Nambe (www.nambe.com) offers high-end housewares - sleek metal alloy, crystal and wood tabletop, table- and flatware and other gift items - that Jeff Creecy, vice president of IT, describes as "functional art, luxury you can afford."
But Creecy found that the design of the Santa Fe-based company's in-house developed e-commerce portal did not embody the same quality. The ;portal was failing at its key mission to expand brand identity and awareness beyond its loyal customer base.
It was very difficult to search and navigate, it tended to crash when traffic was heavy, and the integration and maintenance required to support it was really difficult, Creecy says.
"An e-commerce system should really be in the hands of marketers and merchants, not IT. It's a marketing and merchandising system at its core, and should be managed by merchants," he says. "I'm a believer that business needs should drive system selection. I focus first on solving the business problem - then see where the technology takes me."
