Current challenges/ problems facing Sears Department Store Company

CURRENT CHALLENGES/PROBLEMS FACING SEARS DEPARTMENT STORE COMPANY

In detail, describe some of the challenges and problems that Sears is/was facing/faced at the

completion of the EC project/experience. Furthermore, it would be helpful to the reader if you describe the

current (today's) status of the challenges and problems related to the EC project/experience. This assignment

must be 2 pages long with sources and a work cited page. APA format, 12 font, times new roman.

HERE IS A SHORT EXAMPLE OF CURRENT CHALLENGES/PROBLEMS FACING

COMMERCE ONE

Commerce One went from over a $20 billion market cap to bankruptcy in a couple of years

(Figure1). Thousands of employees and investors had lost a big fortune from its downfall. Hoffman believed

in a remarkable turnaround that simply never happened. Nevertheless, strategic errors, disappointing

mergers, and overspending pushed Commerce One to the point of being unable to recover.

Before the collapse of the dot.com era, this corporation was a dynamic player in the e-commerce

arena. Over time Commerce One’s expenses significantly outweighed its cash intake. Even with its strong

ideas, Commerce One’s financial problems kept increasing making it harder for the company to acquire new

business. In 2003, it was reported that Hoffman went without a paycheck for several months and Commerce

One had hired Broadview International, which advised companies on mergers and acquisitions. There were

no alternatives left for this firm (Guynn & Avalos, 2004).

In 2004, due to the overwhelming cash deficiencies for Commerce One, it had been necessary to cut

employees once again. The software industry, particularly for business applications corporations like

Commerce One, had faced the lowering of budgets in various firms for such software. The company’s latest

cutback included 56 of its 92 workers that were left (Gilbert, 2004). At the end, Commerce One did not

expect to meet all its debts or pay money to its shareholders. The once successful B2B software provider had

not been able to raise additional funds through equity or debt financing.

E-commerce pioneer Commerce One, whose name became synonymous with the new age of B2B e-

commerce along with that of its close competitor Ariba, has declared bankruptcy. The announcement, which

came on September 23, 2004, did not seem to have been much of a shock to analysts and the trade press,

most of whom saw it as simply the logical outcome of strategic stumbles the company made in

response to rapid changes in the B2B market over the last few years.

On December 13, 2004, a federal bankruptcy court auctioned off the rights to Commerce One's

thirty-nine e-commerce technology patents, which formed the basis of many large B2B trading exchanges in

the late 1990s and early 2000s. The patents might be used to impede other companies or to press

competitors to pay licensing fees for practices common in Internet commerce (Anonymous, 2004). The

money was given to Commerce One creditors and shareholders.

The ghost of Commerce One still looms over Web services. Other than the symbolism of the

company’s termination, the event seemed unlikely to have any long-term serious impact on the supply chain

market. “For the supply chain technology market, things look quite bright. Things look good for businesses

wanting to select software to enable selected business processes" (Lai, 2004. p7).

The benefit of hindsight, Commerce One and Ariba had attacked the market with slightly different

(and shifting) strategies yet, like most Internet startups, both had accumulated large deficits and offered only

the promise of future profits. Ariba has adjusted itself to the environment better. It briefly entered e-

marketplaces, observed there was not the revenue it needed, and refocused as a software company.

We will never forget the time when Commerce One was one of the Internet's highest fliers, with a

market cap of $21.5 billion at its zenith. Commerce One was indicative of a lost generation of tech

companies created in the past decade. A bright meteor’s rise and fall in the universe of corporations has

taught us a big lesson.