Ford slams brakes on ecommerce

In a massive re-integration effort, Ford Motor Company has pulled the plug on its ecommerce unit, fired the unit's chief executive and will no longer supply internet access and PCs to its employees.

The company said it was implementing new cost-cutting methods because its previously announced cuts were not moving as fast as planned.

Ford's ebusiness unit, ConsumerConnect - which is similar to the e-GM unit of General Motors - was developed as a standalone division to develop and implement the company's ecommerce strategies.

Karen Francis, ConsumerConnect's chief executive, has been let go after 15 months with the company.

Francis was responsible for managing Ford's ecommerce ventures and activities that included e-supplier relationships, consumer ebusiness activities, telematics and customer relationship centres.

Other Ford departments will absorb her duties along with the group's 350 employees, according to a company spokesman, who also said the ebusiness activities that ConsumerConnect developed will be integrated into Ford's global marketing efforts.

The spokesman said that Ford would continue to fund Covisint, the auto marketplace in which it has a stake of about 30 per cent, as well as its customer relationship management (CRM) venture with TeleTech, called Percepta.

The restructuring efforts also included terminating Wingcast, the two-year old joint venture with Qualcomm, which sold equipment that allows drivers to voice-activate equipment such as phones or car stereos.

The company also recently ended its program with PeoplePC, which had supplied PCs, internet service and support to 166,000 of the car maker's workers.

In its filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Ford said it had taken a $199m charge to write down "certain investments in ecommerce and automotive-related ventures".