e-businessguide - Internal policies and guidelines

Depending on how much you rely on your website as a business tool and how much you use the Internet, especially email, it may be very useful to establish policies and guidelines about the use of those tools.

E-business policy statements are high-level statements about the aims and intention of particular aspects of e-business. They state the overall approach that the business is taking to, say, e-commerce.

An e-business policy might be a brief document that makes statements about your organisation's general approach and aims.

Policies then need guidelines and procedures that direct individual staff in their day-to-day use of the Internet. These might be in the form of step-by-step procedures or statements about what can be done online and what is discouraged or even not allowed.

This table indicates the areas of e-business for which policy statements and practical guidelines might be created and suggestions as to what they might include.

Aspect of e-business	Policy - for the business	Practical Guidelines - for individual staff
management	importance to the business, management structure	who, procedures, budget, evaluation
integration of e-business into the overall business	why integrate and expected outcomes	what aspects, timeframes, scope, who is responsible
website content	expected quality and results	scope, tone of material, exclusions, quality control
staff use of the Web	purpose and outcomes	when, who has access, restrictions
staff use of email	purpose and outcomes	when, who has access, restrictions
information management	define information, why manage it	what information, how to archive
e-security	purpose, importance	procedures when online and in the office

What to do

Use this table as a starting point for determining what aspects of your e-business require a policy statement and guidelines or procedures. Refer the drafting of these to those managing your e-business. Consultation with staff is important in drafting and finalising guidelines and procedures because they know what works and what doesn't and they have to implement them.

There are many e-business policies and guidelines published by government departments that may prove useful examples to follow when developing yours.