated by considering the heuristics of the interfaces used in the learning system, since the learners and instructors are virtually located. To facilitate coherence and efficiency in the entire system, continuous evaluation of the interfaces with the specific needs of the learners should be conducted (Mehlenbacher 2005: 94). Since the success of the marketing strategies are largely dependent on the accuracy achieved through the websites.
Online Marketing Strategy for SAP
With the vast usage of internet across the globe, the development of online marketing among business organizations ought to be considerate of various factors. With various regions having different internet penetration, integration of various marketing strategies for SAP was found to be accurate in acquiring a low-cost marketing strategy (Mathews 2003: 534).
Being a consultant business organization, the adoption of cost per click packages as offered by Google Search engine was found quite cheap since web optimization was facilitated through this strategy. By having the website of SAP organization being advertised by Google, all visitors who click this site would be easily known concerning their places of destination, which would, in turn, make it easier for the organization to re-organize its services concerning the lifestyles adopted by the frequent visitors of the website (Lehman & Koedinger 1999: 328).
One of the major benefits of ‘cost per click’ marketing strategy is that an organization can effectively target a particular online audience since preferred search-terms appear as a priority in search engine traffics. By adopting this strategy in marketing its services online, SAP will be in a better position of securing a larger customer base since it will be able to target regions that are capable of providing potential clients electively. As reported by Landauer (2000: 43), ‘cost per click’ marketing strategy facilitates easy regulation marketing sites for its services, whilst making it more useful to small businesses. Though cost per click may be a seemingly poor marketing strategy for starting businesses newly venturing online businesses like SAP, its ultimate impacts in the long-run are quite remarkable.
Another marketing strategy that is useful to SAP as it plans to venture online marketing is ‘banner advertising’, the search engine places the banner of the marketing organization at strategic places of their pages. According to Chaffey (2009: 47), banners are quite useful in the sense that, they only appear within a particular search term, and then remain at a strategic part of the page of the website for long.
In cases where the banners are presented with images and attractive graphics, they are quite efficient in persuading customers. Considering that visual aids are the most effective marketing strategies for digital presentations, many people would be attracted to click the website and view the services offered. In the case of SAP organization, choosing a creative banner that would be quite appealing to customers would be quite useful since the consultancy industry is currently faced with a high degree of competition (Khan 2001: 61).
Another online marketing strategy that would be useful if adopted by SAP in its online marketing ventures is ‘search engine optimization’. This marketing strategy involves getting the website high or highly prioritized in ranking across a variety of search engines. This strategy has been reportedly been one of the cost-effective online marketing strategies since it is mainly based on search engine promotion for premier organizations (Jonassen et al 1999: 37).
In this case, SAP organization has preferred Google, MSN and Yahoo search engines as the ultimate promoters of its services. Having a wider diversity of its users, the organization anticipates attracting a large customer base from these three search engines. Since all the three search engines will prioritize the organization in their pages, it will be easier for this company to acquire popularity among various clients since they will perceive it as being superior and highly performing.
As noted by Inglis et al (2004: 134), usability heuristics of a website for online learning should facilitate the establishment of a clear relationship between the website’s content and the real-world tasks. For effective interfaces designs for e-business, terminologies and labeling should be made meaningful to the target audience. In this case, ambiguousness and abstractness should be avoided, about the wide diversity of the audience involved in online marketing systems. Particularly, related and interdependent variables should be made to appear on the same screen to enhance easy interpretation of the information being displayed among the online users or clients (Holschuh et al 2002: 34). Notably, the heuristics of a marketing channel should enhance the sequencing of functions and patterns in the display screen to increase the usability of the interfaces while upholding high levels of efficiency in the marketing process.
Key Performance Indicators
In determining the performance of the online marketing strategy, the website was designed to enhance a quick evaluation of the progress made through online marketing. Precisely, the number of visitors on the website daily was configured on the website to determine how popular the website was. In evaluating the usability of interface design, visibility of system status was closely considered as a very important indicator of the performance of the organization’s website (Hawisher & Selfe 2001: 149).
More specifically, the system is to be continuously updated concerning changing conditions and in order to keep the users informed of the prevailing trends by giving responses in time. By so doing, it would be able for the heuristics evaluators to know the specific aspects to consider in their evaluation process. For instance, the interface of SAP organization has a feedback template which makes it possible to know the level of satisfaction of clients through the website, which enhances the formation of a strong basis for development modifications of the website design (Eisenstadt 2005: 64).
Conclusion and Recommendations
As the world technology advances significantly, online marketing systems have been largely established. The establishment of a website for SAP organization has been necessitated by the currently revolutionized society towards the digital world, which has been reinforced by the global financial crisis. The main marketing strategies involved in the website for SAP organization are ‘cost per click’, ‘search engine optimization’ and ‘pay on page placement’. Quite importantly, the design for the website has been made in consideration of efficiency and accuracy required in online marketing, where there ought to be coherence between users and the developers of the website.
As has been observed, the development of an interface needs to be thoroughly reviewed and frequently checked to correct any errors which may occur and interfere with the efficiency of the entire system. Particularly, the usability evaluation of online marketing systems is mainly meant to facilitate flexibility and efficiency in the business practices facilitated through it. More so, heuristics for e-business should be always reviewed and changes made about any changes in the information technology. More specifically, usability heuristics for online clients should be evaluated based on accessibility. The speed of the internet browsers and other network configurations should be considered to facilitate efficiency in the marketing system. The compliance of the site to ADA should be considered to ensure effective displays in the computers used by online clients.
Further, the link between the system and the actual world should be considered to determine the performance of the website. With the advancement of current technology, the system should be capable to communicate effectively to the users by speaking their languages. Various phrases and words used in the system should be user-oriented to facilitate sustained communication between the users and the entire system. By so doing, accuracy in the conveying of information would be realized, since the users will not be having difficulties in their interactions with the system.
Reference List
Chaffey, D. (2009) E-Business and E-Commerce Management: Strategy, Implementation and Practice, 4th Edition. New York: Prentice Hall Publishers, 37-81.
Eisenstadt, M. (2005) The Knowledge Web: Learning and Collaborating On The Net, London: Stylus Publishers, 61-95.
Hawisher, G. & Selfe, L. (2001) Evolving Perspectives on Computers on Online Learning. Urbana: NCTE, 145-162.
Holschuh, D., et al (2002) Usability and Instructional Design Heuristics for E-commerce Evaluation. Denver: Oxford University Press, 29-37.
Inglis, A. et al (2004) Delivering Digitally: Managing the Transition to the new Knowledge Media. London: Kogan Page, 125-146.
Jonassen, D. et al. (1999) Handbook of task Analysis Procedures. Westport: Greenwood Publishers, 23-41.
Khan, B. (2001) Web-based Communications. Englewood Cliffs: Educational Technology Publications, 47-72.
Landauer, T. (2000) The Trouble with Computers: Usefulness, Usability, And Productivity. Cambridge: MIT P, 33-51.
Lehman, J. & Koedinger, K. (1999) Goals and Learning in Microworlds. Cognitive Science, 23 (3): 305-336.
Mathews, J. (2003) Documentation: Not Yet Implemented But Coming Soon! Evolving Technologies and Emerging Applications, 34(7): 527-543.
Mehlenbacher, B. (2005) A Conceptual Model for Evaluation and Design. Human Computer Interaction, 4(7): 78-113.
Miller, J. (2005) Invention in technical and scientific discourse: A prospective survey. Westport: Greenwood, 117-162.
Newell, A. & Simon, H. (2000) Human Problem Solving. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice- Hall, 75-82.
Nielsen, J. (1994) Heuristic Evaluation: Usability Inspection Methods. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 25-62.
Nielsen, J. (2005) Ten Usability Heuristics. Web.
Orange, G. & Dave, H. (2000) International Perspectives on e-Business and Virtual Clients. Brookfield, Vt.: Ashgate Publishing, 90-113.
Palloff, R. & Keith, P. (2007) Building e-Commerce Communities in Cyberspace: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 91-97.
Vosniadou, S. et al. (2000) International Perspectives on the Design of Technology- Supported Programs. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum. 87-93
Williams, R. (1998) Communications Technologies and Social Institutions. Cambridge: England: Thames and Hudson, 225-246.