0. Building E-Commerce Applications And Infrastructure
Chapter 18
Building E-Commerce Applications
And Infrastructure

1. Learning Objectives
Discuss the major steps in developing an EC system.
Describe the major EC development strategies and list their major advantages and disadvantages.
List the various EC application development methods along with their benefits and limitations.
Discuss various EC application outsourcing options, including application service providers (ASPs), software as a service (SaaS), and utility computing.
Discuss the major EC software packages and EC application suites.

2. Learning Objectives
Discuss the value and technical foundation of Web Services and Web 2.0.
Understand service-oriented architecture (SOA) and virtualization and their relationship to EC application development.
Describe the criteria used in selecting software vendors and packages.
Describe various methods for connecting an EC application to back-end systems and databases.
Understand the value and uses of EC application log files.
Discuss the importance of usage analysis and site management.

3. A Five-Step Approach to Developing an E-Commerce System
Website development
The business type
The product line
The business’s organization
and the budget dictate what functionality the Webstore should have and how the Web site should be developed

8. A Five-Step Approach to Developing an E-Commerce System
STEP 1: IDENTIFYING, JUSTIFYING, AND PLANNING EC SYSTEMS
STEP 2: CREATING AN EC ARCHITECTURE
EC architecture
A plan for organizing the underlying infrastructure and applications of a site
scalability
How big a system can grow in various dimensions to provide more service; measured by total number of users, number of simultaneous users, or transaction volume

9. A Five-Step Approach to Developing an E-Commerce System
STEP 3: SELECTING A DEVELOPMENT OPTION
Build the system in-house
Have a vendor build a customized system
Buy an existing application and install it
Lease standard software from an application service provider (ASP), lease as a service (SaaS), or lease via utility computing
Enter into a partnership or alliance
Join a third-party e-marketplace or an exchange
Use a combination of approaches

10. A Five-Step Approach to Developing an E-Commerce System
STEP 4: INSTALLING, TESTING, INTEGRATING, AND DEPLOYING EC APPLICATIONS
unit testing
Testing application software modules one at a time
integration testing
Testing the combination of application modules acting in concert
usability testing
Testing the quality of the user’s experience when interacting with a Web site
acceptance testing
Determining whether a Web site meets the original business objectives and vision
STEP 5: OPERATIONS, MAINTENANCE, AND UPDATES

11. A Five-Step Approach to Developing an E-Commerce System
MANAGING THE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS
The development process can be fairly complex and must be managed properly
For medium-to-large applications, a project team is usually created to manage the process and the vendors
Collaboration with business partners also is critical
Three basic options for developing an EC Web site:
Develop the site in-house/outsource
Buy a packaged application
Lease the application

12. Agile Methodology Scrum (agile management methodology)
Traditional project management methodologies still applied
Light weight and require iterative planning
People vs. process
Inspect and adapt approach
Reduced time to market
Project manager as a leader
Types of Agile Methods
Scrum (agile management methodology)
Extreme Programming (XP) (agile engineering methodology)

13. Project Manager Skills
Love what you do
Business Acumen
Understanding of processes
Communication skills
Interpersonal skills
Coping skills
Technical skills
Project managers are Leaders not Taskmasters

14. Development Strategies for E-Commerce Major Applications
IN-HOUSE DEVELOPMENT: INSOURCING
insourcing
In-house development of applications
reusability
The likelihood a segment of source code can be used again to add new functionalities with slight or no modification
interoperability
Connecting people, data, and diverse systems; the term can be defined in a technical way or in a broad way, taking into account social, political, and organizational factors

15. Development Strategies for E-Commerce Major Applications
Insourcing Options
Build from scratch
Build from components
enterprise application integration (EAI)
Class of software that integrates large systems
BUY THE APPLICATIONS (OFF-THE-SHELF APPROACH)
turnkey approach
Ready to use without further assembly or testing; supplied in a state that is ready to turn on and operate

16. Development Strategies for E-Commerce Major Applications
OUTSOURCING/LEASING EC APPLICATIONS
outsourcing
A method of transferring the management and/or day-to-day execution of an entire business function to a third-party service provider
Outsourcing Options
Software houses
Outsourcers and others

17. Selecting a Development Method
SOFTWARE ON DEMAND
utility (on-demand) computing
Unlimited computing power and storage capacity that can be used and reallocated for any application—and billed on a pay-per-use basis e.g cloud computing

18. Selecting a Development Method
application service provider (ASP)
A company that provides business applications to users for a small monthly fee e.g hosting companies leasing software
software as a service (SaaS)
A model of software delivery where the software company provides maintenance, daily technical operation, and support for the software provided to their client. E.g salesforce, Goto meeting, etc
Platform as a service (PaaS)
Evolutionary ASP model where developers can build/integrate custom solutions on managed applications. E.g Magento Go, Adobe Catalyst

19. Selecting a Development Method
INTEGRATING WITH WEB SERVICES AND SERVICE-ORIENTED ARCHITECTURE
Technologies have made integration a difficult task for a number of reasons:
Platform-specific objects
Dynamic environment
Security barriers
A universal standard has emerged to assist the process of integration

20. Selecting a Development Method
Web Services
Self-contained, self-describing business and consumer modular applications, delivered over the Internet that users can select and combine through almost any device, ranging from personal computers to mobile phones
Web 2.0
Web Services that emphasize online collaboration and information sharing among users

21. Selecting a Development Method
mashup
Combination of two or more Web sites into a single Web site that provides the content of both sites (whole or partial) to deliver a novel product to consumers e.g use of google map to show store locations
widget
A Web page feature or a small Web toolbox often designed on top of Web applications

22. Selecting a Development Method
If a company decides to buy or lease an EC application, the following representative selection criteria need to be considered:
Flexibility - Commercial packages need to be modified or adapted to the specific requirements of an application.
Information requirements
User friendliness
Hardware and software resources
Installation - The installation effort required to implement the package is another
important consideration.
Maintenance services

23. Selecting a Development Method
Vendor quality and track record
Estimating costs
Personnel
Technological evolution – upgrade of EC applications
Scaling – Consider the total number of users, the number of simultaneous users, and the transaction volume
Sizing – Size and performance of an a application
Performance - Performance is measured by two main metrics: latency and throughput.
Latency: The time required to complete an operation, such as downloading a Web page
Throughput: The number of operations completed in a given period of time; indicates the number of users that a system can handle
Reliability – System failures and downtime are costly
Security – Technological, physical and procedural security measures

24. Technology Support Ajax
A Web development technique for creating interactive Web applications e.g update content without page refresh
Really Simple Syndication (RSS)
A family of Web-feed formats used to publish frequently updated digital content
Atom
RSS Internet standard created by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and formally known as the Atom Syndication Format

25. Technology Support FILE-SHARING TOOLS
Mobile Phones and Social Networks e.g zapr.net, yousendit.com
SUPPORTING WEB 2.0 IN THE ENTERPRISE
Support for Enterprise Wikis and Blogs
Software to Support Viral Marketing
viral video
Video clip that gains widespread popularity through the process of Internet sharing, typically through or IM messages, blogs, and other media-sharing Web sites

26. Technology Support FUNCTIONAL SOFTWARE PACKAGES electronic catalog
The virtual-world equivalent of a traditional product catalog; contains product descriptions and photos, along with information about various promotions, discounts, payment methods, and methods of delivery
merchant server software
Software for selling over the Internet that enables companies to establish selling sites relatively easily and inexpensively

28. Technology Support INFRASTRUCTURE SERVICES virtualization
A technique for hiding the physical characteristics of computing resources from the way in which other systems, applications, or end users interact with those resources
cloud computing
Internet (cloud)–based development coupled with the use of computer technology (computing)

30. Vendor and Software Selection
STEP 1: IDENTIFY POTENTIAL VENDORS
STEP 2: DETERMINE THE EVALUATION CRITERIA
request for proposal (RFP)
Notice sent to potential vendors inviting them to submit a proposal describing their software package and how it would meet the company’s needs

31. Vendor and Software Selection
STEP 3: EVALUATE VENDORS AND PACKAGES
STEP 4: CHOOSE THE VENDOR AND PACKAGE
STEP 5: NEGOTIATE A CONTRACT
STEP 6: ESTABLISH A SERVICE-LEVEL AGREEMENT
service-level agreement (SLA)
A formal agreement regarding the division of work between a company and a vendor

32. Connecting to Databases and Other Enterprise Systems
multi-tiered application architecture
EC architecture consisting of four tiers: Web browsers, Web servers, application servers, and database servers
CONNECTING TO BACK-END SYSTEMS
CONNECTING TO BUSINESS PARTNERS
middleware
Separate products that serve as the glue between two applications; sometimes called plumbing because it connects two sides of an application and passes data between them

33. Usage Analysis LOG FILES
access log: A record kept by a Web server that shows when a user accesses the server; kept in a common log file format, each line of this text file details an individual access
Pageviews by time slot: Pageview statistics allow frequent review of the number of site accesses
Pageviews by customers’ log-in status: This information helps determine whether requiring customers to log in is worthwhile.
Pageviews by referrers. Track customers by referral links. .
Pageviews by visitor’s hardware platform, operating system, browser, and/or browser version.

34. Hot EC Technologies HAML – HTML Abstraction Markup language
SASS – Syntactically Awesome Stylesheets
HTML5
AJAX - Asynchronous JavaScript and XML
Jquery – Most popular javascript library e.g JQTouch for mobile app development
REST API (Representational State Transfer) - an increasingly popular, powerful, and simple method of leveraging HTTP as a Web Service.
Micorsoft Silverlight – web application framework for multimedia
Mobile frameworks e.g PhoneGap, Titanium Mobile
Browsers: IE 9, Chrome, FireFox