Building Web Site: In-house vs Outsourcing
One of the main aspects of e-commerce study is to learn how to actually build and host an e-commerce web site. There are many choices for building a web site, ranging from complete in-housed development to complete outsourcing. In-house development means that you need to have staffs, hardware and software. Outsourcing means that you need to hire outside vendors to provide services you cannot perform with in-house personnel (Laudon & Traver 2004, p. 201). There are four alternatives for building and hosting: completely in-house, build-in-host-out, build-out-host-in, and completely outsourced. This essay will describe the major issues surrounding the decisions to build and/or host a new e-commerce Web site or outsource some aspects of site development, including the advantages and disadvantages of each decision.Developing a Web site in-house requires more resources than out-sourcing. Such a development requires multi-skilled staff of programmers, graphic designer, web designer and project managers (Laudon & Traver, 2004, p.203). The firm will need to buy hardware and software tools. There is a broad variety of software tools for Web site development. Some tools can be used to create Web site from scratch such as Microsoft FrontPag
Examples of pre-packaged tools are Microsoft Commerce Server, IBM Websphere, and OpenMarket. In the other hand, the firm has to spend more money for outsiders. A template would be fine for very small and simple storefronts. There are two options: host it in-house, outsource the hosting. If you choose to build from scratch, there will be more skilled staff required. If the staffs are not yet skilful then they will face a long learning curve and the firm will face a delay in entering the market. It is easier and faster to update an in-house site than a out-house one. However, the advantages are that you are building a Web site that does exactly what you intent to do (if everything goes well), and you might apply changes more freely and rapidly. Also, developing a Web site from scratch means you are re-inventing something that other people might already build. The firm may choose to use pre-build templates, such as those provided by BigStep and Yahoo! Stores. When the firm acquire a package, they may choose to whether modify it themselves or hire an additional outsider to do it. Does it worth to build everything from beginning? Will pre-packaged solutions and templates be better choices?The pre-packaged solutions give the firm a chance to get to the market sooner because most of the work has been done. If a technical expert is available then the modification should not be a problem. Most company pay a hosting service provider to host their Web site.
Common topics in this essay:
Laudon Traver,
Building Web,
,
Host Web,
Developing Web,
web site,
Macromedia Dreamweaver,
Websphere OpenMarket,
hardware software,
laudon traver,
traver 2004,
laudon traver 2004,
building web,
building web site,
hosting company,
software tools,
outsourced hosting,
developing web site,
hardware software tools,
facility communications,
site in-house,
web site in-house,
|