E-commerce Lectures Ravi Raman CERC, West Virginia University
Lecture Outline Provide an overview of business and technical issues pertaining to e-commerce Introduce technologies that help implement e-commerce solutions Identify application areas that may be suitable for class projects
What Is E-commerce? The interchange -- purchase or delivery -- of goods and services through applications and systems that leverage Internet communication protocols and specifications.
Work Books (Amazon) Banking (Citibank) Stock (E-trade) Shipping (UPS) Retail (Walmart) Computers (Dell) Travel (Travelocity) Auctions (e-bay) Labor Exchange (Monster) Real estate (Century21)
The Internet Bubble Meltdown in the Technology sector A $2 Trillion loss in market value (cnnfn.cnn.com/2000/11/09/technology/overview/) Downsizing and closing of many ventures “Irrational exuberance” This isn’t the first bubble…
Some reasons for failure (And what to avoid) Lack of a sound business plan Poor understanding of business processes Improper implementation of business strategy Poor management of finances Too many “me-too” players Underestimate customer acquisition costs Slow growth / Too much growth
Use appropriate technology to improve well-understood business processes
Some elements of an e- commerce site Product catalog Order intake Credit verification Inventory Shipping Returns Customer Relations management
Integration with Other Systems Enterprise Resource Planning Financials Human Resources Sales and Marketing
Distributed Systems Technologies OMG’s CORBA Microsoft’s DCOM Sun’s Java HP’s eSpeak
Simple Voice-based App Web serverVoiceXML gateway Scripts voice Input grammars Stored Voice Output HTML, VoiceXml PCs Phones
Voice technologies Text to Speech Speech to Text Telephone API Speaker Independent voice recognition Voice-based authentication
Voice User Interface Activities WWW Consortium’s Voice Browsing – VoiceXML website –
Microsoft VUI Activities Microsoft’s Speech SDK – Interactive Voice Response and Web Telephony Engine – te/wteabout_409x.htm
Voice User Interface Demos Nuance demos: –Travel –Banking –Voice Authentication –Stock Quotes Demo Phone Number: 888-NUANCE-8
E-commerce Lectures Ravi Raman CERC, West Virginia University