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Enron Mail |
** Related to critical commercial issues. **
The ESA internet home page launch is ca. 4 weeks old and has met with reasonable success. The hits to the site continue to grow to several thousand per week; however, the issues outlined below referring to our need to establish appropriate commercial support to the site and proactively readying upgrades and next generations integrated to the commercial efforts have fallen short. ---------------------- Forwarded by D'Arcy Carroll/SA/Enron on 11/15/2000 12:09 PM --------------------------- D'Arcy Carroll 11/07/2000 05:23 PM To: Joe Kishkill/SA/Enron@Enron cc: James M Bannantine/ENRON_DEVELOPMENT@ENRON_DEVELOPMENT, Diomedes Christodoulou/SA/Enron@Enron Subject: internet site - Enron South America I wanted to forward some comments on the situation of the Enron South America internet site and : Emphasize the need to accelerate and integrate the understanding of the leverage of the e-platform to the commercial business, including the need to change the present priorities and responsibility of the commercial groups in the region towards aggressively supporting and promoting the internet tool and Offer some comment on lessons learned implementing version 1 and recommendations for more effectively executing a version 2 Comments: 1. The support functions ( e-mail generated and internal allocation for prompt responses to customer inquiry, text and content upgrades and editing, etc.,..) is THE critical issue to realising the functional goal (efficient customer capture ) of the site. To my knowledge, the issue outlined in the e-mail below (the most recent of several urging action and some decision-making) remains unaddressed, this almost 1 month following the launch of the site. From my perspective and commercial experience, the present situation which has inquiries being directed directly into a generic e-mail system with part-time support from the orginal PR staff is not acceptable, nor advisable - as was extensively discussed in the weeks prior to launch. Though I understand that the commercial structure and strategy is in flux, the clear indecision and lack of ownership reflects a lack of vision and understanding of the power of the e-business tool, particularly in the Brazilian market. I forward the information to you because it's my view that the situation directly threatens Enron's credibility in the market at a time when some of Enron's competitors (AES and Duke) are not only established, but have, at the same time as Enron's launch at Oil & Gas, launched 2nd generation sites. 2. Version 2 Brazil and South America. I am convinced that the poor civil infrastructure and the physical distances restricting easy access to customers present enormous opportunities for e-business platform business (Energy, Financial Product and other commodities). The best example of world class product- and service-driven sites to date our, in my view, the on-line banking sites (Itau, Bradesco). They set a good, healthy benchmark. IT. In the development of the site, we need to consider technology constraints in the bandwidth capacity and computer screen graphics of targeted consumers in Brazil and elsewhere in the region. The constraings limit the degree of dynamism (Flash technology, Sound, 3-d graphics/photography, etc.,..) that characterize world-leading sites familiar in the US i.e., for now, there is a tradeoff between degree of "sexy-ness " of the site vs. prohibitive time to load and navigate. e-Biz Expertise. Enron UK has an in-house internet consulting group that continues to develop but that provides comprehensive support and development services to the product lines ( Houston tends to outsource or contract much of the project work ); examples of the work they have produced are available, impressive and much closer to cutting edge. The Enron UK group should own the devleopment of version 2 - pls note that there is already a significant number of projects in their pipeline. e-Biz Support/Operations.The operation of the site including specifically the IT component which addresses customer response and participation (tracking hits voluem, storing profile questionnaire, e-mail response, etc.,..) is probably the critical determinant for the functional success of the site. Cutting edge technologies and their timely implementation to site or versions launch needs to be absolutely mandatory with high deliverables. Competition. AES, Duke Energy have both launched 2nd versions of their regional internet sites in the 6 months between initial launch and today; both have upgraded pretty completely in terms of offering and functionality. Commercial. The site is designed to streamline and deliver efficiencies and value directly to the Commercial ( Trading and Origination ) exercises - these groups need to be formally accountable to sign on and contribute to a strategy, to initial and sequential content and graphics, language translations, etc.,.. Either the Commercial groups drives the e-biz initiative, or the e-biz initiative will fail. Ownerhsip. The breadth and integral importance of both commercial, regulatory and IT issues complicate the ability to develop and execute the site effectively. It is a Development business and, as such, needs a clear Project Manager (s) with the necessary authority establshed over the contributing groups. Pls forward any, all inputs and thank you for efforts extended to help address the issues. Note: Please be aware that I understand that to a large extent all of the above is outside of my responsibility, but feel I need to bring responsible closure to my contributions to and participation in the launch of version 1. ---------------------- Forwarded by D'Arcy Carroll/SA/Enron on 11/07/2000 11:30 AM --------------------------- D'Arcy Carroll 10/25/2000 06:15 PM To: Jose Bestard/ENRON_DEVELOPMENT@ENRON_DEVELOPMENT, Joao Guimaraes/SA/Enron@Enron cc: Orlando Gonzalez/SA/Enron@Enron, Keith Miceli/Corp/Enron@Enron, Miguel Padron/SA/Enron@Enron, Steve Nagy/SA/Enron@Enron, Brett R Wiggs/SA/Enron@Enron, Don Black/SA/Enron@Enron, Joe Kishkill/SA/Enron@Enron Subject: candidate - Monica Matias, PR support for Enron SA - site Keith, though Commerical has the largest stake in the success or failure of the regional e-business product, i understood that PR has the budget allocation and, as agreed regarding the operational support of the site, the policing/3rd party role to play i.e., ownership over this particular issue. Gentlemen, this site is launched as of last week's Oil&Gas Conference ... or certainly maintains an imminent, broader launch. For starters, we need to execute the agenda item outlined below and in previous e-mails which allocates operational responsibility for commercial follow-up for the site. Today the contact resource for Brazil is a voice mail which is temporary anyway and wasn't working until I called this morning asking about a message I'd left on it last week; in addition, we haven't trained the present operational support to understand how and to which groups to direct customer inquiries. e-bis. the e-business platform needs to get elevated to the next level - follow-up for customer capture, responsible and timely response to inquiries, etc.,.., not to mention more formal and public marketing of the site. phase 2. the natural consequence of having a product and first phase site, is that there will be plenty of internal comments and reactive idea generation for a second phase site; this is fine and natural, but also will likely fall into the responsibilities of the same position - initially at least, in terms of information gathering and distribution. if really necessary, why don't the relevant parties copied on this wire have a 30 minute conference call to make this and other related decisions, so that we move forward. pls consider prioritizing this so that we execute in the next few days. ---------------------- Forwarded by D'Arcy Carroll/SA/Enron on 10/25/2000 05:39 PM --------------------------- D'Arcy Carroll 10/18/2000 12:24 PM To: Jose Bestard/ENRON_DEVELOPMENT@ENRON_DEVELOPMENT cc: Subject: candidate - Monica Matias, PR support for Enron SA - site Jose, here is the orginal communication. The design of the site is to make progress toward alleviating the enormous bottleneck and inefficiencies in the marketing effort to contact ( the hundreds of small) national power generators, not to mention streamline the customer capture costs for the broader EES product line. If we don't expect a need for a ( and eventually several ) full-time commercial support for the site, then the launch will be a dismal failure. But with the site "launching" this week and following a lot of work yesterday and this morning cleaning up the kinks in the Monday version, we need to be ready get her in position immediately. What's more, she's does almost all of the work carrying the load for the 3 assistants on the 4th floor - that work needs (anyway) to get delegated to the other 2 assistants ie., they either pick up the slack with competence, or be moved elsewhere. I am in Houston fthr Friday at 713-646-7929 - caution, I don't know (yet) how to get any phone messages! ---------------------- Forwarded by D'Arcy Carroll/SA/Enron on 10/18/2000 12:20 PM --------------------------- D'Arcy Carroll 10/06/2000 10:11 AM To: Keith Miceli/Corp/Enron@Enron cc: Steve Nagy/SA/Enron@Enron, Orlando Gonzalez/SA/Enron@Enron, Joao Guimaraes/SA/Enron@Enron, Nadege Araujo/SA/Enron@Enron, Don Black/SA/Enron@Enron, Jose Bestard/ENRON_DEVELOPMENT@ENRON_DEVELOPMENT Subject: candidate - Monica Matias, PR support for Enron SA - site Keith, as discussed, Joao Carlos and I talked at length and want to propose Monica Matias as a candidate to be promoted, full-time into the position you outlined and with the additional responsibilities below. Monica has been an outstanding support to the Direct Sales effort, both in terms of consistently competent and proactive contributions but also in terms of her enthusiastic "can-do" attitude. The position is a critical, integral support and service function for the Enron SA site launch; Monica's applied exposure to and experience with the personnel and content of the Direct Sales initiatives will afford her and the group an efficient and timely transition in line with the scheduled Oct 15th launch. Propose that she report directly to you, Keith, and dotted to Joao Carlos Guimaraes, Orlando or Jose. Communication Coordinator/Content Manager: The PR offices in Argentina and Brazil would be responsible for these tasks, which will entail two primary responsibilities: (a) All web-generated inquiries will be received by the PR office; they will be logged into an Excel database, and forwarded to the appropriate office (commercial, PR, or HR) for a response. A monthly report will be provided to senior management and Houston ESA PR. This system will be centralized by virtue of having the PR office identified. (b) weekly solicitation of identified commercial and regulatory groups for updated text and developments, collecting, articulating and distriubting to key Enron managers customer feedback, inputting information of closed transactions, and communicating to key Enron managers update on the ongoing improvements to the site. Contact Us section, which appears on every page on the left navigational bar. Inquiries can be made by phone, fax or email.
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