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Chapter 4: EC - Framework and components

IT357 Electronic Commerce

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EC - Framework and components

1. An EC framework

2. Policy and regulatory issues in EC

3. EC requirements and services

4. Components of EC

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An EC framework

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Cont’d: An EC framework The Information Super highway

• A mixture of high speed networks– Land based telephone networks– Air based wireless– Modem based PC– Satellite based systems– Internet

• The players: information transport providers– Telecom companies– Cable TV companies– Satellite networks

• Includes– Hardware and software tools that provide interfaces to the various networks– Customer premise equipment– TV set top boxes– Hubs, routers and digital switches

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Cont’d: An EC framework Multimedia content and network publishing

• WWW - The most prevalent architecture that enables network publishing. Uses HTML.

Messaging and information distribution • Information created and transferred across the

networks consist of a variety of formats• Middleware – a special messaging and information

distribution agents that carry the contents across the network.

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Cont’d: An EC framework Business services infrastructure

• Includes processes for facilitating on-line business transactions – e.g. Visa's Secure Electronic Transaction (SET)

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Cont’d: An EC framework Other Key Support Layers

• Public Policy related to EC

– Encompasses such issues as privacy, universal access and information pricing

– Information traffic policy deals with• Cost of accessing information

• Regulation to protect consumer from fraud na right to privacy

• Policing global information to detect information piracy and pornography

• Standards – Ensures compatibility in information publishing tools, user

interfaces and transportation of information

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Components of EC

• EDI– “The interorganisational computer-to-computer exchange of

structured information in a standard machine processable format”• Intranet

– internal corporate web server- a secure collection of websites belonging to a group

• Extranet– could involve two or more intranets that are linked together and

accessible to each other's members and made possible through an agreement between the partners

• Digital Currency– electronic "digital cash" and stored-value "smart cards"

• Electronic catalogues– any graphical user interface (a WWW) that presents information on

products and services offered by a commercial entity

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Cont’d: Components of ECEDI

• EDI messages are created and delivered through four steps – Mapping

• Process of identifying the elements within the database needed to create an EDI message– Extraction

• Process of collecting the pre-identified data and placing them into a usable format• Data is extracted from the database and restructured into a flat file• Structure of the flat file is specified by the translation software

– Translation• From the flat file format actual EDI message is generated using a translation software• The software arranges the data in the exact structure necessary to meet EDI requirements

– Communication• Actual transmission of the message• Controlled by communication software that :

– maintains a list of phone numbers of trading partners– performs automatic dialing and up/downloads– produces an activity log

• Each EDI message is enclosed in an envelope with:– Destination address– EDI transaction type as header– Error checking codes - check sum as trailer

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Cont’d: Components of ECEDI - Barriers to EDI Implementation

• Restricted to large companies due to high investment costs

• Smaller players squeezed out in favor of large ones.• Inflexible standards used ( X12 and EDIFACT)• Addition of new transaction types is tedious because

it has to go through a standards committee before the translation software can be updated

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Cont’d: Components of ECIntranet

• Internal corporate web server • Provides:

– E-mail facilities– On-line publishing of corporate documents– Online searches and application distribution

Extranet • The facilities of the intranet can be extended to business partners

through an extranet.• Refers to an extended intranet.• Involves two or more intranets that are linked together and

accessible to each other’s members through an agreement.

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Cont’d: Components of ECDigital currency

• Intended to permit the users to move funds electronically within an environment.

• Involve “tokens” of value expressed in digital form• Designed to function as their paper equivalents • With the same attributes - anonymity and liquidity• Characteristics:

– Depends on cryptography for security– Requires loading from funds held within a financial system– Similar to transferring of cash to a smart card using an ATM

machine.

• Classified as:– Electronic digital cash– Stored value “smart cards”.

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Cont’d: Components of ECDigital currency

• Electronic Cash

• Refers to money exchanged electronically

• E.g. Singapore’s NETS

• Stored value cards – Portable storage and retrieval of data– Components - microprocessors, non static RAM, ROM and

EPROM– Mondex International - the world’s leading manufacturer of

smart cards, a subsidiary of MasterCard– Octopus Card

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Cont’d: Components of ECElectronic Catalogues

• The earliest commercial applications designed for the web.• A graphical user interface that presents information on products and services offered by a

commercial entity.• Supports on-line shopping, ordering and payment processing.• Features

– Interactivity– Dynamic updating capability– “Hypertextuality”– Global presence

• Functionalities– Content– Presentation– Back-end processing– Computational services– Usage tracking

• Types– Stand Alone e.g. amazon.com– Electronic Mall e.g. asia1.com.sg– Embedded e.g. hp.com