The decision to switch to a different eCommerce platform has been made. Where this is a relief for one department, it can be the start of sleepless nights for IT. If you involve IT too late in the decision for another eCommerce platform, the consequences are often incalculable. And this goes far beyond financial damage. Avoid hassle afterwards and follow the tips in this blog.
This is a very important choice, because do you have the opportunity internally and do IT itself (or via an implementation partner) bear the responsibility for installing the platform on its own server? Does IT have time to arrange things like hosting, security and monitoring of the webshop?
Open source offers some flexibility because it is self-managed, but it takes a lot of time from IT. In addition, for the development of the platform you are dependent on the license provider and your implementation partner.
With SaaS (Software as a Service) you are dependent on the supplier in terms of development, but you do not have to worry about hosting, security and monitoring because this is taken off your hands. You are also closer to the supplier, which gives you more influence on the roadmap. Further development takes place on the entire platform, so you do not have to worry about management.
At Best-of-breed you may think that this is very powerful because you choose the star of all individual solutions that completely suits your organization. And it is true. You are then free to choose the best solution for all departments and business processes. However, there is something to it, because you need IT to seamlessly integrate these solutions with each other to provide the optimal shopping experience to your customer. And don't forget that multiple separate solutions also means that you have to deal with multiple suppliers, each with their own definition of service. Are you going to achieve the development speed that you have in mind?
With a Full suite solution you have one supplier, one point of contact and therefore from a technical point of view also only one point of view. If an issue arises, it can be found more quickly than if there are all kinds of tools that are jointly responsible for a process. This takes more time and therefore more money.
A disadvantage of Full suite is that you may have to compromise on certain functionalities that work slightly differently. Weigh carefully through a MosCow document which functionalities are a must and which are nice-to-have.
The eCommerce platform you choose needs seamless integration with your organization's existing IT environment. And who knows this IT environment better than ... you guessed it ... the IT department? You may currently have a self-built ERP system or a very specific ERP system. Can the eCommerce platform be fully integrated with this system? Otherwise, a lot of manual work will arise with all the associated risks.
In short, the choice of a new eCommerce platform is inextricably linked to IT. Therefore, involve this team from the moment you make a long list of possible new eCommerce platforms. This allows for:
A crucial list of IT decisions that you cannot ignore.
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