Companies And Other Organizations Use Internet/web Sites For Different

Companies and other organizations use internet/web sites for different purposes. In general, a web site provides an interface while the Internet provides cost-effective communication capabilities. For this project assignment, the Nike Corporation was chosen and will be dissected for information technology analysis. The Nike Corporation is engaged in the design, development, and worldwide marketing of high quality footwear, apparel, equipment, and accessory products. It is the largest seller of athletic footwear and athletic apparel in the world. The web site that will be examined will be that of www.nike.com. This analysis will be construed into five separate sections that are chronologically as follows: Company Information, Web Site Description, Web Site Analysis, Completing A System, Web Site/Internet Expansion. Company Information: Searching and finding company information on the web-site was quite easy and user friendly (as will be discussed later). Nike's mission statement reads as follows: "Nike's mission for corporate responsibility is to lead in corporate citizenship through programs that reflect caring for the world family of Nike, our teammates, our consumers, and those who provide services to Nike." Nike has more than 500 contract factories around the world in about 45 countries. Their factories are spread across Europe, Asia, North, Central, and South America, and just recently, Australia. In fact, this area of the web site goes into very thorough detail as Nike deliberates on what exactly it is doing to further achieve its mission statement up to the current day. They address current problems such as age limits in factories, environmental health and safety, independent monitoring, education, research, and community affairs and discuss the new changes that they have implemented to further achieve their mission statement and please all of their current and potential customers. Although outside information besides the company's web site was used to obtain financial records and reports, it was discovered that the web site also had an annual report, earnings releases, historical revenue, live stock quotes, and dividend and stock information (which is another plus for the web site that will be discussed later on). Nike is in the Textile-Apparel/Footwear/Accessories Industry. As far as size, customer, and market are concerned, the 1999 and 2000 fiscal statistics need only to be glanced at and discussed in order to comprehend all of those subtitles. Nike Corporation had total revenues at about roughly 9 billion dollars last year worldwide. It did not exactly state how many customers actually purchased Nike products last year but considering that enormous revenue, it probably was a significantly large number of customers. That's a considerable amount of money considering they lost their prime endorsee, Michael Jordan, to retirement. The NBA was forced to shorten its season due to labor disputes, which also greatly affected sales. That information was also available courtesy of the web site and was located under their fiscal year in review. To further put into context the size and power of Nike Corp., one only need look at Market Cap comparisons on the NYSE (New York Stock Exchange). Market Cap is approximately what a company is worth to investors in the stock market. It is determined by multiplying the number of common shares outstanding by the price per share of that company. The Market Cap for Nike in million dollar increments was approximately $10, 664.63. They dwarfed most of their competition from their industry in this area. Their nearest competitor was Gucci Group, Inc. which was about one-half million below them. The rest of their industry competition was not even close. They embarrassed such well-known competitors as Timberland, Reebok, Kenneth Cole, Justin Industries, Sketchers, Wolverine, and Velcro (to name a few). Another inter esting tidbit that was provided by means of their fiscal report on their web site was their total shareholder returns data. This basically stated that one hundred dollars invested in Nike Corporation ten years ago would have been worth $1, 432 dollars on May 31 of this year. That completely usurped that of the S&P (Standard and Poor's) 500, which would have been only worth a measly $527 on the same date. After reviewing all of this financial information that was provided by the web site, it was easily determined just in fact how large the Nike Corporation actually is. Web Site Description: In a