2023

E-COMMERCE and ERP

Mr. Paramananda Sahu

Dept. Of CSE
1/1/2023
E-COMMERCE and ERP
 SYLLABUS

Module I

Overview of Electronic Commerce, Driving the Electronic Commerce Revolution, The

Internet, Portals. Open Systems Inter Connection (OSI) Model, XML, Data Warehousing,

BuildingOwnWebSite,InternetSecurity

Module II

E-Commerce and Internet, Electronic Market, Business to Business E-Commerce, Four

C`s (Convergence, Collaborative Computing, Content Management and Call Center),

Wireless Application Protocol (WAP), Intranet and Extranets. Data Interchange (EDI),

Electronic PaymentSystems,E-Security

Module-III

Overview of enterprise systems – Evolution - Risks and benefits - Fundamental

technology - Issues to consider in planning designing and implementation of cross

functional integrated ERP systems. Small, medium and large enterprise vendor solutions,

BPR, and best business practices - Business process Management, Functional modules.

Module IV

ERP IMPLEMENTATION: Planning Evaluation and selection of ERP systems,

Implementation life cycle - ERP implementation, Methodology, Data Migration, Success

and Failure factors of ERP Implementation. Extended ERP systems and ERP add-ons -

CRM, SCM, Manufacturing prospective, Business analytics .

 MODULE-I

Electronic Commerce:
Electronic commerce, commonly known as E-commerce is trading in products or services
using computer networks, such as the Internet.
Electronic commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds
transfer, supply chain management, Internet marketing, online transaction processing,
electronic data interchange (EDI), inventory management systems, and automated data
collection systems.
Modern electronic commerce typically uses the World Wide Web for at least one part ofthe
transaction's life cycle, although it may also use other technologies such as e-mail.

Definition of E-commerce:

Sharing business information, maintaining business relationships and conducting business

transactions using computers connected to telecommunication network is called E-Commerce.

E-Commerce Categories:
1. Electronic Markets
Present a range of offerings available in a market segment so that the purchaser can
compare the prices of the offerings and make a purchase decision.
Example: Airline Booking System
2. Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)
• It provides a standardized system
• Coding trade transactions
• Communicated from one computer to another without the need for printed orders and
invoices & delays & errors in paper handling
• It is used by organizations that a make a large no. of regular transactions
Example: EDI is used in the large market chains for transactions with their suppliers
3. Internet Commerce
• It is use to advertise & make sales of wide range of goods & services.
• This application is for both business to business & business to consumer transactions
Example: The purchase of goods that are then delivered by post or the booking of ticketsthat can
be picked up by the clients when they arrive at the event.

Advantages Of E-commerce:
 Buying/selling a variety of goods and services from one's home or business
 Anywhere, anytime transaction
 Can look for lowest cost for specific goods or service
 Businesses can reach out to worldwide clients - can establish business partnerships
 Order processing cost reduced
 Electronic funds transfer faster
 Supply chain management is simpler, faster, and cheaper using ecommerce
- Can order from several vendors and monitor supplies.
- Production schedule and inventory of an organization can be inspected by
cooperating supplier who can in-turn schedule their work

Disadvantages Of E-commerce:
 Electronic data interchange using EDI is expensive for small businesses
 Security of internet is not very good - viruses, hacker attacks can paralisee-
commerce

 Privacy of e-transactions is not guaranteed

 E-commerce de-personalises shopping
Threats of E-commerce:

Hackers attempting to steal customer information or disrupt the site

A server containing customer information is stolen.
Imposters can mirror your ecommerce site to steal customer money
Authorised administrators/users of an ecommerce website downloading hidden active content
that attacks the E Commerce system.
A disaffected employee disrupting the ecommerce system.
It is also worth considering where potential threats to your ecommerce site might come from,
as identifying potential threats will help you to protect your site. Consider:
Who may want to access your ecommerce site to cause disruption or steal data; for example
competitors, ex-employees, etc.
What level of expertise a potential hacker may possess; if you are a small company that would
not be likely to be considered a target for hackers then expensive, complex security may not be
needed.

Features of E-Commerce:
 Ubiquity
Internet/Web technology is The marketplace is extended beyond traditional available
everywhere: at work, at home, and boundaries and is removed from a temporal and elsewhere
via mobile devices, anytime. geographic location. ―Marketspace‖ is created; shopping can
take place anywhere. Customer convenience is enhanced, and shopping costs are reduced.

 Global reach
The technology reaches Commerce is enabled across cultural and across national
boundaries, around the earth. national boundaries seamlessly and without modification.
―Marketspace‖ includes potentially billions of consumers and millions of businesses
worldwide.

 Universal standards
There is one set of There is one set of technical media standards technology standards, namely
Internet across the globe.
 Richness
 Video, audio, and text messages Video, audio, and text marketing messages are are possible.
integrated into a single marketing message and consuming experience.
 Interactivity
The technology works Consumers are engaged in a dialog that through interaction with the
user. dynamically adjusts the experience to the individual, and makes the consumer a co-
participant in the process of delivering goods to the market.
 Information density
The technology Information processing, storage, and reduces information costs and raises
quality. communication costs drop dramatically, while currency, accuracy, and timeliness
improve greatly. Information becomes plentiful, cheap, and accurate.
 Personalization/Customization
The Personalization of marketing messages and technology allows personalized messages to
customization of products and services are be delivered to individuals as well as groups. based
on individual characteristics.
Business models of e-commerce:
There are mainly 4 types of business models based on transaction party.

Business-to-Consumer (B2C)

In a Business-to-Consumer E-commerce environment, companies sell their online goods to

consumers who are the end users of their products or services. Usually, B2C E-commerce web shops
have an open access for any visitor, meaning that there is no need for a person to login in order to
make any product related inquiry.
 Advantages of B2C

1. Extensive search capabilities by item, corporate name, division name, location,

manufacturer, partner, price or any other specified needs.
2. Reduced marketing and advertising expenses to compete on equal balance with much
bigger companies; easily compete on quality, price and availability of the products.
3. The Internet gives customers the opportunity to browse and shop at their place.
They canaccess the services from home, office at any time.
4. The Internet allows the companies to reach people around the world, offering many
productsto a global customer.
5. It has reduced inventory, employees, purchasing costs, order processing costs
associatedwith faxing, phone calls, and data entry, and even eliminate physical stores.
6. Reduce transaction costs.
7. Its eliminate Middlemen.
8. Reduce customer service and sales support service.
9. Better way to deal with dealers and suppliers.
10. It creates automated registration verification, account entry and transaction
authorisationfeatures.

Disadvantages of B2C
1. Customer will only locally and limited to certain area.
2. Increased Cost regarding inventory, employees, purchasing costs and order-processing
costsassociated with faxing.
3. Some sales or transaction may taking part indirectly or gone through third party.

4. Need staffs that give customer service and sales support service.

5. .The list of products or services needs to regenerate every time when there is some new information or
items to add in.
Business-to-Business (B2B)

In a Business-to-Business E-commerce environment, companies sell their online goods to other

companies without being engaged in sales to consumers. In most B2B E-commerce environments
entering the web shop will require a log in. B2B web shop usually contains customer-specific
pricing, customer-specific assortments and customer-specific discounts.
Advantages of B2B
1. Improving the speed of communication.
2. Higher customer retention rates in business.
3. Higher transaction value through business purchases.
4. Clear structure and collaborative shopping.
5. The opportunity to expand the business.
6. Increased brand awareness through an additional channel.
7. Lower customer acquisition costs.
8. Improved business and market intelligence.
9. Improved efficiency in ordering material.
10. Fewer errors in business transaction.
11. Just-in-time environment that minimises inventory sitting in the warehouse.

Disadvantages of B2B
1. Low barriers to entry for competitors.
2. Limited Market opportunities.
3. Long Purchase Decision Time.
4. Inverted Power Structure.
5. Lengthy Sales Process.

Consumer-to-Business (C2B)

In a Consumer-to-Business E-commerce environment, consumers usually post their products or

services online on which companies can post their bids. A consumer reviews the bids and selects the
company that meets his price expectations.

Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C)

In a Consumer-to-Consumer E-commerce environment consumers sell their online goods to

other consumers. A well-known example is eBay.
 Advantages of C2C

1. Customers can directly contact sellers and eliminate the middle man.
2. It is easy to start the new business.
3. Sellers can reach both national and international customers.
4. Simplified buying and searching process.
5. Minimised searching and distribution cost.
6. Reduced Inventory cost or holding cost.

Disadvantages of C2C
1. The numbers of internet-related auction frauds have also increased.
2. Unnecessarily inflated prices by creating multiple buyers.
3. Illegal or restricted products and services have been found on selling process.
Example: illegal drugs, pirated works.
4. More credit card/Payment frauds.

E-Governance:
E-governance is the application of information and communication technology (ICT) for delivering
government services, exchange of information communication transactions, integration of various
stand-alone systems and services between government-to-customer (G2C), government-to-business
(G2B), government-to-government (G2G) as well as back office processes and interactions within
the entire government framework.

Through e-governance, government services will be made available to citizens in a convenient,

efficient and transparent manner. The three main target groups that can be distinguished in
governance concepts are government, citizens and businesses/interest groups. In e-governance
there are no distinct boundaries.
Business - to - Government (B2G)

B2G model is a variant of B2B model. Such websites are used by government to trade and
exchange information with various business organizations. Such websites are accredited by the
government and provide a medium to businesses to submit application forms to the government.

Government - to - Business (G2B)

Government uses B2G model website to approach business organizations. Such websites support
auctions, tenders and application submission functionalities.

Government - to - Citizen (G2C)

Government uses G2C model website to approach citizen in general. Such websites support
auctions of vehicles, machinery or any other material. Such website also provides services like
registration for birth, marriage or death certificates. Main objectives of G2C website are to reduce
average time for fulfilling people requests for various government services.

Internet:
The Internet is a global network of computers that allows people to send email, view web sites,
download files such as mp3 and images, chat, post messages on newsgroups and forums and much
more.

The Internet was created by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) of the U.S.
government in 1960's and was first known as the ARPANet. At this stage the Internet's first
computers were at academic and government institutions and were mainly used for accessing files
and to send emails. From 1983 onwards the Internet as we know it today started to form with the
introduction of the communication protocol TCP/IP to ARPANet. Since 1983 the Internet has
accommodated a lot of changes and continues to keep developing.

The last two decades has seen the Internet accommodate such things as network LANs and ATM and
frame switched services. The Internet continues to evolve with it becoming available on mobile
phones and pagers and possibly on televisions in the future.

Advantages of internet:
There many advantages to using the internet such as:

E-mail

Email is now an essential communication tool in business. It is also excellent for keeping in touch with
family and friends. The advantage to email is that it is free ( no charge per use) when compared to
telephone, fax and postal services.

Information

There is a huge amount of information available on the internet for just about every subject known
to man, ranging from government law and services, trade fairs and conferences, market information,
new ideas and technical support.
Services
Many services are now provided on the internet such as online banking, job seeking andapplications,
and hotel reservations. Often these services are not available off-line or cost more. Buy or sell
products.
The internet is a very effective way to buy and sell products all over the world.
Communities communities of all types have sprung up on the internet. Its a great way to meet up
with people of similar interest and discuss common issues.
A Leading-Edge Image
Presenting your company or organization as leading-edge shows your customers and prospective
customers that you are financially strong, technologically savvy, and ready for the 21st century. And
that you care enough about your customers to take advantage of new technologies for their benefit.
And finally that you have the resources to support your clients in the most beneficial manner
possible.
More and more advertisers on television, radio, magazines, and newspapers are including a Web
address. Now is the time to avoid playing catch-up later.
Improved Customer Service
The companies are available to their customers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The Internet never
 sleeps. Whenever customer needs information about any company, products or services, they can
access the company‘s Web Page.
Market Expansion
The Internet is a global system. Latest estimates are that there are about 40 million people with
access to the Internet, and this number is growing every day. By simply posting a Web Page you are
also addressing International markets.
Low Cost Marketing
Imagine developing a full color brochure without having to incur the costs of proofs, printers,
wasted paper, long lead times between revisions, and more. Then imagine a full color product or
services brochure that is interactive and which incorporates text, graphics, audio, and/or video. One
that can be immediately updated without incurring the usual costs of product material updates.
Low Cost Selling
Without the cost of direct selling potential customers can get detailed information about your
products or services at any time. And they can easily order your products over the Internet, or
request additional information be sent to them via a request form on your Web page.
Lower Communication Costs
Your time, and your employees time, is valuable. Most businesses and organizations spend time
answering the same questions over and over again. With a Web page you can make the answers

available to everyone immediately. You can also update your Wed page with new information
quickly and easily.
PORTAL Introduction
When it comes to starting an online business, you have a lot of choices to make. The biggest of
the choices may be the most important as they will ultimately define your business model and much
of the future of your business. Creating an e-commerce solution mainly involves creating and
deploying an e-commerce site. The first step in the development of an e- commerce site is to identify
the e-commerce model. Depending on the parties involved in the transaction, e-commerce can vary
greatly in terms of how they provide value to and earn income from consumers. The following
discussion would provide a bird’s eye view about various E- Business Models in vogue.

Meaning and Definition of Portal

Portal is a doorway, entrance, or gate, especially one that is large and imposing. It is a
Website considered as an entry point to other websites by providing access to a search engine.
Definition:
1. A site on the World Wide Web (WWW) that serves as a gateway or port of entry to the
Internet is called Portal. It includes hyperlinks to news, weather reports, stock market quotes,
entertainment, chat rooms, and so on.
2. A portal is a kind of Web site. The term originated with large, well-known Internet search
engine sites that expanded their features to include email, news, stock quotes, and an array
of other functionality.
3. Portal is a term, generally synonymous with gateway, for a World Wide Web site that is a
major starting site for users when they get connected to the Web. There are general portals and
specialized or niche portals.
Examples of general portals: Yahoo, Excite, Netscape, Lycos, CNET, Microsoft Network,
and America Online's AOL.com.
Examples of niche portals: Garden.com (for gardeners), Fool.com (for investors), and
SearchNetworking.com (for network administrators).
4. A web portal is one specially designed Web page that brings information together from
diverse sources in a uniform way. Usually, each information source gets its dedicated area on
the page for displaying information (a portlet); often, the user can configure which ones to
display.
5. The term portal space is used to mean the total number of major sites competing to be one of
the portals.
Typical services offered by portal sites include a directory of Web sites, a facility to search
for other sites, news, weather information, e-mail, stock quotes, phone and map information,
information from databases and even entertainment content and sometimes a community
forum.
The features available may be restricted by whether access is by an authorized and
authenticated user (employee, member).
Examples of early public web portals were
AOL, Excite, Netvibes, iGoogle, MSN, Naver, Lycos, Indiatimes, Rediff, and Yahoo!.

Birth or Portal
Web portal was a web IT buzzword in the late 1990s. After the proliferation of web browsers
in the late 1990s many companies tried to build or acquire a portal to attempt to obtain a share of an
Internet market. The content and branding of a portal could change as internet companies merged or
 were acquired. For Example:
 Netscape became a part of America Online
 Walt Disney Company launched Go.com
 IBM and others launched Prodigy
 Excite and @Home became a part of AT&T Corporation during 1990s
The interest in portals saw some old media companies racing to outbid each other for Internet
properties but died down with the dot-com bust in 2000 and 2001. Disney pulled the plug on
Go.com, Excite went bankrupt, and its remains were sold to iWon.com. Some portal sites such
as Yahoo! and some others first remain active and portals feature widely outside the English-
speaking web (Chinese, Japanese, Indian and Russian. Portal metaphors are widely used by public
library sites for borrowers using a login as users and by university intranets for students and for
faculty. Vertical markets remain for ISV's offering management and executive intranet "dashboards"
for corporations and government agencies in areas such as GRC and risk management.
Classification
Web portals are sometimes classified as horizontal or vertical.

A horizontal portal is used as a platform to several companies in the same economic sector or to
the same type of manufacturers or distributors.

A vertical portal (also known as a "vortal") is a specialized entry point to a specific market or industry
niche, subject area, or interest. Some vertical portals are known as "vertical information portals"
(VIPs)

VIPs provide news, editorial content, digital publications, and e-commerce capabilities. In contrast
to traditional vertical portals, VIPs also provide dynamic multimedia applications including social
networking, video posting, and blogging.
Personal Portal: A personal portal is a web page at a web site on the World Wide Web or a local
HTML home page including JavaScript and perhaps running in a modified web browser. It provides
personalized capabilities to its visitors or its local user, providing a pathway to other

content. It may be designed to use distributed applications, different numbers and types of
middleware and hardware to provide services from a number of different sources and may run on a
non-standard local web server. Personal portals can be related to any specific topic such as providing
friend information on a social network or providing links to outside content that may help others
beyond your reach of services.
Example:
home.psafe.com – A personal portal based on adaptive neural network technology provides
customizable content according to each user's navigation, and provide full security against viruses,
malware, phishing and bank fraud. The portal is developed by Brazilian online security company
PSafe.
Business Portal: Business portals can be designed for sharing and collaboration in workplaces. A
further business-driven requirement of portals is that the content be presented on multiple
platforms such as personal computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and cell phones/mobile
phones. Information, news, and updates are examples.

Government Web Portal: At the end of the dot-com boom in the 1990s, many governments had
already committed to creating portal sites for their citizens. These included primary portals to the
governments as well as portals developed for specific audiences.

Examples:

 australia.gov.au for Australia.

 USA.gov for the United States (in English) & GobiernoUSA.gov (in Spanish).
 www.gov.lk for Sri Lanka.
 Disability.gov for citizens with disabilities in the United States.
 Europa (web portal) links to all EU agencies and institutions in addition to press releases and
audio visual content from press conferences.
 gov.uk for citizens & businesslink.gov.uk for businesses in the United Kingdom.
 Health-EU portal gathers all relevant health topics from across Europe.
 india.gov.in for India.
 National Resource Directory links to resources for United States Service Members, Veterans and
their families.
 govt.nz for New Zealand.
 Saudi.gov.sa for Saudi Arabia.

Cultural portal: Cultural portal aggregate digitised cultural collections of galleries, libraries, archives
and museums. It provides a point of access to invisible web cultural content that may not be
indexed by standard search engines. Digitised collections can include books, artworks, photography,
journals, newspapers, music, sound recordings, film, maps, diaries and letters, and archived websites
as well as the descriptive metadata associated with each type of cultural work. These portals are
usually based around a specific national or regional groupings of institutions.

Examples of cultural portals:

 DigitalNZ – A cultural portal led by the National Library of New Zealand focused on New
Zealand digital content.
 Europeana – A cultural portal for the European Union based in the National Library of the
Netherlands and overseen by the Europeana Foundation.
 Trove – A cultural portal led by the National Library of Australia focused on Australian
content.
 In development - Digital Public Library of America
Corporate web portals: A Corporate Portal is basically a secured website used by employees,
manufacturers, alumni and even customers. The portal is the perfect starting point for everyday tasks
that usually would consist of using many different types and sources of information and tools. By
gathering all necessary information and tools in one environment, users save huge amounts of
time. Companies not only save time through their users, IT management costs and the TCO (total
cost of ownership) can be much lower. Corporate Portals also offer customers & employees self-
service opportunities.

Stock portal: It is also known as stock-share portal, stock market portal or stock exchange portal. It
is Web-based applications that facilitates the process of informing the share- holders with substantial
online data such as the latest price, ask/bids, the latest News, reports and announcements. Some
stock portals use online gateways through a central depository system (CDS) for the visitors to buy or
sell their shares or manage their portfolio.

Search portals: Search portals aggregate results from several search engines into one page. You can
find search portals specialized in a product, for example property search portals like Nestoria or
Nuroa.
Tender portals: A tender portal is a gateway for government suppliers to bid on providing goods and
services. Tender portals allow users to search, modify, submit, review and archive data in order to
provide a complete online tendering process.

Using online tendering, bidders can do any of the following:

 Receive notification of the tenders.
 Receive tender documents online.
 Fill out the forms online.
 Submit proposals and documents.
 Submit bids online.
Domain-specific portals: A number of portals have come about which are specific to the particular
domain, offering access to related companies and services; a prime example of this trend would be
the growth in property portals that give access to services such as estate agents, removal firm,
and solicitors that offer conveyancing. Along the same lines, industry- specific news and information
portals have appeared, such as the clinical trials-specific portal.

What is XML? And what is the role in SCM?

Supply Chain Management:

The exchange of items and service in the proper manner as well as encompasses all the procedures
that convert raw resources into the final product is known as supply chain management.

Answer and Explanation:

XML:

XML, which continues to stand for extensible mark-up language, seems to be comparable to HTML.
XML is a Metalanguage that allows clients to describe their own customizable mark-up language skills
to show dynamic web pages. It considers being self as well as for information storage and
distribution.
XML role in SCM:

Supply chain management is used in digital technologies with minimal success; however, most
organizations only have controlled a tiny fraction of the procurement cycle by utilizing electronic data
interchange. XML is essential in supply chain collaboration throughout SCM.

Using the web as well as XML, an e-business could accomplish automated purchasing objectives.
People could also devise a methodology that enables the client to optimize point-to-point
information of the online payment process for material cost.

The e-business XML action plan seeks to es Zeetablish a single world digital e-commerce platform.
XML helps to solve legacy Electronic data interchange problems by utilizing XML advantages

What is the OSI Model?

The open systems interconnection (OSI) model is a conceptual model created by the International
Organization for Standardization which enables diverse communication systems to communicate using
standard protocols. In plain English, the OSI provides a standard for different computer systems to be able to
communicate with each other. The OSI Model can be seen as a universal language for computer networking. It
is based on the concept of splitting up a communication system into seven abstract layers, each one stacked
upon the last.
 MODULE-II

E-Marketing:
E-marketing is directly marketing a commercial message to a group of people using email. In
its broadest sense, every email sent to a potential or current customer could be considered
email marketing.
It usually involves using email to send ads, request business, or solicit sales or donations,
and is meant to build loyalty, trust, or brand awareness.
Email marketing can be done to either sold lists or a current customer database. Broadly, the
term is usually used to refer to sending email messages with the purpose of enhancing the
relationship of a merchant with its current or previous customers, to encourage customer
loyalty and repeat business, acquiring new customers or convincing current customers to
purchase something immediately, and adding advertisements to email messages sent by other
companies to their customers.
Advantages:

An exact return on investment can be tracked and has proven to be high when done properly.
Email marketing is often reported as second only to search marketing as the most effective
online marketing tactic.
Email marketing is significantly cheaper and faster than traditional mail, mainly because of
high cost and time required in a traditional mail campaign for producing the artwork,
printing, addressing and mailing.
Advertisers can reach substantial numbers of email subscribers who have opted in (i.e.,
consented) to receive email communications on subjects of interest to them.
Almost half of American Internet users check or send email on a typical day with email
blasts that are delivered between 1 am and 5 am local time outperforming those sent at other
times in open and click rates.
Email is popular with digital marketers, rising an estimated 15% in 2009 to £292 m in the
UK.
If compared to standard email, direct email marketing produces higher response rate and
higher average order value for e-commerce businesses.
Disadvantages:

A report issued by the email services company Return Path, as of mid-2008 email
deliverability is still an issue for legitimate marketers. According to the report, legitimate
email servers averaged a delivery rate of 56%; twenty percent of the messages were rejected,
and eight percent were filtered.
Companies considering the use of an email marketing program must make sure that their
program does not violate spam laws such as the United States' Controlling the Assault of
Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act (CAN-SPAM),the European Privacy and
Electronic Communications Regulations 2003, or their Internet service provider's acceptable
use policy.
Technological convergence:

Technological convergence is the tendency that as technology changes, different technological

systems sometimes evolve toward performing similar tasks.
Digital convergence refers to the convergence of four industries into one conglomerate, ITTCE
(Information Technologies, Telecommunication, Consumer Electronics, and
Entertainment).Previously separate technologies such as voice data and productivity
applications, and video can now share resources and interact with each other synergistically.
Telecommunications convergence, network convergence or simply convergence are broad
terms used to describe emerging telecommunications technologies, and network architecture
used to migrate multiple communications services into a single network.
Convergence in this instance is defined as the interlinking of computing and other information
technologies, media content, and communication networks that has arisen as the result of the
evolution and popularization of the Internet as well as the activities, products and services that
have emerged in the digital media space.
Convergent services, such as VoIP, IPTV, Mobile TV, Smart TV, and others, tend to replace
the older technologies and thus can disrupt markets. IP-based convergence is inevitable and
will result in new service and new demand in the market.

Technology Implications:
Convergent solutions include both fixed-line and mobile technologies. Recent examples of new,
convergent services include:

Using the Internet for voice telephony

Video on demand
Fixed-mobile convergence
Mobile-to-mobile convergence
Location-based services
Integrated products and bundles

Convergent technologies can integrate the fixed-line with mobile to deliver convergent solutions.
Convergent technologies include:

IP Multimedia Subsystem
Session Initiation Protocol
IPTV
Voice over IP

Voice call continuity

Digital video broadcasting - handheld

Collaborative Product Development (CPD):

CPD is a business strategy, work process and collection of software applications that
facilitates different organizations to work together on the development of a product. It is
also known as collaborative product definition management (CPDM).
Collaborative Product Development(CPD) helps individual users and companies manage,
share and view your CAD projects without the cost and complexity of purchasing an entire
PDM or PLM solution. CPD comes in the form of a Software as a service delivery model,
which allows for rapid iterations and little or no downloads and installs.
Exactly what technology comes under this title does vary depending on whom one asks;
however, it usually consists of the Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) areas of: Product
Data Management (PDM); Product visualization; team collaboration and conferencing tools;
and supplier sourcing software. It is generally accepted as not including CAD geometry tools,
but does include data translation technology.

Technologies and methods used:

Clearly general collaborative software such as email and chat (instant messaging) is used within the
CPD process. One important technology is application and desktop sharing, allowing one person to
view what another person is doing on a remote machine. For CAD and product visualization
applications an ‗appshare‘ product that supports OpenGL graphics is required. Another common
application is Data sharing via Web based portals.
Specific to product data

With product data an important addition is the handling of high volumes of geometry and metadata.
Exactly what techniques and technology is required depends on the level of collaboration being
carried out and the commonality (or lack thereof) of the partner sites‘ systems.

Specific to PLM and CAx collaboration

Collaboration using PLM and CAx tools requires technology to support the needs of:

1. People: Personnel of different disciplines and skill levels;

2. Organizations: Organizations throughout an enterprise or extended enterprise with
different rules, processes and objectives;
3. Data: Data from different sources in different formats.

Appropriate technologies are required to support collaboration across these boundaries.

 People
Effective PLM collaboration will typically require the participation of people who do not have
high level CAD skills. This requires improved user interfaces including tailorable user
interfaces that can be tailored to the skill level and specialty of the user.
Improved visualization capabilities, especially those that provide a meaningful view of
complex information such as the results of a fluid flow analysis will leverage the value of all
participants in the collaboration process. Effective collaboration requires that a participant be
freed from the burden of knowing the intent history typically imbedded within and constricting
the use of parametric models.
 Organizations
Community collaboration requires that companies, suppliers, and customers share information
in a secure environment, ensure compliance with enterprise and regulatory rules and
enforce the process management rules of the community as well as the individual
organizations.
  Data
The most basic collaboration data need is the ability to operate in a MultiCAD environment.
That is, however, only the beginning. Models from multiple CAD sources must be assembled
into an active digital mockup allowing change and/or design in context.

Content Management System:

A content management system (CMS) is a computer application that allows publishing,

editing and modifying content, organizing, deleting as well as maintenance from a central
interface. Such systems of content management provide procedures to manage workflow in a
collaborative environment.
CMSs are often used to run websites containing blogs, news, and shopping. Many corporate
and marketing websites use CMSs. CMSs typically aim to avoid the need for hand coding,
but may support it for specific elements or entire pages.

Main features of CMS:

The function and use of content management systems is to store and organize files, and
provide version-controlled access to their data. CMS features vary widely. Simple systems
showcase a handful of features, while other releases, notably enterprise systems, offer more
complex and powerful functions. Most CMS include Web-based publishing, format
management, revision control (version control), indexing, search, and retrieval. The CMS
increments the version number when new updates are added to an already- existing file.
Some content management systems also support the separation of content and presentation.
A CMS may serve as a central repository containing documents, movies, pictures, phone
numbers, scientific data. CMSs can be used for storing, controlling, revising, semantically
enriching and publishing documentation.

The content management system (CMS) has two elements:

 Content management application (CMA) is the front-end user interface that allows a user,
even with limited expertise, to add, modify and remove content from a Web site without the
intervention of a Webmaster.
 Content delivery application (CDA) compiles that information and updates the Web site.
Web Traffic:
Web traffic is the amount of data sent and received by visitors to a web site.
Web traffic is measured to see the popularity of web sites and individual pages or sections within a
site. This can be done by viewing the traffic statistics found in the web server log file, an
automatically generated list of all the pages served. A hit is generated when any file is served.

The following types of information are often collated when monitoring web traffic:

The number of visitors.

The average number of page views per visitor – a high number would indicate that the
average visitors go deep inside the site, possibly because they like it or find it useful.
Average visit duration – the total length of a user's visit. As a rule the more time they spend
the more they're interested in your company and are more prone to contact.
Average page duration – how long a page is viewed for. The more pages viewed, the better it
is for your company.
Domain classes – all levels of the IP Addressing information required to deliver Webpages
and content.
Busy times – the most popular viewing time of the site would show when would be the best
time to do promotional campaigns and when would be the most ideal to perform
maintenance
Most requested pages – the most popular pages
Most requested entry pages – the entry page is the first page viewed by a visitor and shows
which are the pages most attracting visitors
Most requested exit pages – the most requested exit pages could help find bad pages, broken
links or the exit pages may have a popular external link

Top paths – a path is the sequence of pages viewed by visitors from entry to exit, with thetop
paths identifying the way most customers go through the site
Referrers; The host can track the (apparent) source of the links and determine which sitesare
generating the most traffic for a particular page.

Content marketing:
Content marketing is any marketing that involves the creation and sharing of media and
 publishing content in order to acquire and retain customers.
It is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant,
and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience — and, ultimately, to
drive profitable customer action.
Basically, content marketing is the art of communicating with your customers and prospects
without selling.
It is non-interruption marketing. Instead of pitching your products or services, you are
delivering information that makes your buyer more intelligent.
Call centre:
A call centre is a centralised office used for receiving or transmitting a large volume of
requests by telephone.
An inbound call centre is operated by a company to administer incoming product support or
information inquiries from consumers.
Outbound call centers are operated for telemarketing, solicitation of charitable or political
donations, debt collection and market research.
A contact centre is a location for centralised handling of individual communications,
including letters, faxes, live support software, social media, instant message, and e-mail.
A call centre has an open workspace for call centre agents, with work stations that
include a computer for each agent, a telephone set/headset connected to a telecom switch, and
one or more supervisor stations. It can be independently operated or networked with
additional centres, often linked to a corporate computer network, including mainframes,
microcomputers and LANs.
The contact centre is a central point from which all customer contacts are managed. Through
contact centres, valuable information about company are routed to appropriate
people, contacts to be tracked and data to be gathered. It is generally a part of company‘s
customer relationship management.
Components of call centre:

There are 6 key components which should be integrated into the call centre operation:

Location, building and facilities

Customer
 Technology
Process
People

Finance and business management

 Location, building and facilities

Where a centre is located is critical in terms of the cost of the building but more importantly the
ability to recruit and retain employees to work in the centre. The ease and cost to get to a centre
is important for those employed in the centre but also in the integration with the Head Office
functions that the centre needs to work with. The facilities and working environment is more
critical than for functional line departments because of the intensity with which the Agents have
to sit at their desks and the need to manage resource patterns. Visiting a call centre and looking
at how it might feel to work in it will be extremely telling as to how good the centres
performance is, but also how the organisation view and treat their employees.

 Customer

Customers can be anyone, and the Agent needs to have the skills to be able to adapt their style
and vocabulary to suit different customer types. The Agent talks to more customers in any one
day that any other person in the organisation. If you want to know what is going on with
customers, ask the Agents! With average call durations of less than 3 minutes, how do you form
a relationship and build loyalty from a customer in that time. That is one of the biggest
challenges that the Agents face, especially given many customers do not like the impersonal
touch that call centres often provide.

 Technology

There are significant amounts of technology available and it is very easy to be bamboozled by
it all! It very much depends on the size and nature of your business as to what you require. The
basic equipment to handle calls is the Automated Call Distributor but these can range from basic
to a Rolls Royce! Many centres do not fully utilise the technology that they have. In addition
there is usually a disjoint between what the technology can do and what it is actually used for.

 Process

Every centre has a multitude of processes, but the biggest challenge that it faces is to understand
the end to end process from the customer perspective. The customer journey is what happens
from the point in time when a customer decides to contact you through to the completion of that
request or transaction. How long does this journey take and what does it feel like taking the steps
along the way. How long is spent waiting? Does the agent have the customer details to hand?
Can the agent answer the query first time? Does the fulfilment when expected? One very easy
 but critical way of looking at the customer journey is to mystery shop the centre and to see what
it really feels like to be the customer. Put yourselves in the shoes of your key customer
demographic type and call your own centre today.

 People

People are the most critical asset in a call centre as it is they who really deliver the business
performance. Unfortunately the investment and perception of your staff may be rather poor. The
people (Agents) often have to deal with difficult situations when things have gone wrong in your
organisation and deal with a large volumes of calls that result, whilst not always having the
necessary training or skills. However, the teams in Centres can be very resilient and are often
very social, making the centre a great place to work. There are many different roles on offer and
so they can a good environment to start and develop a career.

 Finance and business management

There will be more management information statistics in a call centre than in any other part of
the organisation. The centre is measured from every different angle but unfortunately, this does
not always give a complete picture!

One of the most challenging roles is the planning, measuring and reviewing of performance
because so many centres are under pressure from calls and other expectations, that being able to
step back and take an objective view maybe difficult. Most centres are run to very tight budgets
so factors such as turnover of staff will have a huge impact.

Wireless Application Protocol:

WAP is a technical standard for accessing information over a mobile wireless network.
A WAP browser is a web browser for mobile devices such as mobile phones that uses the
protocol.
WAP is a specification for a set of communication protocols to standardize the way that wireless
devices, such as cellular telephones and radio transceivers, can be used for Internet access,
including e-mail, the World Wide Web, newsgroups, and instant messaging.

The WAP layers are:

Wireless Application Environment (WAE)

Wireless Session Layer (WSL)
Wireless Transport Layer Security(WTLS)
Wireless Transport Layer (WTP)
Web security:
It is a branch of Information Security that deals specifically with security of websites, web
applications and web services.
At a high level, Web application security draws on the principles of application security but
applies them specifically to Internet and Web systems. Typically web applications are
developed using programming languages such as PHP, Java EE, Java, Python, Ruby,
ASP.NET, C#, VB.NET or Classic ASP.
Intranet:
An intranet is a computer network that uses Internet Protocol technology to share information,
operational systems, or computing services within an organization. This term is used in
contrast to extranet, a network between organizations, and instead refers to a network within
an organization.
The objective is to organize each individual's desktop with minimal cost, time and effort to be
more productive, cost efficient, timely, and competitive.
An intranet may host multiple private websites and constitute an important component and
focal point of internal communication and collaboration.
Any of the well known Internet protocols may be found in an intranet, such as HTTP (web
services), SMTP (e-mail), and FTP (file transfer protocol). Internet technologies are often
deployed to provide modern interfaces to legacy information systems hosting corporate data.

Uses of Intranet:

Increasingly, intranets are being used to deliver tools, e.g. collaboration (to facilitate working in
groups and teleconferencing) or sophisticated corporate directories, sales and customer
relationship management tools, project management etc., to advance productivity.
Intranets are also being used as corporate culture-change platforms. For example, large
numbers of employees discussing key issues in an intranet forum application could lead to new
ideas in management, productivity, quality, and other corporate issues.
In large intranets, website traffic is often similar to public website traffic and can be better
understood by using web metrics software to track overall activity. User surveys also improve
intranet website effectiveness. Larger businesses allow users within their intranet to access
public internet through firewall servers. They have the ability to screen messages coming and
going keeping security intact.
When part of an intranet is made accessible to customers and others outside the business, that
 part becomes part of an extranet. Businesses can send private messages through the public
network, using special encryption/decryption and other security safeguards to connect one part
of their intranet to another.
Intranet user-experience, editorial, and technology teams work together to produce in-house
sites. Most commonly, intranets are managed by the communications, HR or CIO departments
of large organizations, or some combination of these.
Because of the scope and variety of content and the number of system interfaces, intranets of
many organizations are much more complex than their respective public websites. Intranets and
their use are growing rapidly.

Advantages:

Workforce productivity: Intranets can help users to locate and view information faster and use
applications relevant to their roles and responsibilities. With the help of a web browser interface,
users can access data held in any database the organization wants to make available, anytime
and — subject to security provisions — from anywhere within the company workstations,
increasing employees' ability to perform their jobs faster, more accurately, and with confidence
that they have the right information.
Time: Intranets allow organizations to distribute information to employees on an as-needed
basis; Employees may link to relevant information at their convenience, rather than being
distracted indiscriminately by email.
Communication: Intranets can serve as powerful tools for communication within an
organization, vertically strategic initiatives that have a global reach throughout the organization.
By providing this information on the intranet, staff have the opportunity to keep up-to-date with
the strategic focus of the organization. Some examples of communication would be chat, email,
and/or blogs. A great real world example of where an intranet helped a company communicate is
when Nestle had a number of food processing plants in Scandinavia. Their central support
system had to deal with a number of queries every day.
Web publishing: allows cumbersome corporate knowledge to be maintained and easily
accessed throughout the company using hypermedia and Web technologies. Examples include:
employee manuals, benefits documents, company policies, business standards, news feeds, and
even training, can be accessed using common Internet standards (Acrobat files,

Flash files, CGI applications). Because each business unit can update the online copy of a
 document, the most recent version is usually available to employees using the intranet.
Business operations and management: Intranets are also being used as a platform for
developing and deploying applications to support business operations and decisions across the
internetworked enterprise.
Cost-effective: Users can view information and data via web-browser rather than
maintaining physical documents such as procedure manuals, internal phone list and requisition
forms. This can potentially save the business money on printing, duplicating documents, and the
environment as well as document maintenance overhead.
Enhance collaboration: Information is easily accessible by all authorised users, which enables
teamwork.

Cross-platform capability: Standards-compliant web browsers are available for Windows, Mac,
and UNIX.

Built for one audience: Many companies dictate computer specifications which, in turn, may
allow Intranet developers to write applications that only have to work on one browser (no cross-
browser compatibility issues).
Promote common corporate culture: Every user has the ability to view the same information
within the Intranet.

Immediate updates: When dealing with the public in any capacity, laws, specifications, and
parameters can change. Intranets make it possible to provide your audience with "live" changes
so they are kept up-to-date, which can limit a company's liability.
Supports a distributed computing architecture: The intranet can also be linked to a
company‘s management information system, for example a time keeping system.
EXTRANET

An extranet is a controlled private network allowing customers, partners, vendors,

suppliers and other businesses to gain information, typically about a specific
company or educational institution and do so without granting access to the
organization’s entire network. An extranet is often a private part of a website. It is
restricted to selected users through user IDs, passwords and other authentication
mechanisms on a login page.
An extranet requires security and privacy. These can include firewall server management,the
issuance and use of digital certificates or similar means of user authentication, encryption of
messages and the use of virtual private networks (VPNs) that tunnel throughthe public
network.
What You Need To Know About Extranet

1. Extranet can be described as a private network that uses public network to share
information with clients (suppliers and vendors).
2. It is a small network with a few number of connected devices.
3. Extranet is a means of conveying information between members of the organization
and external members.
4. It is regulated by multiple organizations.
5. The content on the network is accessible to members of the organization and external
members with access to the network.
6. Ownership of extranet is by a single or multiple organizations.
7. Extranet is regulated by contractual agreements between organizations.
8. An intranet may be accessible from the internet, but it is protected by a password and
accessible only to authorized users.
9. Security of the network is enforced through a firewall that separates internet and
extranet.
10. Example of extranet is when companies like HP, Intel and Lenovo decide to use the
same network for related business operations.
11. Extranet contains only specific group information.
12. Time is required to train users on how to work with the network.
Advantages Of Extranet

 An extranet greatly improves flexibility by making applications and information

available to customers, clients and partners, allowing all the involved parties to operate
with convenience.
 With proper implementation, an extranet can help improve an organizations security
by creating different access levels, consequently controlling who can access company data.
 It helps to remove bottlenecks within transactions of an organization and significantly
increasing productivity. 
Disadvantages of Extranet
 Extranets are vulnerable to security breaches since they give outsiders access to
internal database and systems
What You Need To Know About Extranet

13. Extranet can be described as a private network that uses public network to share
information with clients (suppliers and vendors).
14. It is a small network with a few number of connected devices.
15. Extranet is a means of conveying information between members of the organization
and external members.
16. It is regulated by multiple organizations.
17. The content on the network is accessible to members of the organization and external
members with access to the network.
18. Ownership of extranet is by a single or multiple organizations.
19. Extranet is regulated by contractual agreements between organizations.
20. An intranet may be accessible from the internet, but it is protected by a password and
accessible only to authorized users.
21. Security of the network is enforced through a firewall that separates internet and
extranet.
22. Example of extranet is when companies like HP, Intel and Lenovo decide to use the
same network for related business operations.
23. Extranet contains only specific group information.
24. Time is required to train users on how to work with the network.
Advantages Of Extranet

 An extranet greatly improves flexibility by making applications and information

available to customers, clients and partners, allowing all the involved parties to operate
with convenience.
 With proper implementation, an extranet can help improve an organizations security
by creating different access levels, consequently controlling who can access company data.
 It helps to remove bottlenecks within transactions of an organization and significantly
increasing productivity. 
Disadvantages of Extranet

 Extranets are vulnerable to security breaches since they give outsiders access to
internal database and systems
  With proper implementation, an extranet can help improve an organizations security
by creating different access levels, consequently controlling who can access company data.
 It helps to remove bottlenecks within transactions of an organization and significantly
increasing productivity. 
Disadvantages of Extranet

 Extranets are vulnerable to security breaches since they give outsiders access to
internal database and systems
 Time is required to train users on how to work with the network.
 The network is prone misuse.
 Maintenance cost of the network is high.
 Information can be shared outside the local network due to one faulty or
compromised machine.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN INTERNET AND INTRANET AND EXTRANET

Internet Vs Intranet Vs Extranet In Tabular Form

BASISOF
COM
PARI INTERNET INTRANET EXTRANET
SON

Intranet can be
Extranet can be described
Internet can be described as a network
as a private network that
described as a global of computers or a
Descri uses public network to
system of private network
ption share information with
interconnected designed for a specific
clients (suppliers and
computer network. group of users
vendors).
(organization).

Size Of Internet is the largest

It is a small network with a It is a small network with a
TheNetwo network in as far as the
few number of connected few number of connected
rk number of connected
devices. devices.
devices is concerned.

Intranet is a means of Extranet is a means of

 Internet is a means of sharing sensitive or conveying information
Purpo se
sharing information confidential information between members of the
throughout the world. throughout organization and external
the organization. members.
Regul ation It is not regulated by any It is regulated by a specific It is regulated by multiple
authority. organization. organizations.
Conte nt On Content in the network is The content in the network is The content on the network is
The Netwo rk readily accessible by everyone accessible only to members of accessible to members of the
who is connected. the organization. organization and external
members with access to the
network.
Internet has no known Ownership of intranet is by a Ownership of extranet is by a
Owner ship ownership. single organization. single or multiple
organizations.
Mecha nism Of
Regul ation
Intranet is regulated by the Extranet is also regulated by
Internet is unregulated and
organization policies. contractual agreements
uncensored.
between organizations.
An intranet may be accessible An intranet may be accessible
from the internet, but it is from the internet, but it is
protected by a protected by a password and
Users have unrestricted access accessible only to authorized
password and
Access and can access internet users.
accessible only to authorized
anonymously.
users.
Security is dependent of the Security of the network is Security of the network is
Securi ty user of the device connected to enforced through a firewall. enforced through a firewall
network. that separates internet and
extranet.
Internet contains different Intranet contains only specific Extranet contains only specific
Infor matio n source of information and is group information. group information.
available for all.
Users need no training on how Time is required to train users Time is required to train users
User Traini ng to work with the network. on how to work with the on how to work with the
network. network.
An example of internet is the An example intranet is a Example of extranet is when
Exam ple network you use to google company like companies like HP, Intel and
words with. Lenovo decide to
ExxonMobil using
internal network for its use the same network for
business operations. related business Operation
Electronic Data Interchange(EDI):

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) - interposes communication of business information in

standardized electronic form.
Prior to EDI, business depended on postal and phone systems that restrictedcommunication to
those few hours of the workday that overlap between time zones.

Why EDI?
• Reduction in transaction costs
• Foster closer relationships between trading partners
EDI & Electronic Commerce
• Electronic commerce includes EDI & much more
• EDI forges boundary less relationships by improving interchange of information between
trading partners, suppliers, & customers.
EDI layered architecture:
• Semantic (or application) layer
• Standards translation layer
• Packing (or transport) layer
• Physical network infrastructure layer

EDI semantic layer:

• Describes the business application
• Procurement example
– Requests for quotes
– Price quotes
– Purchase orders
 – Acknowledgments
– Invoices
• Specific to company & software used

Standards translation:
• Specifies business form structure so that information can be exchanged
• Two competing standards
– American National Standards Institute(ANSI)X12
– EDIFACT developed by UN/ECE, Working Party for the Facilitation of
International Trade Procedures
EDI transport layer
• How the business form is sent, e.g. post, UPS, fax
• Increasingly, e-mail is the carrier
• Differentiating EDI from e-mail
– Emphasis on automation
– EDI has certain legal status

Physical network infrastructure layer

• Dial-up lines, Internet, value-added network, etc.
Information flow with EDI:

1. Buyer sends purchase order to seller computer

2. Seller sends purchase order confirmation to buyer
3. Seller sends booking request to transport company
 4. Transport company sends booking confirmation to seller
5. Seller sends advance ship notice to buyer
6. Transport company sends status to seller
7. Buyer sends Receipt advice to seller
8. Seller sends invoice to buyer
9. Buyer sends payment to seller

Applications of EDI:
1. Role of EDI in international trade:
Reduced transaction expenditures
Quicker movement of imported & exported goods
Improved customer service through ―track & trace‖ programs
Faster customs clearance & reduced opportunities for corruption, a huge problem in trade

2. Interbank Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT)

• EFTS is credit transfers between banks where funds flow directly from the payer‘s bankto
the payee‘s bank.
• The two biggest funds transfer services in the United States are the Federal Reserve‘s
system, Fed wire, & the Clearing House Interbank Payments System (CHIPS) of the New
York clearing house
3. Health care EDI for insurance EDI
• Providing good & affordable health care is a universal problem
• EDI is becoming a permanent fixture in both insurance & health care industries as
medical provider, patients, & payers
• Electronic claim processing is quick & reduces the administrative costs of health care.
• Using EDI software, service providers prepare the forms & submit claims via
communication lines to the value-added network service provider
• The company then edits sorts & distributes forms to the payer. If necessary, the insurance
company can electronically route transactions to a third-party for price evaluation
• Claims submission also receives reports regarding claim status & request for additional
Information
4. Manufacturing & retail procurement using EDI
 • These are heavy users of EDI
• In manufacturing, EDI is used to support just-in-time.
• In retailing, EDI is used to support quick response
EDI Protocols:
 ANSI X12
 EDIFACT
Comparison of EDIFACT & X.12 Standards:

These are comprised of strings of data elements called segments.

A transaction set is a set of segments ordered as specified by the standard.
ANSI standards require each element to have a very specific name, such as order dateor
invoice date.
EDIFACT segments, allow for multiuse elements, such as date.
EDIFACT has fewer data elements & segments & only one beginning segment
(header),but it has more composites.
It is an ever-evolving platform.

E-Payment System:
Electronic payment systems are central to on-line business process as companies look for ways to
serve customers faster and at lower cost. Emerging innovations in the payment for goods and
services in electronic commerce promise to offer a wide range of new business opportunities.

Electronic payment systems and e-commerce are highly linked given that on-line consumers must
pay for products and services. Clearly, payment is an integral part of the mercantile process and
prompt payment is crucial. If the claims and debits of the various participants (consumers,
companies and banks) are not balanced because of payment delay, then the entire business chain is
disrupted. Hence an important aspect of e-commerce is prompt and secure payment, clearing, and
settlement of credit or debit claims.

Electronic payment systems are becoming central to on-line business transactions nowadays as
companies look for various methods to serve customers faster and more cost effectively. Electronic
commerce brings a wide range of new worldwide business opportunities. There is no doubt that
electronic payment systems are becoming more and more common and will play an important role
in the business world. Electronic payment always involves a payer and a payee who exchange
money for goods or services. At least one financial institution like a bank will act as the issuer (used
by the payer) and the acquirer (used by the payee).

Types of Electronic Payment Systems:

Electronic payment systems are proliferating in banking, retail, health care, on-line markets, and
even government—in fact, anywhere money needs to change hands.

Organizations are motivated by the need to deliver products and services more cost
effectively and to provide a higher quality of service to customers.
The emerging electronic payment technology labeled electronic funds transfer (EFT).
EFT is defined as ―any transfer of funds initiated through an electronic terminal
telephonic instrument, or computer or magnetic tape so as to order, instruct, or authorize a
financial institution.
EFT can be segmented into three broad categories:
 Banking and financial payments
Large-scale or wholesale payments (e.g., bank-to-bank transfer)
Small-scale or retail payments (e.g., automated teller machines
Home banking (e.g., bill payment)
 Retailing payments
Credit Cards (e.g., VISA or MasterCard)
Private label credit/debit cards (e.g., J.C. Penney Card)
Charge Cards (e.g., American Express)
 On-line electronic commerce payments
 Token-based payment systems
Electronic cash (e.g., DigiCash)
Electronic checks (e.g., NetCheque)
Smart cards or debit cards (e.g., Mondex Electronic Currency Card)
 Credit card-based payments systems
Encrypted Credit Cards (e.g., World Wide Web form-based encryption)
Third-party authorization numbers (e.g., First Virtual)
 E-Cash:
There are many ways that exist for implementing an e-cash system, all must incorporate a
few common features.
Electronic Cash is based on cryptographic systems called ―digital signatures‖.
This method involves a pair of numeric keys: one for locking (encoding) and the other for
unlocking (decoding).
E-cash must have the following four properties.
 Monetary value
 Interoperability
 Retrievability
 Security
• Electronic cash is a general term that describes the attempts of several companies to create

value storage and exchange system that operates online in much the same way that

government-issued currency operates in the physical world.

• Concerns about electronic payment methods include:

– Privacy

– Security

– Independence

– Portability

Electronic Cash Storage:

• Two methods

– On-line

• Individual does not have possession personally of electronic cash

• Trusted third party, e.g. e-banking, bank holds customers‘ cash accounts

– Off-line

• Customer holds cash on smart card or electronic wallet

 • Fraud and double spending require tamper-proof encryption

The purchase of e-cash from an on-line currency server (or bank) involves two steps:
 Establishment of an account
 Maintaining enough money in the account to bank the purchase.

Once the tokens are purchased, the e-cash software on the customer‘s PC stores digital
money undersigned by a bank.

The users can spend the digital money at any shop accepting e-cash, without having to

open an account there or having to transmit credit card numbers.

As soon as the customer wants to make a payment, the software collects the necessary
amount from the stored tokens

– Convenience

Electronic Checks:

It is another form of electronic tokens.

Buyers must register with third-party account server before they are able to write
electronic checks.
The account server acts as a billing service.
Advantages of Electronic Checks:
1. They work in the same way as traditional checks.
2. These are suited for clearing micropayments.
3. They create float & availability of float is an important for commerce.
4. Financial risk is assumed by the accounting server & may result in easier acceptance.

Smart Cards & Electronic Payment Systems:

Smart cards have been in existence since the early 1980s and hold promise for secure
transactions using existing infrastructure.
Smart cards are credit and debit cards and other card products enhanced with
microprocessors capable of holding more information than the traditional magnetic stripe.
The smart card technology is widely used in countries such as France, Germany, Japan, and
Singapore to pay for public phone calls, transportation, and shopper loyalty programs.
Types of Smart Cards:

Relationship-Based Smart Credit Cards

Electronic Purses also known as debit cards

 Relationship-Based Smart Credit Cards:

It is an enhancement of existing cards services &/ or the addition of new services that a
financial institution delivers to its customers via a chip-based card or other device.
These services include access to multiple financial accounts, value-added marketing
programs, or other information card holders may want to store on their card.
It includes access to multiple accounts, such as debit, credit, cash access, bill payment &
 multiple access options at multiple locations.
 Electronic Purses:
To replace cash and place a financial instrument are racing to introduce electronic purses,
wallet-sized smart cards embedded with programmable microchips that store sums of money
for people to use instead of cash for everything.

The electronic purse works in the following manner:

After purse is loaded with money at an ATM, it can be used to pay for candy in a
vending machine with a card reader.
It verifies card is authentic & it has enough money, the value is deducted from balance
on the card & added to an e-cash & remaining balance is displayed by the vending
machine.
Credit Card-Based Electronic Payment Systems:
Payment cards are all types of plastic cards that consumers use to make purchases:
– Credit cards
• Such as a Visa or a MasterCard, has a preset spending limit based on the
user‘s credit limit.
– Debit cards
• Removes the amount of the charge from the cardholder‘s account and
transfers it to the seller‘s bank.
– Charge cards
• Such as one from American Express, carries no preset spending limit.
Advantages:
– Payment cards provide fraud protection.
– They have worldwide acceptance.
– They are good for online transactions.
Disadvantages:
Payment card service companies charge merchants per-transaction fees and monthly processing
fees.
Risks in Electronic Payment systems:
 Customer's risks
– Stolen credentials or password
– Dishonest merchant
 – Disputes over transaction
– Inappropriate use of transaction details
 Merchant‘s risk
– Forged or copied instruments
– Disputed charges
– Insufficient funds in customer‘s account
– Unauthorized redistribution of purchased items
Electronic payments Issues:
Secure transfer across internet
High reliability: no single failure point
Atomic transactions
Anonymity of buyer
Economic and computational efficiency: allow micropayments
Flexibility: across different methods
Scalability in number of servers and users

Security Requirements In Electronic Payment Systems:

 Integrity and authorization

A payment system with integrity allows no money to be taken from a user without explicit
authorization by that user. It may also disallow the receipt of payment without explicit consent,
to prevent occurrences of things like unsolicited bribery. Authorization constitutes the most
important relationship in a payment system. Payment can be authorized in three ways: via out-
band authorization, passwords, and signature.
 Out-band authorization
In this approach, the verifying party (typically a bank) notifies the authorizing party (the
payer) of a transaction. The authorizing party is required to approve or deny the payment using
a secure, out-band channel (such as via surface mail or the phone). This is the current approach
for credit cards involving mail orders and telephone orders: Anyone who knows a user‘s credit
card data can initiate transactions, and the legitimate user must check the statement and
actively complain about unauthorized transactions. If the user does not complain within a
certain time (usually 90 days), the transaction is considered ―approved‖ by default.
 Password authorization
 A transaction protected by a password requires that every message from the authorizing party
include a cryptographic check value. The check value is computed using a secret

known only to the authorizing and verifying parties. This secret can be a personal
identification number, a password, or any form of shared secret. In addition, shared secrets that
are short - like a six-digit PIN - are inherently susceptible to various kinds of attacks. They
cannot by themselves provide a high degree of security. They should only be used to control
access to a physical token like a smart card (or a wallet) that performs the actual authorization
using secure cryptographic mechanisms, such as digital signatures.
 Signature authorization
In this type of transaction, the verifying party requires a digital signature of the authorizing
party. Digital signatures provide non repudiation of origin.
 Confidentiality
Some parties involved may wish confidentiality of transactions. Confidentiality in this context
means the restriction of the knowledge about various pieces of information related to a
transaction: the identity of payer/payee, purchase content, amount, and so on. Typically, the
confidentiality requirement dictates that this information be restricted only to the participants
involved. Where anonymity or un-traceability are desired, the requirement may be to limit this
knowledge to certain subsets of the participants only, as described later.
 Availability and reliability
All parties require the ability to make or receive payments whenever necessary. Payment
transactions must be atomic: They occur entirely or not at all, but they never hang in an
unknown or inconsistent state. No payer would accept a loss of money (not a significant
amount, in any case) due to a network or system crash. Availability and reliability presume
that the underlying networking services and all software and hardware components are
sufficiently dependable. Recovery from crash failures requires some sort of stable storage at
all parties and specific resynchronization protocols. These fault tolerance issues are not
discussed here, because most payment systems do not address them explicitly.

E-Security:
Ecommerce security is essential if you are to make it in this industry. Are you aware that
cyber-criminals target mostly eCommerce businesses? Online businesses experienced 32.4%
of all successful cyber attacks in 2018. A serious business should, therefore, employ rock-solid
eCommerce security protocols and measures. It will keep the business and customers free
from attacks.
What is eCommerce or electronic commerce security?
eCommerce security is the guidelines that ensure safe transaction through the internet. It
consists of protocols that safeguard people who engage in online selling and buying of goods
and services. You need to gain your customers’ trust by putting in place eCommercesecurity
basics. Such basics include:
Privacy Integrity
Authentication Non-
repudiation

1. Privacy
Privacy includes preventing any activity that will lead to the sharing of customers’ data with
unauthorized third parties. Apart from the online seller that a customer has chosen, no one
else should access their personal information and account details.
A breach of confidentiality occurs when sellers let others have access to such information. An
online business should put in place at least a necessary minimum of anti-virus, firewall,
encryption, and other data protection. It will go a long way in protecting credit card and bank
details of clients.

2. Integrity
Integrity is another crucial concept of E Commerce Security. It means ensuring that any
information that customers have shared online remains unaltered. The principle states thatthe
online business is utilizing the customers’ information as given, without changing anything.
Altering any part of the data causes the buyer to lose confidence in the securityand integrity
of the online enterprise.

3. Authentication
The principle of authentication in E Commerce security requires that both the seller and the buyer
should be real. They should be who they say they are. The business should prove that it is real, deals
with genuine items or services, and delivers what it promises. The clients should also give their proof
of identity to make the seller feel secure about the online transactions. It is possible to ensure
authentication and identification. If you are unable to do so, hiring an expert will help a lot. Among
the standard solutions include client logins information and credit card PINs.
 4.Non-repudiation
Repudiation means denial. Therefore, Non-repudiation is a legal principle that instructs players not to
deny their actions in a transaction. The business and the buyer should followthrough on the transaction
part that they initiated. E Commerce can feel less safe since it occurs in cyberspace with no live
video. Non-repudiation gives E Commerce security another layer. It confirms that the communication
that occurred between the two players indeed reached the recipients. Therefore, a party in that
particular transaction cannot denya signature, email, or a purchas
 MODULE-III

Enterprise application integration(EAI):

 Enterprise application integration (EAI) is the use of software and computer systems'
architectural principles to integrate a set of enterprise computer applications.
 Enterprise application integration is the process of linking such applications within a
single organization together in order to simplify and automate business processes to the
greatest extent possible, while at the same time avoiding having to make sweeping
changes to the existing applications or data structures. Applications can be linked either
at the back-end (database) or the front-end (GUI).
 The various systems that need to be linked together may reside on different operating
systems, use different database solutions or computer languages, or different date and
time formats, or may be legacy systems that are no longer supported by the vendor who
originally created them. In some cases, such systems are dubbed "stovepipe systems"
because they consist of components that have been jammed together in a way that makes
it very hard to modify them in any way.

EAI can be used for different purposes:

Data integration: Ensures that information in multiple systems is kept consistent. This is
also known as enterprise information integration (EII).

Vendor independence: Extracts business policies or rules from applications and

implements them in the EAI system, so that even if one of the business applications is
replaced with a different vendor's application, the business rules do not have to be re-
implemented.

Common facade: An EAI system can front-end a cluster of applications, providing a

single consistent access interface to these applications and shielding users from having to
learn to use different software packages.

Multiple technologies are used in implementing each of the components of the EAI system:

Bus/hub:

This is usually implemented by enhancing standard middleware products (application server,

message bus) or implemented as a stand-alone program (i. e., does not use any middleware),
acting as its own middleware.

Application connectivity:

The bus/hub connects to applications through a set of adapters (also referred to as connectors).
These are programs that know how to interact with an underlying business application. The
adapter performs two-way communication, performing requests from the hub against the
application, and notifying the hub when an event of interest occurs in the application (a new
record inserted, a transaction completed, etc.). Adapters can be specific to an application (e. g.,
built against the application vendor's client libraries) or specific to a class of applications (e. g.,
can interact with any application through a standard communication protocol, such as SOAP,
SMTP or Action Message Format (AMF)). The adapter could reside in the same process space as
the bus/hub or execute in a remote location and interact with the hub/bus through industry
standard protocols such as message queues, web services, or even use a proprietary protocol. In
the Java world, standards such as JCA allow adapters to be created in a vendor-neutral manner.

Data format and transformation:

To avoid every adapter having to convert data to/from every other applications' formats, EAI
systems usually stipulate an application-independent (or common) data format. The EAI system
usually provides a data transformation service as well to help convert between application-

specific and common formats. This is done in two steps: the adapter converts information from
the application's format to the bus's common format. Then, semantic transformations are applied
on this (converting zip codes to city names, splitting/merging objects from one application into
objects in the other applications, and so on).

Integration modules:

An EAI system could be participating in multiple concurrent integration operations at any given
time, each type of integration being processed by a different integration module. Integration
modules subscribe to events of specific types and process notifications that they receive when
these events occur. These modules could be implemented in different ways: on Java-based EAI
systems, these could be web applications or EJBs or even POJOs that conform to the EAI
system's specifications.
Support for transactions:

When used for process integration, the EAI system also provides transactional consistency across
applications by executing all integration operations across all applications in a single overarching
distributed transaction (using two-phase commit protocols or compensating transactions).

Disadvantages of EAI:

1. Constant change: The very nature of EAI is dynamic and requires dynamic project
managers to manage their implementation.
2. Shortage of EAI experts: EAI requires knowledge of many issues and technical aspects.
3. Competing standards: Within the EAI field, the paradox is that EAI standards themselves
are not universal.
4. EAI is a tool paradigm: EAI is not a tool, but rather a system and should be implemented
as such.
5. Building interfaces is an art: Engineering the solution is not sufficient. Solutions need to
be negotiated with user departments to reach a common consensus on the final outcome.
A lack of consensus on interface designs leads to excessive effort to map between various
systems data requirements.

6. Loss of detail: Information that seemed unimportant at an earlier stage may become
crucial later.
7. Accountability: Since so many departments have many conflicting requirements, there
should be clear accountability for the system's final structure.
ERP Market:
Some of the top-tier ERP vendors are
SAP-AG
BAAN

PeopleSoft

Oracle Corporation
J.D. Edwards
These companies are covering the major ERP market revenue.

 SAP-AG:
SAP is the world's leading provider of business software, SAP delivers products and
 services that help accelerate business innovation for their customers. Today, more than
82,000 customers in more than 120 countries run SAP applications – from distinct
solutions addressing the needs of small businesses and midsize companies to suite
offerings for global organizations.
SAP defines business software as comprising enterprise resource planning and related
applications such as supply chain management, customer relationship management, and
supplier relationship management
SAP AG was founded in 1972 by five German engineers with IBM in Mannheim,
Germany and is one of the top most ERP vendors providing the client server business
application solutions.
SAP serves as a standard in the industries like chemicals, customer products, oil & high
technology. The SAP group has offices in more than 50 countries worldwide & employs
a workforce of over 19300.
SAP‘s ERP package comes in 2 versions i.e. mainframe version (SAP R/2) & client
server version (SAP R/3).(R-Real)
With SAP, customers can install the core system & one or more of the fundamental
components, or purchase the software as a complete package.
SAP has developed extensive library of more than 800 predefined business processes.
These processes may be selected from SAP library & can be included within installed
SAP application solution to suit the user exact requirements.
SAP software has special features like, linking a company‘s business processes &
applications, & supporting immediate responses to change throughout different
organizational levels & real time integration.
Also, the new technologies are available regularly to cop-up with the changes of the new
business trends.
The international standards have been considered while designing the software like
support of multiple currencies simultaneously, automatically handles the country specific
import/export requirements
The modules of R/3 can be used individually as well as user can expand it in stages to
meet specific requirements.
 BAAN:
Baan company was founded in Netherlands in 1978 by brothers Jan and Paul Baan..
The BAAN Company is the leading global provider of enterprise business software.
 The BAAN company products reduce complexity and cost, improve core business
processes, are faster to implement and use, are more flexible in adapting to business
changes.
The products offered by the company supports several business tools. The tools are based
on multi-tier architecture.
The BAAN products are having open component architecture.
The special feature of BAAN product is the use of BAAN DEM (Dynamic
Enterprise Modeling).
Baan DEM provides a business view via a graphical process/model based views.
BAAN products has multi-tiered architecture for maximum and flexible
configuration.
The application supports the new hardware, OS, networks and user interfaces w/o
any modification to the application code.
The Baan series based products include :
o BAAN Enterprise Resource Planning.
o BAAN Front Office.
o BAAN Corporate Office Solutions.
o BAAN Supply Chain Solutions.
The main advantages of Baan series-based family of products are the best in class
components version independent integration and evergreen delivery.
BAAN ERP includes the following components –
Manufacturing Module:
This includes bills of material, cost price calculation, shop floor control, material
requirement planning, etc.
Finance Module:
This includes accounts payable, accounts receivable, cash management, fixed
assets, etc
Project Module:
This includes project budget, project definition, project estimation,project
planning, etc
Distribution Module: This includes sales management, purchase
managementand warehouse management.
 Oracle Corporation:
Oracle Corporation was founded in the year 1977 and is the world‘s largest s/w company
and the leading supplier for enterprise information management.
This is the first s/w company to implement internet computing model for using the
enterprise s/w across the entire product line.
It provides databases and relational servers, application development, decision support
tools and enterprise business applications.
Oracle application consists of 45 plus software modules which are divided into following
categories
 Oracle Financials
 Oracle Human Resource
 Oracle Projects
 Oracle Manufacturing
 Oracle Supply Chain
 Oracle Front Office
 Oracle Financial:

– This application transforms a finance organization into a strategic force and also
helps to access the financial management functions.

– By working with these applications the companies can work globally, lower the
administrative cost & improve the cash management.

– It also provides strategic information to make timely & accurate decisions.

 Oracle Projects:

– These applications improve operational efficiency by providing an integrated

project management environment that supports the full lifecycle of a project and
increases the revenue growth and profitability.

 Oracle Supply Chain:

– This application manages the supply chain process by providing a single

integrated environment.

– It helps in effective partner collaboration & supply chain optimization

capabilities.
 – It helps in increasing market share while improving customer service &
minimizing the cost.

 Oracle Front Office:

– These applications provide a better understanding for customer relationships, their

values & profitability

– These applications increase top line revenues & maintain customer satisfaction &
retention

– It also helps to attract and retain profitable customers through deployment

channels including mobile & call centre.

 Oracle Human Resources:

– This application helps in managing the human resources which directly improve
profitability and contribute to competitive advantage

– It also helps in the ability to hire motivate & retain the most capable working
force and also helps in providing comprehensive and up-to-date information.

 Oracle Manufacturing:

– Oracle manufacturing application enables the companies to achieve market

leadership by becoming more customer responsive & efficient.

– This module also supports the companies to increase revenue, profitability &
customer loyalty by capturing the demand & planning the manufacturing
process in an efficient way.

 People Soft:
PeopleSoft Inc. was established in 1987 to provide innovative software solutions that
meet the changing business demands of enterprises worldwide.
It employs more than 7000 people worldwide.& the annual revenue for the year 1998 was
$ 1.3 million.
PeopleSoft‘s mission is to provide innovative software solutions that meet the changing
business demands of organizations worldwide.
PeopleSoft develops markets and supports enterprise-wide software solutions to handle
 core business functions including human resources management, accounting and control,
project management, treasury management performance measurement and supply chain
management.
PeopleSoft provides industry-specific enterprise solutions to customers in select markets,
including communications, finance services, healthcare, manufacturing.
PeopleSoft products support clients running, Microsoft Windows and popular Web
browsers, as well as a range of mainframe, midrange and LAN relational database server
platforms.
PeopleSoft solutions run on a variety of leading hardware and database platforms,
including Compaq, Hewlet-Packard, IBM, Sun Microsystems, Informix, Microsoft SQL
Server, Sybase, DB2 and others.
PeopleSoft delivers Web-enabled applications, workflow, online analytical processing
(OLAP) etc.

The PeopleSoft application serves the whole business management solutions, commercial
solutions & industry solutions.

The PeopleSoft‘s business management solutions are in the areas given below:-

– Human Resources Management

– Accounting and Control
– Treasury Management
– Performance Measurement
– Project Management
– Sales and Logistics
– Materials Management
– Supply Chain Planning
– Service Revenue Management
– Procurement
 JD Edwards:
On March 17, 1977 J.D. Edwards was formed, by Jack Thompson, Dan Gregery & Ed-
Mc Vaney.
In early years J.D. Edwards designed software for small & medium sized computers.
In 1980‘s it focused on IBM system/38.
As the company began to out grow, its headquarter in Denver, opened branch offices in
Dallas & Newport Beach, California, Houston, San Francisco & Bakenfield. And then
internationally expanded its Europe headquarters in Brussels & Belgium.
As it grew it became obvious that servicing a large number of customers was creating a
challenge
By the mid of 1980‘s, J.D Edwards was being recognizes as an Industry-leading supplier
of application software for the highly successful IBM AS/400 computer.
Today J.D Edwards is a publicly traded company that has more than 4700 customers with
sites in over 100 countries & more than 4200 employees.
J.D Edwards emphasizes on the following three matters:
 Solution: JD Edwards offers a balance of technology & service options tailored by
the unique industry & its processes. This allows JD Edward to ensure timely
implementation & outgoing quality of the solution.
 Relationships: With JD Edwards, you have a partner committed to ushering you
through changes in the business & technology.
 Value: JD Edwards provides with an appreciating software asset – one with the
potential to increase in value over the lift of your business.

JD Edwards is a leading provider of integrated software for distribution, human resource,

finance, manufacturing & SCM.

These software's are operated in multiple computing environments & also JAVA &
HTML enabled.
 MODULE-IV

Enterprise Resource Planning:

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is business management software—usually a suite of
integrated applications—that a company can use to collect, store, manage and interpret data from
many business activities, including:
Product planning, cost
Manufacturing or service delivery
Marketing and sales
Inventory management
Shipping and payment

 ERP provides an integrated view of core business processes, often in real-time, using
common databases maintained by a database management system. ERP systems track
business resources—cash, raw materials, production capacity—and the status of
business commitments: orders, purchase orders, and payroll. The applications that make
up the system share data across the various departments that provide the data. ERP
facilitates information flow between all business functions, and manages connections to
outside stakeholders.
 Enterprise system software is a multi-billion dollar industry that produces components
that support a variety of business functions. IT investments have become the largest
category of capital expenditure in United States-based businesses over the past decade.
Though early ERP systems focused on large enterprises, smaller enterprises
increasingly use ERP systems.
 The ERP system is considered a vital organizational tool because it integrates varied
organizational systems and facilitates error-free transactions and production. However,
ERP system development is different from traditional systems development.
 ERP systems run on a variety of computer hardware and network configurations,
typically using a database as an information repository.

Functional areas of ERP :

An ERP system covers the following common functional areas. In many ERP systems these are
called and grouped together as ERP modules:
 Financial accounting: General ledger, fixed asset, payables including vouchering,
matching and payment, receivables cash application and collections, cash management,
financial consolidation
Management accounting: Budgeting, costing, cost management, activity based costing
Human resources: Recruiting, training, rostering, payroll, benefits, 401K, diversity
management, retirement, separation
Manufacturing: Engineering, bill of materials, work orders, scheduling, capacity,
workflow management, quality control, manufacturing process, manufacturing projects,
manufacturing flow, product life cycle management
Order Processing: Order to cash, order entry, credit checking, pricing, available to
promise, inventory, shipping, sales analysis and reporting, sales commissioning.
Supply chain management: Supply chain planning, supplier scheduling, product
configurator, order to cash, purchasing, inventory, claim processing, warehousing
(receiving, putaway, picking and packing).
Project management: Project planning, resource planning, project costing, work
breakdown structure, billing, time and expense, performance units, activity management
Customer relationship management: Sales and marketing, commissions, service,
customer contact, call center support - CRM systems are not always considered part of
ERP systems but rather Business Support systems (BSS).
Data services : Various "self–service" interfaces for customers, suppliers and/or
employees.

Benefits of ERP:
ERP can improve quality and efficiency of the business. By keeping a company's internal
 business processes running smoothly, ERP can lead to better outputs that may benefit the
company, such as in customer service and manufacturing.
ERP supports upper level management by providing information for decision making.
ERP creates a more agile company that adapts better to change. ERP makes a company
more flexible and less rigidly structured so organization components operate more
cohesively, enhancing the business—internally and externally.
ERP can improve data security. A common control system, such as the kind offered by
ERP systems, allows organizations the ability to more easily ensure key company data is
not compromised.
ERP provides increased opportunities for collaboration. Data takes many forms in the
modern enterprise. Documents, files, forms, audio and video, emails. Often, each data
medium has its own mechanism for allowing collaboration. ERP provides a collaborative
platform that lets employees spend more time collaborating on content rather than
mastering the learning curve of communicating in various formats across distributed
systems.
Disadvantages of ERP:
Customization can be problematic. Compared to the best-of-breed approach, ERP can be
seen as meeting an organization‘s lowest common denominator needs, forcing the
organization to find workarounds to meet unique demands.

Re-engineering business processes to fit the ERP system may damage competitiveness or
divert focus from other critical activities.
ERP can cost more than less integrated or less comprehensive solutions.
High ERP switching costs can increase the ERP vendor's negotiating power, which can
increase support, maintenance, and upgrade expenses.
Overcoming resistance to sharing sensitive information between departments can divert
management attention.
Integration of truly independent businesses can create unnecessary dependencies.
Extensive training requirements take resources from daily operations.
Due to ERP's architecture (OLTP, On-Line Transaction Processing) ERP systems are not
well suited for production planning and supply chain management (SCM).
Harmonization of ERP systems can be a mammoth task (especially for big companies)
and requires a lot of time, planning, and money.
Business Process Redesign / Methodology:

 It is a business management strategy focusing on the analysis and design of workflows

and business processes within an organization.
 BPR aimed to help organizations fundamentally rethink how they do their work in order
to dramatically improve customer service, cut operational costs, and become world-class
competitors.
 Business Process Reengineering (BPR) is the practice of rethinking and redesigning the
way work is done to better support an organization's mission and reduce costs.
Reengineering starts with a high-level assessment of the organization's mission, strategic
goals, and customer needs.
 Within the framework of this basic assessment of mission and goals, re-engineering
focuses on the organization's business processes—the steps and procedures that govern
how resources are used to create products and services that meet the needs of particular
customers or markets. As a structured ordering of work steps across time and place, a
business process can be decomposed into specific activities, measured, modeled, and
improved. It can also be completely redesigned or eliminated altogether. Re-engineering
identifies, analyzes, and re-designs an organization's core business processes with the aim
of achieving dramatic improvements in critical performance measures, such as cost,
quality, service, and speed.
 Re-engineering recognizes that an organization's business processes are usually
fragmented into subprocesses and tasks that are carried out by several specialized
functional areas within the organization. Often, no one is responsible for the overall
performance of the entire process. Re-engineering maintains that optimizing the
performance of sub processes can result in some benefits, but cannot yield dramatic
improvements if the process itself is fundamentally inefficient and outmoded. For that
reason, re-engineering focuses on re-designing the process as a whole in order to achieve
the greatest possible benefits to the organization and their customers. This drive for
realizing dramatic improvements by fundamentally re-thinking how the organization's
work should be done distinguishes re-engineering from process improvement efforts that
focus on functional or incremental improvement.
Supply Chain Management:( SCR )

It is the process of planning, implementing, and controlling the operations of the supply chain
with the purpose to satisfy customer requirements as efficiently as possible. Supply chain
management spans all movement and storage of raw materials, work-in-process inventory, and
finished goods from point-of-origin to point-of-consumption.

Supply chain management must address the following problems:

Distribution Network Configuration: Number and location of suppliers, production

facilities, distribution centers, warehouses and customers.

Distribution Strategy: Centralized versus decentralized, direct shipment, cross docking,

pullor push strategies, third party logistics.

Information: Integrate systems and processes through the supply chain to share
valuableinformation, including demand signals, forecasts, inventory and transportation.
 Inventory Management: Quantity and location of inventory including raw materials,
work-in-process and finished goods.

Features Of Supply Chain Management:

In electronic commerce, supply chain management has the following features.

An ability to source raw material or finished goods from anywhere in the world

A centralized, global business and management strategy with flawless local execution

On-line, real-time distributed information processing to the desktop, providing total supply
chain information visibility

The ability to manage information not only within a company but across industries and
enterprises

The seamless integration of all supply chain processes and measurements, including third-
party suppliers, information systems, cost accounting standards, and measurement systems

The development and implementation of accounting models such as activity based

costingthat link cost to performance are used as tools for cost reduction

A reconfiguration of the supply chain organization into high-performance teams going from
the shop floor to senior management.

Components Of Supply Chain Management:

The following are five basic components of SCM.

 Plan:
This is the strategic portion of SCM. You need a strategy for managing all the resources
that go toward meeting customer demand for your product or service. A big piece of
planning is developing a set of metrics to monitor the supply chain so that it is efficient,
costsless and delivers high quality and value to customers.
  Source:
Choose the suppliers that will deliver the goods and services you need to create your
product.Develop a set of pricing, delivery and payment processes with suppliers and create
metrics for monitoring and improving the relationships. And put together processes for
managing the inventory of goods and services you receive from suppliers, including
receiving shipments, verifying them, transferring them to your manufacturing facilities and
authorizing supplier payments.

 Make:
This is the manufacturing step. Schedule the activities necessary for production, testing,
packaging and preparation for delivery. As the most metric-intensive portion of the supply
chain, measure quality levels, production output and worker productivity.

 Deliver:
This is the part that many insiders refer to as logistics. Coordinate the receipt of orders from
customers, develop a network of warehouses, pick carriers to get products to customers
and set up an invoicing system to receive payments.

 Return:
The problem part of the supply chain. Create a network for receiving defective and excess
products back from customers and supporting customers who have problems with delivered
products.

Measuring A Supply Chain’s Performance:

The performance of a supply chain is evaluated by how it reduces cost or increases value. SCM
performance monitoring is important; in many industries, the supply chain represents roughly 75
percent of the operating budget expense. Three common measures of performance are used when
evaluating SCM performance:
 Efficiency focuses on minimizing cost by decreasing the inventory investment or value
relative to the cost of goods sold. An efficient firm is therefore one with a higher inventory
turnover or fewer weeks‘ worth of inventory on hand.
 Responsiveness focuses on reduction in both inventory costs and missed sales that comes
with a faster, more flexible supply chain. A responsive firm is proficient in an uncertain
 market environment, because it can quickly adjust production to meet demand.
 Effectiveness of the supply chain relates to the degree to which the supply chain creates
value for the customer. Effectiveness-focused supply chains are called ―value chains‖
because they focus more on creating customer value than reducing costs and improving
productivity.

To examine the effect of the Internet and electronic commerce on the supply chain is to examine
the impact the Internet has on the efficiency, responsiveness, effectiveness, and overall
performance of the supply chain.
 Advantages of Internet/E-Commerce Integrated Supply Chain:
The primary advantages of Internet utilization in supply chain management are speed, decreased
cost, flexibility, and the potential to shorten the supply chain.
 Speed:
A competitive advantage accrues to those firms that can quickly respond to changing
market conditions. Because the Internet allows near instantaneous transfer of information
between various links in the supply chain, it is ideally suited to help firms keep pace with
their environments. Many businesses have placed a priority upon real-time information
regarding the status of orders and production from other members of the supply chain.

 Cost decrease:
Internet-based electronic procurement helps reduce costs by decreasing the use of paper
and labor, reducing errors, providing better tracking of purchase orders and goods delivery,
streamlining ordering processes, and cutting acquisition cycle times.
 Flexibility:
The Internet allows for custom interfaces between a company and its different clients,
helping to cost-effectively establish mass customization. A manufacturer can easily create a
custom template or Web site for a fellow supply chain member with pre-negotiated prices
for various products listed on the site, making re-ordering only a mouse click away. The
information regarding this transaction can be sent via the Internet to the selling firm‘s
production floor and the purchasing firm‘s purchasing and accounting departments. The
accuracy and reliability of the information is greater than the traditional paper and pencil
transaction, personnel time and expense is reduced, and the real-time dissemination of the
relevant information to interested parties improves responsiveness. These advantages can
benefit both firms involved in the transaction.
 Shortening the supply chain:
Dell computers has become a classic example of the power the Internet can have on a
supply chain. Dell helped create one of the first fully Internet-enabled supply chains and
revolutionized the personal-computer industry by selling directly to businesses and
consumers, rather than through retailers and middlemen. In mid-1996, Dell began allowing
consumers to configure and order computers online. By 1998, the company recorded
 roughly $1 billion in ―pure‖ Internet orders. By reducing sales costs and attracting
customers who spend more per transaction, Dell estimates that it yields 30 percent greater
profit margins on Internet sales compared to telephone sales.

Disadvantages of Internet/E-Commerce Integrated Supply Chain:

 Increased interdependence:
Increased commoditization, increased competition, and shrinking profit margins are forcing
companies to increase outsourcing and subcontracting to minimize cost. By focusing on its
core competencies, a firm should be able to maximize its economies of scale and its
competitiveness. However, such a strategy requires increased reliance and information
sharing between members of the supply chain. Increased dependency on various members of
the supply chain can have disastrous consequences if these supply chain members are unable
to handle the functions assigned to them.

 The costs of implementation:

Implementation of a fully-integrated Internet-based supply chain is expensive. This expense
includes hardware cost, software cost, reorganization cost, and training costs. While the
Internet promises many advantages once it is fully integrated into a supply chain, a significant
up front investment is needed for full deployment.

 Keeping up with the change in expectations:

Expectations have increased as Internet use has become part of daily life. When customers
send orders electronically, they expect to get a quick confirmation and delivery or denial if
the order can not be met. Increasingly, in this and other ways, customers are dictating terms
and conditions to suppliers. The introduction of Internet-based supply chains make possible
the change to a ―pull‖ manufacturing strategy replacing the traditional ―push‖ strategy that
has been the standard in most industries.