Amazon is quickly becoming the go to resource for many companies around the world. They know exactly their customer’s wants, needs, and even suggest things that they think their customers would want. Amazon is clearly on the rise and uses their information technology wisely. However, Amazon is being reprogrammed to better fit the needs of the company and their customers. It seems that it will only add to the success that Amazon already has.
Indeed, some analysts say it's possible that in a few years so many other retailers will be using Amazon's tech expertise to sell on its site that they could account for more than half the products sold on Amazon.com. Amazon Services could be the most important business.
Jeffrey A. Wilke, a senior vice-president who runs Amazon's worldwide operations and customer service, and an engineering team were trying out a test version of new software they wrote. When the buying automation program is ready for prime time, Amazon's merchandise buyers will be able to chuck reams of spreadsheets for graphics-rich applications that crunch data for them, so they can more quickly and accurately forecast product demand, find the best suppliers, and more. The effort is one of scores of technology projects under way at Amazon that ultimately may change the entire experience of shopping online -- and Amazon itself. Amazon is becoming a technology company just like Microsoft!
Already, Amazon's technological efforts have helped it reduce costs and boost sales so much that revenues are expected to surge 32% this year, to $5.2 billion. As a result, by the time the year ends, Amazon may well reach a milestone some never thought it could with its full-year profit. No wonder its stock has rocketed 152% this year, to $49.34 a share.
But all that is just the start. Building on a raft of tech initiatives, from an ever-richer Web site to new search technology, the Amazon team aims to reprogram the company into something even more potent. The notion is to create a technology-driven software for e-commerce that's as pervasive and powerful as Microsoft's Windows operating software is in computing. Amazon wants to be the next Microsoft.
Some may say this a little crazy for them, but necessarily. After all, the Amazon.com Web site is already essentially a giant application that people simply use over the Web rather than in their personal computers. And bit-by-bit, Amazon is building software on which thousands or millions of others can build businesses that in turn will bolster the platform in a self-reinforcing cycle.
Many people feel this is a risk for Amazon to take on, but in actuality other companies have the same dream they do. EBay, the Web's largest marketplace, is building its own e-commerce platform. Already, it boasts several million sellers, at least 37 million active buyers, and more than $20 billion in gross sales -- quadruple Amazon's and is far more profitable because eBay doesn't handle goods. Increasingly, merchants of all stripes view the two companies as key channels to online customers. And eBay isn't the only contender. Search engine Google Inc. and even Microsoft, each with its own Web services initiatives, also aim to be hubs for connecting both shoppers and merchants.
Technologies like that, in which Amazon is reaching out beyond its own site, offer the most intriguing new opportunities -- and challenges. With the current market and competition, I believe Amazon can succeed. Why cant there be another Microsoft? I believe Amazon would be great. They already have a huge customer base, and offer a wide variety of things to their customers. They know each and everyone of their millions of customers and provide the best service they can. Why not add to their successful brand and continue to make money. Their use of information technology has proven to be successful thus far why stop there? With the way the market is right now, technology seems to be the only thing that is continuing to grow. I believe adding new benefits to an already successful company would be good for Amazon now and in the long run.
(www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/03_51/b3863115_mz063.htm)
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