This pricing strategy sets the benchmark for others to follow and, until e-commerce software becomes commoditised, prices will remain high. However, more vendors are looking to the ASP model as a way of reducing the entry price and achieving the broader base of applications required to provide e-commerce solutions. The integration element can be both substantial and the most difficult to achieve because there are many facets to the integration problem. Recent experience suggests there's a difference between the way European enterprises approach the issues and that of American companies. In the US, enterprises have tended to experiment with new technologies and worry about integration as an afterthought.
Large organisations have numerous considerations to balance.
E-commerce is bound to place strains on IT infrastructures. This means making real-time booking systems operate efficiently, while knowing what the customer wants, is an art form. Managing disparate data flows is becoming easier as more businesses make the transition to XML-based systems, but there's still a long way to go. Then there's the issue of managing the information that e-commerce solutions generate. But managing this isn't easy and determining how it's best used requires thought and planning.