E Business Project

E-BUSINESS SHIRAF
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TASK 1 TASK 1.1 Extended Purchasing Subsystem

There are several uses and transaction types available within the Extended Purchasing Subsystem. Included in this module are requisitioning, bidding, purchasing, receiving and vendor invoicing functions. Online agencies are required to use the Extended Purchasing Subsystem for purchases; however, general use of the remaining functions of this module of MMRS/SAAS is optional. The Extended Purchasing Subsystem of MMRS/SAAS is used by online agencies to distinguish the type of purchase being made. Just as baseline purchases are linked to expenditures and disbursements, so are extended purchasing transactions. Data entered on one transaction can automatically be brought to the next document in the cycle, whether it is within the Extended Purchasing Subsystem or the Expenditure/Disbursement module. In the MMRS/SAAS system, this is referred to as a reference facility. Extended Purchasing Process Each agency must determine, at the time it chooses to become an online user of the MMRS/SAAS system, which features of the Extended Purchasing Subsystem it will implement. The functions of this module are detailed below. Requisitioning Function An internal request to purchase is recorded on a Requisition (RX) transaction. Generally, the Requisitions are entered by users outside of the agency's purchasing department and transmitted as a request to that department to make the purchases. The requisition transaction merely states intent to purchase and does not represent an obligation. This transaction does not create an encumbrance but a pre-encumbrance. Requisitions are validated against an agency's available funds. If funds are not available (uncommitted), the transaction will be rejected Bidding Function MMRS/SAAS has a bidding function which enables a purchasing department to track its bids. This function has not been used by an online agency. The bidding function allows bid creation, selection of vendors to receive bid notification, bid tabulation and bid award. In addition, tracking can occur on responses received, opening and closing bid dates and other similar items. Bids can contain more than one commodity; each commodity is represented as a separate line on each bid. Vendors can respond by bid lines.
1|Page IBS Kandy Campus HND in Business and IT
E-BUSINESS
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SHIRAF Purchasing Function The purchasing function of the Extended Purchasing Subsystem provides several separate purchasing documents which distinguish the type of purchase to be made. The Extended Purchasing Subsystem provides detailed information on the types of commodities purchased. Detailed vendor information is available when the purchasing function is used. Receiving Function The receipt of goods may be noted by using the receiving function of MMRS/SAAS. This function also provides notation on the condition of the goods when received. There is no accounting event associated with this function. Vendor Invoicing Function The invoice from the vendor supplying the purchased goods or services may be entered into MMRS/SAAS using the vendor invoicing function of the Extended Purchasing Subsystem. There is no accounting event associated with the Vendor Invoice transaction.
TASK 1.2 The Buying Process

The buying process is the set of steps that a customer chooses to go through with the goal of satisfying a need. Most marketers dont give a lot of thought to the buying processes of their customers. Thats a shame. Lending due attention to the buying process can have a dramatic effect on your sales. What is the buying process? Where does your customer fall within it? How can you use it to help bring your customer to the point-of-purchase? Follow me as we take a look at the decisions customers must make before deciding to buy. Each and every one of us goes through some sort of buying process when we make a purchase. At times the process is long and laboured as when buying a new computer. At other moments it happens almost without thought when buying a box of your favourite cereal, for instance. But make no mistake... it does happen. Generally speaking, the buying process consists of five steps. Those products/services that are new to the market, are new to your customer, or are very expensive will require a longer period of consideration in each phase. Products/services that are familiar, that have market longevity, or that cost very little will require a shorter (even instantaneous) process.
E-BUSINESS SHIRAF Step One - Need/Want Recognition
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During this step, buyers realize they want or need something. They recognize that they have a problem or a desire, and they choose to find a solution. If this need or want is something along the lines of lunch, the buying decision can be made relatively quickly, without much thought of the actual buying process. Hunger is a quick problem to solve, most options are familiar to buyers, and the cost is usually low. If the need or want is a new car, however, the actual buying decision can take weeks or months. There is a greater risk, new models and features come out all the time, the cost is high, and the possibility of making a "mistake" when buying is great. Step Two - Information Search Once the choice has been made to fill a need or want, your customer begins to search for information in order to make a quality decision that is in his/her best interest. Web sites may be visited (in which case you should offer some way for the customer to remember you, such as printable versions of information, downloadable brochures and catalogs, a way to bookmark your site, etc.). Brochures may be gathered (be sure to offer your contact information). Phone calls might be placed (check to ensure you or your call staff has the information they need to answer questions). Free samples, test drives, and other means of "trial" work wonderfully to guide your customer through the information search stage and onto the evaluation and purchase stages. Step Three Evaluation After your customers have collected all the information they feel is necessary, they begin to evaluate their options and narrow their choices until they finally pick the one thing that they are comfortable with, and that they can afford. This is the time to follow-up with your customers. Is there additional information they need in order to choose? Did they have problems with the free sample that can be corrected? Your "presence" during the evaluation stage is important, so do your best to retain customer contact information in order to "gently" offer any additional details the buyer might need. (Nobody likes a hard sell, or to be pushed into buying.) Step Four Purchase Once all the information has been evaluated, a purchase is made, and your customer walks away happy... right? Well... not always.
E-BUSINESS SHIRAF Step Five - Cognitive Dissonance (Post Purchase Anxiety)
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While customers may have thought they chose the best solution when they purchased, many times customers later experience cognitive dissonance, a.k.a. buyers regret. They second guess their decision and begin to feel uncomfortable about their decision. This is where trial periods, guarantees, and/or warranties come into play. Customers will have more confidence in their decision, even after it is made, if they know they arent "stuck" with their purchase. Having a guarantee to fall back on gives them the comfort to know that should something go wrong they wont be left stranded. Generally speaking, a guarantee is a psychological support rather than a literal one. Most customers never take advantage of guarantees... they dont think they need to. However, if a guarantee wasnt offered, the anxiety of feeling "all alone" would overcome many buyers and persuade them into asking for a refund. Understanding each step in the buying process can help you structure your selling process and your marketing materials to cater to the customer. Take the time to consider what your customer goes through when making the choice to buy, and alter your business accordingly. In doing so, youll increase your chances of making more sales, and landing more satisfied customers.
TASK 1.3 Different Types of Purchases

Personal Purchasing: Consumers who purchase for their personal consumption come under this category. They form the most important class of buyers because they ultimately use all the products of the economy. The whole economy depends upon this group of buyers for its survival because most of the items to be produced are to be ultimately purchased by this group. Mercantile purchasing: This type of purchasing is done for resale. Under this group come middlemen who purchase not for their own consumption, but to meet others' requirements. Middlemen can be distributors, wholesalers, retailers and agents who form the channels of distribution of the manufactured goods from the manufacturers to the consumers. In such type of purchasing, the purchaser must select what the customer wants and which he can sell at a price which includes a reasonable profit. Industrial purchasing: This type of purchasing is done for consumption or conversion of material purchased into finished product. It involves buying of raw materials, components, consumable stores and supplies, spares and tools, machines and equipments, office supplies and office appliances. To make industrial purchasing other functions of the organisation. Institutionalized or government purchasing: Under this group come governmental agencies and institutions who buy for public utilities. They form an important group of purchasers because they purchase in bulk.
E-BUSINESS SHIRAF Types of Consumer Purchase Decisions
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Consumers are faced with purchase decisions nearly every day. But not all decisions are treated the same. Some decisions are more complex than others and thus require more effort by the consumer. Other decisions are fairly routine and require little effort. In general, consumers face four types of purchase decisions:
Minor New Purchase these purchases represent something new to a consumer but in the customers mind is not a very important purchase in terms of need, money or other reason (e.g., status within a group). Minor Re-Purchase these are the most routine of all purchases and often the consumer returns to purchase the same product without giving much thought to other product options (i.e., consumer is brand loyalty). Major New Purchase these purchases are the most difficult of all purchases because the product being purchased is important to the consumer but the consumer has little or no previous experience making these decisions. The consumers lack of confidence in making this type of decision often (but not always) requires the consumer to engage in an extensive decision-making process.. Major Re-Purchase - these purchase decisions are also important to the consumer but the consumer feels confident in making these decisions since they have previous experience purchasing the product.
For marketers it is important to understand how consumers treat the purchase decisions they face. If a company is targeting customers who feel a purchase decision is difficult (i.e., Major New Purchase), their marketing strategy may vary greatly from a company targeting customers who view the purchase decision as routine. In fact, the same company may face both situations at the same time; for some the product is new, while other customers see the purchase as routine. The implication of buying behaviour for marketers is that different buying situations require different marketing efforts.
E-BUSINESS SHIRAF
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TASK 1.4 The potential risks of Access Automation using its online model of purchases
We've come to really like online shopping for many reasons. One, it's very easy and handy, especially if doing this from outlying places. It just takes a fast simply click of the mouse button and your item will be on its way without you ever moving away from of the couch. Another reason why we like online shopping happens because it can be a safe and also functional method to get what we need to have and quite often do consequently using a discount. Even so, in addition there are several concealed risks of shopping online. One of the biggest hazards of internet shopping is actually the danger to spend beyond our means. We perceive that online and think we simply get to contain it and also before we realize that, we've got blown our own regular monthly budget. In fact, there are numerous methods in which in turn we're fooled straight into investing more online.One approach we take to devote a lot of money is because almost all we've got to do is merely click a key. If you feel over it, a person will spend much more time thinking about an obtain in a store when compared with a person will online. If you are in a store, a person will notice a jumper, try it on, head to the register, stay in collection after which swipe the card. Nevertheless, using shopping from an internet connection, you simply see the sweater, simply click the option along with spend. Since an end result, you are much more likely to get behavioural instinct tends to buy online as compared to in a physical store. In supplement, you will pay for your current online purchase along with a debit as well as credit card rather than together with cash. Research has revealed that when all of us pay out with a credit card, we have been likely to devote something like 20 to 40 % more since we are more distanced from what we tend to be spending. It's even easier to spend too much whenever your credit card details are previously located in the company's system. In fact, an additional research indicated that back to school shoppers tend to devote 40% more any time shopping online than whenever proceeding to the nearby mall since of the convenience. Shopping online also gives us this idea that items are generally scarce. Say you are shopping on a web site such as eBay and you observe that there is only one item and time will be short in order to make a purchase. Research has revealed at now the scenario actually triggers the fight or trip device which cuts down on each of our expertise to make a logical selection and now we might purchase a thing on an impulse. There's also something right now known as the BUI or buying below the impact. There exists an increase in shopping between people that may become obtaining a glass of wine after which determine to obtain something they may even if it's just keep in mind doing afterwards. For that reason, it will always be far better to delay and have that will drink once you've completed your own online shopping. Online shopping will, of course, carry on to expand, but it's important to maintain an eye on your current wallet while searching for your next item or else you may find yourself together with a bigger than common credit card bill.
E-BUSINESS SHIRAF
R.M.
TASK 2 TASK 2.1
Electronic transactions
The use of electronic transactions will be the key driver in future information super highways and it is as significant now as it ever will be. The rapid increase in the use of the electronic transactions in businesses has given rise to the emergence of the globalization of commercial services. Many of the professional predictions indicate that use of the electronic transactions has increased the business to consumer relationships in day to day business work significantly. This has led to a frantic battle for payment mechanisms that can provide a new medium for conducting transactions. In most successful business processes in the current scenario the customer and the merchant do not meet face-to-face, and the clients have increased options and solutions available to them on real time when conducting transactions. This paper investigates the factors that influence the effectiveness of electronic transactions for the business to consumer relationships. It will further discuss how the electronic transactions can be applied to a business entity to enhance its real time consumer transaction experiences. By allowing the exchange of information more quickly, easily, and dependably than ever before, the Internet has forever changed the way we do business. That revolution is now making a handwritten signature on a paper document part of the past. Why spend time or money printing, faxing, physically delivering and storing paper documents, when you can accomplish better results in just a few minutes with a web based solution? In fact, todays electronic alternatives are not just analogous to, but clearly superior to, their paper equivalents. Indeed, the options offered by new technologies not only provide greater security than traditional forms, but facilitate authenticated transactions in better ways than paper permits. These new technologies make critical transactions faster and more convenient, but they also substantially improve control, security, and verifiability beyond anything previously possible. Just as email revolutionized the business world a few years ago, secure electronic document management solutions are now changing the way the world conducts business transactions. More companies and government entities, regardless of size, are adopting these solutions proving that it is simple to make a business case for electronic signature with identity credentialing, document authentication, secure document exchange and electronic storage. Why should we move away from paper documents? Security: Handwritten signatures and signed paper documents can be easily forged with existing technology. It is easy to create a document that looks as good as the original.
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SHIRAF Efficiency and productivity: Business cycles can be substantially streamlined and reduced templates and forms can be easily shared and integrated together with an electronic signature solution. Flexibility: Physical distance becomes meaningless. Cost reduction: No printing, faxing, delivering, or physical storage of documents reducing overhead costs. In fact, moving towards an electronic transaction opens the door to a much more efficient way to ensure secure document transactions. Not only does the act of signing the document become more secure and efficient, but the entire process of managing the document, from its generation to the final storage of the document improves tenfold, addressing these common paper management pitfalls: Increasing costs of managing paper documents: When you add the cumulative costs of mailing, the retention of signed documents, and print equipment, the costs of managing paperwork is staggering. As a token, the New England Journal of Medicine determined in a 2004 article that 31% of all health care costs are related to paperwork; which amounted to $500Billion in 2004 alone. Complex storage and retrieval management systems: as the amount of paper grows, the complexity to manage the documents grows exponentially. According to the Delphi Group, knowledge workers use up to 25% of their work time searching for information. In addition, if several people need to have access to the stored documents, then one single physical repository might be neither effective, nor practical. Cost of lost efficiency: The time you spend printing, signing, sending and filing paper documents can be used in a more efficient way, actually adding value to the business, instead of spending the time in administrative activities. The impact on the environment: Every paper process has a environmental effects, from cutting down forests to manufacture paper, to the pollution generated by the paper manufacturer, through the carbon costs of transporting and storing paper; going paperless helps us all reduce our carbon footprint which helps the global environment. Current technology not only enables secure and trusted electronic authentication, it makes it possible to store, search, retrieve, and verify authenticated documents quickly and easily.
E-BUSINESS SHIRAF
R.M.
TASK 2.2 Electronic data interchange (EDI)
Electronic data interchange (EDI) is the software or system used by companies to exchange information, files and documents. EDI has replaced the fax machine and mailing list when it comes to information sharing. Using EDI, sharing of data is much quicker and cost effective. The basic process is like this: a user places an order (i.e., a document) into the computer. The order goes through an interface program. The application edits the order and relays it to the intermediate EDI files. The purchase order is changed to the EDI standard format the application can decipher. The translation program can function with several programs, allowing the receivers system to interpret the order. The modem relays the order through a value added network. The network proceeds to take the order. From the EDI format it is changed back into the senders original format. This allows the receiver to read the document.
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is a very broad term. EDI encompasses all means of electronically sending data from one remote location to another. But with the now wide variety of options for sending a file or document from one work station to another, corporations are finding their data files spread very thin. There is also confusion among team members when it comes to what the latest version or revision of a document or file may be. A comprehensive EDI system will reduce your costs in many ways. By its electronic nature, you will have much less of a need for paper and other related materials. Since the EDI system will archive your data automatically, it will free your team members to perform more high-value tasks rather than spending their time filing documents. This significantly reduces the time it takes for trading partners to incorporate this information into their own systems which in-turn reduces production cycle times. EDI systems are much more than a digital file cabinet. They can be used as a clearing centre between parties. Translation and mappings can be automated to speed product cycles. You can manage your community of co-workers, partners and suppliers by providing a highly visible line of communication. An on-boarding new member becomes much more efficient by offering important information in one place. The system eliminates the need to use paper. This saves money and helps preserve the environment. This also reduces the odds of errors appearing in the documents. Information sharing becomes quicker and more effectual. The end result is increased productivity. Response times get quicker and management of information is simplified. Stress the fact that it will reduce the clerical staff expenses and accelerate processing.
E-BUSINESS SHIRAF
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TASK 2.3 Importance of EDI in E-business

Information and communication technologies (ICT) have had considerable effects on how companies do business with their business partners. In a narrow sense, these effects are based on electronic commerce (e-commerce), which is the buying of products from suppliers and their selling to customers using ICTs. There are several models of e-commerce, namely, business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce between companies, business-to-consumer (B2C) ecommerce between companies and consumers and business-to-government (B2G) ecommerce between companies and government organizations. In a broad sense, electronic business (e-business) covers all kinds of collaborations with business partners using ICTs and reflects the effects of B2B e-commerce. A business interaction, which is the exchange of a business document or a message containing a business document in a business process, plays a key role in the collaboration. Since the late 1960s companies have used information systems for the electronic exchange of data with their business partners. When the data is processed and communicated automatically, its re-keying and printing are reduced. Therefore, automated business interactions using ICTs can be faster and less error prone than manual business interactions using mail, phone calls or faxes. Unfortunately, it is not easy to automate business interactions. Information systems are not interoperable due to the differences between any two companies. There would be fewer problems in e-business if all companies used the same information systems, the same meanings for terms and the same modes of operations. If information systems are not interoperable, human intervention is needed to prepare the input data for information systems to produce the output data. Although differences between companies are often inevitable, they are also costly. Fortunately, standards can provide a way to cut these costs. Standards bring order into the complexity and uncertainty by reducing variety. Standardization of business documents and business processes promotes interoperability by harmonizing the meanings for terms and the modes of operations. In addition, standard messaging interfaces support scalability. Companies can change their information systems as long as they use the same kinds of business documents, business processes and messaging interfaces. In e-business, standardization happens at many levels. A data format is a low-level standard for e-business that defines the basic data structures and data elements in general. An e-business framework is a high-level standard for e-business that uses a data format to define the data structures, data elements and their purposes in the business context. The data formats and e-business frameworks enable information systems to communicate and process the data quickly and accurately. Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is aimed at the exchange of data without human intervention. American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Accredited Standards Committee (ASC) and UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) EDI for Administration, Commerce and Transportation (EDIFACT) are ebusiness frameworks as well as data formats. In this paper, the e-business frameworks that
10 | P a g e IBS Kandy Campus HND in Business and IT
E-BUSINESS
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SHIRAF have been standardized to use the ASC X12 or EDIFACT format are called EDI-based ebusiness frameworks. E-business frameworks, such as Financial Information Exchange (FIX) or Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), do not use the ASC X12 or EDIFACT format and, therefore, are not regarded as EDI-based e-business frameworks. In comparison, Extensible Mark up Language (XML) developed by WWW Consortium (W3C) is not only a Meta language for electronic document management and web publishing but also a data format. Tens of e-business frameworks, such as Electronic Business XML (ebXML) and RosettaNet, have been standardized to use the XML format and are called XML-based e-business frameworks. The use of EDI and XML formats takes place in the following way. First, a standards developing organization (SDO) develops an e-business framework that is based on a data format. Then, a company uses an information system that supports the e-business framework. This raises questions about the use of EDI and XML formats in e-business frameworks and especially the use of these e-business frameworks in companies. The paper proceeds by introducing the ASC X12, EDIFACT and XML formats as well as e-business frameworks and by reviewing the related literature. Next, the paper presents the research approach. Then, the paper compares the use of the ASC X12, EDIFACT and XML formats in 38 e-business frameworks and the use of EDI-based or XML based e-business frameworks in 7593 European companies. Before conclusions, the paper discusses a lock-in to the EDI formats in e-business frameworks and to EDI-based e-business frameworks in companies. The findings can be expected to be useful to the researchers of ICT standards or e-business as well as to the practitioners who develop or use e-business frameworks.
E-BUSINESS SHIRAF
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TASK 2.4 Value Added Network (VAN)

Value Added Networks simplify the communication process by reducing the number of parties that you have to communicate with. VANs insert themselves between trading partners. They typically operate on a mailbox scenario where a company would send a transaction to a VAN and the VAN would then place the transaction in the mailbox of the receiver. The receiver would then contact the VAN and pick up any transactions it might have and then send anything it might need to send. It is very similar to email, but rather than being unstructured text, it is used for structured standardized data, operates a Value Added Network that provides this mailboxing type of service and transmits the data using the Internet. Value Added Network Services VAN is a complete value added network (VAN) solution which meets electronic data interchange (EDI) and e-commerce requirements in a secure, reliable, available and flexible environment all at an affordable price to move information seamlessly and efficiently, and to expedite transaction processing regardless of file size, communication protocol, or data format. Features of VAN:

Global Internet based VAN Scalable Java-based technology system Featuring unrivalled service: - Detailed Audit Trails - 24x7x365 world-class support - Protected Data Centre - Reliable and secure transmissions - Array of real-time reports - Real-time alert system and data delivery - Extended archival storage - Web-based document management - Extensive connectivity options Network Services VAN offers a complete value added network (VAN) solution to meet your electronic data interchange (EDI) requirements in a secure, reliable, available and flexible environment all at an affordable price to enable your initiatives to move information seamlessly and efficiently, and expedite transaction processing regardless of file size, communication protocol, or data format.
E-BUSINESS SHIRAF With VAN, you receive unrivalled service that includes:
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Alert System: VAN provides proactive alerts to document processing events, transmission issues or delivery receipts. The alerts are received by you based on your preferred method for communication: email, text messaging or fax. With VANs real-time alert system, you are able to respond to your trading partners and address critical supply chain events immediately. Archival Storage: VAN archives information sent and received on-line for a period of 30 days and off-line for several years. VANs archival storage provides you with a safety net should you need to resend or review documents or data. A longer on-line archival period is available with .ARCHIVE service capabilities. Audit Trails: maintains detailed audit trails of all set-up, configuration and document transmission events. By accessing audit trail informations Technical Support team has the ability to conduct the analysis required to answer your questions and address your issues. Communications is included with the basic service. Other options are available with .COMMS service capabilities. With VANs connectivity options, you can select from multiple communication protocols and options to ensure effective communications with your trading community of diverse communication protocols and security standards. Protected Data Centre: VANs redundant servers are housed in a state-of-the-art facility built for efficiency, security and scalability. VAN servers are secured by guards 24 hours a day, seven days a week, every day of the year, with two-factor biometric authentication and card-key access required for data centre floor access. Real-time Data Delivery: VAN delivers information in real-time, on a schedule or on an adhoc basis for you and youre trading partners. Real-time transmission reduces the problems inherent in batch delivery, such as the potential for corruption of data, time delays on delivery, and bottlenecks in the system. Reliable and Secure Transmission: VAN offers a variety of industry-standard encryption solutions to provide secure and reliable transmissions over high-speed connections to the Internet. Every transaction is authenticated and provides for non-repudiation to secure supply chain communications. Reporting: VAN provides a wide selection of on-line, real-time reports to ensure data is presented in the format required. Reports are easily accessed on-line or through batch mode and conveniently delivered to you through a browser, email or EDI system. Technical Support: provides U.S. based support representatives, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, every day of the year to set-up accounts, initiate proactive communication, solve problems or answer questions.
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SHIRAF Web-based Document Manager: VAN enables you to view time stamp documents and transaction events through a feature-rich, real-time application program that uses a Web browser to provide easy-to-use access anytime, from anywhere. The document manager offers unprecedented control over data, including the flexibility to acknowledge, view, send, receive, hold, release, sort or search documents and other data files. Key benefits of VAN:

Realize significant savings with lower EDI costs Increase staff efficiency with an intuitive, browser-based interface Ensure a secure environment by employing the latest security technologies Maximize effectiveness by sending and receiving any file type of any file size Raise responsiveness by applying proactive processes to systems notifications Improve processing time through high-speed connections, faster than traditional VANs Boost productivity by managing your EDI program from anywhere at any time with access from any ISP Value Added Networks, VANs, are private networks where EDI related information can be exchanged between companies securely. Trading partners will typically require an account with an EDI VAN provider which simply acts as an electronic mail box to both send and receive electronic documents. The sender connects with the VAN and sends its EDI transactions to the recipient's mailbox where they are stored. The sender then disconnects from the service. Then, at some point that is convenient, the recipient can connect to the network and receive those transactions from their mailbox. Most VANs offer an alerting service which informs the sender when messages have been sent successfully and informs the recipients when a new EDI message has arrived in their mailbox. In addition to looking after the transmission and receiving of EDI messages, VAN providers offer a number of other value added services including, managing outsourced EDI, community or trading partner enablement and other services which allow companies to integrate back office systems seamlessly. VANs have traditionally been favoured for EDI transmission because of their security and their additional features such as
Offer a mailbox service; trading partners dial into a VAN via a network access point and use a file transfer protocol to send EDI messages to the VAN. The VAN automatically routes the message to the receiving partner's mailbox and the trading partner dials into the VAN and retrieves the message Act as trusted third parties by inspecting and authenticating the EDI messages and verifying the identity of trading partners depositing and accessing them Take responsibility for providing an audit trail of all EDI transactions and for tracking / recording the trail of a message Send email notifications to partners that EDI messages have been deposited in their mailboxes
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IBS Kandy Campus
HND in Business and IT
E-BUSINESS SHIRAF
R.M.
The impact of the internet on business is increasing worldwide. Business -tobusiness transactions account for over 80 percent of all transactions conducted over the internet. There are many nations in terms of using the internet in both business-to-customer (B2C) and business -to-business (B2B) settings. Recently, the focus of e-commerce has shifted from B2C ecommerce to the effective use of e-commerce tools to make business processes a nd B2B relationships more efficient. While practitioners are realizing this potential for using the internet to build profitable, long-term relationships with their trading partners, this topic has received little consideration from marketing scholars. Mor eover, the value of a high quality relationship, particularly the relationship between a service provider and their customers, is noteworthy in the service sector. Customers often rely on the credibility of service providers and their previous experiences with them due largely to the intangible nature of services. Next, the production of many services requires that customers and service providers interact with one another. Customers' perceptions of the quality of the relationship with a service provider may be commensurate with the quality of the service itself. Thus a strong relationship between customers and the service provider engenders trust that is necessary for customers to commit to the service. Essentially, we argue that relationship quality between trading partners and their business performance is enhanced through the use of the internet, with the internet affecting technical bonds more than social bonds. In the last five years, internet marketing literature has increased dramatically as a result of the rapid adoption of the internet in marketing practice. The bulk of the early practitioner's literature on internet marketing was aimed at telling entrepreneurs how to go about establishing a place in cyber market space, such as how to set up a web page. In the 1990s, attention among scholars focused on the revolutionary impact of internet technologies on the marketing discipline. Attention in the literature has focused on the revolutionary impacts of i nternet on the marketing discipline. Some scholars have argued that the internet has created a new marketing arena, moving organizations closer to their customers. Others have even posed the question of whether a new marketing paradigm is required in an er a of increasing electronic business. However, most of the literature agrees with the notion that the internet can be placed in the technological context of emerging interactive marketing technologies.
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SHIRAF It is one of the most important marketing tools because it has the potential to facilitate relationships in both B2C and B2B contexts. Business -to-business (B2B) internet marketing includes the use of all three forms of e -commerce (internet, intranet and extranet) for purchasing goods and services, buying information and consulting services, and submitting requests for proposals and receiving proposals. The B2B internet based technologies provide effective and efficient ways in which corporate buyers can gather information rapidly about available products and services, evaluate and negotiate with suppliers, implement order fulfilment over communication links and access post -sales services. From the supplier's side, marketing, sales, and service information is also readily gathered from customers. This applicatio n of internet-based systems for improving supply chain performance forms the basis for B2B e -commerce. The pace of change in this area has been rapid, making it difficult for companies to examine thoroughly the advantages and disadvantages of different way s of managing inter-firm relationships. From the scant internet/relationship marketing literature and the findings discussed above, the final outcome of the convergent interviewing methodology - a new theoretical framework - was developed.
E-BUSINESS SHIRAF
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TASK 2.5 Advantages of Internet in B2B

The Internet has become the biggest library of information for prospective buyers online. Emerging as the most powerful selling tool, internet business offers cost effective ways for small businesses to market their products or services. Hassle free transactions and vast information available is what keeps the customers coming back for more and more. Benefits of internet business are many. Browse through a few of them: 1. Minimum Costs: Setting your internet business site can be done at minimum costs. Office space, office supplies, job expenses, travel expenses, meals , entertainment, phone etc; expenses are done away with. 2. Low Operating costs: Once your internet business is set up, operating expenses like hosting fees, merchant accounts, etc are also minimal. 3. Market Selectivity One of the advantages of internet business is market selectivity. One can focus on specific interest areas and target market segments. 4. Tracking and Time saving The internet businessmen enjoy the luxury of tracking current and potential customers. They get valuable feedback immediately on how users interact with their brands. Valuable time is not lost. 5. Flexibility There is complete flexibility in internet business and web communication, twenty - four hours a day seven days a week. This is of great convenience for both the buyer and seller. 6. Advertise for free. This is another advantage of the internet business. One can write an article and publish it or you can advertise for a really low investment. 7. Tax advantages: Once can deduct your home, spouse and children if you employ them. Business vacations, cars, business meals, plus, any losses you incur can be tax deductible.
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TASK 3 TASK 3.1 Web-Auctions

Online auctions provide a business opportunity that is perfect for the Web. An auction site can charge both buyers and sellers to participate, and it can sell advertising on its page. Web auctions can provide a general auction site that has sections devoted to specific interests. Three broad categories of auction Web sites are emerging: General consumer auctions, speciality consumer auctions and Business-to-Business auctions General Consumer Auctions One of the most successful consumer auction Web sites is eBay. The eBay home page includes links to categories of items. Sellers pay eBay a listing fee and a sliding percentage of the final selling price. Buyers pay nothing to eBay. The most common format used on eBay is a computerised version of the English auction. eBay ownPayPal.com which offers secure settlement of Payments after an auction and also other payments eBay expanded to merchandising via Half.com eBay has also spawned new businesses, Auction It Portal sites, such as Yahoo!, Amazon and Excite have created auctions
Speciality Consumer Auctions Some Web auction sites exist to meet the needs of specialty market segments. The CNET.com technology portal site is devoted to computers. Golf Club Exchange Web auction site is for golfers and a problem
Business-to-Business Web Auctions Business-to-business auctions evolved to meet a specific need, such as handling excess inventory. Large companies may create their own auction sites that sell excess inventory. A third-party Web auction site takes the place of the liquidation broker and auctions excess inventory. This whole area has almost entirely disappeared.
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SHIRAF Ingram Micro now auctions those items to its established customers through the Auction Block site. CompUSA builds its own auction site to dispose of obsolete inventory.
The different types of web-auctions

English Auction Bidders publicly announce their successive higher bids until no higher bid is forthcoming in the English auction. The auctioneer pronounces the item sold to the highest bidder at that bidders price. An English auction is an open auction because the bids are publicly announced. An English auction has a minimum bid or reserve price.
Yankee Auctions English auctions that offer multiple units of an item for sale and that allow bidders to specify the quantity they want to buy are called Yankee auctions. Under bidders choose the balance at their top price.
Dutch Auctions The Dutch auction is a form of open auction in which bidding starts at a high price and drops until a bidder accepts the price. Dutch auctions are also called descending-price auctions. Successful bidder selects the quantity required and auction resumes. Dutch auctions are particularly good for moving large numbers of commodity items quickly.
First-Price Sealed-Bid Auctions In sealed-bid auctions, bidders submit their sealed bids independently to auctioneer and are usually prohibited from sharing information with each other. In a first-price sealed-bid auction, auctioneer opens sealed bids at close of bidding and highest (or lowest) bidder wins. Example, property sales in Scotland (highest bidder wins) and tenders for services (lowest bidder wins)
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Second-Price Sealed-Bid Auctions The second-price sealed-bid auction is the same as the first-price sealed-bid auction except that the highest bidder is awarded the item at the price bid by the second-highest bidder. Second-price sealed-bid auctions are commonly called Vickrey auctions.
Double Auctions In a double auction, buyers and sellers each submit combined price-quantity bids to an auctioneer. The auctioneer matches the sellers offers to the buyers offers until all the quantities offered for sale are sold to buyers. Double auctions can be operated in either sealed-bid or open-outcry formats. Can be used for company flotation.
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TASK3.2 Supply Chain Management (SCM)

Supply chain management (SCM) is the oversight of materials, information, and finances as they move in a process from supplier to manufacturer to wholesaler to retailer to consumer. Supply chain management involves coordinating and integrating these flows both within and among companies. It is said that the ultimate goal of any effective supply chain management system is to reduce inventory (with the assumption that products are available when needed). As a solution for successful supply chain management, sophisticated software systems with Web interfaces are competing with Web-basedapplication service providers (ASP) who promise to provide part or all of the SCM service for companies who rent their service. Supply chain management flows can be divided into three main flows:

The product flow The information flow The finances flow
The product flow includes the movement of goods from a supplier to a customer, as well as any customer returns or service needs. The information flow involves transmitting orders and updating the status of delivery. The financial flow consists of credit terms, payment schedules, and consignment and title ownership arrangements. There are two main types of SCM software: planning applications and execution applications. Planning applications use advanced algorithms to determine the best way to fill an order. Execution applications track the physical status of goods, the management of materials, and financial information involving all parties. Some SCM applications are based on open data models that support the sharing of data both inside and outside the enterprise (this is called the extended enterprise, and includes key suppliers, manufacturers, and end customers of a specific company). This shared data may reside in diverse database systems, or data warehouses, at several different sites and companies. By sharing this data "upstream" (with a company's suppliers) and "downstream" (with a company's clients), SCM applications have the potential to improve the time-to-market of products, reduce costs, and allow all parties in the supply chain to better manage current resources and plan for future needs.
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SHIRAF Increasing numbers of companies are turning to Web sites and Web-based applications as part of the SCM solution. A number of major Web sites offer e-procurement marketplaces where manufacturers can trade and even make auction bids with suppliers.
TASK 3.3 Electronic Marketplaces

An e-marketplace is a location on the Internet where companies can obtain or disseminate information, engage in transactions, or work together in some way. Most of the emarketplaces provide two basis functions: 1) they allow companies to obtain new suppliers or buyers for company products, or 2) developing streamlined trading networks that make negotiating, settlement, and delivery more efficient. Currently e-marketplaces exist in many different industries. E-marketplaces can be structured in several different ways. One way to structure a marketplace is similiar to eBay, where the market maker is neither a buyer or seller, but is a neutral third party. Other e-marketplaces are set up be a consortium of sellers that leverage their combined power to efficiently sell their products to buyers. Buyers can also set up a marketplace to reduce their costs and obtain better purchasing terms. An example of this type of marketplace is Covisant, a marketplace run by the automobile industry. Moreover, large buyers can set up another type of marketplace, a private marketplace, for their supplier networks. In order for a site to fall into the category of an e-marketplace, the site needs be open to multiple buyers and sellers and needs to provide one or more commerce related functions. These functions include: forward or reverse auctions, vendor catalogues, fixed price ordering, trading exchange functionality, bulliten boards / wanted ads, and RFQ, RFI, or RFP capability. Sucessful e-marketplaces can deliver significant value to their users or members and are profitable. Electronic Market Examples A number of electronic markets are available to consumers to buy products ranging from music CDs to automobiles. The following are current examples of products and/or services that are available through electronic markets. Flowers. Calyx & Corolla have used e-commerce to radically alter the way new cutflowers are moved from the growers to the consumers. Traditionally, the value chain that supplied cut flowers involved a grower, jobber to transport to a wholesaler, and finally a florist. From a survey of Boston florists in July 1995, the price, including delivery charge and tax, for an example arrangement of flowers was $60. Calyx & Corolla are able to provide an electronic market to customers to buy directly from growers with the flowers being shipped using Federal Express. Their delivered price is $54 (Applegate et al., 1996). Much of this is due to the elimination of some of the intermediaries between the growers and
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SHIRAF the customers. The price paid to the firm providing the electronic market is generally lower than the profits made by the traditional wholesaler and retailer intermediaries.
Clothing. Similar to the cut-flower example, is an example in the shirt industry. The cost per high quality shirt in a value chain that includes a wholesaler and retailer is $52.72. The elimination of these intermediaries reduces the cost to $20.45, a reduction of 62% (Benjamin and Wigand, 1995). Automobiles. Thanks to the World Wide Web, new car shoppers have more options, including access to valuable information, such as what a car really does cost a dealer. As a result, consumers are increasingly locking in better deals online. Whats more, the trend has attracted the attention of some of the biggest car dealers, financial institutions and insurance companies. Electronic markets now exist than enable consumers to shop for and buy a new car, insure it and take delivery without ever setting foot in a dealership (Calem, 1996). A search of the directory of automobile dealers on Yahoo in late 1996 showed that 79 different dealers or locator services were listed (Yahoo).
Music. Jason and Matthew Olim founded CDnow Inc. from the basement of their Ambler, Pennsylvania home. Jason Olim, a jazz fan frustrated by skimpy selections in music shops, came up with the idea of a cyberstore that could offer every jazz album made in the U.S. and 20,000 imports. Shoppers place their orders with CDnow (cdnow.com), which, in turn, contacts distributors. Most disks are delivered to the customers door in 24 hours. Add in advertising revenues, and CDnow expects to hit $6 million in sales in 1996, triple the previous years revenue, with 18% operating margins (Rebello et al., 1996).
Books. Books are another product that consumers purchase on-line. One bookseller on the Web is Amazon.com Books. Their site advertises a spotlight book, book of the day, titles in the news, featured books, and books that are hot this week. Some of their books are discounted as much as 30%. By clicking on book titles, and some authors, more detailed information can be accessed (Amazon). It is no longer necessary to either go to a bookstore to buy a book or to find mail order bookstores through a print advertisement. Also, Web advertising is likely to be more current than print ads.
Electronic Magazines (E-zines). With no printing or circulation costs, online magazines once held the promise of low overhead and quick profitability. Now most Web publishers have amended their business models and expect years of losses before turning a profit a model much closer to print publications. Though analysts and publishers expect mainstream
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SHIRAF advertisers to up their antes in Web ads, most e-zines are exploring alternative ways of making money in the short term, including sponsorships, alliances and even subscriptions. Most online publishers have a rosy outlook now that the Internet has become a media focal point and mainstream advertisers better understand the Net. Jupiter Communications, a New York-based Internet research company, predicts that the total number of online consumers will jump from 13 million in 1996 to more than 35 million in 2000. Adam Schoenfeld, vice president and senior analyst at Jupiter, said that the universe of ad dollars online both on the Web and on dedicated online services would grow to $5.3 billion by 2000 (Glaser, 1996). A growing number of online consumers, as well as a growing amount of Net based ad money, provides an environment where electronic magazines with good content may flourish in the future. Airline Tickets. Discount airfares you wont find anywhere else are popping up on the Internet. American Airlines and Cathay Pacific Airways are using their Web sites to reduce the thousands of seats that are unsold on flights every day. American began selling fares on 20 routes as much as 70% below the lowest fares consumers would be quoted through a travel agent or Americans 800 number. Besides filling empty seats, airlines want to cut distribution costs by selling directly on the Internet instead of through travel agents (Rosato, 1996). Stock and Securities. All of a sudden, innovations in technology, particularly the Internet, are bringing profound changes to Wall Street that hold a lot of promise, and a lot of peril, for the powerful firms that make their money in the securities business. For many people, the Internet could replace the functions of a broker. For example, almost a dozen small companies are trying to sell their stock directly to the public using Web sites like those run by Direct Stock Market and IPO Data Systems. And two small California companies, Real Goods Trading and Perfect Data, have set up electronic bulletin boards that allow their shareholders to trade stock without a broker, dealer or market maker. Because it allows traders to find each other easily, the Internet may ultimately make it possible to have a stock exchange that exists only in cyberspace, with no trading floor, directly open to every investor with a computer and a modem (Eaton, 1996).
SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT E-business is concerned with the use of the Internet to link companies with their suppliers, customers and other trading partners. As a business concept, it has evolved significantly since its introduction in the 1990s in parallel with the rapid rate of development of information technology (IT) during this period. Supply chain management (SCM) is fundamentally concerned with integration of activities both with and between organisations. IT plays a crucial role in SCM as a key enabler of supply chain integration (SCI). A supply chain is a bidirectional flow of information, products and money between the initial suppliers and final customers through different organisations (Nurmilaakso, 2008). It can be
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SHIRAF both internal and external in its nature. In an internal context, the elements of a SC are represented by various intra-organisational functions (such as for example sales and marketing, procurement, production planning, warehouse and transport management), whereas the external supply chain further encompasses movements of material, information and funds between companies and their suppliers, customers and various business partners. Simchi-Levi et Al. (2000, p.1) define supply chain management (SCM) as a set of approaches utilised to effectively integrate suppliers, manufacturers, warehouses, and stores, so that merchandise is produced and distributed at the right quantities, to the right locations, and at the right time in order to minimise system-wide costs while satisfying service level requirements.Lambert et al. (1998, p.1) expand the SCM definition to include the concept of value creation by depicting SCM as the integration of business processes from end user through original suppliers that provides products, services, and information and hence add value for customers and other stakeholders. In brief, SCM is about breaking down the barriers both within and between organisations and to ultimately link them in an integrated way to allow value-add to customers starting from product design to delivery through the planning, implementation and monitoring of the various flows. Supply chains are increasingly competing with other supply chains and as such the ultimate goal of effective SCM is superior business performance. The constituent parts of a supply chain are linked together via the flow of information and therefore the proper implementation and integration of various functions via information and communication technology (ICT) is vital for a successful SCM strategy. Supply chain integration (SCI) is an important part of SCM. It aims to facilitate the flow between all organisations in a supply chain and thus positively affects operational performance (Naylor et al., 1999; Bagchi et al. 2005). In short, a key tenet of SCM relates to the need to move from fragmented supply chain architectures to configurations that are characterised by integration. To reach large numbers of people with rich information was a costly and time-consuming process and prone to errors due to manual information replication. Sweeney (2007) depicts that managing information flows in the supply chain is one of the most crucial activities in SCM as the flow of materials and money is usually initiated by information movements. Hardaker and Graham (2001) reinforce this by outlining that coordination in a supply chain occurs through the communication of orders, stock levels and demand feedback. Poor management of information flows essentially leads to the so-called bullwhip-effect that requires the holding of excessive levels of inventory. High demand visibility plays a strategic role in reducing inventory levels (Sweeney, 2007). Efficient and effective network-based communication structures in a supply chain have the potential to offset these effects. SCI and e-business are interrelated insofar as integrated ebusiness functions facilitate undistorted and accurate information sharing. In this way,
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SHIRAF optimal alignment of business functions represents the means to an effective overall SCI strategy.
TASK 3.4 Trust and Security in E-business

Electronic Business (e-Business) is revolutionizing the way of communication between internal and external stakeholders in an organization. E-business can lead to competitive advantage and at the same time, increase profitability. There are several factors resulting on the success of e-business. One of the most important factors is trust. Acquiring customers trust depends on many things that an e-business controls. Some relating factors for gaining customers trust are: appeal of the website, product/service offering, branding, quality of service, and trusted seals. Actually, trust can be viewed from many angles such as transaction, information content, product, technology, and institution. There are huge numbers of impact on the way businesses think about designing, developing, and deploying Web-based applications. Web services may be an evolutionary step in designing distributed applications; however, they are not without problems. Therefore, we have to concern on the issue which is relating to the security in web-services of e-business. Electronic business methods enable companies to link their internal and external data processing systems more efficiently and flexibly, to work more closely with suppliers and partners, and to better satisfy the needs and expectations of their customers. Trust is the key to the success of e-business and lack of trust is the significant problem on the way to ebusiness success. During every business transaction, the parties involved should feel trust with the people and the companies. It must be established and managed continuously in business transaction activities. Security services offering protection from security threats are: identification, authentication, confidentiality, integrity, access control, and non-reputation. Today, e-business applications are doing more than ever to increase efficiency and improve relationships with partners and customers. In relation to trust and internet technologies, consumers are concerns about two main things which are privacy and security. E-business is very widely implemented by many companies in order to simplify purchasing processes by customers. There is almost an uncountable number of ways that an e-business setup could be attacked by hackers, crackers and disgruntled insiders. Common threats include hacking, cracking, masquerading, eavesdropping, spoofing, sniffing, Trojan horses, viruses, bombs, wiretaps, etc.
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SHIRAF In my opinion, the concepts and theories on e-business trust and security can guide the managers and companies to develop their own unique customer retention strategies. While developing trust between companies and customers in e-business, managers should understand that different service qualities might lead to different level of customer buying behavior and customer retention. The security systems are strongly needed to handle the process of developing the customer retention strategies in e-business transaction process in an attempt to capture the relationship within organization and with the customers. The benefits of applying trust and build up security in e-business is quite obvious. To develop a better relationship between customers and e-business, there are certain steps that could be considered for future preferences such as the attitudes of employees towards the customers, the usage of technologies in developing security in e-business transaction, and protect customers during business transactions. Researches have caused executives to think on what do exactly customers want? And it was concluded that companies have to find best solutions in improving service quality and develop trust in relation between e-business and customers. The development and improvement of technologies have brought successful towards e-business. High technologies have attracted people misuse the technologies such as hackers and cybercrime which they can access to e-business privacy easily. Thus, e-business companies should build trust and using security during the business transaction. To provide value to the customers through service and goods provided, research found that companies should build up trust and security to protect their customers. Benefits of application trust and security include improved customer service, build customers trust, avoid the misuse of technologies, protect customers privacy and maintain the companies reputation. In order to create an effective infrastructure for securing E-business, it requires a comprehensive development of several elements including laws, policies, industry self regulation, technical standards and law enforcement. These elements may provide positive environment and infrastructure to support the growth of e-business and relation with customers. Therefore, Governments and businesses need to work together to improve consumer trust and security are attempt to increase transactional efficiency and effectiveness in all aspects of the design, production, marketing and sales of products or services for existing and developing good relation through the utilization of current and emerging electronic technologies, which will gain the more confidence in ebusiness. Additionally, the government itself needs to reexamine existing regulations to ensure protection for the e-business. build trust and using security during the business transaction. To provide value to the customers through service and goods provided, research found that companies should build up trust and security to protect their customers. Benefits of application trust and security include improved customer service, build customers trust, avoid
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SHIRAF the misuse of technologies, protect customers privacy and maintain the companies reputation. In order to create an effective infrastructure for securing E-business, it requires a comprehensive development of several elements including laws, policies, industry self regulation, technical standards and law enforcement. These elements may provide positive environment and infrastructure to support the growth of e-business and relation with customers. Therefore, Governments and businesses need to work together to improve consumer trust and security are attempt to increase transactional efficiency and effectiveness in all aspects of the design, production, marketing and sales of products or services for existing and developing good relation through the utilization of current and emerging electronic technologies, which will gain the more confidence in ebusiness. Additionally, the government itself needs to reexamine existing regulations to ensure protection for the e-business. We see that the benefits of e-business are manifold and include various issues, from small operational improvements to enhanced competitive advantage. Furthermore, the origin of the benefit, whether it is from the technology or from the process change or from both is difficult to separate. Also, the fact that each supply chain has its own unique characteristics adds to the problem; there is a lot of variety in e-business applications in different organizational situations, and even in similar situations there are lots of differences. It is also important to highlight the difficulty related to the division of benefits to transactional, informational and strategic benefits. It has been asserted that various IT projects have heterogeneous themes in that different projects are expected to fulfill different management objectives (Weill, 1992). Additionally, there is controversy over whether strategic benefits are deliberately planned for. It is often argued that many IT systems that are considered strategic systems started off as simple transaction processing systems (Mirani and Lederer, 1998). Furthermore, strategic issues are often very complicated to describe as there are many interconnected issues related to them. These comments are certainly valid also for ebusiness in supply chain management. Additionally, informational benefits can be seen as preconditions to most of the transactional, as well as strategic, benefits related to e-business. However, the use of the benefits of an ebusiness framework was a valuable tool in helping to discuss the impact and benefits of ebusiness to supply chain management in a structured manner. The potential issues of the Supply chain quality management applied based on the Total Quality Management principles 1. Customer focus Customer focus is the core principle and idea of total quality managment (TQM) because quality effort comes of customers needs and ends with customers acceptance. In supply chain circumstance, customer includes not only the end user but also many in-between users, such as suppliers, manufacturers, sellers, etc. However, more than half of the quality problems in supply chain are resulted by specifications because of the inadequate
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SHIRAF communications between the members of supply chain. In many cases, the procurement specifications released by buyers are equivocal while suppliers dare not to argue against buyers on the specifications in the bidding process. Therefore, the core enterprise must pay attention to the needs and expectation of end users, and all the members of supply chain must pay attention to the needs and expectation of their backward users. The needs and expectation of end users should be deployed layer upon layer in the whole supply chain system. The end users will satisfy if all the member of supply chain can satisfy the needs of their backward users. Moreover, the operation efficiency of supply chain system can be improved through the satisfaction level of the end users. In supply chain quality management, some traditional tools of TQM are also effective. For example, we can use Quality Function Deployment (QFD) to identify the distinct and potential needs and preferences of users, use Fishbone Chart to investigate the factors affecting the satisfaction level of users and then use Pareto Chart to find out the key factors. 2. Leadership The effective of quality management depend on the effective of leadership because quality effort can get actual effect only with the recognition and support of the leadership. In supply chain circumstance, the core enterprise play as the leadership since it establishes the development strategy and operation targets of supply chain affect the actual efficiency and effectiveness of the quality effort of all the other members. Therefore, the core enterprise must act as leadership to consider adequately the needs and expectation of the other members, establish a clear, realizable and coincident holistic target, and then lead and inspire the other members to strive jointly for the target. At the same time, the core enterprise should foster more leaders of TQM in each layer of supply chain and make them take their responsibility zealously.
3. Involvement of people The exertion of enthusiasm and creativity of all the employees is the precondition of the actual effect of quality management. In supply chain circumstance, an up-and-coming excelsior work atmosphere should be established to inspire the enthusiasm and creativity of the employees of all the members. Each employee should understand his/her role and responsibility in the supply chain system, solve the problems forwardly as mastership, and learn the principles, skills and technologies of TQM and ISO9000. Here, we can foster the ethos of self-motion and self-knowledge in supply chain through 5S, i.e. seiri, seiton, seiso, seiketsu, and shitshke. Furthermore, we can make all the employees participate into supply chain quality management and strive for the satisfaction of users jointly through the establishment of QC teams that cross function or even enterprise. 4. Process management The focus of modern quality view is the process quality management but not the product itself of traditional quality view. It is the requirement of the quality management system of
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SHIRAF ISO9004:2000 and the essential difference of modern and traditional quality view. In each step of supply chain, there are many correlative processes, such as procurement, logistics, production, inventory, selling, service, etc. These processes have their own independent objectives and programs. There are usually conflicts among the objectives and programs. Therefore, the processes and their mutual effects should be identified and managed to ensure the harmonious operation of supply chain. Then, all the processes, especially the key processes, can realize high quality, i.e. small variation, small waste, and more increment, through the continuous improvement and total quality control in all the nodes of supply chain system. 5. System management The application of system approach in quality management is to view the quality management system as a big and holistic system, identify and manage the sub-systems respectively. Then, the coordinated effect and mutual promotion among the sub-systems will make the whole effect greater than the sum of the improvement of each sub-system and improve the validity and efficiency of the realization of final targets. In supply chain circumstance, enterprise should confirm the mutual dependence relationship among the processes in supply chain system, break the boundary among supply chain members, construct and integrate the processes in supply chain system. Then, many well operation subsystems can be constructed to collocate the resources rationally among the sub-systems. Finally, the whole supplychain system, including supply, transport, production, distribution, inventory, etc., can realize the target and policy of quality through the optimal operation mode.
6. Continual improvement Continual improvement is one of the focuses of modern quality research and practice. Enterprise must improve the quality of product and service continually and reduce the cost to make customer satisfactory. In supply chain circumstance, the pressure of continual improvement is more and more pressing because the market competition is more and more hard. Not only the core enterprise but also the other members, such as suppliers, sellers, and logistics providers, must improve their product and service respectively so as to construct the continual improvement of products and services all over the supply chain process. Then, the continual, stable and harmonious ability of quality assurance can be established. Furthermore, the core enterprise and other members must find the ways and practices improving performance in or out of supply chain through benchmarking to make the continual improvement speed fast than the one of rivals. However, it is ironical that one of the most important reason in the predicament of Xerox, which initiated benchmarking practices, was exactly its slow reaction with the fast changing environment.
7. Factual approach to decision making
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SHIRAF The sufficient and adequate data and information is the foundation of making right and effective decisions. Up to now, many enterprises have began to collect and deal with all kinds of data and information by utilizing many advanced information technology, e.g., EDI, MRP, ERP, POS, Intranet/Extranet/Internet, so as to provide foundation for making effective decision. In supply chain circumstance, enterprise should collect data and information of not only itself but also the other members of supply chain to record and analyze the current operation situation of each member. Therefore, the potential problems in any step of supply chain can be found duly according to the results of data analysis. Then, the corresponding correct and timely decision can be made to avoid or rectify the problem.
8. Mutually beneficial supplier relationships What impact can suppliers have in achieving quality? TQM authorities recommend that organizations work directly with raw material suppliers to ensure that their materials are of the highest quality possible. Currently, at least 50 percent of TQM organizations collaborate with their suppliers in some way to increase the quality of component parts. Often these organizations send out quality action teams to consult with their major suppliers. The objective is to help suppliers use TQM to analyze and improve their work processes. Suppliers can contribute to quality in a number of other ways. Therefore, the organization and its supplier are mutually dependent. Maintaining the mutually beneficial relationships between them can improve the ability of creating value both of them. In supply chain circumstance, the product quality is performed and ensured by all the members of supply chain because the production, sales and service process must be performed by all the members. Therefore, the task of supply chain quality management is not only to establish the product inspection system and comprehensive evaluation system of suppliers, but also to strengthen the mutual beneficial partner relationships with suppliers. The core enterprise must realize the following activities: Identify and select the main suppliers, reduce the scale of supply system, and realize small supply base management; Investigate the requirements of customers and develop new product jointly with suppliers; Share information, technology, and resource with suppliers; Admit the improvement and achievement of suppliers; Take joint improving activities with suppliers; Ensure the conformity of quality system between core enterprise and the other members, including basic conformity (e.g. program files, technology specification, process interface) and advanced conformity (e.g. quality target, quality policy, and quality culture). In fact, there is a new trend in the international practices of supply chain management. Namely, more and more large-scale enterprises have pay attention to the management and development of suppliers, e.g. providing capital, technology, human resource, equipment and
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SHIRAF training for suppliers, sending quality teams to help suppliers improve their processes, and sharing the yields of continual improvement with suppliers.
Figure 1. Supply chain quality management system based on the principle of process management
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TASK 3.5 The Role of E-business in a Supply Chain

E-business involves the execution of business transactions over the Internet. Companies conducting ebusiness perform some or all of the following activities over the Internet across the supply chain: Providing product and other information Negotiating prices and contracts Placing and receiving orders Tracking orders Filling and delivering orders Paying and receiving payment. All these activities have been conducted in the past using existing "channels" such as retail stores, sales people, and catalogs. Companies have used the Internet in a variety of ways to enhance supply chain performance. A Strategic Framework to Evaluate Supply Chain Opportunities from E-business The framework starts from the premise that supply chain decisions must be evaluated in a strategic context based on the answers to the following three questions: 1. What is your firm's desired strategic position? 2. Given your the firm's strategic position, what supply chain capabilities are needed to support the strategy? 3. Given the desired supply chain capabilities, how should the supply chain be structured? The goal is to create fit between the desired strategic position of the firm and the capabilities of supply chain processes used to satisfy customer needs (Porter 1996). The desired strategic position may be articulated in terms of a clear priority ranking on the needs of the customer segments that are targeted by the firm. Typical dimensions of customer needs that may be targeted by a supply chain include timeliness, accessibility, availability, customizability, quality of service, and price. There is a tradeoff between the level at which a set of customer needs is targeted and the cost incurred by the supply chain in meeting these needs. The efficient frontier represents the lowest cost of delivering a given level of a customer need using the best available supply chain processes. Each point on the frontier corresponds to a particular supply chain structure, employing the best available technologies, managerial policies, and inputs to deliver the desired level of a customer need at lowest cost. As such, the
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SHIRAF efficient frontier constitutes the state of best practices at a given point in time (Porter 1996). It also shows the inherent trade-offs that a firm must consider when selecting its strategic position given limitations in process technology and policies. With the Internet come new associated technologies and managerial policies that shift the frontier outward. An outward shift represents either a decrease in cost for a given level of performance along a customer need or a higher level of performance at a given cost. The shift in the efficient frontier on adding the Internet to available channels will vary by industry. In instances, the Internet may shift the frontier by significantly decreasing the cost for existing levels of performance. For example, at industrial supplier W.W. Grainger, ebusiness does not change any of the underlying processes but makes them cheaper to execute. This would mean that the main advantage from ebusiness would be to increase efficiency by automating previous activities (i.e., substituting labor for capital). In other instances, such as the online grocer Peapod.com, the Internet primarily enhances convenience without significantly reducing costs. In that case, the main advantage of the e-business would be to offer higher value along a given customer need. Sometimes, ebusiness may shift the frontier out along both dimensions simultaneously, as is the case for Dell Computers that is able to deliver both higher customer value in terms of customization and responsiveness, and lower process cost. The Impact of E-business on Supply Chain Performance Setting up an e-business affects both revenues and costs for a firm. Next we will elaborate on both aspects. Revenue Impact of E-business. E-business allows firms to enhance revenues by direct sales to customers. Manufacturers and other members of the supply chain that do not have direct contact with customers in traditional retail channels can use the Internet to shrink the supply chain by bypassing retailers and selling direct to customers. For example, Dell Computers sells PCs online direct to customers. As a result, Dell can enjoy higher margins than traditional PC manufacturers that must share some margin with retailers. Clearly, retailers are in a weaker position to exploit this opportunity from e-business than other members of the supply chain. For example, going online would benefit an airline more than a travel agent. Providing on-line product and other information across the supply chain allows flexibility on price, product portfolio and promotions. The Internet makes information located at a central source (the sellers web server) available to anyone with Internet access, so that a change in price, product portfolio or promotions only requires one database entry. A traditional mail order company would need to mail new catalogs to all customers to change prices or products. Using its ebusiness, however, it only needs to update the price on its website. This allows dynamic "revenue management" where prices reflect actual demand and inventory positions, very much like airline yield management. For example, Dell uses the Internet to change prices and delivery times for different PC configurations regularly, based on demand
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SHIRAF and component availability. On-line product information allows a much faster time to market as a product can be "introduced" as soon as a first unit is available. This is particularly valuable in industries with short product life cycles, where e-business provides an advantage over a "physical" product information model. A new product introduction in a traditional model requires a substantial volume of new product to be manufactured and transported to fill the physical channels. This is evident again in the computer industry where Dell often introduces new products earlier than its competitors. The Internet allows information aggregation and offering a wider product portfolio from many sources to enhance revenues. For example, Yahoo! Shopping provides product information from a large number of retailers and enhances revenues for all by attracting customers because they are likely to find the product they are seeking. Physical retail store chains could aggregate product availability information across all stores on the Internet to satisfy customers by directing them to the appropriate location. In contrast to direct sales and eliminating the middle man, it has become popular to create hubs or portals to link customers to other companies and their products. This improves shopping and fulfillment through one-stop and the hosting firm can receive revenues through commission fees and advertising. Negotiating prices and contracts with customers and suppliers on-line allows price and service customization. By accommodating individual requests, the product/service may be customized and priced accordingly. Keeping customer profiles and having them "log-in" facilitates such price and service discrimination by allowing subsequent class or customer specific routing. Individualizing the purchasing experience for each customer is difficult in a physical store where the store layout cannot be changed for each individual customer. After logging in at Schwab, clients with a substantial investment portfolio have access to additional Signature Services. Aside from such service discrimination, an e-business could price discriminate and alter prices based on the buying power of individual customers to enhance revenues. Auctions sites like eBay and exchanges like Commerce One allow people to bid for goods and services with different people potentially paying different prices. Other e-businesses offer customers a menu of services at different prices, allowing them to select the desired level of service. For example, Amazon.com provides a customer ordering multiple books with shipping times for each book. Some titles may be available for next day shipping while others involve a weeklong lead-time. Customers can choose to receive one order after a week at a lower price, or separate shipments in order of availability at a higher price. Global access at any time from any place in terms of order placement allows an e-business to enhance revenues by attracting customers who may not be able to place orders during regular business hours. For example, customers can place orders at industrial supplier Grainger.com, even when the Grainger stores where they will pick up their orders are closed. Grainer has
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SHIRAF observed a surge in online orders after their stores close. (Similar access convenience may be important in Europe, where many supermarkets are closed in the evenings, exactly the time when many customers that work could place their orders.) An e-business also allows a small specialty store with one location near Chicago to reach customers worldwide. E-business can enhance revenues by speeding up collection of funds. An example of speeding upcollection comes from the 2000 presidential campaign of John McCain. Within 48 hours of his primary victory in New Hampshire, Mr. McCains campaign collected $1 million over his website. Receiving $1 million in checks would require much more time and effort to process and collect them! Cost Impact of E-business In Designing and Managing Supply Chain Flows, it is argued that the impact of e-business on supply chain costs is better understood by considering the four drivers of supply chain performance. Facility costs include both site and processing costs. E-businesses are able to centralize facilities because online sales allow the separation of order placement and order fulfillment. Site costs may decrease as direct customer-manufacturer contact and geographical centralization eliminates or reduces retail sites. For example, Amazon supplies its customers from a few warehouses, while Borders and Barnes and Noble must incur facility costs for all their retail stores. In addition, bookstores have a higher space cost per square foot and lower asset utilization compared to warehouses. An e-business can decrease processing cost if they can increase the amount of customer participation. For example, customers purchasing online from L.L. Bean do all the work of selecting the product, placing and order, and paying. This is in contrast to a call center where an employee is involved in the order process. In some instances, e-businesses may face higher processing costs because they have to perform tasks currently performed by the customer at a retail store. By separating fulfillment from order placement, an ebusiness can smooth the order fulfillment rate. This reduces the peak load for order fulfillment and thus resource requirements and costs. Finally, a direct-sales manufacturer can reduce handling costs because fewer supply chain stages are involved in the product flow to the customer. Inventory costs: Many e-businesses can centralize inventories because they do not have to carry inventory close to the customer. This geographical centralization reduces required inventory levels because of increased economies of scale in the supply and reduced aggregated variability in the demand. In some instances, given the time lag between when an online order is placed and filled, e-businesses can reduce inventories by postponing product differentiation until after the customer order has been placed. Postponing assembly or product differentiation allows a firm to "assemble to order" customized products from common components. Conceptually, postponement decreases the supply processes that are operated in "push" mode while it increases the processes that operate in "pull" mode (i.e., after a particular customer order arrives). A major advantage of e-business is that, by separating
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SHIRAF ordering from fulfillment, increased flexibility in operations is gained to implement postponement. (It is somehow ironic that by "going on Internet time," supply chains may actually buy themselves time compared to traditional brick-and-mortar retailing where ordering and fulfillment tend to coincide.) Transportation costs One should differentiate inbound from outbound transportation: a firm incurs inbound transportation costs to bring a replenishment order in from a supplier while it incurs outbound transportation costs to deliver the product to the customer. Typically, replenishment orders enjoy lower unit transportation costs than customer orders because of scale economies. Physical centralization increases the distance traveled by a customer order, while decreasing the distance traveled by a replenishment order. Thus, compared to a business with several physical outlets, an e-business will tend to have higher transportation costs per unit. Clearly, transportation costs are eliminated for downloadable information goods. Information sharing improves supply chain coordination. An e-business can easily share demand and other information (such as inventory positions) across the supply chain to dampen the bullwhip effect and improve coordination. Sharing planning and forecasting information further improves coordination and reduces overall supply chain costs while better matching demand with supply. Information processing costs also tend to be lower for an ebusiness if it has successfully integrated systems across the supply chain.
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TASK 4 TASK 4.1 Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT)

Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) is a system of transferring money from one bank account directly to another without any paper money changing hands. One of the most widely-used EFT programs is Direct Deposit, in which payroll is deposited straight into an employee's bank account, although EFT refers to any transfer of funds initiated through an electronic terminal, including credit card, ATM, Fedwire and point-of-sale (POS) transactions. It is used for both credit transfers, such as payroll payments, and for debit transfers, such as mortgage payments. Transactions are processed by the bank through the Automated Clearing House (ACH) network, the secure transfer system that connects all U.S. financial institutions. For payments, funds are transferred electronically from one bank account to the billing company's bank, usually less than a day after the scheduled payment date. The growing popularity of EFT for online bill payment is paving the way for a paperless universe where checks, stamps, envelopes, and paper bills are obsolete. The benefits of EFT include reduced administrative costs, increased efficiency, simplified bookkeeping, and greater security. However, the number of companies who send and receive bills through the Internet is still relatively small. The U.S. Government monitors EFT compliance through Regulation E of the Federal Reserve Board, which implements the Electronic Funds Transfer Act (EFTA). Regulation E governs financial transactions with electronic payment services, specifically with regard to disclosure of information, consumer liability, error resolution, record retention, and receipts at electronic terminals. Financial institutions and their customers are recognizing a growing need to manage cash resources more efficiently. Economic and financial factors, together with improved data communications and computer technology, have increased demand for electronic funds transfer (EFT) services from the financial industry. EFT is defined as: any transfer of funds which is initiated through an electronic terminal, telephonic instrument, computer, or magnetic tape so as to order, instruct, or authorize a financial institution to debit or credit an account. The volume of funds and securities exchanged daily through the electronic funds transfer systems is in the trillions of dollars. For U.S. financial institutions, these transactions are
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SHIRAF handled by wholesale or large dollar systems such as FedWire, CHIPS, and SWIFT. Additionally, other funds transfer services, such as Automated Clearing Houses (ACH), Automated Teller Machines (ATM), Point-of-Sale (POS) systems, telephone bill paying, home banking systems, debit cards, and smart cards are gaining widespread customer use. Many of these transactions are initiated by customers rather than financial institutions. These are normally considered retail funds transfer systems. Financial institutions and regulatory authorities should be concerned with the quality of internal controls and managements awareness of the inherent risks associated with the various systems. E-business payment system Introduction Internet has evolved from being a scientific network only to a platform that is enabling a new generation of businesses over the last few years. Initially, E-business was fundamentally the exchange of information. But nowadays, more and more kinds of businesses have become electronically available. We can buy items online, book ticket, transfer money over the internet in an instant. The internet has changed the way people running business much faster than any other technology in the history of business. Categories of E-business There are three general E-business categories including business to business, business to consumer and consumer to consumer. Business to Business (B2B) ---Business sells products or provides services to other business, normally between a manufacturer and a wholesaler, or between a wholesaler and a retailer.For instance, ec21.com sells its products to large and small businesses via its website. Business to Consumer (B2C) ---Businesses sell products or provide services to individual consumers . The form of consumers shopping on the internet is often called business to consumer. For example, Argos.co.uk sells products to consumers via its website. Consumer to Consumer (C2C) ---People participating in an online marketplace can buy and sell goods to each other. An example of a C2C website would be ebay.com, one of the biggest C2C online marketplaces. People can sell their items via eBays website to others. Besides, some of websites are mixed with B2C and C2C, like Amazon. In this paper, online payment systems in this area will be critical analyzed. In addition, there are many other E-business models existing these days such as business-togovernment (B2G), business-to-employee (B2E), government-to-citizen (G2C), governmentto-government (G2G) etc. Electronic online payment methods in the C2C business As an alternative payment method to transfer fund for E-business, sending and receiving payment via the internet has grown rapidly over the last few years. It is quite unusual to find
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SHIRAF any e-business seller that does not accept at least one form of electronic payment. More and more people start to use online payment electronic payments in addition to traditional payment such as cheque, cash, bank transfer etc. People have changed the way they pay through the internet. Compared with traditional payments, electronic payment is more convenient for E-business. People do not have to swipe their bank card, write a cheque or handle any cash. All they have to do is to enter some information into their internet browser and click their mouse.In this section, we will look at the major types of electronic payment, explain how these electronic payment systems work and discuss their advantages and limitations. Current limitations of online payment system in C2C Security issues of online payment system Communications of E-business are widely opened. The growing demand for E-business also raises the security issues. The most important issue with online payment systems is security. Online payment system is a big target for criminals because actual money are involved in it . Recently, internet fraud is growing sharply, security issues became a business issue and not just a technical issue to be resolved by IT departments. Nowadays, there are many types of attacks which can threaten online payment system, such as viruses, Trojans, spam. In addition, many issues reported in the past told us there were many reasons caused security problems rather than pure technology, such as human errors, inadequate security strategies and procedures . Transaction security is one of the most important factors for online payment systems of Ebusiness. Moreover, the basic requirement of security transaction is user identity since it has to be verified before any E-business transaction. Therefore, how to resolve user identity issue is a big challenge for all E-business online payments solutions. Also, it is necessary to prevent unauthorized access to the online payment system to avoid information disclosure, data substitution and content destruction.
e-business operations Electronic payment systems

With the advent of eBusiness and shopping on-line, there has been a growth in the need for of dedicated payment systems. Credit and Debit Cards Early on-line payment applications were based on existing on-line clearance of payments through the credit card and debit card networks such as Switch in the UK, but the facilities to connect directly to these services have only been available to the largest retailers.
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SHIRAF Strictly speaking, most credit card merchant accounts have onerous requirements for cardholder not present transactions and in many sectors, the banks and card providers have so been wary of fraud that they have not rushed to offer services to on-line retailers.
Payment Service Providers Businesses have been able to gain on-line card clearance or integrated merchant services from payment service provider businesses such as Cybercash, Datacash and Worldpay that act as retailers of merchant services.
Paypal Paypal is the most important peer-to-peer payment system, which is now owned by Ebay. These services have allowed individuals to make and receive payments through their own credit card and/or bank account. Furthermore, an increasing coverage offers a more or less seamless way to send and receive payments in many currencies, without having to incur further foreign exchange costs. As of September 2006, Paypal had 123 million accounts and had conducted 440 million transactions in the year to date. Founded in 1998, PayPal, an eBay Company, enables any individual or business with an email address to securely, easily and quickly send and receive payments online. PayPal's service builds on the existing financial infrastructure of bank accounts and credit cards and utilizes the world's most advanced proprietary fraud prevention systems to create a safe, global, real-time payment solution. PayPal has quickly become a global leader in online payment solutions with 100 million account members worldwide. Available in 103 countries and regions around the world, buyers and sellers on eBay, online retailers, online businesses, as well as traditional offline businesses are transacting with PayPal. Other providers such as Nochex are attacking the same market, but seem to have lost out to Paypal, presumably, largely due to its close integration with eBay, which has made it difficult for alternative suppliers to get a share of the market. Other payment providers Western Union has a long tradition of transferring money internationally via its network of offices around the world it has long been used by people travelling and by expatriate workers to send money home to their families. Western Union has been building its presence in eBusiness, especially in areas where the banking system may offer limited facilities, or where international transfers may be difficult or prohibitively expensive for small users.
E-BUSINESS SHIRAF Electronic Banking
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The banks themselves seem to have been nervous of on-line payment developments. However, there has been an uptake in electronic banking which allows customers to make and receive payments from their cheque account via a secure website and this is growing in acceptance.
Micropayments Micropayments are payments for small amounts, sometimes as little as a few pence and in many cases, online business models with very low marginal costs need to collect these very small amounts. Paypal is quite effective for some retailers and individual users to sell small items on eBay, collect the money automatically and then just withdraw when a suitable amount has been aggregated from many transactions.
TASK 4.2 The internet can be used for recruitment and for communication with employees
The Internet has revolutionised the recruitment world, drastically changing the way companies and recruitment agencies look for quality talent. The Internet is probably one of the greatest recruitment resources available to Recruiters. More HR managers and recruitment agencies are recruiting on the Web whether through online job boards, corporate recruitment websites or E-Recruitment solutions. The Internet makes huge numbers of Job Seekers available to Recruiters as millions of Job Seekers surf the Web to search for jobs, post their CVs and fill out job applications daily. The immense power of the web enables Recruiters to make use of online recruitment solutions like recruitment websites or job boards to ensure that the recruitment process becomes simplified and cost-effective. The nascent Internet recruitment industry is poised for explosive growth, but figuring out how to tap into the power of recruiting over the Internet may seem somewhat daunting. Internet Recruitment Don't get frazzled by the many terms used to describe Internet recruitment. The words ERecruitment and Online Recruitment are often used interchangeably to describe the very same thing. Websites such as Jobs.co.za attract large national and international audiences. Online recruitment helps recruiters attract, short-list, regret, filter, test and recruit job seeker applicants with a minimal amount of administration. Utilised correctly eRecruitment can be used to for the entire recruitment process, from advertising job vacancies and receiving candidate applications, to the back office processing where human resources and line managers can create their own talent pool of potential recruits.
E-BUSINESS SHIRAF What to expect from Online Recruitment Sites
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Job boards and recruitment websites usually offer the very similar solutions as eRecruitment sites, however the level of functionality and services offered by each differ in relation to the company's business model or niche industry. The country also plays a significant role in determining what type of solutions may be offered by the job portal. While most job boards allow the recruiter to advertise and manage jobs online, an effective online recruitment solution (also known as E-Recruitment Solution) provides recruiters with sophisticated solutions to manage the entire recruitment process onlinethereby reducing the recruitment cost and time to hire. Advertising Job Vacancies Online Finding the right person for the job is always the core objective, and by advertising job vacancies on the Internet it is possible for Recruiters to attract both active and passive Job Seekers. The advantage of advertising your job vacancies online is that the ads appear on the web for 30-60 days rather than in one edition of a printed newspaper. Additionally, you don't pay for the advertisement based on the space taken; job boards usually allow you to use all the space necessary to describe the position adequately and attractively. The format in which the ad appears, length of ad, duration and volume of job advertisement postings differ from job site to job site. Some job sites allow once-off job advertisement postings where ad hoc employers can advertise their rare job vacancies online for a limited period of time. Other job portals provide bulk job posting discounts or subscription packages. Searching the Job Seeker Database Most online recruitment sites retain a state-of-the-art CV (Curriculum Vitae) / Resume database of either active or passive Job Seekers. While many job sites provide Recruiters and human resource professionals access to search the online database of job seeker CV's, in South Africa most e-Recruitment sites have reserved this luxury for placement (employment or recruitment) agencies only as they are committed to protecting the Job Seeker's confidentiality by ensuring that their identity (and the fact that they are on the job market) is not potentially exposed to the Job Seeker's current employer. Application Process Management Application management or application tracking systems manage the entire application process through automated communication with job applicants. Recruiters are able to view applications online and/or receive job applications directly in their email inboxes. However, today's recruitment systems are designed to do a whole lot more than just reduce paperwork; they can receive, sort, shortlist, contact and regret job applicants directly from the web-based interface. They provide better management of applicant information online and can be used to send mass regret notifications (bulk-regret) to multiple job applicants instantly.
E-BUSINESS SHIRAF Pre-screening and Filtering
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The more advanced web-based recruitment solutions have incorporated pre-screening or filtering systems as part of their functionality. The extent and nature of these differ considerably from one service provider to the next. Some recruitment sites provide system generated background checking on job applicants, while others offer more sophisticated psychometric or career assessment tests. Other effective, but less complicated solutions include tailored questionnaires that detect required skills to meet the exact needs of the position. Skill based automated pre-screening greatly reduces the time spent during the recruitment cycle and increases the probability of hiring the right candidate for the job. Corporate Recruitment Websites E-Recruitment solutions can provide an interface that allows company's to post jobs on their own company website as well as accepting CV's through the company's website. While some candidates are actively looking to change jobs, others may be more hesitant to post their resumes on job boards for fear that their current employers might see their CV. A company website's own recruitment section offers more opportunity for the employer to provide facts about the company's culture, environment, practices and recruitment processes. Establishing an employment section on the company's site can provide a very cost effective means to building up a company's own talent pool of prospective employees while reinforcing the value of the brand to potential job applicants. The eVolution of eRecruitment There is far more to online recruitment than job advertising, database search and online application management. Some trends in internet recruiting shows a rise in the emergence of corporate recruitment videos, online interviews and online recruitment networking. Other value added services will include HR and Recruitment Communities, Forums, Blogs and Recruiting news. E-Recruitment further lends itself to a natural extension of e-HR (Human Resources) solutions where HR processes such as payroll management, skills development, employee benefits, exit interviews and retention management can be outsourced to an online service provider. These systems are usually designed to integrate with existing intranet, payroll and HR back-end systems effortlessly and effectively. This level of sophisticated integration aids in combating longer term recruitment issues through the effective use of people management. If you haven't considered an eRecruitment solution by now, then you are not evolving. The many benefits offered by online recruitment services are extensive and the evolution of recruiting on the web will further path the way to successful, cost-effective hiring and people retention.
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SHIRAF With the explosive growth of the Internet over the last several years and a strong economy with record low unemployment rates, companies are expanding their use of the Internet as a recruitment tool to attract good workers and obtain competitive advantages. Recruitment using the Internet has typically focused on professional, executive and technical positions across many industries; but it is especially widespread in the high technology sector. As the doors of Internet access are opened to more people and as the digital divide shrinks through less expensive computers, Internet service providers, Internet appliances and other Internet access devices, Internet recruitment for many types of jobs and positions across many industries including construction have the potential for increased application and growth. The growth of the Internet in the United States is increasing and more Americans are gaining Internet access. The Internet economy is changing the way business is conducted by opening new avenues of communication, collaboration and coordination between consumers, businesses and trading partners. Advantages of the Internet recruitment include lower recruiting costs, faster recruiting cycle, higher caliper recruits and increased audience reach. Potential barriers to Internet recruitment include the digital divide, limited Internet access, usage problems and flawed infrastructure. It is premature to assess the role of the Internet and the controversy surrounding union salting. Construction organizations use the Internet for recruitment of professional, executive and administrative staff. Construction organizations could expand their Internet recruiting strategies to include the skilled labor workforce to attract workers and obtain a competitive advantage. There is a potential opportunity for construction organizations to use the Internet for recruitment of skilled labor.
TASK 4.3 The support of logistics services and international trade through use of the internet
The Internet has revolutionized how individuals and businesses conduct their affairs. The Internet has impacted daily activities and communications and is having a profound effect on global trade.
New technologies are reshaping and impacting international trade. These changes bring both benefits and challenges to organizations. Potential economic benefits, such as the acceleration in the rate of innovation allow organizations to compete in more focused markets, and
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SHIRAF increased global growth and market access allow in new and expanding markets. However, there are numerous challenges associated with new technology and global markets, such as cultural differences, channel operations and government intervention.
No single force embodies the ongoing electronic transformation of the global economy more than the evolving medium known as the Internet. The Internet is a global matrix of interconnected computer networks, or a network of networks, that is a collection of hundreds of thousands of private and public networks (Laudon 2000). Once a tool reserved for scientific and academic exchange, the Internet has emerged as an appliance of everyday life, accessible from almost every point on the Earth. The Internet is being used to reinvent government, private business, and reshape individual lives. As the Internet empowers citizens and democratizes societies, it is also changing classic and traditional business and economic paradigms. New models of commercial interaction are developing as businesses and consumers participate in the electronic marketplace. Entrepreneurs are able to start new businesses more easily with smaller upfront investment requirements by accessing the Internet's worldwide networks of customers.
An indicator of how technology is advancing can be found in Moore's Law. Gordon Moore, Intel Corp. co- founder predicted in 1965 that the density of transistors in an integrated circuit would double every year. His axiom, dubbed Moore's Law, was later changed to reflect 18 months' progress. Moore's Law has proven remarkably accurate for over three decades. Not only transistor density but also microprocessor performance tends to follow Moore's Law (Stam. 1999).
International economics deals with the economic interdependence, or relationships among nations. It analyzes the flow of goods, services and payments between nations, the policies directed at regulating this flow and their effect on the nations' welfare. This economic interdependence among nations is affected by and, in turn, influences the political, social, cultural and military relations among nations. Specifically, international economics deals with international trade (Salvatore 1998). Economic interdependence among nations has been growing over the years as measured by the more rapid growth of world trade over world production. International commerce is also being impacted Internet related activities.
IMPACT OF THE INTERNET There are many reasons trade interdependence has been increasing, and the most recent common denominator in the equation is the Internet. The evolution of the Internet as a pervasive phenomenon means that the traditional factors of production, capital and labor are no longer the main determinant of the power of the economy.
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An increasing percentage of the United States economy, as well as other industrial nations, depends on imports and exports. Foreign trade, imports and exports, account for approximately 25% of the goods and services produced in the United States and even more in countries like Japan and Germany (Laudon 2000). The success of firms today and in the future depends on their ability to operate in the global marketplace, and their economic potential is increasingly linked to the ability to manipulate information. The dynamics of global growth are changing as profoundly as they did with the advent of railroads and electricity; however, today we have entered the Age of the Internet.
The initial manifestation of the new era is the stunning performance of the United States economy in the 1990's. For most of the post war era, Western Europe and Japan slowly gained ground on the United States by adopting modern technology and adding their own innovations. In 1970, the United States per capita income was 3 1 % higher than that of other major industrialized countries. By 1991, the difference had narrowed to 10% (Mandel 2000).
With the dawn of the Internet age, the gap has started to widen again to more that 22% this year. "This is historically unique," says Luc Soete, an economist at Maastricht University in the Netherlands and Europe's leading expert on the New Economy. "For the first time in the post war period, you have growth divergence-the pulling away of the leading technology country" Soete explains (Mandel 2000).
The acceleration of the U.S. growth is only the opening act of a much larger concert of global economic change and growth. The Internet should make many more industries open to globalization. Historically, international trade flows consisted mainly of goods. Whether it was spices from the Spice Islands or automobiles, it was much easier to ship goods rather than services overseas. With the Internet, it becomes much easier to provide various types of services, including banking, education, consulting and retailing through a website that is globally accessible. "The Internet is the backbone of greater service trade," says Joseph Quinlan, SeniorInternational Economist at Morgan Stanley Dean Whitter (Mandel 2000).
Beyond that, as more and more companies become tied into the global Internet, there may be acceleration in the rate of innovation. New growth theory predicts that, as the size of the market gets bigger, the rewards for uncovering lucrative new ideas will as well.
Moreover, as new ideas flow back and forth across national boundaries faster and more easily, everyone will benefit. The Internet may lead to a much more rapid diffusion of knowledge. A study by Jonathan Eaton, an economist at Boston University, and his co47 | P a g e IBS Kandy Campus HND in Business and IT
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SHIRAF author, Samuel Kortum, estimates that in the extreme case, international borders become irrelevant and global growth could go up by one full percentage point (Mandel 2000).
International trade is increasingly becoming a fast- paced environment. This fast-paced environment has given birth to a new economy through a technological revolution. From this technological revolution, the world stands to gain such things as a shift in the tradition of only trading goods to include services, more industries being open to globalization, acceleration in the rate of innovation and increased global and economic growth.
Although the Internet age promises to bring about an economic boom, a whole new set of international trade challenges has presented itself. As discussed previously, the challenges include the necessity of organizational and cultural change, overcoming logistical challenges such as shipping and transportations costs, language barriers, currency conversions, duties and tariffs, attaining government cooperation and lastly, exorbitant implementation costs.
In conclusion, the global race has begun, the playing field is global in nature and the challenge is fierce. There is no better way to describe the current state of the Internet Age than to say it is moving at the speed of technology
Logistics Service
Logistics is a term that is frequently used to describe shipping and delivery service. The word "logistics" actually originated in the military, being used to define troop and equipment movements within and across theaters of operation. The phrase "logistics services" has been adopted to private sector uses, and in many ways this adoption is an appropriate description of what happens along a shipping route.
The supply chain of today is more dependent on e-communications than ever. This is partially due to the increased application of intranet and Internet technologies related to shipment tracking, but is also a result of the interdependency of information technology and the innovations that logistics services require to improve their ability to "deliver the goods". the integration of logistics into the supply chain from the order desk to the point of delivery has actually contributed to many innovations in communication and data applications, and will likely continue to do so for years to come.
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TAKS 4.4
Industry Networks Understanding how industries are structured from a network perspective can help generate effective strategies and identify specific opportunities for innovation The complex array of relationships between organizations in and adjacent to an industry define the current landscape of value creation. Analyzing these industry networks can provide direct input into strategic innovation and opportunity identification.
Example: Media Industry Networks 2006 Examples of Industry Network Analysis Industry network analysis can be applied in a wide variety of ways. Corporate strategy development
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SHIRAF The traditional value chain analysis undertaken by many strategy consultants is dated and often misleading. In a highly interconnected world, industry analysis that focuses on networks can provide a variety of valuable insights into industry value creation, competition, emerging opportunities, and strategic options. Strategic innovation workshops One of the most powerful tools for an in-house innovation program is to use industry networks to identify opportunities. Staff are guided in a workshop to map out the key relationships in their industry, overlay critical trends such as the impact of information technologies, and use this to pinpoint where new value creation opportunities are likely to emerge in their industry. From this, specific innovations can be proposed to generate value for the firm. Alliance strategy Industry network analysis provides one of the most pertinent views into the alliances that will be most valuable to support the organizations objectives, and how best to manage those relationships in an industry context.
PORTAL A portal is a door or an entryway. The term online refers to the Internet and the web pages that form part of the World Wide Web. An online portal, or web portal, is a website that provides an entry point for a range of information, tools, and links. An online portal may serve a variety of purposes. Some types of online portal are meant to serve as a one-stop shop for most of what certain Internet users would need most. By offering an array of the most often used types of information and services and sometimes allowing for personalization an online portal can save a user a lot of time. One part of the typical offerings for this type of online portal are the top current events that are found in many newspapers: headlines and links to important national and maybe local news, weather forecasts, the days primetime television listing, stock market reports, and sports headlines. Also typical are entertainment news, health news, dating and romance tips, a horoscope, trending topics, hyperlinks to related sites, a search engine, and sometimes free, web-basedemail. Another type of online portal is a company portal, often called an enterprise portal. This type of web portal is generally hosted on a corporate Intranet and is the Intranet entry point. It features information and tools of interest and value to the employees of the company. Like other online portals, it may feature search engine functionality, but focused on internal assets, access to web-based email, content specifically for employees, and in some cases, broaderInternet access, possibly only to selected sites. This type of online portal may also include functions that are associated with a business dashboard.
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A vertical industry portal, or vortal, is an online portal that is specialized to reflect the interests and needs of the members of a particular industry. Thus, all the information whether data, news, statistics, or research, tools, forums, and other offerings are linked to the targetindustry. Vortals may be hosted by special interest groups, associations, and trade magazines. Vortals are found in fields such as agriculture, computers, energy, entertainment, business services, construction, and advertising, and may also be involved in ecommerce.

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E-BUSINESS SHIRAF

TASK 1 TASK 1.1 Extended Purchasing Subsystem

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TASK 1.2 The Buying Process

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E-BUSINESS SHIRAF Step One - Need/Want Recognition

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E-BUSINESS SHIRAF Step Five - Cognitive Dissonance (Post Purchase Anxiety)

TASK 1.3 Different Types of Purchases

E-BUSINESS SHIRAF Types of Consumer Purchase Decisions

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TASK 2 TASK 2.1

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TASK 2.2 Electronic data interchange (EDI)

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TASK 2.3 Importance of EDI in E-business

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TASK 2.4 Value Added Network (VAN)

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IBS Kandy Campus

HND in Business and IT

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TASK 2.5 Advantages of Internet in B2B

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TASK 3 TASK 3.1 Web-Auctions

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The different types of web-auctions

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TASK3.2 Supply Chain Management (SCM)

The product flow The information flow The finances flow

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TASK 3.3 Electronic Marketplaces

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TASK 3.4 Trust and Security in E-business

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7. Factual approach to decision making

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TASK 3.5 The Role of E-business in a Supply Chain

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TASK 4 TASK 4.1 Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT)

e-business operations Electronic payment systems

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E-BUSINESS SHIRAF Electronic Banking

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E-BUSINESS SHIRAF What to expect from Online Recruitment Sites

E-BUSINESS SHIRAF Pre-screening and Filtering

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