itgs case study may and nov 2011

8/3/2019 ITGS Case Study May and Nov 2011

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7 pages

M&N11/3/ITGSX/HP3/ENG/TZ0/XX/CS

For use in May and November 2011.

InformatIon technology In a global socIety

case stUDy: DeVeloPIng anD rUnnIng an onlIne bUsIness

INSTRUCTIONS TO CANDIDATES

Case study booklet required for higher level paper 3 information technology in a global society

examinations.

International Baccalaureate Organization 2010


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2 M&N11/3/ITGSX/HP3/ENG/TZ0/XX/CS

Foreword

TheITGScasestudy,Developing and Running an Online Business,isthestimulusmaterialfortheresearch

investigationrequiredforMayandNovember2011higherlevelpaper3.Alloftheworkrelatedtothe

casestudyshouldreecttheintegratedapproachexplainedonpage8oftheITGSguide.

CandidatesshouldconsiderDeveloping and Running an Online Businesswithrespectto:

webcontentmanagementsystems(WebCMSs)andproviders

businessesthatsellonline

companiesthatprovideservicesforbusinessesthatsellonline

websitesthatsellsimilarproductsonline.

Candidatesareexpectedtoresearchreal-lifesituationssimilartoDeveloping and Running an Online Business

and relate theirndings torst-hand experienceswherever possible. Information should becollected

through secondary research and primary investigations, such as eld trips, guest speakers,

personalinterviews,e-mailcorrespondence,hands-onactivitiesandotherappropriatemethods.

CandidatesareexpectedtoresearchthevocabularyandconceptsthatarerelatedtotheITtechnologies

inthecasestudy.

Responses to examination questions must reect the synthesis of knowledge and experiences that

the candidates have gained from their investigations. In some instances, additional informationmay

beprovidedinexaminationquestionstoallowcandidatestogeneratenewideas.


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Overview

Carmen Machado owns a business, Foto Creativa, specializing in providing memorabilia

forfamilies.SheisbasedinSantander,northernSpain,andrunsthebusinessfromashopinthe

centreofthecity.

Carmen studied in England for several years and was awarded a university degree

inCreativeDigitalMedia. Whenshe returned toSpainshe set upa simpleweb site tohelp

advertiseherbusiness.Overthethreeyearsthatthebusinesshasoperatedithasincreaseditsrange

ofservicestoincludethefollowing:

digitizingphotos,modifyingandimprovingimages/photosfromcustomers

editingvideo,convertingvideoandhomemoviestodigitalmedia

creatingandsellingdigitalphotoalbums

stitchingphotostogethertoformoneimage

creating multimedia presentations combining text, images, videos, animation and other

digitalelements sellingposters,mugs,t-shirtsandotherproductswithcustomerimagesandphotographs.

Examples of products sold by Foto Creativa

[Source:http://evansonart.com,6November2009]

Carmenhasfoundthatasherbusinesshasgrown,shehashadlesstimetoprovideagoodservice

toallofhercustomers.


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Current IT systems

Carmensshop,Foto Creativa,hasthefollowingITresources:

two computers, each with a large, high resolution monitor suitable for professional

photographyandvideo

ascanner aphoto-qualityprinter

ahigh-enddigitalcameraanddigitalvideocamera

alaptopsuitablefordemonstratinganddisplayingworktocustomers

professionalsoftwareforphotographyandvideowork

desktoppublishingsoftware

webdevelopmentsoftware

asmallnetworkwithaserver,includingaRAIDbackupsystem

broadbandInternetaccess

aspreadsheetforkeepingallnancialandcustomerrecords.

Carmen is currently using almost all of the free 50MB web space provided by her

Internetserviceprovider(ISP).ThisonlyallowshertohaveHTMLpages,withimagesandtext

inEnglishandSpanish.

She realizes that to improve her web site, which will include completely redesigning it,

sheisgoingtoneedtomakemajordecisions.

Carmen carried out some initial research into developing the improved web site herself,

but soon realized that researching, designing, building and testing, hosting and marketing

anonline businesswould takemore time than she couldafford. Also,she knew she did not

have the technical knowledge todo this and thereforesought the adviceofSergioMartinez,

ane-commerceconsultant.

Web content management system (Web CMS) and applications

To run ane-commercebusinesssuccessfully,Carmenneedsaweb contentmanagement system

(WebCMS)to:

organize and present information about her products and services through a consistent

userinterface

providee-marketing interfacedatafromthecentraldatabase

providesecureaccesstocustomerstoviewanduploadles

provideane-commercefacility(withashoppingcartservice).


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However, there are technical requirements that Carmen must meet whether she chooses

afreeorcommercialWebCMS.Shewillneed:

adomainname

ahostingaccountoneofthemorepopularcongurationsincludes:

- MySQLdatabasemanagementsystem(DBMS)

- PHP/otherscriptinglanguage- Linuxoperatingsystem

- Apachewebserver

ashoppingcartsystempurchasedoropensource

apaymentmerchantaccount

SSL-encryptedwebsitepages.

User interface

Successfulbusinessesuseastandardappearanceandstructurefortheirwebsitesanddocuments.Carmenmustensure that alltheweb pageshaveaconsistentappearance. She isconsidering

whethertousecommercialoropensourcesoftwaretodevelopthewebsite.

E-marketing

Carmen wishes to expand the marketing of her products and services over the Internet.

Sheisconsideringimplementingsomeofthefollowing:

anopt-ine-newsletter

adbanners

ablogonherwebsite

RSSfeeds

bulke-mails

sitetrafcanalysis/web-counters

multimediacontent.

AlsosearchengineoptimizationcanincreasethelikelihoodofCarmengeneratingmorebusiness.

There are many ways to enable her company to appear higher up on a search result list.

Somemethodsarepaidforandotherswillrequireknowledgeofhowsearchengineswork.

Database and applications

Underpinning any e-business there is always a database. In this case, it holds details

ofcustomers,productsandorders.Aswithanyotherdatabase,itisbestmanagedwithaDBMS,

whichprovidesapplicationswithaninterfacetotheunderlyingdata.ADBMSwillalsoprevent

unintentionaldatacorruption.MySQLisawidelyusedDBMSthatcanbeaccessedbymany

programming languages such as PHP. Many shopping cart services and other web-based

applicationsarewritteninPHPinterfacingwithMySQL.


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Providing security

In addition to the security measures required for running an e-commerce web site with

ashoppingcart,itisnecessarytoprovidesecuremethodsforensuringtheprotectionofcustomer

dataandthelesthattheyuploadforprocessingbyFoto Creativa.

Considerationhastobegiventotheinstallationofanti-virusandanti-spywaresoftware,inaddition

torewallandInternetsecuritytoolstoprotectthewebsiteanditsunderlyingdata.

E-commerce with shopping cart

Inordertosellproductsorservicesfromawebsite,Carmenwillneedtosetupashoppingcart.

Thiscanbeimplementedthroughathirdpartywebsiteorrunfromherownwebsite.

Hostingyourownshoppingcartisgenerallyseenasamuchmoreaffordablesolutionandinvolvesanumberofchallenges.However,runningashoppingcartthroughathirdpartywebsitewillalso

haveitsshareofchallenges.

Challenges faced

Carmen has decided that she needs further information on how to develop the business

inthefuture.Sergioidentiedissuesthatwouldrequirefurtherinvestigationbeforeanynal

decisioncouldbemadeabouthowtodevelopthebusinessfurther:

howcustomersandpotentialcustomerscanbeinformedofnewproductsandoffersthroughthe

websiteorothere-marketingtechniques

differentprojectmanagementtechniquestodevelopthenewwebsite

howarangeofmultimediafeaturescanbeeffectivelyintegratedonthewebsite

howproductsarepurchasedthroughtheuseofanappropriateshoppingcartservice

arangeofopensourceandcommercialWebCMSs

methods of payment for goods (and delivery) purchased using the shopping cart,

suchasPayPal,creditcardpaymentsanddirectdeposittoaccount

appropriateprivacyandotherpoliciesforthewebsite

searchengineoptimizationsothatthewebsiteappearsontherstpageofresults

theroleofwebsitetrafcanalysis

techniquesthatcanbeusedtosecureawebsite policiesthatcouldleadtoasecurewebsite

therelationshipsbetweenthedata,theDBMSandapplications

thefeaturesofferedbyarangeofweb-hostingservices.


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Specic Information Technology items, additional to those in the ITGS Guide, which are associated

with developing and running an online business web site

Backupstrategies

CascadingStyleSheets(CSS)

DenialofserviceattackDomainNameSystem

Ganttchart

HTML

HTTPS

Internetserviceprovider(ISP)

IPaddress

JavaScript

MySQL

Opensource

PagerankingPayperclickadvertising

Paymentmerchantaccount

Paymentoptionse.g.PayPal/creditcardpayment/directdeposittoanaccount

PHP

Projectmanagement

RAID

RSSfeeds

Searchengineoptimization

Shoppingcartsoftware

Sitetrafcanalysis

SQLWeb2.0technologies

Webcontentmanagementsystem(WebCMS)

Any individuals named in this case study are fctitious and any similarities with actual entities

are purely coincidental.

itgs case study may and nov 2011

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