Development of a Web-Based Business

Telamon Corporation:

Development of a Web-Based Business

MGT 651

Enterprise Technology Management

Executive Summary

Telamon Corporation has been in the telecommunication industry since its inception in 1984. Telamon's mission states that "it is in the business of providing customized telecommunications products and services of uncompromising quality to meet and support our customers' needs. Based on our corporate values, we build long term partnerships that achieve our customers' objective: enhancing revenues, reducing costs, and delivering improved services. We will become the best small business in the telecommunication industry."

Yet, Albert Chen, founder of Telamon Corporation, decided in 1995 that the company needed to enter into the Web based business market. Chen came up with the concept of an online Asian Mall. Just like a regular mall there would be core shops to bring in the traffic and other shops to keep customers coming back.

In order to enter into this new market Chen enlisted the help of Jessica Shen-Ho, who is the head of Telamon's International (TI) group. This was done because Shen-Ho was quiet adept at developing business plans. Shen-Ho set up Telamon's Internet Business Group (IBG) with the help of two fellow employees from the Telamon Integrated Marketing Services (TIMS) group, Kenny Chen and Paula Zhou.

Shen-Ho and her group enlisted the help of Asian leaders from the community to help them fully develop the concept of the Asian Mall. Three months later a business plan was developed. Chen felt that the plan was too "elaborate." After the plan was revamped, the IBG group came up with the name yOyee!net (Yoyee means "friendship" in Chinese) for the Website. The site was launched in April of 1996.

In order to generate traffic for the site the IBG group began swapping advertising with other sites. Meaning, if a site advertised yOyee!net then they were advertised on the yOyee!net Website. This did not help to generate traffic for the site. So, IBG bought a keyword from Infoseek, an online search site, for $10,000.00 dollars. Whenever an Infoseek searcher would type in a word to search for sites on that topic, a listing of all sites with that keyword would appear. IBG chose "Chicago Bulls" as their keyword. Not one visitor to the site was generated because of the investment in Infoseek. Chen suggested that the name of the site be changed to "beyondasia.com" and that the site becomes focused on one area where there is the greatest need.

The decision was made to focus on job-related items. Early in 1997 Shen-Ho was reassigned to develop Telamon's entry into the wireless market and Vincent Liu, the new information system director was asked to take over IBG. Shen-Ho agreed to stay in contact with Zhou and Chen through monthly updates on the project. Zhou and Chen obtained a hundred resumes along with five hundred job postings. The site began to generate revenues from companies posting jobs and asking for Web page design, hosting, and promotion.

Because of the sites success with job placement they attracted the attention of Jeffrey Burhner, president of Organizational Development & Management, Inc. Burhner was interested in his company establishing an international focus. He had proposed to Chen either an investment by his firm in beyondasia.com, a joint venture between the two companies, a partnership agreement, or an outright purchase of the Website. Which brings up the central issue: Because so much time and money ($250,000.00 and two years) had been invested in the project with very little results should Telamon sell the Website to Burhner, or continue to develop the Website as another business segment of Telamon?

Company History

Telamon Corporation was established in 1984 by Albert Chen who had spent thirteen years working for telecommunications giant GTE. After being unsuccessful at selling phone systems, Chen found a niche for Telamon by becoming a provider of support programs between equipment manufactures and those building and maintaining the complex networks in telecommunications companies. Telamon is composed of three business units. Telamon Integrated Marketing Services (TIMS) designs, implements, and manages long-term programs and promotion campaigns to help telecommunication carriers and equipment suppliers sell products and services to their customers. Telamon Network Infrastructure Services (NIS) provides engineering, manufacturing, and technical assistance services to telecommunications companies and equipment suppliers. This group operated three