Building Ecommerce Applications & Infrastructure H essa AL- Subaie, D ina Nassar A isha AL-Omani, B ashayer Abdulallah D alal Al- Qatami

► Developing EC site.  Components  Language  ASP (Application service provider)= A company that provides business applications to users for a small monthly fee. The Development process

► Step 1  Creating an EC Architecture= a plan for organizing the underlying infrastructure & applications of site. ► Business Goals ► Business Vision ► Application Modules ► Hardware / software ► Security / reliability required ► HR & procedures for implementing the architecture Steps of Development process

► Step 2  Selecting a development option ► In-house ► Outsource ► Combination of both Steps of Development process

► Step 3  Installing  Testing ► Unit testing ► Integration testing ► Usability testing ► Acceptance testing  Deploying EC applications Steps of Development process

► Step 4  Operation and maintenance ► Site continually updated ► Study usage patterns and performance Steps of Development process

The Major EC Applications & their functionalities ► B2C storefronts An Electronic storefront need to offer buyers the ability to:-  Discover, search, evaluate, compare.  Select, negotiate  Place an order  Pay  Confirm an order  Track orders

► On the other hand, the merchant needs to:-  Provide access to current catalogs  Provide E-shopping cart  Verify customer ’ s credit  Process orders  Arrange product delivery  Track shipments  Provide registrations  Provide FAQ  Analyze purchases  Provide language translation  Measure & analyze traffic at the site The Major EC Applications & their functionalities

► The 3 inter-related subsystems: 1.Catalog, products, prices, promotions, shopping cart 2.Transaction system 3.Payment gateway

The Major EC Applications & their functionalities ► Supplier Sell-side B2B sites  Similar to B2C but has additional features:- ► Personalized catalogs & web-pages ► B2B payment gateway ► Electronic contract negotiation features ► Product configuration by customers ► Affiliate program capabilities ► Business alerts

The Major EC Applications & their functionalities ► E-Procurement site  Is an online intermediary that offers businesses access to hundreds of parts & services provided by suppliers. ► Aggregating Catalogs sites  Some specialized requirements for this type of site:- ► Search engine ► Comparison engine ► Ordering mechanism ► Budget & authorization features ► Usage comparison ► Payment mechanism

The Major EC Applications & their functionalities ► Reverse Auctions sites  Sites of this sort provides:- ► Catalog of items content management ► Search engine ► Personalized pages ► Reverse auction mechanism ► Ability to bid dynamically ► Automatic vendor approval & workflow ► Electronic collaboration with trading partners.

The Major EC Applications & their functionalities ► Online Exchange sites  An e-market place tying many buyers to many suppliers  Combines functions of buy-side, e-procurement, auction sites, in addition to:- ► Collaboration services ► Community services ► Data mining, customer behavior tracking ► Transaction flow managers ► Negotiation mechanism ► Language translation ► Comprehensive links to related resources

Development Options for EC Applications

► In sourcing ► Outsourcing ► Leasing ► Other Options

In Sourcing ► Done using “ Web Scripting Languages ” ► Benefits:  Better fit organization ’ s strategy  Differentiate it from competition ► Short comes:  Time consuming  Costly

Outsourcing: Turnkey Approach ► Offers standard features required by EC ► Involves: 1.Buying commercial application 2.Installing it 3.Start it up

Outsourcing: Turnkey Approach (Cont.) ► Benefits:  Many different types available  Save time/money

Outsourcing: Turnkey Approach (Cont.) ► Short comes:  May not fully fit company ’ s needs  Difficult to modify  Loss of control over new versions  Difficult to be integrated with existing systems  Vendors my drop products/quit business

Leasing ► Lease application from outsourcer and install it ► Lease it from ASP that hosts the applications at its datacenter 2 ways to do it:

Benefits & Risks of Using ASP Business TechnicalEconomic Reduce need to IT Professionals Concentrate on strategic use of IT Benefits:

Loss of Control & Dependence on Vendor Risks: Benefits & Risks of Using ASP Business

Business Technical Economic Fast & Easy Application Deployment Simplified Maintenance & Training Benefits:

Benefits & Risks of Using ASP Technical Insufficient customization & legacy Applications Integration Low capability to deal with Security Issues Risks:

Benefits & Risks of Using ASP BusinessTechnical Economic Low total cost of ownership Improved cost control (Predictable Cost) Benefits:

Benefits & Risks of Using ASP Economic Price change of updating by vendor Risks:

Other Development Options ►E►E►E►E-marketplaces, Exchanges, E-Auctions ►J►J►J►Joint Venture & Consortia ►E►E►E►E-Malls ►I►I►I►ISPs ►T►T►T►Telecommunication Companies

Which Approach? Criteria to select development approach

Criteria for Selecting a Development Approach Selecting ► Flexibility ► User Friendliness ► Reliability ► Security

► Maintenance Services ► Vendor Quality & Track Record ► Estimating Costs ► Hardware & software resources Criteria for Selecting a Development Approach Selecting (Cont.)

Third-Party EC components and suites

2 types of EC Applications Available ► ► Electronics catalogs ► ► EC Suites.

► Virtual version of traditional product catalogs ► Contains:  Product description, Photos, Promotions, Payment methods, Discounts, & Delivery channels. Electronic Catalogs Electronic Catalogs

Architecture of Electronic Catalogs

Electronics catalogs features ► Template for creating a storefront pages. ► Electronic shopping cart. ► Provide secure purchase process using encryption methods. ► Database for maintaining the product descriptions and customers orders. ► Integration with third party software for calculating Taxes and shipping costs.

Third-Party EC components and suites ► EC Suites :contains different ► databases;  Customer database  Order database  Catalog database  Payment database

Components of an EC Suite

Third-Party EC components and suites ► Two major companies provide EC SUITES:  InterWorld ’ s Commerce Suites (interwor.com).  IBM ’ s WebSphere Commerce Suite (ibm.com).

Connecting To Databases and Other Enterprises System

► EC Arciticture ► Consists of 4 tiers:  Web Browser  Web Server  Applications Server  Database Servers Multi- Tiered Application Architecture

Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) ► Class of software that integrates large systems. ► Examples  Vitria Technology (vitria.com),  TIBCO (tibco.com),  WebMethods (webmethods.com)

VENDOR AND SOFTWARE SELECTION 6 Steps Process: 1. Identify Potential Vendors & Packages 2. Determine Evaluation Criteria 3. Evaluate 4. Choose 5. Negotiate 6. Establish Service Level Agreement

Usage Analysis & Site Management Monitor what customers do in your web site

Log Files ► Record kept by Web Server ► Shows when & what transaction occurred ► High Volumes >> Hard to Analyze ► Free Software provided

Access Logs ► “ text files ” ► Easy to analyze ► Easy to compare ► Variety of statistics ► Improve marketing and advertising strategies

Valuable statistics ► Page views by time slot ► Page views by customers logging in status ► Page views by referrers ► Page views by visitors hardware platform, operating system and browser ► Page views by visitors host

Managing The Web Site ► Must know the performance of a web site ► Time consuming ► Tedious administrative task

Web Management Tools ► Patrol for e-business management ► Main views for e-business management ► Service assurance center for e-business

Questions ► Describe the basic elements of a multitiered application architecture. ► List the ways in which an EC application can be connected to back-end databases and other transaction processing systems. ► List the major steps in selecting an EC application vendor and package.