ELECTRONIC COMMERCE ( E-COMMERCE )

Electronic commerce is a catalyst for dramatic changes in internal organizational functioning.

Electronic commerce has become critical in three inter related dimensions –customer to customer business dimension,intra business interactions and business to business interactions.

Electronic commerce is enabling the customer to have an increasing say in what products are made,how products are made and how services are delivered,thus customers having greater comtrol.

In the face of market changes,corporations can no longer be insular in nature.In order to be successful,management has come to grips with the changes taking place in the various market places.

This topic deals with the analytical evaluation of management issues and concerns effecting electronic commerce in the service provider businesses,retail,banking,electronic publishing.

In a nutshell,this topic offers an explanation of how the web is being used to develop public internet applications.It also explains the technology behind the web and the new directions of web technology.

  

E-COMMERCE

 DEFINITION OF ELECTRONIC COMMERCE:

Electronic commerce,commonly known as e-commerce or eCommerce,consists of the buying ansd selling of the products or services over electronic systems such as the internet and other computer networks.

·         From a communications perspective,electronic commerce is the delivery of information,products/services,payments via telephone lines,computer networks or any other means.

·         From a business process perspective,electronic commerce is the application of technology towards the automation of business transactions and workflows.

·         From a service perspective,electronic commerce is a tool that addresses the desire of firms,consumers and management to cut service costs while improving the quality of goods and increasing the speed of service delivery.

Electronic commerce endeavors to improve the execution of business transactions over various networks.These improvements may result in more effective performance(i.e

better quality,greater customer satisfaction and better corporate decision making),greater economic efficiency and more rapid exchange(high speed,accelerated,or real time interaction).More specifically,electronic commerce enables the execution of information-laden transactions between two or more parties using interconnected networks.

                        BUYER/SELLER TRANSACTIONS

Another way of Electronic commerce is to view it as a production process that converts digital inputs into value added outputs through a set of intermediatories.

Currently,the goal of E-Commerce research and its associative implementations is to reduce the “friction” in online transactions.Friction is often described in economics as the transaction cost.

Ultimately the reduction of friction in online commerce will enable smoother transactions between buyers,intermediaries and sellers.

BRIEF HISTORY OF  ELECTRONIC  COMMERCE:

During the late 1970s and early 1980s,electronic commerce became widespread within companies in the form of electronic messaging technologies:electronic data interchange(EDI) and electronic mail.Electronic messaging technologies streamline business processes by reducing paper work and increasing automation.

                         In the mid 1980s,a completely different type of Electronic commerce technology spread among consumers in the form of online services that provided a new form of social interaction and knowledge sharing.

                        In the 1990s,the advent of World Wide Web on the internet represents a turning point in Ecommerce by providing easy-to-use technology solution to the problem of information publishing and dissemination.

TYPES OF E-COMMERCE:

1.Inter-organisational E-commerce:From the inter organizational perspective the E-commerce facilitates the following business applications:

·        Supplier management:Electronic applications help companies reduce the number of suppliers and facilitate business partnerships by reducing purchase order processing costs.

·        Inventory management:Electronic applications shorten the order-ship-bill cycle.This also helps to reduce inventory levels and eliminate out of stock occurrences.

·                    Distribution management:Electronic applications facilitate the transmission of shipping documents such as purchase order ,bills of lading and enable better resource management.

·                    Payment management:Electronic payment reduces clerical error,increases the speed at which companies compute invoice,lowers transaction fees and costs.

          2.Intra-organisational E-commerce:From the intra-organisational perspective the  

              Ecommerce facilitates the following business applications:  

·                     Workgroup communications:These applications  enable managers to communicate employees using electronic mail,video conferencing,and bulletin boards.

·         Electronic publishing:These applications enable the companies to organize,publish and disseminate the human resources manuals,product specifications and meeting minutes using tools such as World Wide Web.

·         Sales force productivity:These applications improve the flow of information between the production and sales forces and between the firms and customers.

          3.Consumer-to-business Ecommerce:From the consumers perspective Ecommerce     

           facilitates the following economic transactions:

·         Social interaction

·         Personal finance management

                ·          Purchasing products and information

What exactly is web?

The web has rapidly become the standard of navigating,publishing information and executing transactions on the internet or the intranets.Web is a collection of distributive documents referred to as “Pages” located on computers or servers all over the world.Servers store HYPERTEXT MARKUP LANGUAGE(HTML) files and respond to requests.Browsers like Netscape ensure easy access to server based documents,and display multimedia data.

Future browsers will include editor-like abilities,application linking,audio and video integration,database front ends.

Components of web architecture:

·         HTML(HYPERTEXT MARKUP LANGUAGE):provides both formatting and hyperlinking.

·         HTTP(HYPERTEXT TRANSFER PROTOCOL):It is the protocol for communications between Web servers and browsers.

·         CGI(COMMON GATEWAY INTERPHASE):It is the interphase for invoking programs from web servers.

The Web and Electronic commerce :

The block diagram depicts the key elements that constitute a web based electronic commerce architecture:client browser,web server and third party services.The client browser interacts with the web server,which then intermediates the interaction with third party services.   

The web server functions can be categorized into information retrieval,data and transaction management,and security.

The client browser resides on the user’s PC and provides an interface to the various types of content.

There are many types of graphics formats available-JPEG,GIF,TIFF,BMP,

The client browser/Web server that forms the heart and soul of architecture is considerably more flexible than the traditional mainframe it replaces.

The web architecture allows PC users to connect to a network  and enhance PC capabilities by providing access to distributed data bases and other computing resources.The web can mask the complexity and incapabilities of operating systems and allows users to move from application to application and from one release to the next without spending hundreds of dollars on software.

Why is web such a hit?

Reasons  for the success of web include:

§  Ease of navigation and use

§  Ease of publishing content

§  New distribution models

§  Enabling a network-centric computing paradigm

§  Enabling a new intra-business application

ROLE OF JAVA IN E-COMMERCE

Today,web browsers allow users to manipulate information spread across the internet as a whole.Web browsers integrate the function of fetching the remote information,figuring out what format it is and displaying it.These browsers contain detailed,hard wired knowledge about the many different data types,protocols and behaviours necessary to navigate the web.

Needing several browsers is clumsy and defeats the universal readership purpose that makes web so useful.Another problem with this approach is that the user has to decide which browser he or she wants.The decision to go for a particular browser effectively locks the user into a particular environment,denying him or her the necessary flexibility to move around.

This situation can be avoided by using applet-based browsers.Applets are mini-applications that transparently migrate across the network when needed.The advantage is that content developers for the web need not worry about whether some special piece of software is installed in a users computer;the applet is automatically transported with the requested material.

                            

                           INTERACTION IN THE APPLET WORLD

Using applets,the browser becomes the co-ordinator of the resources,resulting in flexibility and the ability to add new capabilities easily.The applet based browser can dynamically install the agent code from the server.

BUSINESS REASONS FOR USING JAVA:

o   Ease of distribution

o   Speed of development

o   Fits the Web paradigm

o   Third-party support

Java is a platform independent, distributed,compact and interactive language.It embodies the critical elements of success.In essence Java has leveled the playing field for many developers,both large and small.

OVERVIEW OF ELECTRONIC PAYMENT TECHNOLOGY:

Electronic payments first emerged  with the development of wire transfers.In the present form traditional payment methods such as checks are not adequate for real time payment interaction.

1.Electronic or digital cash:Electronic or digital cash combines computerized convenience with security and privacy that improve on paper cash.The versatility of digital cash opens up a host of new markets and applications.

A really novel electronic payment method needs to do more than recreate the convenience that is offered by credit and debit cards.Specifically digital cash must have the following properties: Monetary value,retrievability and security.

2. Online credit card based systems: Credit card payment negotiation involves two steps: The merchant presents the customer with product/service price, order confirmation and status,delivery notifications,and payment options accepted by the merchant and the buyer presents the merchant with payment choice and associated information in secure manner.

Safe credit card based commerce will not be possible until security standards are in  place.

3.Firewalls:Firewalls and filtering routers provide protection from intruders.It presents an additional barrier.They examine each packet of information that is sent across the internet to the customer service network.This protects inside addresses from outside access.

CONCLUSION

The success of the web has opened management’s eyes to the power of network computing and it could determine the future of Microsoft,IBM,ORACLE and SUN.

Firms are beginning to recognize the central role of the web in planning future systems architecture.

The goal is to utilize the benefits of the open architecture to link users and resources throughout the organization.Banks now through Ecommerce have a variety of technological means to initiate online banking programs without incurring the investments needed to develop their own systems.

To avoid being left behind,banks are going directly to the market with online banking programs rather than running lengthy pilot tests.

The challenge for the banking industry lies in creating the right atmosphere and in making sure that they provide attractive and affordable services.

It has been proved how the key industries-banking,retailing and publishing are being reshaped by electronic commerce.Electronic commerce has paved way for the emerging payment systems-electronic cash,electronic checks,credit cards and smart cards which enable buying and selling on the internet.

REFERENCES

www.google.com

www.wikepedia.com

www.howstuffworks.com

Frontiers of ecommerce by Kalakata,Whinston

E Commerce by S.Jaiswal-Galgotia