Electronic Commerce The Trend Micro Web Site example essay topic

ABSTRACT This report is an analysis of the TrendMicro. com website. TrendMicro. com is a fully functionally electronic commerce website that sells anti-virus software to individuals and businesses. This analysis includes details of what TrendMicro. com needs to do well to be successful, how it creates value for its' customers, details on its' business and IT maxims, a description of site functionality, a web site analysis and a critique of the site content, context and infrastructure. The analysis also includes an overall critique of the TrendMicro. com website. INTRODUCTION Trend Micro is a publicly traded company (Ticker symbol: TMI C on NASDAQ) that develops and sells anti-virus software to an international market of businesses and individuals (Trend Micro). The name of the anti-virus software that it sells to protect workstations is Pc-cillin.

Trend Micro specializes in developing and selling anti-virus products to protect the servers from viruses. It had world-wide sales of over $241 million in 2001 (Trend Micro). Its primary headquarters is located in Tokyo (Trend Micro). Trend Micro Trend Micro competes in the anti-virus software industry.

Its primary competitors in the workstation anti-virus market include Network Associates and Symantec. Network Associates anti-virus software product is called McAfee VirusScan and the Symantec product is called Norton Antivirus. Both of these products have better name recognition than Trend Micro does. In combination, Network Associates and Symantec control 95% of the retail market for anti-virus software (White).

In 2001 Trend Micro had a 60% share of the Internet Server market (Trend Micro). SUCCESS / VALUE STATEMENT To be successful Trend Micro must develop effective anti-virus software and market them to its' customers. In addition, it must provide effective support for its's oftware products. Trend Micro creates value for its' customers by protecting them from the interruptions to business or personal computer use through the use of its' anti-virus software products.

Without the use of Trend Micro's anti-virus software or similar software from one of Trend Micro's competitors, computer viruses can be spread through file sharing or electronic mail which infects personal or business workstations and servers. Additionally, it creates value for its' customers by protecting its' customers data from potential destruction or loss as a result of computer viruses. Trend Micro also creates value for its' customers by providing effective support for the anti-virus software that it develops. This support is partially measured by how quickly Trend Micro can respond to new virus threats (Form 6-K). BUSINESS MAXIMS The business maxims for Trend Micro include the following: . Provides excellent support to business customers in order to maintain market leadership...

Provides valuable free products or services in order to draw potential customers to the web site... Price products or services such that a profit will be made unless they are considered "loss leaders.".. Develop world class anti-virus software products. INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY MAXIMS The information technology maxims for Trend Micro include the following: . Always staying alert to new virus threats so that anti-virus solutions can be developed and provided to customers at the earliest possible time... The site should be easy to use and understand...

Ensure that the web site is available 24 X 7... Ensure that the Electronic Commerce site does not contain an excessive number of bugs or errors... Ensure that the web site is not overloaded with graphics such that it takes an excessive amount of time to load... Ensure that the site is functioning, as designed, by testing it frequently with test transactions... When designing or maintaining the site, consider the need of all users including those with older browsers and dial-up connections. WEB FUNCTIONALITY The functionality of the Trend Micro web site includes contact information, product and services information, free services and products, software download, and computer virus information.

The Trend Micro web site also includes electronic commerce functionality. Contact Information The Trend Micro site contains electronic mail, phone and postal mail contact information. This contact information is provided in multiple languages including English, Japanese, French, Korean, Italian, German and Spanish. These languages are further broken down by nationality.

It also has separate contact information for technical support that is available by phone or electronic mail. Since many of Trend Micro's customers are large organizations in which control of viruses is very important to maintain system availability, this technical support information is very valuable. Product Information Product information is included in Trend Micro's site. It includes summary and detailed information about the various anti-virus software products that Trend Micro sells and supports.

Free Services / Products Several free services and products are offered on Trend Micro's web site. One free service that is offered on the site alerts interested subscribers via electronic mail of new virus threats. Another free service that is offered on the Trend Micro site is an internet based anti-virus workstation scan. In addition, free 30-day trial product downloads of PC-cillin are also available on the Trend Micro site. Electronic Commerce The Trend Micro web site is a fully functional electronic commerce web site. This site includes a catalog of available products and an electronic shopping cart.

Payment transactions for anti-virus software can be made using various types of payment cards. Software Download After anti-virus software is purchased on the Trend Micro web site it can be downloaded to the purchaser's workstation or server. Software download is not the only method to obtain use of the software. During the purchase transaction, it is optional to pay a small extra fee and have the software shipped in CD format to the purchaser via postal mail. Computer Virus Information The Trend Micro site offers valuable information about computer viruses for free.

This information includes a virus encyclopedia, virus primer and virus advisories. SITE ANALYSIS The results of an analysis of the Trend Micro site are listed below. The criteria used to rate the site included purpose, content, graphics / design, ease of navigation and number of error discovered. These criteria were mainly obtained from the web site awards web site located at web The rating scale used to rate the site included the following: Excellent, Good, Average and Poor. Taking into consideration the ratings on the other criteria, an overall rating of "Excellent" was awarded.

Detail on the individual criteria and their ratings are included below. Purpose The Trend Micro site received an award of "good" in the purpose category. The purpose of the Trend Micro site is easy to understand. Shortly after arriving at the site it is clear that its' purpose is to: .

Provide contact information to current and potential anti-virus customers... Select products to purchase using an electronic shopping cart... Download anti-virus software after purchase or for free trial... Accept payment on-line using payment card to complete transaction. The results of this review are consistent with one of the maxims noted earlier. This maxim required that "The site should be easy to use and understand".

Content An award of "Excellent" was given to the Trend Micro site for the content category. The site's content was useful, well written concise and current. It included no noticeable out of date information. No offensive content was observed. Offensive content could be of a sexist, racist, violent or abusive nature.

In addition, site content was organized into logical groupings. These logical groupings provided a menu which included links to separate pages for products, downloads, purchase information, company information, contact information and technical support. The results of this analysis are consistent with the following maxim noted earlier in this report. This maxim stated that "The site should be easy to use and understand". Graphics / Design The rating assigned for the graphics and design categories was "Excellent".

During a review of the Trend Micro site, no excessive use of graphics or un-necessary Java Applets or Javascript was noted. The site had a consistent look and feel with a subdued color scheme that is not too loud or distracting. The Trend Micro site's pages are not overcrowded with text or images and there wasn't any distracting blinking text observed. This allows the sites' users to focus on the message that Trend Micro is trying to convey to its' current or potential customers without distractions. The features noted in this section are in line with one of the IT maxims noted earlier. This particular maxim stated that "The webmaster should ensure that the web site is not overloaded with graphics such that it takes an excessive amount of time to load".

Navigation The rating assigned to the navigation category was "Good". While reviewing the site, it was noted that there is a logical structure to the Trend Micro site. From the homepage, most information can be reached in one or two clicks. No missing or broken links were noticed. To assist with locating information on the site, a site search engine is located at the top of every page. To make navigation easier there is a menu at the top and side of every page.

In addition, the design of the site does not include any really long pages. The features noted in this section are consistent with the maxim that stated "The site should be easy to use and easy to understand". Errors A sample of five web pages on the Trend Micro web site was selected. This sample was visually inspected for errors. In addition, the text from these five pages was copied into a word processor and a grammar and spelling check was performed.

The shopping cart, payment card transaction and product download functionality were tested with the selection, purchase and download of the PC-cillin product to a personal workstation. No errors were noted during these tests. This resulted in a rating of "excellent" in the errors category. The test results that were the basis of this rating is consistent the following IT maxim that "Trend Micro should ensure that the site is functioning as designed by testing it frequently with test transactions". The results of this testing are also in line with two more of the maxims noted earlier. These two additional maxims were: .

CUSTOMER VIEWPOINT SITE CRITIQUE From a customer viewpoint the Trend Micro site includes the following characteristics: . Useful free products or services to create interest in the web site... Effective site design that ensures that the web site is not overloaded with graphics such that it takes an excessive amount of time to load. OVERALL SITE CRITIQUE On an overall basis the Trend Micro web site contained the following positive characteristics: .

Easy to understand site purpose... Appropriate and useful content... Excellent design and use of graphics... Effective site navigation... Error-free site... Highly effective eCommerce site.

Bibliography

Form 6-K. "Trend Micro Security and Exchange Report - Business Report for Fiscal Year 2001".
Trend Micro Web Site. White, Myles. "The Cure: Antivirus Big Guns Help Keep Your PC Squeaky Clean". Smart Computing. August 2002.
White, Myles. August 2002.