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Part 1

Network Computing:

Discovery, Communication,

& Collaboration

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Learning Objectives

Understand the concepts of the Internet and the Web, their importance, and their capabilities.

Understand the role of intranets, extranets, and corporate portals in organizations.

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Internet Application CategoriesThe Internet supports applications in the following major categories:

Discovery. Discovery involves browsing and information retrieval.

Communication. The Internet provides fast and inexpensive communication channels that range from messages posted on bulletin boards to complex information exchanges among many organizations.

Collaboration. Due to improved communication, electronic collaboration between individuals and/or groups is on the rise.

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Discovery Discovery is done by browsing &

searching data on the Web. There are 2 main types of search facilities

available on the Web: Search engines (e.g., Altavista, Google)

maintain an index of hundreds of millions of Web pages and use that index to find pages that match a set of user-specified keywords.

Directories (e.g., Yahoo!, About.com) provide a hierarchically organized collection of links to Web pages.

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Intranet Intranets (Internal

Webs) are networks designed to serve the internal informational needs of a company, using Web concepts and tools.

Intranets have the power to change organizational structures and reengineer corporations.

Some functions of Intranets:

Easy and inexpensive Internet browsing.

Postings of employee resumes, business plans, and corporate regulations and procedures.

Communication and collaboration capabilities, e.g. newsletters.

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Extranets An Extranet is an infrastructure that allows

secure communications among business partners over the Internet. It offers limited accessibility to the intranets of the

participating companies as well as the necessary interorganizational communications.

The use of extranets is increasing rapidly due to the large savings in communication costs that can materialize.

Extranets enable innovative applications of business-to-business (B2B) e-Commerce. They are closely related to improved communications

along the supply chain

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Corporate Portals With the growing use of intranets and the

Internet, many organizations encounter difficulties in dealing with information overload.

One solution to the problem of scattered and duplicative data are corporate portals. Corporate portals provide single-point access

to an organization’s information and applications available on the Internet, intranets, and extranets.

Affinity portals are being built to support communities such as labor minors, hobby groups, and political parties .

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Corporate Portals (cont.)

The top corporate portal applications currently under development include;

Knowledge bases and learning tools Business process support Customer-facing sales, marketing, and service Collaboration and project support Access to data from disparate corporate

systems Internal company information Policies and procedures Best practices and lessons learned Human resources and benefits

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IT Technologies for Communications

Several factors determine the IT technologies used to provide communication support to an organization.

Participants. The number of people sending and receiving information can range from two to many thousands.

Nature of sources and destinations. Sources and destinations of information can include people, databases, sensors, and so on.

Location. The sender(s) and receiver(s) can be in the same room, in different rooms at the same location, or at different locations.

Time. Messages can be sent at a certain time and received almost simultaneously.

Media. Communication can involve one or several media.

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Time / Place Framework

Same-time/same-place. In this setting, participants meet face-to-face in one place and at the same time. An example is communication in a meeting room.

Same-time/different-place.This setting refers to a meeting whose participants are in different places but communicate at the same time. E.g., a telephone conference call.

Different-time/same-place. This setting can materialize when people work in shifts. The first shift leaves electronic or voice messages for the second shift.

Different-time/different-place.In this setting, participants are in different places, and they send and/or receive messages at different times.

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Communications Electronic mail (e-

mail) is the most used service of the Internet.

Instant messaging services allow users to identify and exchange instant messages in real time. ICQ is the most popular

instant messaging tool on the Internet.

Messaging in wireless environments offer access to the Internet from cellular phones.

Software agents are programs that execute mundane tasks for the benefit of their users.

E-mail agents assist users with the often time-consuming task of managing their e-mail.

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Collaboration Collaboration refers to

mutual efforts by two or more individuals who perform activities in order to accomplish certain tasks.

A work group refers to two or more individuals who act together to perform some task. E.g., a committee, a review

panel, a task force, an executive board, a team, or a department.

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Groupware Groupware refers to software products that support

groups of people who share a common task or goal and collaborate on its accomplishment.

Groupware products comes in two forms: A standalone product supporting one task (e-mail). An integrated kit that includes several tools (e-mail,

workflow, etc.).

Groupware products are either Web-based, which is the trend today, or they are not related to the Internet and work with other networks.

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Real Time Collaboration Real-time collaboration (RTC) tools help companies

bridge time and space to make decisions and collaborate on projects.

Lotus Notes is one of the best-known of the RTC tools and offers the following functions; online collaboration capabilities, workgroup e-mail,

distributed databases, bulletin whiteboards, text editing, document management, etc.

Microsoft NetMeeting, another RTC package, offers the following; whiteboarding, application sharing, remote desktop

sharing, file transfer, text chat, data conferencing, and desktop audio and videoconferencing.

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Teleconferencing Teleconferencing is the use of electronic

communication that allows two or more people at different locations to have a simultaneous conference.

Video teleconferencing enables participants in one location to see participants at other locations.

Data conferencing enables data to be sent along with voice & video.

Video mail is similar to voice mail; however, the voice and image components of video mail can be created from portions of conferences and stored on a file server.

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Distance Learning (DL) Distance learning (DL) occurs when learning is

performed with tools or technologies designed to overcome the restrictions of either same time or same place learning.

Distant learning courseware packages are software programs that enable distance learning. E.g., Lotus Notes, Microsoft NetMeeting, Novell

GroupWise, and GroupSystems, Lotus Learning Space, WebCT.

Online Corporate Training allow IT organizations to keep their staff members up to date with the latest innovations in IT.

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Ethics on the Net Privacy and ethics in e-mail Right of free speech Copyright The privacy of patients’ information Internet manners Monitoring employees’ use of the

Internet

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Managerial Issues (cont.) Telecommuting. Not all jobs are suitable

for telecommuting.

Cost-benefit justification. Information technologies do not come free, and many of the benefits are intangible.

Legal issues. There are many unresolved legal issues.

Managing the intranet. This is becoming a major problem due to the ease of placing material on an intranet and the huge volume of information.

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Electronic

Commerce

Part 2

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Learning Objectives Describe electronic commerce, its dimensions,

benefits, limitations, and process.

Describe the major applications of e-commerce in the business-to-customer area.

Describe B2B models and relate them to supply chain management.

Describe e-commerce in service industries.

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Electronic Commerce (EC) Electronic Commerce involves making business

transactions via telecommunications networks, primarily the Internet. It is also sometimes referred to as e-business (or e-

biz) Evolution of EC:

Electronic commerce applications began in the early 1970s.

Electronic data interchange (EDI) extended the types of participating companies.

EC applications expanded rapidly with the commercialization of the Internet in the early 1990s.

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Electronic Framework

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The Field of ECThe field of EC can be divided into two

segments:

1. Electronic markets, or e-marketplaces - networks of interactions and relationships where information, products, services, and payments are exchanged. B2C, company-centric, and B2B transactions.

2. Interorganizational information systems (IOS) - information flow among two or more organizations. Applies to B2B applications only

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Benefits of ECSome benefits of EC to organizations are:

EC allows vendors to reach a large number of customers, anywhere around the globe, at a very low operating cost.

Companies can procure materials and services from other companies rapidly and less expensively.

Marketing distribution channels can be drastically cut or eliminated.

EC decreases the cost of based information by as much as 90%.

Customer services and relationships are facilitated by interactive, one-to-one communication, at a low cost.

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Benefits of EC (cont.)

Some benefits of EC to consumers are: EC often provides customers with less expensive

products and services by allowing them to shop in many places.

EC provides customers with more choices.

EC enables customers to shop 24 hours a day, year round, from almost any location.

Customers can receive relevant and detailed information and other services in seconds.

EC enables consumers to get customized products and services.

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Benefits of EC (cont.)Some benefits of EC to society are:

EC is a major facilitator of the digital economy.

EC enables more individuals to work at home, resulting in less traffic and lower air pollution.

EC allows some goods to be sold at lower prices, so less affluent people can buy them, increasing their standard of living.

EC enables people in developing countries and rural areas to enjoy products and services previously unavailable.

EC facilitates a superior delivery of public services.

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Limitations of EC Technical Limitations

Lack of universally accepted standards

Insufficient bandwidth

Still-evolving software development tools

Difficulties in integrating the Internet and EC software

Non-Technical Limitations

Legal issues

National and international government regulations

Difficulty of measuring EC benefits

Customer resistance

Lack of a critical mass

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Models of EC Business-to-Business (B2B) Business-to-Consumers (B2C) Consumer-to-Organizations (C2O) Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C) Intrabusiness (Intraorganizational)

Commerce Government-to-Citizens (G2C) Collaborative commerce (c-

commerce) Mobile Commerce (m-commerce)

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B2C e-Commerce

Business-to-consumer EC can be done in two major ways:

1. Companies sell direct to the customer. Such direct marketing has the advantage of

personalization and customization.

2. Companies use an intermediary. There are two types of online infomediaries:

1. Pure online e-tailers e.g. www.amazon.com.

2. ”Click-and-mortar” retailers

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Disintermediation & Reintermediation

Disintermediation Using the Internet,

manufacturers can sell directly to customers and provide customer support online.

In this sense, the traditional intermediaries may be eliminated.

Re-intermediation The emergence of a

new breed of electronic intermediaries.

These include; e-malls directory and search-

engine services market makers comparison-shopping

agents

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Impact of EC on Distribution Strategy

Avoiding channel conflicts

Coexistence with the dealers

Regionally mixed strategy

Restraint of competition by

powerful distributors

In-company channel conflicts

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Models of Market Research

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B2B Models

Sell-side model

One company sells to many electronically.

Forward auctions

www.marshall.com. (one-to-many)

Buy-side model

An organization (usually large) buys from many vendors.

Reverse auctions

(many-to-one)

Exchanges

Marketplaces in which many buyers and sellers meet.

(many-to-many)

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Using EC in Service Industries:Cyberbanking

Cyberbanking (electronic banking)

Bill-Paying Online Automatic payment of mortgages Paying bills from online banking account, etc.

Personal Finance Bill paying and electronic check writing Tracking bank accounts, expenditures, and credit

cards Budget management and organization, etc.

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Other EC Services

Job Market Online Participants include: (1) Job seekers (2)

Job offerers (3) Recruitment firms (4) Newsgroups.

Travel and Tourism Real Estate Non-Internet Applications

e.g. Smart cards

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M-Commerce

M-commerce (mobile commerce) refers to the conduct of e-commerce via wireless devices.

Advantages of M-Commerce Mobility Reachability Ubiquity Convenience Location of products and services

L-commerce

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EC Failures The major wave of EC failures started in 2000, as

secondary funding that was needed by Internet-based EC began to dry up.

Here are some examples; PointCast, a pioneer in the personalized Web-casting,

folded in 1998 due to an incorrect business model.

An Internet mall, operated by Open Market, was closed in 1996 due to an insufficient number of buyers.

E-toys, a virtual toy retailer that impacted the entire toy industry folded in 2001 due to inability to generate profit.

Advertising company Advertexpress.com, in the U.K., failed due to lack of second-round funding.

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Managerial Issues Managing resistance to

change.

Integration of e-Commerce into the business environment.

Lack of qualified personnel and outsourcing.

Choosing the company’s strategy toward e-Commerce

Alliances. It is not a bad idea to join an alliance of companies to explore e-Commerce.

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Managerial Issues (cont.) Implementation plan.

Because of the complexity and multifaceted nature of EC, it makes sense to prepare an implementation plan.

Responding to e-mail. Some companies are flooded by e-mail queries, requests, or complaints.

Justifying EC by conducting a cost-benefit analysis.

Privacy. In electronic payment systems, it may be necessary to protect the identity of buyers.

Order fulfillment. Taking orders in EC may be easier than fulfilling them.

The impacts. The impacts of EC may be dramatic.