When I started at MediaOne, my good irish boss Colm Troy told me “Carlose, we are going to start an exciting project on ecommerce so I want you to get your hands dirty”.

The parties were Meteor the Irish mobile communications provider with almost 20% market share (30 September 2009) and Sigma the leading distributor for mobile and digital lifestyle product and accessories in the Irish market.

In the previous image we can see the role of Sigma as a channel development partner or a distributor for Meteor, so when Meteor requires more products, is Sigma who negotiates with the manufacturers, in this case LG , Nokia and HTC.

Once you now the market structure and who is who, the next step is identify business and user goals.

1. Business goals:

• Revenue: maximising the volume of B2B sales
• Return on Investment (ROI): Enabling Sigma and Meteor to gain maximum ROI
• Process efficiencies: Improve experience for customers and telesales staff
• Customer loyalty achieved via a superior B2B technology platform
• Part of a larger Customer Relationship Management (CRM) approach: CRM is best thought of as the amalgamation of
• All the various customer touch points and the exploitation of that information

2. User goals:

• Easy search, navigation and accurate product info
• Providing simple and clear check-out processes
• Not requiring customers to opt-out of additional charges or marketing sign-ups
• Using secure connections to collect credit card details

After knowing this, the Discovery of the project is completed, the challenge from now on is to merge the business and user goals and to have these at the top of every single decision.