ECommerce and the Internet The evolution of Business

E-Commerce and the Internet The evolution of Business Systems included a reference to the World Wide Web and the Internet And, in particular, Electronic Commerce In this lecture, we will be looking at some aspects of Web development and design

Notices Wednesday 5 th May. Last day for lodging disputed ‘HECS liability notice’, ‘PEL notice’ or ‘BOTPLS Notice’ for Semester 1.

E-Commerce and the Internet Computing and Communications are the driving forces behind the extraordinary capabilities offered by the Internet, and these techniques are being rapidly developed for – intrastate – interstate – national – international developments and applications in commerce. This lecture we will look at some of the aspects of this topic.

The World Wide Web and the Internet A bit of history: The Internet started as an experiment. It was based on a requirement of a ‘no fail’ message collection and transmitting facility. (1969). The reason was that the United States Department of Defence was concerned that the ability to send and receive must be available at all times. One of the main objectives was to create a system which could provide alternative pathing of messages, even if part of the network was disabled. The Advanced Research Projects Agency sponsored this development - AARPANET

The Internet Academics developed message switching systems and protocols (standards and rules) and also message-packeting systems (better resource usage). Standard routing information features were also established. However, wider use led to an (unintended) increase in message traffic - bulletin boards and discussions groups Universities and other users developed their own local area networks.

The Internet By 1980, the Internet had evolved to provide communications on a wide range of topics. It was ‘difficult’ to use - And, it was ‘slow’ Users had to use program commands, there were no Graphics User Interfaces In 1989, Tim Berners-Lee (CERN laboratory, Europe) proposed the concept of a World Wide Web (Conseil Européen pour la Researche Nucléaire)

The Internet This was directed at – organising Internet information into pages – these pages would be linked by graphics which could be selected by individual users Microsoft 3. 0 arrived, and provided a Graphics User Interface. (GUI) Web browsers appeared - ‘surfing’ the Web became popular The Web is part of the Internet - not all is organised into the GUI accessible form.

The Internet • Government and Business in America began to consider the building of a national information superhighway • This would link – homes – businesses – schools – libraries – hospitals with high speed and easy access to – electronic books – magazines – research materials

The Internet Growth: In 1993 there were approx. 150 webservers distributed Web pages on the Internet. In 2000, there was estimated to be close to 500, 000 web servers - not all are permanently attached. Users from approx. 200 countries access the Internet January 1997 - 100, 000 users January 1998 - 270, 000 users January 2001 - 390, 000 users January 2003 - 640, 000 users 2. 5 billion documents on the Internet, growing at 7. 5 million per day

The Internet Question: How do we (I) get access to the Web ? Answer: You acquire these friendly, cost-effective, fast and reliable services from an ISP So, what is, or are, an ISP ?

The Internet What are ISP’s ? They are Internet Service Providers They are organisations which provide Internet connections • They provide a ‘window’ for subscribers Fees ? • Set up • and monthly (or other time base) for use What are Content Providers ? • Organisations which provide the material available

Internet Service Providers • About 900 + providers (June 2001) 1800 in 2003 (est) • Wide ‘cost’ bandwidth • Charge bases: – set rate per hour, cheaper during ‘off peak’ times – fixed rate per month - set number of hours with bulk buying opportunity – flat fee • Some ‘hidden’ extras – Possibility of STD call charges – extent or restriction on local call access – support – speed (56 Kb is a good target but watch the ISP speed)

Internet Service Providers • Some ISP’s offer poor modem-to-user ratios (poor pickup) • Some ISP’s use the Telstra link to gain access to national and international services • Some ‘bigger’ ISP’s have their own private network • Some ISP’s – Telstra Big Pond – Compuserve pacific – Dragon Net – Internet Service Providers Pty. Ltd – Oz. Email – IBM Global Network

Internet Service Providers Check List 1. How is the ISP connected to the Internet - Australian public Internet backbone or does it operate on its own 2. What Access speeds are offered 3. Is there an upgrade capability if/as demand grows 4. What access software does the ISP offer 5. What is the current reliability rate (busy, slow, dropouts ? ) 6. History of the ISP - how long, how many customers 7. What customer support is offered - when and how is it available 8. Is there a choice of pricing plans 9. Can the present plan be changed if required

The Internet Any others ? • Software and hardware companies • Browser and e-mail software suppliers • Routers, server computers, server software, Web-page publishing tools

The Internet Anything else ? • Influence on the Internet and its users: – Governments - laws and regulations limit content and access – The Internet Society - provide technical development and guidelines for direction. Decides on protocol support and Internet addressing – Inter. NIC (Internet Networking Information Centre National Science Foundation) - ensures uniqueness of addresses – Universities and colleges - Internet research

Intra. Nets ? • Normally an Internet look alike network which is ‘private’ and internal to a Company • • • Monash Ford Motor Company Coles Myer Broken Hill / Billington Any others ? • There was an outline of an Intranet and Internet in Lecture 2

The World Wide Web • Is essentially a retrieval system • It is based on page organisation of information - these pages are commonly called Web pages (documents) • The pages connect via hyperlinks • What is a Web site ? – A web page (or pages) which relate to a specific topic or business – A Web server is the host for one or more Web pages – A Web site may contain many Web pages – Normally a Web site has a home page -it’s a directory of the Web site offerings – Navigation is by hyperlinks to other pages

The World Wide Web Other facilities: • • • URL - Universal Resource Locator - http: //monash. edu. au Mailing lists Newsgroups Chat On Line shopping - Electronic catalogues

Navigation Aids • World Wide Web • E-Mail • Telnet (a simple, strong protocol) • File Transfer Protocol (FTP) • Archie - an FTP catalogue - http: //archie. emnet. co. uk/ • E-mail discussion groups • Usenet news - a global electronic bulletin board ---- subscribe, and pay !!!

The World Wide Web Browsers: Software which provides the capability of: Display of Web pages Navigation of the Web and other parts of the Internet Searching facilities based on key words examples: Netscape Navigator Microsoft Internet Explorer Spyglass Mosaic Hot. Java (Sun Electronics) also ‘plug-ins’ to update a user’s browser

The World Wide Web Search Engines (used by Browsers) Software which minimises search times for specific information over the Web. Uses tables of contents and indexes Yahoo, Alta-Vista, Excite, Google Meta-search engines use more than one search engine in the search process Proxy Servers Are servers which act as an intermediary between a workstation user and the Internet so that the enterprise can ensure security, administrative control and caching services

Web Site Development for Commerce Not a bad title ? What does it mean ? It is an area of information systems It includes – Requirements analysis – Design – Implementation – Maintenance - which means keeping up to date with techniques, software, hardware and communications – AND, people skills

Web Site Development for Commerce Web systems are those developed for the web environment They have unique characteristics (as you probably gathered from the previous material). These are mostly caused by the nature of the Web - access – – Provision of information to users or customers Developing relationships with customers Enabling customers to perform transactions Documentation of management systems for internal users (intranets)

Web Addresses Web sites have a unique address - the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) The address contains – the protocol (http = hypertext transfer protocol) – the server address (www. thisisit. com. au) » . com = commercial, . edu = education, » . gov = government, . net = networks » . au = Australia. uk = United Kingdom » . nz = New Zealand. jp = Japan » . ca = Canada The USA does not have a country abbreviation

Web Site Development for Commerce It is normal for Web access response to cross many ‘departmental’ boundaries such as – Sales – Marketing – Customer service – Information systems

Web Site Development for Commerce It is normal for teams of different business representatives to be involved with the development of web applications Some problems : – Members not speaking the same business or technical language – Different goals – Different expectations – Need to have a business focus – The Team Leader needs to have Technical, Marketing and Business expertise

Web Site Development for Commerce Team members: – project leader - coordinates the team and the project – systems analysts - develop requirements for the web site – web designers – graphics designers ( designs of logos and icons) – content providers - site information content – technical developers – web editors - correct content, working and accurate links – web marketing specialists - build the marketing tools into the site – Users/Customers - System Acceptable - Meets requirements

Web Site Development Who are the ‘Stakeholders’ ? What is a ‘Stakeholder’? They can be people who are – inside the organisation – outside the organisation You are part of the stakeholders of the Monash web site Internal stakeholders may be specialised groups of staff members External stakeholders may be Global - local, interstate, overseas There probably will be different cultural and linguistic backgrounds to consider and include

Project Complexity and Scope Some aspects to consider : – The project scope - customer enquiries, or customer service – The project size - Functions, sites, data volume – Number and variety of users - complexity increases with the number and variety of users – The geographic distribution of the users - time zones – The types of functionality required (static, dynamic, fully interactive – The number of interfaces with other systems – The strategic or critical nature of the project – Expertise available

Web Site Development Some Terms: 1. Hyperlinks - These provide the means of navigating the Web. A hyperlink can be » a word - generally underlined terms in colour such as Would you like to see your exam results ? Or Click here for the weather forecast » an image, icon or picture » an area in a page

Web Site Development 2. HTTP - Hypertext Transfer Protocol The Web communications protocol It handles the transfer over the Internet A connection to a web server is sent in the HTTP header contains a command (get data, input data …. . ) The server sends a message to the client. This message contains the format of the data being transferred. The browser interprets this message and displays different types of ‘data’ - text, images, HTML

Web Site Development 3. Web site These are computers on the Internet which contain (host) a number of pages of accessible information Monash University has a large number of such pages as you have seen when you used your portal And you have used it, haven’t you ?

Web Page Development Some thoughts on Web Design • Users like colourful, interesting, intuitive sites • Site content should change - refresh with new material Most users like give-aways - free literature sites, location of some site running a current competition …….

Web Page Development Web Publishing • Development of pages for the Web - user Web site • Developer need not ‘own’ a server or modems • Files are stored on the service provider’s devices • Advantages: – Open to anybody – Style can be ‘individual’ – Can introduce hyperlinks to access other sites/materials – Cost is less than for other forms of publishing - much ‘free’ material at sites

Web Page Development • Some Disadvantages – Requires some skills – Pages must be kept up to date – Page may alter disposition on another user’s computer – Possible cost levied by ISP for update and traffic generated – Market an unknown factor – Others may use your ‘brilliant’ ideas and designs – Is it the best alternative to attract an audience for your interest ? – May be in competition with another site – May not generate any business

Web Page Authoring Tools Web page authoring tools. Software : 1. HTML (hypertext markup language) used to minimise line capacity HTML programs can be developed using Notepad It describes web pages to web browsers Developers often use Macromedia Dreamweaver (a licenced product) Microsoft’s Frontpage HTML is based on SGML - standard generalised markup language (a set of rules for the way documents are ‘processed’)

Some Web Basics There are some limitations with HTML – Content, structure and page formatting are mixed together – This leads to difficulties in searching for Web pages, display Web pages in different formats for different devices, and standardisation of Web page content Therefore to support the rapid growth of the Web, the ability to search, display and standardise Web pages must improve

Some Web Basics Enter from left with alarums (Shakespeare) 1. XML (e. Xtensible Markup Language and 2. XSL (e. Xtensible Style Language) XML provides a clean separation between structure and content of a document The Document Type Declaration section of an XML document provides field names, field properties, and also the structure of the fields

Some Web Basics XSL supports the transformation of XML Documents into HTML and other display languages Both languages are extensible. They support the development of industry-specific standards for document content, structure and display

Web Page Request Cycle 5. Browser displays file 1. User clicks hyperlink 2. Browser sends request to Web server 4. Web server sends file 3. Web server locates page

XML and XSL Server/Browser In the previous diagram, the server and/or the browser may be able to process XML and XSL in addition to HTML. If the browser has XML and XSL processors, the server can send XML and XSL to the browser instead of HTML The browser can then transform the XML and XSL into HTML and then display the HTML If the browser does not contain XML and XSL, the server can process the XML and XSL and send HTML to the browser

Common Gateway Interface This allows a Web server to communicate with an external program, and to pass parameters to it (much like Segments and packages in PL/SQL). The external program then uses the passed parameters to produce output which is sent back to the browser. The external program can be written in a compiled language such as C, or an interpreted language such as Perl The output normally contains HTML so that it can be displayed properly by the browser CGI is portable across most Web servers. The external program may not be portable.

Web Authoring Tools 2. Web Client Programming Languages VBScript, Jscript, Java. Script Provides capability of activity or dynamism to a Web page (small Java based programs are known as applets) Handy for ‘form filling’, calculations (e. g. home loan repayments). Normally the applet is downloaded to the user’s terminal and the calculations are done there One major advantage is to reduce the web server processing load

Web Authoring Tools Java was developed by Sun Microsystems It is – architecture-neutral – simple – object-oriented – distributed – high-performance – portable – multi-threaded – dynamic

Web Page Development Microsoft’s Active. X is used to provide object linking and embedding (OLE). It provides the capability of linking a spreadsheet, word processing and database. Active. X provides support for many types of objects – Java applet – C++ program – Animation – Power. Point Presentation (have you successfully copied this subject’s overheads from the Web ? )

Web Page Development 3. Scripting Languages Main objective is to reduce the effort in developing embedded code in a web page Microsoft VBScript and Netscape Java. Script Authoring tools (HTML editors) Wizards Converters

Web Page Development There are some interesting publishing issues 1. Copyright - the fear of many publishers of material (books, audio, films and video) is that the web may be used to set up distribution of these by others - massive lost revenue Copyright laws are not uniform across different countries 2. Censorship - offensive materials vs right to know/show Blocking software ? Identification and rating system for Web sites ? Can also result in loss of ‘customers’

Web Page Development Security aspects Transmission errors Unauthorised use

Feasibility ? This is necessary before much time , money and effort is committed and / or expended Some thoughts: – Financially quantifiable benefits should exceed the costs of development and running of the system – A 5 year time span is an appropriate time base for assessing viability (or is it ? ) – Costs include people (staff) time, hired skills, equipment, programming time, testing time, maintenance – Benefits include increased orders, a lower transaction cost, better quality information, increases staff satisfaction, better customer satisfaction.

Feasibility ? A cost benefit analysis cannot be done until full details of the system are known A feasibility assessment must be done at the start of the planning and strategy development stages - and further assessments should be made as the project advances Some web commerce developments are seen as an ‘investment for the future’ - would you invest on this basis ? This is seen as providing scope and choice for future business directions - the long range plan.

The World Wide Web Consortium This Consortium is known as W 3 C It was developed in 1994, and has 5050+ member organisations globally Its mission is to promote interoperability and an open forum on issues related to the Web’s development It has 3 long term goals : 1. Universal access 2. Semantic Web - a software environment which helps users make the best use of Web available resources 3. Web of trust - to assist in guiding Web development from legal, social and commercial aspects

A Few Final Comments Marketing and Attraction Techniques – a clear strategy and objective – a clear and easy-to-use design – creative and remembered features – relevance, and up to date content – be able to used current and modern search engines (involves registration) – off line promotion - perhaps TV, radio, MMS, – an easy to remember domain name – on line events - chat with a celebrity perhaps ?

Some Down to Earth Comments Measurement of Web Site effectiveness – Often overlooked - possibly due to the high effort level involved with analysis and development – Possibly no energy left for evaluation because of the above – The site may ‘still be evolving’ - is there ever a ‘most suitable’ time ? – The site IS an investment of the resources of an organisation – It should be treated as are other resources – Reviews should be held at 3 and 6 months after the ‘on line’ date - then every 6 months – what action should be taken if the results are adverse ?

Some Down to Earth Comments Are there details of – the number of hits on the site – the number of active hits (interaction with the site) – the number of purchases – the number of customers who repeat their connection and make purchases (or contribute to the Web site) – Are there ‘seasonal’ or periodic trends ? – What analyses and conclusions can be made from this data ?

And the logical extension ? • Customer marketing Databases updates by ecommerce transactions So, what’s in a Customer database ? Try this (or these) Name and address (plus changes) Lifestyle - clothing, food, travel, housing, income level Patterns - sports, recreations Medical - illness, operations, treatments Educational - level, degree, studies, interests Books, Magazines - Type, frequency, changes Motor Vehicle - Type, age, price, service, replacement

Did you ? • Leave your email, or internet address with any web site you have visited recently ? • Did you receive a message regarding insecure transmission? • Is it possible that your identification (login account, machine number, network, campus) could have been ‘trapped’ by the host device or devices ?

E-Commerce - the Extension All of which should highlight the situation that there is much more to come in the use of Computing hardware Software Communications Skills and in Survival organisation positioning Success organisation positioning