CONTENTS

• Introduction
• Internet-Based Profit Models
  • Charge Customers Directly
  • Increase Volume from Current Customers
  • Attract New Customers
  • Charge Advertisers
  • Provide Links to Third Parties
  • Reduce Delivery Costs for Customers
  • Developing a Financial Services Web Site
  • Establishing Traditional Businesses on the Internet
  • Establishing Entirely New Businesses on the Internet Developing Internet Strategies
  • Profit Opportunity Categories
  • Links to the Value Chain
• Designing for Success
  • Designing to Support Industry Trends
  • Design to Maximize the Web's Strengths
  • Characteristics of A Good Site
  • Characteristics of a Bad Site
• Implementing the Web Site
  • Roadblocks to Success
  • Overcoming the Roadblocks
• Getting Started
  • Research
  • Define Business Goals
  • Design the Web Site
  • Implement
  • Continuous Enhancements
• Summary
• Glossary
• About the Author

BUILDING FINANCIAL SERVICE PROFITS ON THE INTERNET

Hal McIntyre

Using the Internet to conduct business profitably has become a necessity for financial services firms, and yet most firms find it difficult to identify the right mix of strategy, design, process and technology. Solving this problem is critical to firms today since the growth of the total Business to Business (B2B) and Business to Consumer (B2C) marketplaces are growing astronomically. The B2C activity is expected to grow to over $100 billion by 2003 and the B2B volume should increase to over $1.2 trillion in the same period. As the overall use of the Internet increases, financial services firms will have to have an Internet presence. This paper presents a series of solutions to this problem.

INTRODUCTION

In the rapidly growing world of Internet business, the customer's view of the Internet is very different from the service provider's view, and neither view reflects reality. This discrepancy is not uncommon in rapidly evolving markets, where customers and suppliers find their expectations changing as their understanding of this new communications medium increases.

Financial customers have very definite opinions:

• The Internet is free!
• I can immediately access information from anywhere!
• It is not completely secure, but I want my service provider to solve this problem!
• It should help me meet my financial goals!
• It is more of a tool than a toy!

And because of how financial customers see the Internet, customers want four things.

• They want general information on markets, products, etc., and they don't expect to have to pay for this information.
• They would like to have customized advice, and they are willing to pay for advice that is based upon expert knowledge and that very specifically considers their personal situation. However, the customer is reluctant to pay for advice that comes from a provider who also benefits from the customer's business. For example, people feel that if they are paying a mutual fund provider for managing the fund, they should get advice for free.
• Customers know that they need and should pay for transaction processing, but they believe that the vendor's costs are much lower with the Internet and therefore expect to pay less than for the comparable service through the vendor's traditional delivery mechanisms.
• Customers also want very specific information about their account, and they expect that this information should be provided for free, or included in the transaction fee.

Service Providers, on the other hand, have questions about the Internet rather than opinions:

• I know it costs a lot, but how can I make a profit?
• What is my competition doing?
• What is the minimum that I have to do today?
• How can I differentiate myself without wasting money, time and effort?
• Will this technology last, or will I have to change everything again next year?
• Is this just another distribution method?

Because of these views, and their need to justify their expenditures, Service Providers want a measurable positive return on their investment and more importantly, Service Providers want to maintain on-going relationships with their clients. This means that firms today want to establish well-planned, efficient sites that are designed to support the business' long-term objectives. That has not always been the case.

Although it is still in its infancy, the Internet has progressed significantly from the primitive sites that characterize the first generation of web sites. The first generation web sites were basically experiments by the IT department, and their objective was to merely exist.

Second generation sites were created when the marketing departments of organizations saw this as another way to distribute marketing information and to expand the consumers' awareness of their brands. The objective at this point was to inform.

Third generation sites are based on a detailed understanding of the Purchasing Value Chain, and are driven by business managers who want to increase their firm's profitability.

Business managers know that consumers initiate the first step in the Purchasing Value Chain by shopping, and vendors respond by providing information about their products. The vendors then have the opportunity to sell their products, which results in an order that must be processed. The customer makes a payment that must also be processed, and the vendor then delivers the product. The delivery may result in some form of customer service initiated by the customer or in some service initiated by the vendor, which will hopefully lead to another revolution of the purchasing cycle.

Shopping, selling and servicing all involve transforming data into information and knowledge between the customer and the vendor, and these activities are well suited to interaction with the web site. On the other hand, ordering, paying and delivering all involve traditional transaction processing activities, and are probably not conducted directly on a financial services firm's web site.

These third generation sites, which are just starting to become functional, have an objective to make a profit, and several potential models are available.

INTERNET-BASED PROFIT MODELS

Firms and individuals build Internet sites with one or more of three objectives in mind:

• Build the web site with the intent of having another company buy it
• Build the web site with the intention of running it as a separate business and making an on-going profit as a separate business, or going public
• Build the web site as a supplement to an existing business with the intent of having the web site make an independent profit, or supplementing the revenue for other products and services.

Many different ways to make revenue or to reduce cost by using the Internet have been identified in the financial services industry, although most firms have not yet been able to transform these models into significant on-going profits. The following methods are used by different firms, either as a single strategy or in combination with the other strategies.

In each case, the web site has to present sufficient value that the customer is willing to pay for the product or service.

CHARGE CUSTOMERS DIRECTLY

Customers can be charged a fee for advice, access to information that has been gathered and formatted, or for transactions.

INCREASE VOLUME FROM CURRENT CUSTOMERS

Some service providers try to provide additional products and services for their current customers so that the customers will use these services, and the business can earn additional revenue on balances, spreads, float, etc.

ATTRACT NEW CUSTOMERS

Another strategy is to attract new customers to the web site and deliver new or existing products to these customers.

CHARGE ADVERTISERS

Businesses can also charge other businesses to advertise on their web site. This is usually only possible if the firm's web site has a high traffic volume.

PROVIDE LINKS TO THIRD PARTIES

A business can also provide a link to another firm's web site and either get paid for delivering the person as a potential customer or receive a commission if the other site makes a sale.

REDUCE DELIVERY COSTS FOR CUSTOMERS

In addition to increasing revenue, web sites offer financial services firms many opportunities to reduce costs, especially in the areas of account opening, providing information or validating and initiating transaction processing.

When considering which of these profit models to use, service providers need to consider several questions:

• What financial services do customers want?
• What will the customers pay for?
• Do we have these services in-house or do we have to build/acquire them?
• How can we deliver these services?
• How can we keep visitors as customers?
• Who else will pay us because we have these customers?
• How else can we earn revenue with these customers?

In answering these questions, firms need to consider what has already been done by their competitors and the firm's own objectives.

Financial firms are uniquely suited to the e-business environment since customer relationships exist, the customers already accept some electronic support such as ATMs, and processing is already electronic and somewhat integrated. Various financial products can, and have been adapted to the Internet, such as:

• Brokerage
• Commercial Banking
• Consumer Finance
• Insurance
• Private Banking
• Retail Banking

While most of these services have historically been established and unique, stand-alone businesses, they share similar functions, such as:

• Identify Prospects
• Qualify Prospects
• Open Accounts
• Process Transactions
• Maintain Balances and Positions
• Cross-Sell
• Report to the Customer
• Report to Regulators
• Respond to Customer Inquiries
• Investigate Discrepancies

There is an opportunity to leverage expertise in these functional areas that was restricted due to the segregation between financial services firms regulated by Glass Steagall. In response to this legislation, US financial services evolved over the last sixty-five years and created various entities to satisfy different areas of credit and investment. The artificial separation of services in the US has become accepted by consumers and they have come to expect certain types of services from specific categories of firms.

Banks are generally seen as entities that provide very low risk investments, but which also provide a small return. Brokers are at the opposite extreme and provide high risk and high returns. Mutual Funds and insurance companies allow consumers to manage their risks in exchange for some return.

But, in the last few years the regulatory barriers have been eliminated and consumers have begun to accept alternative ways of receiving the services. To meet these changing expectations, firms will have to consider how the Purchasing Value Chain works and the customers' needs by building an attractive and usable web site.

DEVELOPING A FINANCIAL SERVICES WEB SITE

When developing a new financial web site, firms should first plan to meet five basic objectives:

• Attract Customers
• Service Customers
• Comply With Regulations
• Process Transactions
• Present Effectively

And, while keeping these objectives in mind, the site should be designed to support both of the types of financial services sales that are required:

• Opening the original account
• Sales of additional services.

To meet these goals, firms have to build an effective web site to support their Internet business, either by building upon their existing infrastructure or by building everything new.

ESTABLISHING TRADITIONAL BUSINESSES ON THE INTERNET

In theory, building a totally new Internet business is not all that different from migrating a traditional business to the web. In adapting a traditional financial services business to the web, there are usually eight general areas for attention:

• Develop an Internet Strategy

  The business's current strategy should form the basis for the Internet strategy as long as the intent is to extend the firm's current services. This can take the form of defining product design and delivery opportunities, as well as adding features that take advantage of the Internet's strengths.

  The various strategies that most firms are adopting are described later in this White Paper.

• Design and Build the Site

  Designing and building a web site is a technology project that requires more emphasis on design and iterative development than most traditional technology projects; however, it is still a project that can be defined and managed.

  The major design considerations for web sites are covered later in this White Paper,

• Establish Content on the Web Site

  A traditional business has a wide range of content that is already available in non-Internet friendly form. The business has to select the appropriate content and adapt it for web delivery.

• Connect Internal Systems to Web Site

  To provide efficient e-commerce functionality, a business will have to connect its web site to its internal transaction processing systems. This connection has proven to be difficult in many cases; however, some forms of Middleware can support this connectivity very efficiently.

  One other tool set that can support the evolving nature of Internet transaction processing is Workflow. With Workflow technology, a business can establish an automated flow for a single transaction type and then expand the automation on a transaction by transaction basis as the level of knowledge increases. This allows the business to begin serving customers immediately, rather than taking the time to define, design and build a system that handles a multitude of transaction types from the first day of business.

• Synchronize Products and Cross-Sell

  Most traditional financial services businesses already have a range of products and services that they are providing to their customers through other delivery vehicles such as direct sales, agents, branch offices, etc. These brick and mortar products must be redefined so that they can be delivered through the web site in such a way that customers can see the value of trying or buying additional products.

• Manage Customer Relationships

  Existing customers can be migrated to web delivery if the delivery method is more convenient for the customer or more economical for the business; however, most firms have an objective to use the Internet to maintain their customer base and to obtain new customers. Once existing or potential customers have been encouraged to try and buy through the web site, the business must provide a high level of service to overcome the lack of personal attention that typically exists with most current forms of service. Many firms attempt to combine a highly effective web service and personal attention.

• Develop Value Added Services

  The strengths of the Internet encourage firms to modify existing products and to add new products that are produced and delivered by the business or by partners.

• Develop Partnerships

  Once the delivery method is established, most firms add complementary products that are developed by partners. While offering the "Best of Breed" products, firms try to keep the customer on their web site.

  Using external partnerships requires the firm to extend their technical connectivity to that other firm in order to maintain transactional control and to manage cost. Again, Middleware is a potential solution.

ESTABLISHING ENTIRELY NEW BUSINESSES ON THE INTERNET

In building a new Internet business, there are seven slightly different areas for attention:

• Develop an Internet Strategy

  When developing a new business for the Internet, there isn't any existing business strategy to build upon, and the managers must define everything. In this case, the Internet strategy is the business strategy, and all of the components of a successful business must be considered.

  The various strategies that can be considered are covered later in this White Paper.

• Design and Build the Site

  Designing and building a web site for a new business can be easier than trying to design a site that supports an existing bricks and mortar image; however, starting with a blank sheet of paper can be intimidating. In this situation, most designers tend to find a site that has features that appeal to the business managers and use it as a "strawman" to start the discussion.

  The major design considerations for web sites are covered later in this White Paper,

• Obtain Content for the Web Site

  A new Internet business does not usually have the advantage of existing content. It must either obtain the content from another provider(s) or develop the content itself.

  Developing content is often the most expensive part of developing a new business other than advertising and acquiring customers.

• Establish an Internet Brand

  The need for effective marketing over the Internet is no different than the need to gain some share of mind with traditional delivery vehicles. There are two levels that the Internet service provider has to cover. The first is to get potential customers to visit their web site the first time, and the second it so create sufficient share of mind that a customer will return. These require two different marketing efforts.

• Develop a Delivery Process

  A new Internet business will need to establish some new delivery mechanism unless its mission is to become a conduit to many partners. In most cases, the new business will have to establish a series of internal systems to process the order, payment and delivery functions, or use an Application Service Provider (ASP).

  If multiple suppliers are used, then the firm should consider using Middleware to manage the external connectivity requirements.

• Manage Customer Relationships

  A new business does not have existing customers to migrate to web delivery, so it has to attract new customers, often to a new product or to a new presentation of a group of existing products. Once the customer has been convinced to visit, the web site still must give them sufficient reason to return, either to obtain additional products, to continue to use the services of the product that they bought, or to obtain new information. ·

• Develop Value Added Services

  Competition among Internet firms requires that additional products, services or features constantly be added to offset those coming from the competition. Alternatively, firms who provide a unique product or service often indulge in a short monopolistic period.

DEVELOPING INTERNET STRATEGIES

Whether a firm is building on an existing business or establishing an entirely new e-business, there are several different strategies that service providers can use to increase revenue and to decrease costs at points throughout the Purchasing Value Chain.

The seven categories of profit opportunity that that firms can use to develop these strategies are:

Each of these seven areas of opportunity is examined in the next sections.

1. Define Internet Products

Financial firms have the opportunity to re-define their products in Internet terms and to add new products:

Transform Existing Products

Firms can find customers in the same geographic area who have a slightly different set of requirements, or they can look for the same type of customers in a different geographic area, or both.

Create New Products

Once a financial firm decides to create new products, there are several methods to choose from:

• Extend existing products by emphasizing the positive attributes that the web provides
• Add features to extend the firm's product line and additional customer service
• Develop new products for web delivery
• Deliver complementary products from other service providers
• Become an infrastructure portal and co-ordinate access to a variety of related information and web sites, within the firm or with other firms

  Financial firms have an opportunity to reduce costs by distributing their existing overhead and processes over additional products, or avoiding additional fixed costs by using another firm's processes through a partnership or an outsourcing arrangement.

  And, these firms have the opportunity to increase revenues by extending existing products to new geographies or by presenting variations of their existing products to new targets in their current geographical market. Firms can develop supplemental features for existing products, add features that will attract new customers or encourage existing customers to purchase additional products.

  Multinationals can offer a single portal that will lead customers and potential customers to appropriate web sites. And, partnerships can also offer incremental revenue opportunities when a firm offers their customers access to another firm's products

2. Attract Prospects

Financial service firms can attract potential customers to visit a web site for the first time by using traditional advertising media, including print, television, radio, etc., or by using the web itself through e-mail, banners and other portals. These ads can be aimed at both current and prospective customers.

Once someone has visited the web site, the site should be designed to encourage the person to return frequently. There are many techniques that have been used to stimulate a customer or prospective customer to return to a specific web site, but the basic rule is the same as in any other business. The web site must offer and deliver a quality product at a competitive price. If this does not happen, then the techniques suggested in this section may get people to return, but they probably won't become buyers.

In many cases the incentive to return is automatically provided because the customer wishes to get additional information about their investment or balances; however, many firms have offered encouragement by offering the following free items:

Education

Financial services firms can offer basic information on subjects such as how the markets work or how specific products work.

Firms can also provide general information that is directly related to what the customer has done or is showing an intention to do.

And, firms can also provide information about how to invest, or how to buy insurance, how to compare services, etc.

Services

Some firms provide free services such as data storage, general information, or general education in areas that are loosely connected to the firm's offerings.

Games

Some financial firms use games to attract customers; however, the games should be appropriate to the services offered.

Tools

To make the site more interactive, some financial services sites provide tools such as loan calculators, portfolio management or retirement planning software, calendars, etc. In most cases these tools are not downloadable, and that encourages the customer to return in order to use the tools.

Getting people to visit often provides firms with the opportunity to reduce their costs by presenting products to new prospects for a minimal incremental charge and to convert prospects into customers at a minimal unit cost.

Financial services firms can obtain additional revenue by showing prospects exactly what they will get when they buy the financial product, and in addition, new prospects can be converted to new customers, and repeat visits should generate repeat business.

3. Provide Information

There are two types of information that can be provided to the people who visit a web site; static information and dynamic information. Static information generally consists of things such as brochures and product descriptions, dynamic information is more significant. For instance, dynamic information can be used to level the playing field between professional and individual investors while providing them with the opportunity to participate in discussion groups to share information and to have access to interactive "What If" analyses.

Firms can reduce their costs by providing a wide range of static information that can satisfy the customer's immediate needs and encourage repeat visits, including:

• Updates
  • Provide information about the products electronically to avoid printing, mailing and responding to telephone inquiries.
  • Upgrades to software that fixes bugs or provides additional functionality to avoid preparing and mailing disks or CDs.
  • New releases of information, publications, etc., to avoid printing and mailing costs.
• Product and service descriptions
• Fees and charges
• Rules and regulations
• Phone directories
• Definitions
• Indexes

And firms can encourage the web site users to spend money by providing dynamic information, either free or for a fee, which includes:

• Comments about the overall investment markets
• Recommendations regarding specific investments, trends or products
• Earnings reports on specific companies
• Financial data and general economic data
• Interest rates and foreign exchange rates
• Stock quotes and history
• Charts that organize information
• Software to manipulate and present the data
• News about the economy, specific issues or specific companies

All of these techniques are used to build the recurring process of Visit - Buy - Return.

4. Present Products

Once customers and prospects have been encouraged to visit a web site, the financial service firm has the opportunity to present their products and services. Presenting these products is based upon the same general process as the presentation of any financial product.

Identify Customer Need

The site should offer options for the shopper that will help determine their need. In some cases this information can be obtained by asking the visitor a few specific questions about their intentions, and this information should be retained for future visits if the person has formally registered with the site. Customers should be able to:

• Browse the products, which is similar to window shopping, if the site provides a short description and perhaps a photograph or drawing on each product
• Examine products in greater detail by looking at specification sheets and examples of usage
• View an in depth presentation of the product since the customer may know they want the product, but might need additional education to understand it
• See a comparative analysis that highlights why this service or this service provider is superior to the competition

Present the Product Alternatives

Whether the shopper has a personal profile established on the site or specifically asks about a product, the site should be organized so that it can present the information quickly and clearly. This step in the sales process should respond when the shopper has decided to buy a specific type of product, although they may not have decided which of the available products to buy.

Support Comparison Shopping

Since there are usually no people on the web's side of the sale, although some web sites are offering access to a person for assistance, the site itself should help the person decide. In most cases the main question is "Why should I buy the product from you?"

The site should provide an answer to this question by providing comparison information. This comparative data is already becoming available at general sites that have been constructed to build traffic, and there is no reason for a financial services firm to avoid providing it. Even if the firm's price is higher than the competition, the web site offers an opportunity to explain the feature and why this product is superior by emphasizing the benefits.

When the web site organizes the shopping experience, it can offer an opportunity to reduce costs by reducing the need for sales staff, while providing a consistent presentation of information and benefits, and ensuring that all of the appropriate information is available for every customer. In most human sales presentations, the salesperson tailors the presentation to the customer. A sale is closed by walking the prospective customer along the best fitting "sales path" and has the ability to navigate it correctly. The web can provide the map of best practices and since the navigator is the customer, the correct turn will routinely be selected.

Revenue can increase when the site matches the firm's solutions to the customer's need, while educating people who might not have considered buying, and presenting additional products that build on what the customer already has.

5. Convert Prospects to Customers

Closing a regular financial services sale requires the salesperson to understand the customer's interests. A web site can do this by asking the prospective customer what they need, want or like, or by tracking their behavior and inferring their interests from their movements. This is very much like a shop clerk watching what a person looks at or touches to ascertain their interests.

Once interests are understood, it is easier to anticipate and avoid objections. In an interaction with a human, the seller can ask why the customer is not buying, and use this information to formulate a reply. A web site has to be structured with embedded expertise so that the customer's progress is monitored and predetermined responses are presented to avoid objections before they occur to the customer.

Once an interest has been determined, the web site should qualify the prospect as accounts are opened or as transactions are initiated. An interactive account opening form that is self-editing can reduce the customer's frustration and speed the process.

Financial services firms can reduce costs by using an electronic account opening process to reduce errors and save time, and pre-qualifying customers through questionnaires and credit scoring can also save effort and cost.

Firms can increase their revenue opportunities by encouraging electronic account opening where, for example, a customer can open a brokerage account without being pressured by a broker. And by saving information about the customer, the site can make it easier for a customer to open additional accounts.

Most important, the site should support the close of the sale. Most web sites do not help the customer through the steps that build to a closed sale, and potential customers wander off.

6. Support Transaction Processing

Financial services transaction processing involves three elements: ordering, paying and delivering.

Order

The processes for ordering include entering, editing and validating transactions and initiating the processing of the transaction. The initiation of these functions should be integrated into the web site and connected electronically to the firm's processing systems.

Payment

Processing the payment requires the firm, through the web site, to determine the customer's eligibility to open an account or execute a specific type of transaction, and then to process the payment through the customer's account, credit card or other financial institution.

Delivery

The delivery process for financial institutions involves a confirmation of the transaction on the screen, e-mail and/or paper mail, and periodic statements of the account.

Firms can reduce expenses, subject to regulatory approval, by sending electronic confirmations of the transaction, statements and other relevant product information. And by moving order entry to the customer so that entry costs are lower and errors are avoided as the web site uses edit routines and validates the entries.

7. Maintain Customer Relationships

Once a customer has started a relationship, the web site can encourage repeat visits by personalizing itself, providing the customer with access to specific information, and resolving the customer's problems.

Personalization

Firms can either allow the customer to personalize the web site or program the web site to personalize itself. A mutual fund customer should have the ability to go directly to the specific mutual fund page that the customer wants, skipping the pages that are of no interest. Obviously, all of the pages should have links and teasers to other products, but the customers should see that the site has redesigned itself to answer his/her specific needs and interests.

In addition, by using some of the techniques available through customer resource management, the firm can allow each customer to define how they want to be contacted under various circumstances (beeper, e-mail fax, etc).

And, financial firms can increase revenue by using personalization to determine additional products that could interest the customer and by offering them at the right time.

Access to Specific Information

Each customer should be able to access specific information regarding their account, such as order status, product features and installation information. For more conservative customers, the site should provide a formatted statement to be printed.

Resolve Problems

The web site could also assist customers by providing them with information they need to use the product properly, such as on-line manuals, FAQ's and e-mail to customer service or technical support. This will help reduce expense as customers find answers on-line.

Profit Formula Summary

In order to make a profit using the Internet, financial firms need to get prospects to visit the first time through some form of advertising, either through the web or traditional advertising. Once a prospect has been encouraged to visit, they must be convinced that they should return regularly and convinced that they should either try or buy the product. During this process, the customer has to be convinced that the web site offers products that have a value to them. The site should support the close of the sale.

DESIGNING FOR SUCCESS

After selecting an appropriate strategy, many firms fail because they do not design a successful web site.

DESIGNING TO SUPPORT INDUSTRY TRENDS

Successfully implementing a web site requires an understanding of the trends that are involved with the Internet as well as designing an attractive and useful site. The main trends that affect businesses on the Internet are:

• Increasing Commoditization

  With new service providers establishing a presence on the Internet every day, customer acquisition is becoming more competitive and costs are increasing rapidly. And, there is less opportunity to differentiate services on the Internet since every new idea can be replicated in a matter of weeks.

• Marginalized Value

  As account opening has become easier, and as customers have less of a personal attachment to the service provider, it has become easier for customers to switch service providers. To encourage customers to return to a web site, service providers must provide some level of customization or personalization for each customer. The key to success might be a combination of personalization and personal attention. This is a costly formula, but is probably the only winning one.

• Increased Acceptance of the Internet

  There is an increased acceptance of the Internet as a delivery vehicle and the current users are no longer just the early adopters. This is leading to higher volumes for information, account opening and transaction processing. Service providers have concluded that obtaining a critical mass of customers is mandatory, and they have been willing to absorb the initial losses.

• Mergers of Internet and Non-Internet Firms

  The mergers of Internet firms and non-Internet firms are creating entities that have their own content and processing capability. This will significantly change the landscape, which has been characterized by fluid partnerships and loose confederations of portals and content providers.

• Web Sites are Increasingly Sophisticated

  Simple web sites continue to exist for companies that are only in the earliest stages of Internet evolution; however, the firms that are moving faster towards an e-commerce business model have found that their sites must become more complete and therefore more complicated. This is offset by the fact that many more tools are becoming available to help the development of these new sites, and these tools are easier to use.

• Knowledge of the Customer

  To compete effectively, firms must know their customers and potential customers. A good salesman in a shoe store will direct his client towards the brand that is within the client's financial range and suits the clients general taste. The Internet business needs sophisticated tools that can gather and analyze information on the potential customer. No business can succeed in attracting or maintaining a customer base without these tools.

DESIGN TO MAXIMIZE THE WEB'S STRENGTHS

The Internet has several fundamental strengths.

• Information

  The Internet offers users access to a massive amount of information. While not always well organized, and occasionally misleading (deliberately or accidentally) the range and depth of information that is available is greater than that provided by the world's great libraries.

• Anonymity

  The Internet allows uses to browse and gather information without being pressured by overzealous salesmen.

• Choices

  The same exact product can be purchased from different providers at different prices. There are sites that provide price comparisons, and a customer can select the least expensive within seconds.

• No Geographic Boundaries

  Firms from all over the world can offer products without a physical presence in the customer's country. These include firms from third world countries where the cost of labor is significantly lower than in the US.

• New Products

  Once the infrastructure is in place, new products can be developed and offered in a very short time at a relatively low cost.

• Response Time

  In addition, the technology provides virtually instantaneous responses to questions and provides immediate gratification to the user.

• Development Time

  The requirement for speed is everywhere, from the connection time to the fulfillment of an order. With the Internet as a delivery vehicle, a marketing person can design an advertisement and post it on the web with a minimal delay, as compared to the print world where there could be a delay of several weeks while proofs are created and printers become involved. The time frame between product concept and offering it to potential customers has been drastically reduced by the Internet.

• Lower Incremental Costs

  The incremental cost of acquiring new customers and in offering products to customers is significantly lower than the cost of traditional sales forms although this unit cost is increasing. Once the customer has entered their order, properly equipped financial service firms are able to process the transaction with very little human intervention. This does help to control costs; however, this new delivery vehicle requires a significant up-front fixed investment and complex technology implementation projects.

In addition to its many strengths, there are some perceived weaknesses.

• Depersonalization

  By offering products on-line, firms are reducing the personal contact that has been used in the past to maintain customer relationships, and new forms of keeping the customers content and willing to return must be developed.

• Security Concerns

  There are still security issues that must be resolved, and customers are going to expect financial firms to protect them from security breaches and to defend themselves against hackers.

Not everyone is ready to accept the Internet as a revolutionary new way to deliver products and services. While acceptance has moved beyond the early adopters, the users of Internet services do tend to be more affluent and better educated than the average consumer. The Internet was the domain of the young for the first few years, but older people are beginning to use it more frequently, and older people tend to buy higher margin financial services.

Also, older people are more demanding. They expect higher quality of service and are not interested in the technology issues. While an early adopter is generally more "tolerant" and may be prepared to put-up with a slow site, the more demanding, non-technology oriented person will simply seek another provider.

CHARACTERISTICS OF A GOOD SITE

A good web site primarily satisfies a buyer's need by having appropriate content, effective transaction capability and responsive customer service. Good sites are also characterized by having fast response times for screen presentation as well as product delivery. These sites are attractive to people because the information on the site is presented in a very readable fashion, which is visually scanable and concise, and the site has been designed so that navigation from point to point is intuitive and the user does not have to consult an instruction manual.

There are five fundamental elements to the artistic design of a good site:

• The Home Page should provide a very brief welcome and an immediate and easy transition to the pages that interest the user
• The layout of the pages should make it easy to find information, and discrete categories of information should be co-located
• Information on a single page is accessible with a minimum of scroll-downs, with two being considered the maximum in most cases
• Careful use of white space avoids clutter and distractions
• Combinations of colors should support the product and be familiar to the target audience
• Consistency in the look and feel throughout the site makes it appear professional
• Online forms should also be available as pdf files so that the user can elect to print the form and mail or fax it
• Auto-responders should be used to provide an immediate fee-back to the user whenever they initiate a transaction
• Content is current and appropriate to the site

The site must also be attractive to search engines so that people who are conducting a search can find this site if it is appropriate to the search. Some of the key considerations in being attractive to search engines are:

• Sites that are linked to many other sites are attractive to certain types of search engines.
• Some engines search Metatag Keywords, and others search Metatag Descriptions. The data included in the metatags should be carefully considered and specific to the business of the web site. Some engines look for a "reasonable" number of data elements within a metatag, usually about 15 to 20, and consider sites with too many tags to be scam sites.
• When a search engine presents a site to the requestor, the first few words of the Metatag Description are shown, and this leads the requestor to decide whether or not to visit the site. Therefore, the first few words of the Metatag Description are critical.
• Some search engines invite webmasters to submit a list of key words that will be manually added to the search engine's database to speed the search. Once again, a limited number of words may be allowed.

The site must provide more value to the consumer than the effort expended to use the site, and the URL should be appropriate to the business so that it is easy to find and remember. But the selection of a name is not so easy.

When the Internet was just getting started in the early 1980's there were only about 1,000 computers connected and it was getting difficult to remember everyone's twelve-digit IP address. The solution was to create names, and classify them by the type of organization, where .com was for commercial businesses, .org for non-profits, .edu for educational, .gov for governments and .mil for military.

The first dot com, symbolics.com, was registered in 1985. When the World Wide Web was introduced in 1991, the names associated with an IP address became critical. Less than one year later, there were about 7,000 entities registered for .com, .net and .edu.

By 1995, 170,000 domain names were registered, and only two years later there were over 1.5 million. There were 8 million names at the end of 1999, and 25,000 new domains are registered each day.

It gets harder and harder to find a valid name since there are only about 25,500 standard English words, and 95% of them have already been registered. To solve this problem, people are combining words, starting words with an i or an e, or using non-English words.

CHARACTERISTICS OF A BAD SITE

A bad web site is easier to define than a good site. The worst sites typically have a large amount of blinking text and unnecessary animations where it appears as if the designer couldn't decide what to put on the page and ended by having one of everything. Bad sites also usually have a number of broken links, orphan pages and hidden links because the site has been patched together over time. Slow loading graphics, and information that is either outdated of difficult to find also discourages people from returning.

Sites that have been designed by several different people over a period of time are unattractive and appear unplanned.

Poorly organized content can make searching slow by requiring the customer to move from page to page or by merely copying existing marketing brochures and displaying the material. Unnecessary mission statements take up space and are distracting.

Some of the early web sites that were designed merely to create a web presence are very slow, and discourage visitors. If the host does not have an adequate number of telecommunication ports or if the host platform is under-powered, the response time can be very slow.

Many sites have either not implemented adequate security, or have not made their security obvious to the user. Most Internet users are aware of the security risks and want the web site to be safe and private.

It is also important to note that a design that is successful for one country or culture may not be attractive in another culture. Creating a single design that will be acceptable today worldwide is almost impossible.

IMPLEMENTING THE WEB SITE

Once the strategy and design are well defined and understood, the real work begins - implementation. Up to now, everything has revolved around concepts and ideas. The implementation phase requires building the web site itself (which usually goes through several iterations of design - build - redesign), as well as establishing the supporting infrastructure.

While building a web site is certainly not a traditional "waterfall" project development exercise, there are project management techniques that can be employed which are similar to the iterative methods that are used for GUI-based development.

If the web is primarily a delivery vehicle for existing products, then the processing infrastructure exists. If the business is entirely new, then the firm must acquire processing software and integrate it, or build the software that will be needed to process the transactions. Both approaches involve a considerable amount of effort and experience.

Roadblocks To Success

While financial services are ideally suited to web delivery, there are several factors that are slowing the acceptance of the Internet as a delivery mechanism.

• The financial services target market has not fully accepted the Internet. The early adopters of the Internet tended to be young technically savvy people. Older people, who are significant users of financial services, have only started to increase their use of the Internet in the last year.
• In addition, there are so many web sites to choose from, with over 200 new sites being added every day, that consumers are overwhelmed by the choices. Customers cannot see everything, they return routinely to a few primary sites, and most consumers have not developed repetitive on-line shopping habits.
• Businesses are also slow to support a web site strategy because they are not comfortable with the cost versus revenue equation. Most web sites should be seen as a marketing investment in the first year or two of operation. On the other hand, an effective web site has become a strategic necessity. Senior managers have to recognize the necessity and be prepared to participate in revising and evolving the site as competitors make their own investments.

From the business's perspective, there is a major effort required to develop a winning web site, and most large firms have had very little experience in designing and building this delivery vehicle. In general, the very few people who have in-depth web experience have been attracted to the startup dotcoms with the promise of IPO equity. So, to develop a new web site, large firms have to attract people with less experience.

Overcoming The Roadblocks

To overcome these roadblocks, a business must match the web strategy to the overall business strategy. For instance, if the firm wants to be seen as a high class / high quality firm, their web site must reflect this and not look as if it was put together haphazardly.

The site must be designed for success by meeting a specific customer need.

The site should not be over-engineered. If there are only a few options, the site should not have dozens of alternative routes and options. The fewer the number of clicks needed to reach a destination, the better. In general most designers look to have a three-click maximum.

Security must be considered in the initial design so that the site is secure and looks secure to the user. And the design should be made with maintenance and enhancements clearly in mind. The site will change over time and if significant modifications to the basic site must be made every time an update is prepared, the cost will become prohibitive and the updates will probably not be timely.

GETTING STARTED

The initial phases of implementation should be viewed by senior management as an investment, with a minimal return (if any) expected in the first live year. The site should also be implemented in phases so that something gets done quickly and the web site becomes almost organic, growing and improving continuously.

To implement a successful web site, financial services firms should follow a five step program:

Research

Firms should determine their own strengths and weaknesses and research what their competitors are doing.

Define Business Goals

Based upon the research, a business can define measurable and realistic goals for the web site that can be used to define the design requirements.

Design The Web Site

The web site should be designed to meet the goals for the firm's target market, and should be designed so that it can be implemented in phases.

Implement

To implement the design, a firm must select the appropriate web development tools and identify and locate people with the appropriate skills for the project. A web site development project is very similar to any other iterative systems development effort, and it should be planned and tracked accordingly.

Continuous Enhancements

And, management should recognize that a web site must evolve over time through a series of continuous improvements.

Measure

The web site managers must measure their successes and their failures so that the site can grow.

Monitor

The measurement information should be used by the business to monitor their own success and their competition's efforts.

Manage

And finally, managers can develop and implement changes to the site based upon the information they have collected.

SUMMARY

Financial services businesses are very well positioned to take advantage of the Internet and to develop a successful web site by using any of the profitability models that are available. Implementing each model requires a firm to conduct a complex development project using new technologies, often with people who are new to the firm. This increases the requirement for strong project management throughout the process.

GLOSSARY

Anchor

Anchors are used in HTML to mark the start and end of hypertext links. Delimiter

Authentication

Authentication is used to verify that the terminal that is connected to the network has the authority to conduct the transaction that is being processed. Software is used to authenticate the user's terminal.

Backbone

A Backbone is the high speed data network that is used between major access points, and which connects to other networks.

Bandwidth

A network's Bandwidth is a numerical description of the amount of data that can be sent across a network. Bandwidth is usually measured in bits-per-second (bps).

Baud

Baud is a unit of measure that is used to describe the speed of data transmission. In the mid-seventies the typical baud rate across a phone line was 300, and today speeds of less than 19,200 baud are considered slow, with most internet access using speeds up to 56,000 baud.

Baud Rate

See Baud, bps

Bulletin Board System

A Bulletin Board System is a computerized meeting and announcement system where users with common interests can conduct discussions, upload and download files, and generally obtain information and services online.

Binary

Something is Binary when it can only exist in one of two states. For example, basic computer code is written in a binary language consisting of either a 1 or a 0, which represent a switch being in either an on or off position.

Bit

A Bit is the smallest element of data processing. It consists of a 0 or a 1, and is either on or off. Groups of eight bits form a byte, and two bytes form a word.
Byte

Bookmark

A Bookmark is a feature that is provided by most web browsers that allows users to save frequently accessed links in a Bookmark file, rather than have to look up the URL each time.

bps

The abbreviation bps stands for bits per second. Baud rate.

Browser

A Browser is a specific software program that uses hypertext and which allows users to access documents on the Internet. There are different forms of Browsers that can be either text-based or graphical.

Byte

A Byte is a group of eight bits, and usually equals one letter or two numbers. Bytes are a unit of measurement used to denominate a computer's storage capacity.
Bit

Cache

Pronounced Cash
Cache is a specific location in a computer's memory where data is stored for fast retrieval. Cache is used by Browsers to store some information about web sites that have been visited so that the next time the user visits the site, the computer does not have to download all of the data again.

Checkbox

A Checkbox is used in a GUI-based screen that allows the user to respond to a question on the screen, or alternative offered by the program, by clicking on the box. A checkbox is binary, it can only be on or off.
GUI

Client

A Client in a client/server system is an application that generally interacts with the user and places demands upon other elements of the system, called hosts or servers.
Client/Server, Server

Client/Server

A Client/Server system consists of two main parts, a client that requests and uses the output of servers, which often store data and perform certain processing functions.

Compression

Large files often can be Compressed if they have redundant data (such as blank spaces or formatting commands) that specific algorithms can encode so that the data can be transmitted faster.

Cyberspace

Cyberspace is a word created by William Gibson in his novel "Neuromancer" that is currently used to refer to the digital world of the Internet.

Daemon

Pronounced dee mon
A Daemon is a program that runs independently in the background of an application, which allows information to be captured and sent to another computer without the intervention of the user.

Data Encryption Standard

The Data Encryption Standard (DES) is a standard encryption method that has been approved for use within the US by the National Security Administration).

Dedicated Line

A Dedicated Line is a telephone line that is established between two firms that can always be open, but only between these two firms. This reduces the amount of time that it takes to connect applications on the different systems and ensures that a line will be available when it is needed.

Delimiter

A Delimiter is a text character that marks the beginning and/or end of a unit of data or separates different data components.
Anchor

DES

See Data Encryption Standard

Description

A metatag Description is a short paragraph about the contents and purpose of the web site. The description is presented by a search engine to the requestor so that the requestor can decide if this is a site they wish to visit.

Dial-up

A Dial-up process occurs when a user has a modem connected to a regular (or ISDN) telephone line and the computer must actually dial the phone number of the target system.

DNS

See Domain Name System

Domain Name System

The Domain Name System is a database that contains a web site's IP address and the associated domain name.

Domain

A Domain is the extension in a host name that identifies the type of host, such as:

- .com (company/commercial),
- .edu (educational institutions),
- .gov (government),
- .mil (military)
- .org (organization)

Outside the US, the domain name can also be a 2-letter country code.

Domain Name

The Domain Name consists of at least two parts. The part on the left is the name of the company, institution, or other organization. The part on the right identifies the highest sub-domain. This can be a country, such as .ca for Canada, .fr for France, or the type of organization, .com for commercial; .edu for educational, etc.

Download

A Download occurs when a file is transferred from one computer to another. The most common download method on the Internet is by FTP.
File Transfer Protocol

E-mail

E-mail is the commonly used term for electronic mail. An e-mail system requires:

- Software on the sender's computer that assists in the composition and routing of the message
- A network switch (or switches) that can relay the message to the correct end point server
- A network that carries the message to the intended server
- A server that can store the incoming message until it is accessed by the intended recipient

Embedded Hyperlink

An Embedded Hyperlink is a hyperlink that is incorporated into a line of text.

Encryption

Encryption is often used when data must be moved securely from one application to another or from one firm to another across open telecommunication lines. The process involves using algorithms to encode the data in such as way that only the receiving party can understand its meaning. Encryption devises and algorithms provide the sender and receiver with a secret key that is unique to the two firms, and which is used to decode the encrypted message.
DES

FAQs

Pronounced Facks
FAQS is an abbreviation for Frequently Asked Questions.

File

A File is an assembly of related data or records that is stored by name in a computer or on some external media.

Firewall

A Firewall is an application that provides protection to a computer from unauthorized use on an internal or external network, including the Internet.

Flame

A Flame is an angry remark or message on the Internet, usually is response to someone who has violated netiquette in some way. Netiquette

File Transfer Protocol

The File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a standard that is used to send files between computers that use the UNIX operating system.

FTP

See File Transfer Protocol

Gateway

A Gateway is a point of access to a network or a computer system that is used to exchange information across networks that use different protocols

GIF

See Graphics Interchange Format Graphics Interchange Format The Graphics Interchange Format (.gif) is a standard color image format that is commonly encountered on the Internet.
JPEG, MPEG

Guest

A Guest is a user who logs onto a remote computer where they do not have an account.

Graphical User Interface

A Graphical User Interface (GUI) is an interface between a person and a computer that helps the user input requests and see the data that has been recorded by the computer. A GUI is based upon a conceptual method of interaction that uses buttons, icons and graphical information rather than the lines of text that are typical of text based interfaces. Typically, a GUI user will rely on a mouse to move a cursor around a screen. Mouse, Text Based Interface, Cursor GUI Pronounced gooey
See Graphical User Interface

Hacker

The term Hacker was originally used to identify skilled mini-computer experts and although this meaning is still used, it more commonly refers to programmers who deliberately try to penetrate the security of other computers.

Header

A Header is usually the first line in a file that describes the file's contents. The final record in a file is called a Trailer, and it contains similar information.

Hit

A Hit occurs on the Internet whenever a specific document is accessed. When a user visits a web site, they may see numerous pages, which results in multiple Hits.

Home Page

The Home Page of a web site is usually the first page that a user will access. The Home Page acts as the introduction to the web site and the starting point for the navigation to the other pages on the web site. Host A Host is a computer that acts as a server.

Hotspot

A Hotspot is a specific place in a document that contains an embedded hyperlink.

HTML

See Hypertext Markup Language

Hyperlink

A Hyperlink is established in HTML to create hypertext links in documents that can be clicked on to go automatically to other places on the Internet.

Hypertext

Hypertext is a nonlinear system to store and retrieve information that contains associative links to other related documents. Hypertext is the basic organizing principle of the Internet that allows a user to click on a specific word and automatically establish a network link to another location.

Hypertext Markup Language

Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is the programming language that is used to create documents that are viewable on the Internet. Internet The Internet is a worldwide network of computers that has a set of basic standards for communication. Originally used exclusively by universities and researchers, it has become a ubiquitous way of sending electronic mail and forms a base for electronic commerce.

Internet Service Provider

An Internet Service Provider (ISP) is a firm that has established an Internet access point. This access point must have:

- A large number of incoming phone lines
- A large number of modems
- A high speed connection to the Internet Backbone
- Software that will manage the interface and the error-free transmission of data

ISPs sell their services to firms and individuals who wish to access the Internet at less expense than would be required to connect directly to the Internet Backbone.

Internet Service Provider

An Internet Service Provider is a company that provides various kinds of Internet accounts to organizations and individuals. These accounts allow the individuals and companies to log in through the company to access the Internet.

IP address

An IP address is the Internet Protocol address, which is the numeric address that is associated with a specific domain name. The address is a unique set of numbers between 1 and 254 separated by periods, such as 123.456.789.123.
TCP/IP

ISDN

See Integrated Services Digital Network

Integrated Services Digital Network

An Integrated Services Digital Network is a digital telecommunications line with 2 channels that can yield a combined capacity of 128 kbps. ISP See Internet Service Provider

JPEG

JPEG is the abbreviation for the Joint Photographic Expert Group, which is a standard compressed format for color images. It is commonly used on the Internet and uses the file extensions of .jpg or .jpeg.
GIF

Keyword

A Keyword is one form of metatag that is used to present words to search engines that identify the content and purpose of the web site.
Metatag

LAN

See Local Area Network

Local Area Network

A Local Area Network is a telecommunications network that is usually established within a single building or company. A LAN may also have an access point to the Internet.
WAN

Leased Line

A Leased Line is a telephone line, normally used to connect computers, that is rented for exclusive 24-hour, 7-days-a-week use from one specific location to another specific location.

Link

A Link is established in a hypertext document to connect one document to another.

Load

HTML documents and graphics are Loaded into a browser whenever a URL is accessed by a user on the Internet.

Metatag

A metatag is a word that defines a category of information in HTML, such as a list of keywords or a short description of the contents of the web site.
Keyword, Description

MIME

See Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions

Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions

Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions are extensions to the traditional Internet mail protocol that allows binary, or non-text, files, (i.e. graphics, executable programs, audio files etc.) to be sent as attachments to regular e-mail messages.

Modem

A Modem is a device that translates the digital data of computers into analog signals so they can be transmitted over standard telephone lines.

MPEG

MPEG is a format that can be used to transmit a series of compressed images, such as those that comprise a movie.

Multimedia

Multimedia comprises several different types of media, including graphics, animation, and sound.

Navigate

A user Navigates on the Internet by following hypertext paths from document to document, which could be located on different computers.

Netiquette

The set of rules of etiquette that guide human interaction on the Internet is called Netiquette.

Online

When a user is connected to a computer or to a network, they are considered to be Online.

OS

See Operating System

Operating System

An Operating System is a software application that controls several basic computer functions such as managing files, directories and memory, which must be running in order for other applications to function properly.

Packets

Data that is being transmitted across networks by certain protocols is often broken up into small discrete Packets of information instead of being sent as a continuous stream of data. This method is often used when the quality of the transmission is low and it allow allows multiple transmissions to share the same telecommunications line.

Parallel Processing

Parallel Processing is:

- A stream of input that has been broken down into separate independent process flows that are acted upon individually
- A single task that has been broken into component parts with each of the parts being acted upon independently and then reassembled into a whole completed task

Password

A Password is a secret combination of letters and other symbols that is needed by a user to login to a computer system.

Platform

A Platform is the hardware that is used to run a program or an application. A platform can be a PC, a minicomputer or a mainframe, and can be produced by different vendors.

POP

See Point of Presence
See Post Office Protocol

Point of Presence

A Point of Presence is the nearest telecommunication connection point at which a user may connect to a remote site

Portal

A Portal is a web site that is used as a gateway to other web sites.

Post Office Protocol

The Post Office Protocol (POP) is used by mail clients to define how an application must retrieve messages from a mail server.

Protocol

A Protocol is a standard set of instructions that tell computers how to talk to each other to facilitate telecommunications. Some typical instructions in a protocol are:

- Baud Rate
- Parity
- Number of data bits
- Stop bit
- Duplex type

Internet Protocol, Serial, Parallel

Radio Button

A Radio Button is used on forms with a list of items, where only one button can be selected at one time.

RAM

See Random Access memory

Random Access Memory

A computer uses Random Access Memory as its dynamic working memory, where different portions of the memory can be accessed randomly with no reduction in speed.
Sequential Access

Read Only Memory

Read Only Memory is where permanent data is stored in such a way that it can be read but not overwritten.

ROM

See Read Only Memory

Router

A Router is a piece of hardware that is connected to a network, and which can be programmed to send certain types of messages to certain destinations.

Rich Text Format

Rich Text Format is a text-based format using binary encoding, but with more characters than the 128 allowed by ASCII.

RTF

See Rich Text Format

Search Engine

A Search Engine is an application that helps users to search through massive databases of information on the Internet to find the appropriate web site.

Serial Processing

Serial Processing occurs when one task has to be completed before another is begun.
Parallel Processing

Server

A Server is an independent personal computer or workstation on a LAN that performs a specific function. Some of the functions that can be performed by a server are:

- File Server
- Communications Server
- Fax Server
- Client

Client/Server

Sequential Access

Information that is stored on tapes and disks can only be read by Sequential Access since the data at the beginning of a tape must be passed over before the data at the end of a tape can be read.
ROM

SLIP

See Serial Line Internet Protocol

Serial Line Internet Protocol

Serial Line Internet Protocol is used to establish a computer as another node on the Internet.

Simple Mail Transfer Protocol

The Simple Mail Transfer Protocol is a standard protocol that is used on the Internet to transport e-mail.

Spamming

Spamming occurs when someone sends mass e-mails to people, often without regard to whether the person is interested in receiving the information or not.

Spider

Search engines that are designed to wander over the Internet examining the HTML pages and developing an index of the keywords are called Spiders.
See Search Engine

SMTP

See Simple Mail Transfer Protocol

Syntax

A Syntax is a set of rules that governs how words are combined with spaces, commas or other delimiters to form valid commands to the computer.

Tag

A Tag is a code that is used to format data or HTML documents. A Tag identifies the data following the tag as being of a certain type, or gives a specific command to the computer.
HTML, Metatag

TCP/IP

TCP/IP stands for Transfer Control Protocol/Internet Protocol which is the standard that defines the rules for how two networks can communicate with each other.
Internet Protocol

Universal Resource Locator

The Universal Resource Locator is a command that is given to a browser that identifies the address of a particular page that is located on the Internet.

URL

See Universal Resource Locator

User

A User is the person who uses the computer to accomplish a task.

User Name

The User Name is the name assigned to the users of a computer, network or file systems require a combination of a User Name and a Password to gain access to a system, network or file

Utility

A Utility is a small program that is designed to accomplish a specific small task quickly and efficiently.

Wide Area Network

A Wide Area Network is a group of computers over a broad geographic area, connected by telecommunication lines.

Webmaster

The Webmaster is the person who is responsible for administering a specific web site.

World Wide Web

The World Wide Web is a method of organizing the information on the Internet. If documents are placed on the Internet in a hypertext format, they can be reviewed by a browser. Documents can contain pointers to other documents so that a user can "surf" from place to place on the Internet.

Browser, Hypertext, Internet

WYSISYG

Pronounced Wizy-wig, and short for What You See Is What You Get. This is a term that is used to establish that what a user sees on the screen is what they will see when the screen is printed on paper.