© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill CampusDr. Paul Walcott E-Commerce COMP3210 Course Overview Dr. Paul Walcott Department of Computer Science, Mathematics and Physics University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus Barbados

© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill CampusDr. Paul Walcott Objective The objective of this session is to:  Summarise the COMP3210 Electronic Commerce course

© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill CampusDr. Paul Walcott Purpose The purpose of the COMP3210 Electronic Commerce course is to introduce the reader to: The Internet and the World Wide Web Web site design, building and evaluation Business aspects of e-commerce such as:  Planning / Project management  Marketing  Revenue generation Internet and e-commerce law Security and payment systems E-Commerce in the Caribbean

© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill CampusDr. Paul Walcott Introduction 1 At the beginning of this course several definitions of e-commerce will be provided One such definition is: “The conducting of business over the Internet; business activities include the buying and selling of goods or services, and the exchange of business information”

© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill CampusDr. Paul Walcott Advantages/Disadvantages Several advantages of electronic commerce will be discussed including:  The ability to conduct business globally  The ability to conduct business 24 hours a day, seven days a week Some notable disadvantages of electronic commerce will also be highlighted, including:  The reluctance of some people to purchase high value items that require “touch and feel” This includes jewellery and perishable items

© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill CampusDr. Paul Walcott Waves of Electronic Commerce The dot com boom and bust (climaxing in 2000) characterised the first wave of electronic commerce The second wave followed shortly afterwards (in 2002) and it was predicted that electronic commerce growth would have been at the more sustainable rate of 20-30% a year

© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill CampusDr. Paul Walcott E-commerce Categories Five main categories of electronic commerce will be presented. These are:  Business to business e-commerce (B2B)  Business to consumer e-commerce (B2C)  Business processes that support buy/sell activities  Business to government e-commerce  Consumer to Consumer e-commerce

© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill CampusDr. Paul Walcott E-commerce Categories Cont’d The biggest of these categories in terms of sales is  Business processes that support buy/sell activities This category is followed by B2B then B2C electronic commerce  which will also be discussed during the course It was anticipated that in 2007 B2C and B2B sales would be US$240 billion and US6800 billion, respectively

© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill CampusDr. Paul Walcott International E-commerce Several factors affecting businesses conducting international commerce will be discussed, including:  Trust issues  Cultural issues  Language issues  Infrastructure issues

© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill CampusDr. Paul Walcott Economic Structures As part of the discussion of economic structures the reader will be introduced to:  Markets  Hierarchal organisations (Firms)  Network economic structures Strategic alliances And value chains which are used to order the processes within a company

© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill CampusDr. Paul Walcott The Internet No discussion of electronic commerce would be complete without a section on the Internet Therefore the reader will be introduced to the Internet and its supporting technologies, such as:  Network protocols like TCP/IP and HTTP; and hardware like routers and bridges  Intranets/Extranets and Virtual Private Networks  Internet connectivity options (i.e. wireless, broadband, dial-up and leased lines)

© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill CampusDr. Paul Walcott Business Plan The reader will be taught about the necessity of a business plan when launching an e-commerce initiative  This includes the executive summary which should be a short, focused summary of the company’s needs Web site start-up cost can range from US$5000 for a small business to over US$15 million for a large business  A company may choose to outsource all or part of the website development if the expertise is not available in-house

© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill CampusDr. Paul Walcott Web Marketing The importance of revenue models will be discussed and six models presented:  Web Catalog  Digital content  Advertising supported  Advertising–subscription mixed model  Fee-for-Transaction  Fee-for-Service

© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill CampusDr. Paul Walcott Web Marketing Cont’d It will be established that Web initiatives should focus their advertising on niche markets This approach requires an understanding of market segments To this end, a number of segmentation techniques will be discussed, including behavioural and usage-based In addition two customer loyalty models will be presented, the five stage customer loyalty model and the funnel model

© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill CampusDr. Paul Walcott Web Site Design, Building and Evaluation Web site design, building and evaluation will be discussed:  Building customer-centric Web sites  Web page response times  The use of tools such as Macromedia Flash  Web site evaluation

© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill CampusDr. Paul Walcott Internet and E-commerce Law Some of the legal issues which need to be considered when starting an e-commerce venture include:  Borders and jurisdiction  Intellectual property  On-line crime including: Cyber squatting Name changing Name stealing Personal information theft

© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill CampusDr. Paul Walcott Taxation The issue of taxation will also be discussed It is recognised that laws are currently unclear as to how to tax e-commerce transactions In some cases there is double taxation and in other cases no taxation

© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill CampusDr. Paul Walcott Hardware and Software The hardware and software required to run electronic commerce sites will also be discussed  Catalogue display and shopping cart software  Database, supply chain, customer relationship, knowledge management and content management system software  Web servers: Apache Web server and Microsoft Internet Information Service (IIS) Also, the advantages and disadvantages of centralised and decentralised Web server architectures

© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill CampusDr. Paul Walcott Security Several online security issues will be discussed:  Client computer security Active content, e.g. cookies, JavaScript, viruses, worms, anti- virus software, digital certificates  Communication channel security SSL, public/private & secret key cryptography, message authentication codes, hashes  Server computer security Web server, database threats, mail bombs, buffer overruns, physical security

© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill CampusDr. Paul Walcott Assurances Four important assurances will also be discussed:  Confidentiality  Authentication  Nonrepudiation  Integrity

© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill CampusDr. Paul Walcott Payment Systems Finally, several payment systems will be discussed, including:  Payment cards  PayPal  E-cash  E-Wallets

© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill CampusDr. Paul Walcott E-Commerce in the Caribbean Throughout the course the state of e- commerce in the Caribbean will be highlighted, including:  Legislation  Government strategies  The readiness of the business sector

© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill CampusDr. Paul Walcott Conclusion At the end of the course, the student should therefore have a good understanding of:  The Internet and supporting technologies  The construction of an e-commerce site  E-commerce legislation  Payment systems and security  The state of e-commerce in the Caribbean

© 2008 Dr. Paul Walcott – The University of the West Indies: Cave Hill CampusDr. Paul Walcott References [1] Schneider, Gary, P., “Electronic Commerce”, Thomson Course Technology, Seventh Annual Edition, 2007