Internet Developments Description of applications of on-line database systems including: – Content Management Systems; – Customer Relationship Management;

Internet Developments

Description of applications of on-line database systems including:

– Content Management Systems; – Customer Relationship Management; &– E-commerce Platforms.

Comparison of Open Source and Commercial On-line Database Software and related issues:

– cost effectiveness, security, – flexibility and adaptability, – ongoing support and development by a community of users.

Description of applications and features of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI):

– transaction standardisation, – translation software, – communications, and legal restrictions.

Database Connectivity

Description and exemplification of the requirements for connection to database: – server username/password, – server address, – database name.

Description of use of a server-based database management tool/application: – to connect a database client to a database server – to create/modify/delete table structures

Structured Query Language

Exemplification and application of the uses of SQL to create simple and complex queries: – Data Manipulation Language (DML) — Insert,

Update, Delete– Data Query Language (DQL)

Keywords or clauses of the select statement — Select, From, Where, Order By

Logical Operators — Is Null, Between, In, Like, Exists, Unique, All and Any

Negating Conditions with the Not Operator — Not Equal, Not Between, Not In, Not Like, Is Not Null, Not Exists, Not Unique

Aggregate Functions — Count, Sum, Max, Min, Avg Sorting and Grouping Data — Group By, Order By Equi-joins/inner joins

Application Development

Description and exemplification of server-side scripting language for server connection, database selection, execution of SQL queries and extraction of results.

Description and exemplification of forms processing to insert and amend data.

Description of structure of HTML forms including: – the <form> element and its action and method attributes – the <input> element and its type, name and value

attributes – the <button> element and its type, name and value

attributes

Description of an on-line database system

An online database system is any database system which is accessed via a client/server network. A typical ODBS consists of a web server, a scripting language and a database management system and its associated database or databases. The databases are typically relational files which hold data.

Typically, a client web browser is used to request a page from the web server. The resulting page is generated by the web server, the scripting language and the database backend. When the client browser requests a page from a web site, the following steps occur:

– The web server receives the request via HTTP for a particular web page and resolves and retrieves the requested file.

– Depending on the nature of the file (i.e., if contains scripted code), it is processed using the scripting engine.

– The script is executed and performs database queries as necessary. – The scripting language engine uses the results of the database queries to

construct an HTML document, returning it to the web server and, finally, to the client.

Description of an on-line database system

PHP is a server-side scripting language. With PHP installed, your Web server will be able to read a new kind of file (called a "PHP script") that can do things like retrieve up-to-the-minute information from a database and insert it into a Web page before sending it to the browser that requested it. PHP is completely free to download and use.

To retrieve information from a database, you first need to have a database management system. That's where Oracle SQL comes in. Oracle SQL is a relational database management system- RDBMS. Oracle SQL makes information really easy to get at using server-side scripting languages like PHP.

Description of an on-line database system – the architecture.

An online database system is made up of a number of different servers. A server is a term that can have multiple meanings in computing. It can mean a computer system used as the centre of a network and it can be a piece of software which provides some kind of service.

A typical small hardware web server will consist of two server programs (a web server and a database server) and at least one scripting language.

The web server is the application which receives all requests from clients for content.

Description of an on-line database system – Advantages

Customers go to the web site to check out the status of their order, and also to see this week's special offers and price list.

Sales representatives come to the site to view collections of orders, shipments, warehouse stock, the status of orders, and the latest list of sales bonuses for items in the catalogue.

Managers log in to the site to review summaries of sales details, sales performance, targets and so on.

Other people may also be served through the Web site - suppliers, sales vendors, investors … the mind reels at the possibilities.

Description of an on-line database system – Disadvantages

The main disadvantages of Online database systems relation to the hardware and infrastructure required to operate them and the security of the software and data used by the system.

The cost of the hardware used by an online database system will relate directly to the size of the organisation, the number of expected users of the system and the amount of data stored. – A small organisation with a few thousand customers

and perhaps less than fifty simultaneous users can happily operate a database server and web server on a dedicated desktop PC.

Description of an on-line database system – Disadvantages

An additional cost for smaller systems is factoring in "scalability" into the design of the system. As an organisation grows it gains users and requires greater amounts of data storage and processing power. Some organisations build in this capability to "scale" their online database system in response to the growth in their business. This scalability normally involves some cost in terms of the hardware and software used.

A large organisation with thousands of simultaneous users will require multiple dedicated web and database servers, each carefully configured and synchronised, to ensure that the same data is available to all users.

Essentially, the larger the organisation, the more costly the ODBS will be and the more complex the system will be to design, implement and maintain.

Description of an on-line database system – Content Management Systems

A content management system (CMS) is a computer software system for organising and allowing collaborative creation of documents and other web content.

A content management system is a web application used for managing websites and web content.

They can be used for storage and single sourcing of documentation for an organisation.


CMS packages are designed to assist web masters with the three main challenges of managing large web sites:– Content Ownership/contribution – Structured Data - separating content from

style – Dynamic delivery/Interactive - managing

interactive web sites


Content Ownership Contribution– If a CMS is not used then there is often a delay

between content generation and content publication. Consider an announcement from the research and

development unit in a large company. – The R and D unit write the announcement and then email it

to the web master. The master then reads the announcement, generates the HTML code, links the announcement into the existing site code and then uploads the changed files to the web site.

Content management systems help to remove this bottleneck by empowering users to create their own content and, depending on their security privileges, publish the content on the live web site. The user creates the content using the tools provided by the CMS and can upload images and other content items as required.


– Users of the CMS can be allocated differing levels of access. Some may just view content, others create it for others to approve,

and others may be allowed to created and publish content or approve content posted by other users for publication.

– The concept of multiple authorship is an important one when you consider that some web sites run to thousands of pages.

– By allowing levels of users to contribute and manage content the CMS provides the web master with a set of tools which devolve the process of content generation and management to departments with in the organisation, therefore, freeing the web master of this responsibility and allowing him/her to focus on other tasks.

– In addition, this content creation places ownership of the content with the contributing users. These users can be directly responsible for updating and maintaining their content and accountable when content is incorrect, flawed or contains errors.

Description of an on-line database system – Content Management System

Structured Data– The essence of any content management system is the

separation of content from presentation. It should be possible for the web master to change the entire look and feel of the web site without changing the content. This is achieved by separating the content entirely from the presentation of the pages.

– What is content? Content is any data stored within the site. This includes all the posts from users, articles, news features, file downloads, forum sessions and so on but also includes the structure of the site such as the site map (how the site links together), the menus and navigation presented to the users, and configuration information about the site (such as the site address, the database server etc). The essential information required to connect to a database server is normally held in a configuration file and the remaining data stored the relational database.

– This separation allows the web master to completely change the presentation of the data on the site with changing the data. This is achieved by changing the template/stylesheet used by the content management system to present the data.


Dynamic Delivery/Interactivity– A static web site provides few, if any, tools to

encourage interaction with the site's audience.

– In order to attract visitors and keep them coming back, a site has to have constantly updating content and an opportunity for visitors to interact with the site. Web sites are not there to be looked at. They are there to be interacted with. If an organisation puts up an electronic version of a static brochure, no one will come back. Most organisations' brochures and information are fairly dull documents. So are static web sites. In order to be successful, web sites need to be lively, interesting and informative.


NEWS– News management using a CMS relates to the management of

articles, press releases, content items which make up part of a web site. There are a number of common features of news management which most content management systems possess to a greater or lesser extend.

– The CMS will allow administrators and other users with the correct access privileges to create, amend and delete news posts.

– News items and other content can be scheduled to become live and to expire at particular times. This allows content authors to create content in advance and to specify when that content will become available to users.

– Web sites can be kept current by specifying expiry dates for content - this sets a lifespan for the content. In some situations it is better retain old content as an archive than remove it from the system entirely.


– CMS offer some control over the order on news articles or posts. Often there is a default order for these items, such by title or date of posting. With most CMS’s it is possible to change this order to meet the needs of the organisation.

– Access controls permit or deny access to content based on the access privileges of specific users. When news posts or other content access are created they can be allocated user level i.e. only for registered users. This allows all users of privilege "registered" and above to access this content.

– Most content management systems provide tools to manage the media elements which are a major part of a successful web site. The CMS tools allow the user to upload, move and delete media files without requiring additional FTP software.

– In addition, more advanced CMS systems allow additional information to be stored with the media elements to assist content creators. This metadata may content details of the media element author, a description of the element, an easy to refer to name as so on.


Forums– A forum is a facility of the content management

systems for holding discussions. A sense of virtual community often develops around forums that have regular users. Technology, computer games, and politics are popular areas for forum themes, but there are forums for a huge number of different topics.

– Forums are also commonly referred to as web forums, message boards, discussion boards, discussion forums, discussion groups, bulletin boards or simply forums.


Forums– If a CMS based web site it to be truly interactive

then a forum of some kind is essential.

– The barebones definition of a forum is the ability for people to start threads and reply to other people's threads.

Someone posts a message which is visible to everyone, you read it and then have the option to post a reply which will also be visible to everyone, thus a discussion can build up without all users having to be online at the same time.

– However, most forum software provides considerably more than this.


Forums– Most forum software allows more than one forum to be created.

These forums are containers for threads started by the user community. Depending on the permissions of community users as defined by the forum's web master, they can post replies to existing threads and start new threads as they wish.

– Users of the CMS site register using a username and a password, and possibly an e-mail address for validation purposes. In these types of CMS based forums, the members are often able to customise both how their posts display to others and how the board appears to them. Username-based software may provide for anonymity by allowing visitors to post without registration.

– The CMS will allow the forum administrator or moderator to edit, delete, move or otherwise modify any thread on the forum.

– Threads in a forum are either flat (posts are listed in chronological order) or threaded (each post is made in reply to a parent post).


Ratings– In content management systems, rating means a

reputation system, it is a type of collaborative tool which attempts to determine ratings for a collection of content items and/or users, given a collection of opinions held by users about those content items / users.

– A rating system allows the users of a site to express their opinion about content items available within the site. Users give a rating to content items, forum posts, individual users, in fact just about any element of the CMS content can be rated.


There are a number of different styles of rating systems:– Karma is used to reflect a general opinion about a user. Each

user starts with a Karma of zero. Registered users can increase or decrease this karma rating by one, often in response to forum posts or comments made by the user. Over time user will gain a positive or negative karma rating from the votes of his or her peers.

– Number ratings scales allow each user to rate an element of content using a numbered scale. The number of votes and the average rating can then be shown with the content item so that users can determine the rating score of the item and how representative the rating is.

– CMSs can automatically generate ratings using preset criteria. For example, a user of the system can automatically be ranked according to the number of posts they make to a forum. The system automatically rewards the user for his/her participation with the system by awarding them with a rank. The more a user contributes to the CMS the greater the status of the award.


Templates– Templates are essential when constructing a web site using a

content management system. The content is already separated from the branding or presentation but the only way to make your web site look different from every other site constructed using the same CMS is to develop and apply your own unique template.

– A template consists of two main elements: the layout of the web page and the styles used with in it. The layout is normally coded using a web based programming language (such as PHP or ASP) and the styles are stored in a standard cascading style sheet (.css).

– Most CMS template systems make extensive use of cascading style sheets to create a consistent look and feel to the CMS generated web site. This means that consistent styles for titles, headings, body text, hyperlinks etc, will be established by the CSS.

Description of an on-line database system – Customer Relationship Management

Customer relationship management (CRM) is a straightforward idea. Collect all available information about customers and use it.

The primary objective of a CRM program is the continuous improvement of the relationships between a business and its customers.

CRM software connects as many points as possible concerning a customer's experience with the company. From marketing to customer service, CRM emphasises the importance of collecting customer data at each step of the business/customer relationship. After collection, the customer data is distributed to various departments within each business, so CRM includes not only data collection on a massive scale, but also the development of communication channels in order to make the most of the collected data.


Advantages– Faster sales:

Quite simply, CRM removes some of the guesswork from the sales process because of the information made available by data collection.

– Easier marketing: As business staff compile data on the behaviour of customers

from different socioeconomic backgrounds and areas, the marketing department should find it easier to determine how to market products to those different groups.

– Increased cross sales: As a business increases the scope and depth of its customer

data collection, opportunities for cross sales among existing customers should become more noticeable. Cross selling involves identifying customers who have purchased a specific product in order to sell them similar or related products. Amazon.co.uk is one of many retailers who use this method to generate extra sales.


Any CRM application consists of the three parts:– Operational CRM – Analytical CRM – Collaborative CRM

Each part meets a particular business need and supports the development and maintenance of customer relationships.


Operational CRM:– Operational CRM means supporting the "front office" business

processes, which include customer contact. Tasks resulting from these processes are forwarded to employees responsible for them, as well as the information necessary for carrying out the tasks and interfaces to back-end applications are being provided and activities with customers are being documented for further reference.

– Operational CRM provides the following benefits: Delivers personalised and efficient marketing, sales, and service through

multi-channel collaboration. Each customer's experience of interacting with the business is tailored personalised. The business knows which products the customer previously purchased, when the customer's birthday is, how frequently the customer makes purchases and can, therefore, make the customer feel as if the business knows then very well.

Enables a 360-degree view of your customer while you are interacting with them. When any of the staff employed by a business are dealing with a customer, that customer's complete history and details can be displayed on screen, allowing the staff member to understand the customer's needs.


Operational CRM – Sales Force Automation: – SFA automates some of the company's critical sales and sales force

management functions. These functions typically include: Lead/account management: managing sales leads Contact management: managing the contact details of customers and

suppliers. Quote management: the production and storage of quotes for customers. Forecasting: projecting future sales based on existing customer

information. Sales administration: deal with the mechanics of sales, processing

payments, invoices, receipts etc. Keeping track of customer preferences, buying habits, and demographics: Performance management: allows the management of a business to track

the performance of staff.

– SFA tools are designed to improve field sales productivity. It is vital that all sales personnel are connected to the SFA tools. This might mean that traveling sales people are connected to the system via a laptop internet connection or mobile phone and so on.


Operational CRM – Customer Services and Support: – CSS automates some service requests, complaints, product

returns, and information requests. – Using technology to address the needs of customer service and

support is important, especially for businesses receiving a high volume of customer calls, e-mails, and other customer interactions.

– Here are some common characteristics of these applications: All transactions happen in real-time; Due to its high volume and underlying patterns, the data is highly

structured; Uptime must be close to 100% to sustain critical operations (e.g.

reservations); Backup and recovery must be robust with minimal loss of data; Reporting is often done in batch processes and as such is static and

not in real time.

– Key infrastructure requirements of CSS include computer telephony integration (CTI) which provides high volume processing capability, and reliability.


Operational CRM – Enterprise Marketing Automation: – EMA provides information about the business environment,

including competitors, industry trends, and environmental variables such as interest rates and so on. It is the execution side of advertising campaign and lead management. The intent of EMA applications is to improve marketing campaign efficiencies.

– An EMA system will examine the existing customer data held by an organisation and identify likely candidates for marketing. This is known as customer segmentation and involves dividing a customer base into groups of individuals that are similar in specific ways relevant to marketing, such as age, gender, interests, spending habits, and so on. Traditional segmentation focuses on identifying customer groups based on demographics and attributes such as attitude and psychological profiles. Value-based segmentation, on the other hand, looks at groups of customers in terms of the revenue they generate and the costs of establishing and maintaining relationships with them.

– Once the target group or groups have been identified, the marketing campaign can be managed using the EMA tools. The concept of EMA is that better targeting of marketing will increase its effectiveness and increase revenues based on responses.


Analytical CRM: – In analytical CRM systems, data gathered within operational

CRM and/or other sources is analysed to segment customers or to identify potential to enhance client relationship. Analytics CRM tools are concerned with discovering new information about customers and finding ways to add value to the relationship by targeting additional products or services.

– Customer analysis typically can lead to targeted campaigns to increase the amount of spending from each customer. Examples of campaigns directed towards customers are:

Acquisition: Identify cross-sell and up-sell opportunities. Retention: Retaining customers who may leave due to the

length of time they have been customers or those who may leave because they have a better offer from a competitor.

Information: Providing timely and regular information to customers.

Modification: Altering details of the transactional nature of the customers' relationship.


Analytical CRM: – At the foundation of Analytical CRM are customer-based data and

approaches. Data must be organised and managed at the customer level with historical detail covering purchasing and returns behaviour, contacts with customer service, payment behaviour, and marketing response behaviour. This initial data gathering is the function of the operational CRM.

– The goal is to maximize the value of your customers over the entire relationship with the customer, not for a single marketing campaign. The analytical CRM software tools can be used to intelligently mine the CRM database for information about customers and produce a variety of information. The output of this analysis can be lists of customers for marketing purposes, customer support and so on.

– Analytical CRM tools import data from the CRM database and other sources. These collated data sources are then used to generate a number of subsets of data (called data marts) which are used by a particular group of employees (such as the marketing team or customer support team). These data marts might include historical data, analysis of sales, measurements of the performance of particular sales people and so on.


Collaborative CRM: – Collaborative CRM is an approach to customer relationship management

(CRM) in which the various departments of a company, such as sales, technical support, and marketing, share any information they collect from interactions with customers. For example, customer feedback gathered from a technical support session could inform marketing staff about products and services that might be of interest to the customer. The purpose of collaboration is to improve the quality of customer service, and, as a result, increase customer satisfaction and loyalty.

– Collaborative CRM provides the following benefits: Enables efficient productive customer interactions across all means of

communication (i.e. web, email, telephone, postal etc.)

Enables web collaboration to reduce customer service costs. Features, such a support ticket system, allow multiple departments to support a customer and reduce costs by limiting communication to a web-based format.

Integrates call centres enabling multi-channel personal customer interaction. Any call centre staff member can interact with a customer while viewing a complete record of all customer details and previous interactions.

Integrates view of the customer while interaction at the transaction level. All staff can view order history and current support status for the customer.


Purposes – CRM, in its broadest sense, means managing all

interactions and business with customers. This includes improving customer service. A good CRM program will allow a business to acquire customers, service the customer, increase the value of the customer to the company, retain good customers, and determine which customers can be retained or given a higher level of service.

– The CRM tools can also provide a fast mechanism for managing and scheduling follow-up sales calls to assess how happy customers are with a product, repurchase probabilities, repurchase times, and repurchase frequencies as well as provide a mechanism to track all points of contact between a customer and the company.


Purposes – The business can use CRM tools to help to identify

potential problems quickly, before they occur and to provide a user-friendly mechanism for registering customer complaints. Once registered the CRM tools offer a fast mechanism for handling problems and complaints.

– CRM tools can also help by: Using internet cookies to track customer interests and

personalise which products are offered to the customer accordingly.

Providing a fast mechanism for managing and scheduling maintenance, repair, and on-going support.

– The CRM can be integrated into other systems within the business to provide accounting and production information to customers when they want it.


Privacy Concerns– Increase use of CRM technologies makes it difficult for

people to control the information that's captured about their personal life and activities. Data supplied by an individual for one purpose can easily be used for another, entirely different purpose.

– There's a growing trend for customers to opt out of marketing schemes, and legislation is beginning to prohibit the use of traditional communications such as mass mailing and emailing.

– Recent research shows that 78% of people are concerned about companies holding information on them.

– The Data Protect Act provides some level of protection to customers in the UK but in an increasingly global market consumer privacy is becoming a major consideration.


Ethical Concerns– Ethical problems can occur a company tries to anticipate the

needs of individual customers. This sounds like a good idea, and it is a good thing when it works correctly, but a business has to be careful that it doesn't pigeonhole people in ways to which they might take exception.

– Customers, by definition, decide what their needs are; a CRM application can't make those decisions for them. A company and its computer software can never know an individual customer's future objectives based on his or her past actions. It can only guess at the objectives of groups or classes of customers based on statistical analysis. Reaching conclusions about individuals based on the groups or classes they happen to belong to is an uncertain business at best. It's a process that statisticians refer to as discrimination. This is a neutral term in a description of statistical techniques, but anywhere else, it can easily imply a stance that is morally and legally objectionable. Discrimination is such a sensitive subject that the mere hint of unfairness in separating one group of customers from another to treat them differently has the potential to lead to adverse publicity and legal action.


Ethical Concerns– As long as the message which goes out is

consistent, it's not a problem. If there appear to be inconsistencies, the company's integrity is called into question. Very few companies have experimented with customizing the pages of their web sites for individual customers, and for good reason. If a customer suspects that a company is trying to hide something by removing information from the web pages it shows, he/she can easily find this out by having someone else look at the same web pages. But if a customer is forced to obscure his/her identity to get around a company's CRM system, this not only negates the CRM efforts but means that the company's CRM efforts are being used against them, and for all practical purposes, a company has no way to find out that its customers are doing this.

Description of an on-line database system – E-Commerce

E-Commerce – Electronic Commerce (also referred to as EC, e-commerce

eCommerce or ecommerce) consists primarily of the distributing, buying, selling, marketing and servicing of products or services over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks.

– The information technology industry might see it as an electronic business application aimed at commercial transactions; in this context, it can involve electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, e-marketing, online marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI), automated inventory management systems, and automated data collection systems.

– Electronic commerce typically uses electronic communications technology of the WWW, at some point in the transaction's lifecycle, although of course electronic commerce frequently depends on computer technologies other than the World Wide Web, such as databases, and e-mail, and on other non-computer technologies, such as transportation for physical goods sold via e-commerce.


E-Commerce – Today, it encompasses a very wide range of business activities

and processes, from e-banking to offshore manufacturing to e-logistics. The ever growing dependence of modern industries on electronically enabled business processes gave impetus to the growth and development of supporting systems, including backend systems, applications and middleware.

Examples are broadband and fiber-optic networks, supply-chain management software, customer relationship management software, inventory control systems and financial accounting software.

– When the Web first became well-known among the general public in 1994, many journalists and pundits forecast that e-commerce would soon become a major economic sector. However, it took about four years for security protocols (like HTTPS) to become sufficiently developed and widely deployed. Subsequently, between 1998 and 2000, a substantial number of businesses in the United States and Western Europe developed rudimentary web sites.


In many cases, an e-commerce company will survive not only based on its product. Such factors include:

– Sufficient work done in market research and analysis. E-commerce is not exempt from good business planning and the fundamental laws of supply and demand. Business failure is as much a reality in e-commerce as in any other form of business.

– A good management team armed with information technology strategy. A company's IT strategy should be a part of the business re-design process.

– Providing an easy and secured way for customers to effect transactions. Credit cards are the most popular means of sending payments on the internet, accounting for 90% of online purchases. In the past, card numbers were transferred securely between the customer and merchant through independent payment gateways. Such independent payment gateways are still used by most small and home businesses. Most merchants today process credit card transactions on site through arrangements made with commercial banks or credit cards companies.

– Providing reliability and security. Parallel servers, hardware redundancy, fail-safe technology, information encryption, and firewalls can enhance this requirement.

– Providing a 360-degree view of the customer relationship, defined as ensuring that all employees, suppliers, and partners have a complete view, and the same view, of the customer. However, customers may not appreciate the big brother experience.

– Constructing a commercially sound business model.


A successful e-commerce organization must also provide an enjoyable and rewarding experience to its customers. Many factors go into making this possible. Such factors include:

Providing value to customers. Vendors can achieve this by offering a product or product-line that attracts potential customers at a competitive price, as in non-electronic commerce.

Providing service and performance. Offering a responsive, user-friendly purchasing experience, just like a flesh-and-blood retailer, may go some way to achieving these goals.

Providing an incentive for customers to buy and to return. Sales promotions to this end can involve coupons, special offers, and discounts. Cross-linked websites and advertising affiliate programs can also help.

Providing personal attention. Personalized web sites, purchase suggestions, and personalized special offers may go some of the way to substituting for the face-to-face human interaction found at a traditional point of sale.

Providing a sense of community. Chat rooms, discussion boards, soliciting customer input and loyalty programs (sometimes called affinity programs) can help in this respect.


Even if a provider of E-commerce goods and services rigorously follows these "key factors" to devise an exemplary e-commerce strategy, problems can still arise. Sources of such problems include:

– Failure to understand customers, why they buy and how they buy. Even a product with a sound value proposition can fail if producers and retailers do not understand customer habits, expectations, and motivations.

– Failure to consider the competitive situation. – Inability to predict environmental reaction. What will competitors

do? Will they introduce competitive brands or competitive web sites? Will they supplement their service offerings? Will they try to sabotage a competitor's site? Will price wars break out? What will the government do?

– Over-estimation of resource competence. Can staff, hardware, software, and processes handle the proposed strategy? Have e-tailers failed to develop employee and management skills?

– Failure to coordinate. If existing reporting and control relationships do not suffice, one can move towards a flat, accountable, and flexible organizational structure, which may or may not aid coordination


Consumers have accepted the e-commerce business model less readily than its proponents originally expected. Several reasons might account for the slow uptake, including:

– Concerns about security. Many people will not use credit cards over the Internet due to concerns about theft and credit card fraud.

– Lack of instant gratification with most e-purchases (non-digital purchases). Much of a consumer's reward for purchasing a product lies in the instant gratification of using and displaying that product. This reward does not exist when one's purchase does not arrive for days or weeks.

– The problem of access to web commerce, mainly for poor households and for developing countries. Low penetration rates of Internet access in some sectors greatly reduces the potential for e-commerce.

– The social aspect of shopping. Some people enjoy talking to sales staff, to other shoppers, or to their cohorts: this social reward side of retail therapy does not exist to the same extent in online shopping.

– Poorly designed, bug-infested e-Commerce web sites that frustrate online shoppers and drive them away.

– Inconsistent return policies among e-tailers or difficulties in exchange/return.

Comparison of Open Source and Commercial On-line Database Software and related issues

Open Source Software: an antonym for closed source software and refers to any computer software whose source code is available under a license (or arrangement such as the public domain) that permits users to study, change, and improve the software, and to redistribute it in modified or unmodified form.

Closed source code must be hidden from the public and competitors who might otherwise reproduce or modify the code, either to resell the product or for other malicious reasons. Software companies that follow the closed source model see it as a way to protect their products from software piracy or misuse, from reverse engineering and duplication, and to maintain competitive advantage and vendor lock-in. Closed source software usually is developed and maintained by a relatively small team who produce their "product" in a compiled executable state, which is what the market is allowed access to


cost effectiveness– Making money through traditional methods, such as

sale of the use of individual copies and patent royalty payment, is more difficult and sometimes impractical with open-source software. Some closed-source advocates see open-source software as damaging to the market of commercial software. This complaint is countered by a large number of alternative funding streams such as:

giving away the software and charging for installation and support;

make the software available as open-source so that people will be more likely to purchase a related product or service you do sell;

cost avoidance / cost sharing: many developers need a product, so it makes sense to share development costs.


Security– Some people believe that closed source software is more

secure than open source software. With any given piece of software, it's much easier for a black hat to find and exploit security holes in any given piece of software when he has the source code than without it.

– Other people believe that open source software is more secure than closed source software. The availability of open source code leads to faster discovery of security issues, and faster resolution of these issues. They point to the exploitation of proprietary software such as Internet Explorer. But others claim that such software is exploited because it has a large market share—making it an attractive target for attackers—and claim that open-source software would also be exploited if it attracted the attention of those attackers.


Flexibility and Adaptability,– Open source software can be changed by

the owner of the software not just the developer.

– Closed source software can only be changed by the original developer.


• Ongoing support and development by a community of users .• Closed-source software vendors typically provide a "one-stop

shop" for all support matters: since the vendor developed the software (and appropriately licensed any included components that were developed by others), the vendor also provides all necessary support functions. Nobody else can provide the level of support that the original vendor does, simply because nobody else has the requisite access to the source code (not just to understand how it works, but to make modifications and fix bugs).

• Open-source offers an alternative model, where easy access to the source code allows the proliferation of a multitude of alternative support organizations, each remaining small enough to remain responsive to the needs of its own set of customers. With ready access to the source code, anybody can find a bug or shortcoming in the software, and submit a patch for it all the way back to the original software developers, who in turn can very quickly decide whether the patch is worth accepting or not. It is often said that the more eyes looking for bugs reduce them, and with more people looking for bugs, then looking to exploit them, it is no wonder bug fixes may be faster for open source projects.

Description of applications and features of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)

EDI stands for Electronic Data Interchange. It is a technique for businesses to exchange information in an electronic format, rather than via paper documents.

EDI offers the prospect of easy and cheap communication of structured information throughout the corporate community, and is capable of achieving much closer working relationships between previously remote organisations.

A more careful definition of EDI is 'the exchange of documents in standardised electronic form, between organisations, in an automated manner, directly from a computer application in one organisation to an application in another'.

Despite being relatively unknown, in this era of technologies such as the Internet and the World Wide Web, EDI is still the data format used by the vast majority of electronic commerce transactions in the world.

Description of applications and features of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)

How does it work?– The sender creates the application file using their

own Application System. The file is then translated into an EDI standard format and the file created is a Transaction set. The transaction set is a single business document. There are hundreds of Transaction Sets available and transaction sets are defined EDI standards. Purchase orders, invoices and shipment notices are all examples of transaction sets.

– This file is then transmitted either through a value added network (such as the Internet) or via a direct connection to the receiving business. The receiver takes the transaction set and translates the file from the EDI standard format to a file that can be used by the receiving Application System. Thus the cycle of EDI continues.

Description of applications and features of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) – Translation Software

Flat Files– Some translation software packages require users to

create a separate file following a specific format, normally by executing a query on the data held in their database and storing the results in a file.

– That file, typically referred to as a flat file, is a specially formatted American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) text file.

– A flat file forces the standardisation of data from various files and in different formats so that the EDI translation software can locate and use the data to either create an EDI-formatted message or translate the data in such a message back into a flat file.

Description of applications and features of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) – Translation Software

Transaction Set Mapper– That program cross-references the contents of the

user-defined flat file with an EDI standard transaction set and subsequently translates the flat-file information into the desired transaction set. Essentially, a transaction set mapper automates the process of generating the transaction set from the application software database.

– A transaction set mapper offers two primary benefits:

it reduces the amount of application interface programming by editing data before it is accepted by the application software, and

it reduces the amount of maintenance programming in support of the application system interface programs.

Description of applications and features of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) – Application System Interface

Application system interface software has a vital role in both outgoing and incoming data flows.

– During the outgoing flow, it extracts data from your application system and places it in a flat file for subsequent conversion into EDI-formatted data prior to transmission to one or more trading partners. The application system interface software removes the requirement for a user to manually create the flat file required by the translation software.

– When the data flow is reversed, the application system interface software extracts data from a flat file and prepares it for acceptance by your application program. In short, application system interface software either reads or writes flat files of information that are used to pass information between a trading partner's application system and EDI translation software.

Description of applications and features of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) – Communication Software

EDI Value-Added Network (VAN) is a private network provider that is hired by a company to facilitate electronic data interchange or provide other network services. Before the arrival of the www, some companies hired value-added networks to move data from their company to other companies. With the arrival of the www, many companies now find it more cost-efficient to move their data over the Internet instead of paying the minimum monthly fees and per-text character charges made by VAN providers.

In response, contemporary value-added network providers now focus on offering EDI translation, encryption, secure e-mail, management reporting, and other extra services for their customers.


The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has developed two sets of security protocols for transmitting EDI over the Internet (EDI INT): the AS1 and the AS2 protocols. Using software that has been developed around these standards, businesses can securely transmit and receive EDI transaction set data over the Internet.

The "AS" stands for "Applicability Statement" and uses existing standards in a manner that facilitates ease of use in product development. AS1 utilizes the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) mechanism to securely transfer packages of data. The AS2 is an adjustment to the AS1 that extends the specifications by adding Secure Hyper Text Transmission Protocol (HTTPS).

The AS2 specification describes the secure transmission of EDI data in batch mode over the Internet using HTTPS. It is a specification relating to securing and transporting data, not on validating or processing the data. The transported data is then dispatched to the appropriate processor based upon its content-type. This means that EDI translation software is still needed to process the "raw EDI" data.


Rather than sending/receiving data via a VAN (Value Added Network), the data is sent/received via the Internet in accordance with AS1/AS2 security features and imported/exported into the user's application system.

A long term benefit of using EDI INT is the significant reduction and in some cases elimination of the traditional communication costs associated with VANs. A secondary benefit is in the decreased "turn-around" time for business transactions. Traditional EDI is "batch" processed in that messages are grouped together and sent/received at intervals throughout the day. With the AS1 standard, the time is reduced to the transfer time for e-mail, while with AS2, the time has been reduced to nearly instantaneous with direct HTTPS transfers.


To exchange information using EDI, documents must be translated into a format that complies with an EDI standard. Mapping is the initial process that describes how each element of the original document, such as a purchase order or invoice, relates to an "EDI transaction" that complies with the standard being used. The translation software uses this mapping to translate the EDI transactions so they can be used by the receiving organization.

Description of applications and features of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) – Benefits

The key benefits include:– Elimination of keying errors and lost documents. – Fewer discrepancies. – Faster reconciliation process. – Faster payment. – Elimination of duplicate paper processes and associated costs. – Reduction of storage costs as archiving moves to CD-ROM/DVD-

ROM and other electronic storage media. – Less people power devoted to printing, sorting, mailing, coding

and inputting. – Lower postage costs. – Improved flow of information and improved response rate. – More time spent on selling/negotiating instead of on paperwork. – Better inventory management. – More effective and in-depth sales and management reports. – Electronic "paper trail" and ad tracking.

Description of applications and features of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) – Standards

There are two major sets of EDI standards: – UN/EDIFACT is the only international standard and is used in most areas of

the world outside of North America. – ANSI ASC X12 (X12) is popular in North America and used elsewhere

worldwide.

These standards prescribe the formats, character sets, and data elements used in the exchange of documents and forms, such as purchase orders and invoices.

Each standard defines many different document types: Purchase Orders, Shipping Instructions, Educational Institution Record, and so on.

The standard says which pieces of information are mandatory for a particular document, which pieces are optional and give the rules for the structure of the document. The standards are like building regulations. Just as two kitchens can be built "to regulation" but look completely different, two EDI documents can follow the same standard and contain different sets of information.


A standard is a method of coding data to facilitate Electronic Data Interchange (EDI). It provides:

– Rules of syntax – Definition of the data organisation – Editing rules and conventions – Published public documentation (i.e. a Standards Manual)

This provides the user with:– An open system - where trade is possible with anyone who

uses the same standard – Reduced implementation effort - the implementation of a

standard can, itself, be standardised – Third party interfaces - software and network applications

can be written that address specific business needs and conform to a single standard


UN/EDIFACT stands for United Nations/Electronic Data Interchange For Administration, Commerce, and Transport.

The work of maintenance and further development of this standard is done through UN/CEFACT, the United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business under the UN Economic Commission for Europe. EDIFACT has been adopted by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) as the ISO 9735.

UN/EDIFACT provides the following:– a set of syntax rules to structure data (i.e. details of how

transactions sets are to be composed), – an interactive exchange protocol (I-EDI), – standard messages (allows multi-country and multi-industry

exchange).– UN/EDIFACT is commonly used by the travel and tourism

industries including airlines. The following is an example EDIFACT transaction set (message) user to answer a request for product availability (in this case the availability of flights).


ANSI ASC X12 is the official designation of the US National standards body for the development and maintenance of EDI standards for the United States. The X12 Standards manual includes:

– Transaction Set Tables - Transaction Sets are commonly used business transactions (PO, Invoice, etc.). They are made up of Segments which are made up of Data Elements.

– Segment Directory - A listing of all possible segments. – Data Element Dictionary - A definition for all possible data

elements. – Code Sources - ANSI ASC X12 allows industry specific codes.

These codes are not maintained by the ANSI ASC X12 committee but by industry organizations. A list of where to obtain these industry codes can be found in the ASC X12 Standards manual.

– Interactive Control Structure - These are syntax rules at the application level that have been agreed upon by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UN/ECE) for Electronic Data Interchange for Administration, Commerce, and Transport (EDIFACT).

Description of applications and features of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) – XML

XML (Extensible Markup Language) is an initiative that allows information and services to be encoded with meaningful structure and semantics that computers and humans can understand. XML is great for information exchange, as it can easily be extended to include user-specified and industry-specific tags. XML is a specification and standard that both Netscape and Microsoft have endorsed and are including in their latest web browser products.

EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) has traditionally used unique segment identifiers like tokens (see above) to separate and identify data items within messages. So replacing those same segments with Web tokens allows XML to express EDI and carry EDI via Web delivery methods. This moves EDI from being a ridged and static format into the dynamic mainstream of computing and the Internet.


The disadvantage of traditional EDI is its own fixed structures and inflexibility. XML/EDI adds three additional key components which give it greater flexibility:

– Rule templates, – Software Agents, and – Global repositories.

These three components transform traditional EDI into XML/EDI that allows full dynamic electronic trading between business partners. Traditional EDI is very static, what XML/EDI provides is a dynamic process that can be infinitely extended by adding customised tokens.


XML itself provides the foundation. The Web was based on the abilities of the HTML language, itself a very limited subset of the original and highly complex SGML document syntax.

XML conveys contents and structure, not presentation and behaviour. The structure of XML documents can be (but need not be) formally described in a Document Type Definition (DTD).

To put it simply, each logical part (known as an XML element) is marked up/surrounded by tags. Together with attributes, tags are used to structure information. XML elements may be repeated and nested at any depth to allow, for instance, several <orderlines> in an <order>.

The XML syntax has rapidly imposed itself as a popular format for exchange of information on the web. Around this syntax, a large set of companion standards and tools are being developed. The acronym XML often refers to the whole family of standards and products built around the XML syntax; they are often written in the Java programming language. XML Document Object Model, XML Schema, XLink/XPointer, Extensible Style Sheets Language (XSL), Resource Description Framework (RDF) are some of these companion standards.

XML elements replace or supplement existing EDI segment identifiers. XML also brings with it all the capabilities and transport layers of the Web and the Internet in general.


Document Type Definitions: A Document Type Definition (DTD) is a formal description of the full structure of an XML document (such as an XML/EDI message) with relevant sets of values (allowed and defaulted values).

It is used for example to check the syntactical and structural validity of an incoming XML/EDI message (e.g. correct sequence and nesting of XML/EDI elements) and validate the transmitted values - by comparing them with the allowed values listed in the DTD.In that sense, DTDs play a role similar to the existing UNSM (United Nations/EDIFACT Standard Message) specifications (e.g. structure of a message type - however without the functional description).EDI provides the ability to express data in a simple format and send it to someone else so they can interpret the information they have just received. XML/EDI provides 100% backward compatibility to existing EDI transactions.

This means that businesses not have to discard their existing investment in EDI systems and knowledge.


XML is a mechanism for transmitting data and not behaviour. XML does not define the processes associated with the data but the rule templates can do this. The Rule Templates define the processes associated with the XML data. Rule templates are business process descriptors.

Templates are globally referenced (i.e. held in repository) or travel along inside the XML as a special section and set of tokens, and can be easily read and interpreted, they look rather like a spreadsheet in layout and content. The rule template defines the business processes associated with the XMl/EDI document.


Software Agents– Software agents serve several functions. First, they

interpret the Rule Templates for performing the work needed.

– Second, they interact with the definition of the XML transaction data and the destination business application system to integrate each specific task. This means that the Software Agent uses data from the XML transaction set and the destination system to map and convert data as required.

– Third, they look up and attach the right template for existing jobs by accessing the Global Repository.

Documents

Internet Developments Description of applications of on-line database systems including: – Content Management Systems; – Customer Relationship Management;