You may think you know what it takes to have a smooth WebSphere Commerce deployment, but what about the decisions that will guarantee an unsuccessful deployment? Avoid the following three things if you want to have an effective WebSphere Commerce site.
In this day and age, technology can do just about anything we want it to. But just because you have the technology for something doesn’t necessarily mean you need to use it.
As the IBM Knowledge Center says, “remember why your customers are coming to the site and ensure all technologies are being used to help strengthen that relationship.”
WebSphere Commerce offers a host of impressive features to implement for your eCommerce site, but technology is, essentially, a means to an end. You can have all of the flashy features you want, but if it doesn’t help the customer get to their end goal, or, even worse, hinders them from reaching that goal, it will not be good for business.
So while video of your products might be a cool feature, if your customers don’t want or need video, then that technology is just slowing down your site without adding value. Remember to use technology to meet your customers’ needs, not just because you can.
With so many moving parts to a WebSphere Commerce deployment, it can be tempting to push the integration with your CRM or ERP to phase two or beyond. But integration plans will impact your site’s architecture and capabilities, so it needs to be considered from the beginning.
The Define/Design phase of your project should include your integration plans to ensure a successful project. This will allow you to determine where certain data will live and what the best integration methodology for the project will be.
By including integration plans in tandem with your WCS deployment process, the entire project will advance more smoothly.
Throughout a WebSphere Commerce project, the launch date often seems to loom over you and your team. While launching your new environment on time is obviously a priority, cutting corners to meet that deadline is never a good idea.
Unfortunately, one of the first things to be compromised to meet a launch date is often testing. This means that even if you meet that deadline, you may have a subpar site to show for it.
A good way to avoid this scenario is to build enough testing time into the project plan. This will give your team a good window to properly test and prepare your new site so that it meets expectations in the timeframe allotted.
Above all, remember that while timing is important, so is the quality of your site. Be sure to deliver a WCS environment that your customers will appreciate, even if it means adjusting the launch date.
For more tips on how to avoid an unsuccessful WebSphere Commerce deployment, check out the IBM Knowledge Center.
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