By Kenneth S. Moser, CNA, CNSA

The response to our online catalog has been great! Based on calls and e-mail to staff here at APICS headquarters, many people are using the new facility and seem to enjoy it. The Internet can be a rather unforgiving place, however, and several people have asked why APICS doesn't accept online orders. Actually, our staff will be happy to accept credit card orders via e-mail, but we don't offer a Web-based ordering facility yet. The question is a good one though and it deserves an answer.

After critiquing one of my replies, APICS' director of customer service said the correct response to this question is to admit that we should offer online ordering, inform the customer that we are working on it and thank them for their input. In this context, he is absolutely right. Since my column grants me the privilege of communicating directly with APICS members, I'd like to use this forum to discuss some of our online strategies.

The first version of the APICS Web site went online to the public in June 1996. This technology was still fairly new to us, so our site began as something of an experiment. Response to the site was good, so it was funded as an ongoing program this year. However, APICS is first and foremost a membership organization, and the Web is just one of many communication channels the society supports. As a result, APICS cannot accomplish everything it would like quite as quickly as it would like.

Since APICS embarked on this mission, our primary purpose has been to concentrate on content. Content begins with basic information about APICS and its major programs and services. We put most of this online last year. Throughout this time, my staff and I have been collating survey information from visitors to our site. To date, this information suggests that we need to provide a greater volume of more specific information about books, events and chapters in a more useful format. As a result, our primary mission so far this year has been to construct online search facilities to help you find specific information more easily. Most of these search facilities should be done by the time this article is published.

Since our catalog has gone live, more survey and e-mail respondents have requested an online ordering capability. We've been working on this, but to date, it's not been our main focus. More to the point, despite this input, we are not certain that it should be: Most of you seem to want continued content development. Our ultimate goal is to begin delivering the APICS body of knowledge online. Whether this should be our greatest priority now is open to debate. What do you think?

If you haven't completed an online survey form, please send a blank e-mail message to [email protected]