Marketing In order to incorporate the electronic education business into Med Ed, Learner is going to need to set out some performance benchmarks for the unit that reflect the bricks-and-mortar Med Ed educational leadership. There are a few different issues, therefore, that need to be covered. The first is the setting of performance benchmarks, which should reflect both the competencies of Cyber Health and the mission of Med Ed. The second issue that needs to be addressed is how these different performance benchmarks contribute to the organization's overall objectives.

Web Site Design

There are several different benchmarks for web site design. Kim, Shaw and Schneider (2003) have proposed six categories of benchmarks for e-commerce: business function, corporation credibility, contents reliability, website attractiveness, systematic structure and navigation. These cover most of the critical areas, but because with electronic education the students actively interface with the school over the web, there will also need to be another set of benchmarks that reflects that.

Business function is an area that the current leadership group at Cyber Health is concerned with. They have a system that emphasizes click to order functionality, and feels that this ease of registration and payment is an advantage. We agree that this functionality should be smooth and secure, but it is not a source of competitive advantage; the quality of the education and the value of the diploma are the competitive advantages. Benchmarks for business function are number of pages to register, security of payment and speed of transaction. The number of shoppers converted to customers is another metric here.

Corporation credibility is reflected in the quality of the degree, and is affected by the professionalism of not only the website but the service offering overall. Cyber Health's reputation is not as good as Med Ed's reputation, so rebranding might be necessary. There are reputational surveys that can work as benchmarks, in addition to demand. Content reliability is something that...

Website attractiveness can be gauged using user feedback surveys.
Structure and navigation are reflected in benchmarks that measure the tightness of the code, the speed of the processing of pages, and the number of clicks to perform key transactions. On the educational side, timeouts and streamlining data flow are key objectives, especially with a system based on interactive technology.

Features

Med Ed has the objective of being a leader in its field, and to accomplish this it will most likely need to have a website that has the cutting edge features. Instant messaging, email, and document cloud storage are basic features that should be mandatory. Finding ways to implement these into the website efficiently is going to be a bigger challenge. In addition, there needs to be benchmarks with respect to new features introduced, because the school wants to be on the cutting edge. In a world where physicians can "see" remote customers via video, and where there are simulations for surgical procedures, it is not too much to ask that the coursework portion of the site be high tech. The drive for high levels of innovation must be balanced against the need for efficiency, not just to reduce stress on the servers but also to accommodate for the fact that not all of our customers have cutting edge computers. In addition, the school's site should have mobile capabilities. It may not be possible to perform all coursework on mobile, but there should be some key components available via mobile app, including signing up for the school, performing some library functions, and checking course announcements and message boards. Thus, the development of the mobile app and the number of downloads will be important benchmarks in terms of features.

Electronic Data Gathering

One of the most important elements of any marketing plan is knowledge. The acquisition of knowledge through the company's website and intranet is known as electronic data gathering. Both the…