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American Express Interactive (AXI). Old dog, new tricks Elena Todorova & Jin Park. AXI Part I (Elena Todorova). Background Major Events Motivation for going online Strategies for implementation. Background. American Express (AmEx) founded in 1850
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American Express Interactive (AXI) Old dog, new tricks Elena Todorova & Jin Park
AXI Part I (Elena Todorova) • Background • Major Events • Motivation for going online • Strategies for implementation
Background • American Express (AmEx) founded in 1850 • It is a world leader in charge and credit cards, Travelers Cheques, travel, financial planning, business services, insurance and international banking.
Major Events • 11/1997 AXI Travel – AmEx’s first Internet business • 1998 AXI Expense • 1999 AXI Purchasing Solutions • 1999 American Express @ Work • 1999 B2B Commerce Network e-procurement portal
Motivation for going online • First Mover • Define industry B2B standards • Maintain Profitability
Strategies for implementation • Partnerships • Early involvement of key customers • CSI created independent unit in new location
AXI Part II (Jin Park) • Barriers, challenges for online strategies • Organization factors • Technology solutions • Critical success factors
Barriers, challenges for online strategies • They didn’t want to cannibalize existing business streams of revenue • The barriers of getting into the market for AXI were incredibly low because they could rely on enormous cash reserves, huge interest from the executive committee, years of business knowledge and technical savvy from Microsoft.
Barriers, challenges for online strategies • After the tool was launched, some questions began to surface: • How is the behavior of the user changed? How can we <almost> force the user to use the site instead of going through the travel agent? • CSI answered with “points” and a training effort to teach administrative assistants how to use the tool
Organization factors • AXI Travel team moved to off-site location in New York to keep from disrupting the main company • A portion of the team went out to Redmond, WA to work with the Microsoft developers
Technology solutions • AXI Travel software had originally been envisioned to be located in other systems, however, it was easy enough to use from any location. • Microsoft created their Travel engine • GetThere, Inc. created the CTO software • Concur Technologies, Inc. developed Xpense Management System
Technology solutions • TRADEX Technologies and ec-Content, Inc. and Ventro all teamed up to create MarketMile™ • The promise of MarketMile™ was to “target the buying needs of midsized companies, offering everything from office and industrial supplies to computers and temporary labor.” (Kalakota, 126)
Critical success factors • There were no major benchmarks mentioned within any of the articles • AXI had a lot of money, research, and development was thrown into every project • Were they all bound to succeed?