July 27, 1998 SkyMall aims high, shows Net results in order processing Conducting Internet commerce is no cakewalk, especially when you need to integrate your Internet business with existing relationships and processes. Of course, I-commerce has the potential to rationalize all those relationships and more, making them more efficient, automated, and cheaper than ever before. That's the theory. To find out how it actually works in practice, I spoke with Scott Dastrup, chief information officer at SkyMall. SkyMall produces the catalogs that are inserted in the seat-back pockets on most U.S. airlines. Through SkyMall, passengers can order products from such upscale vendors as The Sharper Image. Back on the ground, customers can also place orders from SkyMall's Web site, at http://www.skymall.com. Last year, SkyMall posted more than $40 million in revenue, mostly from phone orders. SkyMall uses OrderTrust (http://www.ordertrust.com), a provider of order-processing services, to manage the flow of data between SkyMall and its many suppliers. The life of an order When shopping on the SkyMall site, customers fill a virtual shopping basket with products. They complete an HTML order form, then confirm the order by clicking on a button. The data is then processed by Microsoft Message Queue Server, reformatted, and piped into SkyMall's order-entry system, called SkyOps -- the same program used by SkyMall's call center operators to enter telephone orders. Currently, credit card authorizations are done in batch mode, three times per day. If the credit card for a Web or phone order is declined, a customer service representative calls the customer to resolve the problem. This fall, however, Dastrup's team will deploy a new order-entry system based on Microsoft Site Server 3.0, Commerce Edition, which will serve as the back end for both Web and call center orders. The new system will authorize credit cards in real time, providing immediate feedback to Web and phone customers alike. Authorized orders are then transmitted to OrderTrust for processing. Currently, this process is batched as well: Each order becomes a record in a structured data file, which is transmitted to OrderTrust via FTP. With the new infrastructure, SkyMall will be able to send orders to OrderTrust as they come in, using a Site Server snap-in tool. OrderTrust's system takes SkyMall's orders and routes them to the respective vendors, reformatting the data as necessary. For fully automated vendors, OrderTrust pipes the orders in through customized interfaces to the vendors' own order-entry systems. For low-tech vendors, OrderTrust just sends a fax. Vendors respond to OrderTrust with order status messages in like fashion -- electronically or via fax. OrderTrust tracks the status of all SkyMall orders and transmits status updates back to SkyMall once per day. Strategic investment Dastrup told me that about 3 percent of SkyMall's orders come from the Web. But he clearly expects that number to increase. That's why SkyMall is sinking $1 million in development and hardware costs into the upgrade. Does SkyMall expect this million-dollar I-commerce investment to pay off? Dastrup's answer left no room for doubt: "Absolutely." Dylan Tweney (dylan@infoworld.com) has been covering the Internet since 1993. He edits InfoWorld's intranet and Internet-commerce product reviews. Previous columns by Dylan Tweney Retail dilemma: balancing security, ease of ordering July 20, 1998 Davy Crockett star finds second frontier out in cyberspace July 13, 1998 Holding your breath waiting for e-cash? You can exhale now July 6, 1998 Every column since August, 1997