Chap 6 EC Technology

8/6/2019 Chap 6 EC Technology

1/37

1

Topic 6Electronic Commerce Technology

CBEC1103 Elements of EC


2/37

2

Topics covered :

Technologies support EC

Interactive TV

Business and technology drivers that affected EC


3/37

3

Information superhighwayT he removal of the barriers between the computing,telecommunications and broadcasting industries has createdthe foundation for the information superhighway and thewide range of services that it has the potential to support.Existing networks, including the Internet, already provide:

business services;teleworking opportunities;business to consumer EC services including

entertainment, home banking and home shopping;health services such as remote consultation and the

exchange of information between hospitals(telemedicine); andlocal government services such as education (e.g.

distance learning) and leisure services (e.g. sportsfacilities booking).


4/37

4

I nternetT he Internet has provided protocols for a common networkinginfrastructure that can be used for everything from serving Web pages toretrieving e-mail to running client-server applications across virtually alltypes of client-server platform. HTML , closely followed by Java , hasbecome a mechanism for standard universal electronic communications,

while also serving as a standard user interface.


5/37

5

EDIElectronic Data Interchange (EDI) is the term used for the exchange of structured d a ta between the computer systems of trading partners. It isfrequently used as an electronic replacement for traditional tradingdocuments such as orders and invoices.EDI can be defined as the transfer of structured trade data, by agreed

message standards, from one computer system to another, by electronicmeans.T he phrase structured trade data brings to mind commonplace businessdocumentation such as invoices, credit notes, purchase orders, packinglists, acknowledgments of order, etc.T he phrase by agreed message standards implies that discrepanciesbetween message structures will be prevented by providing a fixed &agreed method of specifying & presenting the data.T he phrase, from one computer system to another. EDI is between thecomputer systems of different organizations. However EDI is also oftenused for intra-company & inter-company communications.


6/37

6

GroupwareA ccording to Laudon & Laudon (2004), Groupware provides functionsand services to support collaborative activities of work groups.Groupware includes software for group writing & commenting,informationsharing, electronic meetings, scheduling, and e-mail and anetwork to connect the members of the group as they work on their own

desktop computers, often in widely scattering locations.Colemans list is very broad. T herefore, the following groupwarecategories:

Electronic meeting systemsDocument and workflow management systems

Proprietary groupware frameworksIntranets: utilizing Internet technology to support workgroupsExtranets: Linking together the intranets of business partners.


7/37

7

Electronic meeting systemsone-to-one messaging facilities (such as telephone and voice mail, fax,and e-mail) workgroup communication technologies can provide many-to many communication facilities. T hese technologies are alreadyradically changing the ways in which business people, in differentlocations, communicate. T hey are:

video conferencingdata conferencing and electronic meeting software.Vi deo conferenc ing

allows real time communication between geographically remotegroups of participants, andsaves travel time & costs associated with face to face meetings.T he costs of PC-based desktop data & video conferencing systemsare lower than studio-type video conferencing facilities. However, themotion video quality of the PC-based systems, which use ordinaryPS TN lines, is inferior due to the limited bandwidth of the lines.


8/37

8

Electronic meeting systemsD a ta conferenc ing a nd electron ic meet ing softw a reNon-re a l t ime : data conferencing can be regarded as non-real time. E-mail bulletin board systems ( BBS ) are an example, as is a Lotus N otesdiscussion database. BBSs allow multiple users to carry on a discussionover time and are accessible to all the e-mail systems users. T hey have

been used for quite a long time by I T departments for dealing withtechnical support requests from end-users.T he BBS concept has been adapted by groupware packages, suchas the Lotus N otes discussion databases, to provide BBS facilitieswhere access can be restricted to specific workgroups & members.

Re a l t ime d a ta conferenc ing a nd electron ic meet ing softw a re : realtime d a ta conferenc ing software allows two or more people at remotelocations to edit & modify electronic data simultaneously.

Desktop data conferencing systems are combined with low costvideo conferencing software & pen cameras. T hey enable a smallvideo image of 1 or more of the participants to be displayed in apanel on the screen of PC at the same time as the document that isbeing worked on.


9/37

9Document and workflow managementsystems

In any office, much information is stored in a way that doesnot allow easy representation in the form of a computer record.

Examples include letters & documents from outside

organizations; photographs and design drawings; books,manuals, articles and handwritten notes. T hese are alluseful data, but they are not easily stored on structuredcomputer files.

D ocument im a g ing and workflow m a n a gement systems

uses I T to tackle this problem. T hey address the problem of indexing, filing, retrieving, and managing the flow &subsequent processing of document images.benefits of saving document storage space, such systemscan be used to re-engineer business processes so that theyrequire fewer clerical and professional steps and thus


10/37

10Document and workflow managementsystems

Workflow m a n a gement softw a re automatically records the progressand completion status of each job as it progresses through the system.T hese details can be analyzed so that the human supervisor knowswhich tasks are outstanding and for what reason, how long individualoperators spend on different types of tasks etc., so that the overallworkflow can be controlled and managed.

Further analysis of this data, collected by the system, can also beused to continually modify and fine-tune the workflow to maintainoptimum effectiveness.

T he workflow management software often has a graphical user interface(GUI) so that the supervisors can easily redraw the routes thatparticular documents should take through the organization; who isauthorized to work on the documents; what activities need to be includedin the work; what checking needs to be done and by whom; and whatstatus conditions the system should monitor.


11/37

11

Proprietary groupware frameworkT hese can be compared with office suites (e.g. MS Office) in thatthey both bundle their component technologies into an integratedpackage with a GUI that is common to all the individual componentapplications. T hey are also designed so that sharing & transfer of data between the different applications, & groupware between

workgroup members, are achieved easily.However, office suites are normally restricted to operating under aparticular type of operating system (OS) & a particular computer platform. For example, MS Office will only run under MS Windowson an IBM PC compatible; it will not run on, say, the Unix OS on aSun workstation.Lotus N otes (Lotus/IBM), other contemporary products that fit intothis proprietary groupware framework category include:

Microsoft Exchange (Microsoft), GroupWise ( N ovell),T eamOffice (ICL/Fujitsu), OpenDoc ( A pple/IBM)

Groupware framework packages provide the users with a number of predefined applications templates that can immediately be used as


12/37

12Intranets: utilizing Internet technologyto support workgroups

T he original purpose of the Internet, when it was originally fundedand controlled by the US Department of Defense and the Pentagon inthe 1970s, was to support and foster collaboration amonggeographically dispersed teams of scientists working on militaryresearch projects. Similarly, the World Wide Web ( WWW) , or morespecifically the H ypertext T r a nsfer Protocol ( HTT P ) upon which theWWW is founded, was originally developed by CER N to enableresearchers around the world to share each others work more easily.A n intranet is a private corporate network that utilizes Internetsoftware technology. T his approach provides the ease of use of WWW & help to overcome the security problem.

Intranets provide the benefits of the open standards established onthe Internet, while providing the security and manageabilitynecessary to be acceptable to business. T he Intranets privateinternal web servers are distributed to users across a L AN or via avirtual private network that utilizes open Internet protocols & softwaretechnology. Intranets are usually protected by f irew a ll technology, a

mechanism to provide access security by intercepting incomingnetwork traffic, &allowing only those who are authorized through.


13/37

13Intranets: utilizing Internet technologyto support workgroups

Groupware can offer communications, collaborative working &business process reengineering (BPR) tools that helporganizations respond to current business challenges.Future trends in groupware will include the increasing use of intell igent a gents and knowledge a rch itectures in groupwareproducts.

Intelligent agents can be small smart programs that can betailored to an individuals, or groups requirement. T hey carryout specific, repetitive and predictable tasks such as searchingfor e-mail that contains specific key words and deleting junk e-mail, scheduling appointments, sending automatic remindersto colleagues etc.Knowledge architectures aim to map the workflows to theknowledge they contain which is in turn mapped to what isrequired to meet the organizations overall goals and strategy.

Main purposes of the architecture is to allow the

organization to leverage the organizational knowledge thatis s read throu hout its rou ware and other a lications.


14/37

14Extranets: Linking together theintranets of business partners

When an organization develops applications based on open Internetapplication protocols and network protocols, it enables them to simplifyand enhance their electronic communications with business partners,suppliers, & customers. T he interconnection of different organizationsprivate Intranets are now referred to as E xtr a nets .T here are 2 major problems : when creating an Extranet, or any form of

connection from a private network to an outside network.T he first is security. T his is now being addressed by firewalls (for maintaining access security) and the implementation of Internetencrypt ion & the use of d ig ita l cert if ic a tes technology.T he second is the issue of open standards. Many such standards arenow widely accepted and are used almost universally. Examples:TC P/IP & HT ML .T here are also many other newer technologies, thathave not yet been universally accepted as standards, e.g. Microsoftprefers its own Act iv eX technology over Java, Java S cr ipt , &Common Object Request Broker A rchitecture ( CO RB A). T hesenewer technologies enable platform-independent softwaredevelopment, creation & deployment of distributed objects.


15/37

15

Interactive TV (iTV)iTV network operators are already offering Internet accessover their i TV communication networks at speeds of between 20 & 50 times and at charge rates that are onlymarginally higher than conventional ISPs.iTV is television that is under the control of the viewer asopposed to the broadcaster. It lets users to watch programswhen they want to watch, rather than when the broadcaster decides to broadcast them. Full interactive TV provides theuser with the functionality of a super V CR, except that themovies or programs are downloaded, over a network from aremote video server.V ideo On Demand ( N EC 1998) provides the following list of types of i TV :

Broadcast ( N o-V oD) services similar to broadcast TV , in

which the user is a passive participant and has no controlover the session.


16/37

16

Interactive TV (iTV)V ideo On Demand provides the following list of types of i TV :

Pay-per-view (PP V ) services in which the user signs up and pays for specific programming, similar to existing C ATV PP V services.Quasi video on demand (Q- V oD) services in which users are groupedbased on a threshold of interest. Users can perform at the simplest leveltemporal control activities by switching to a different group.N ear video on demand ( N -V oD) services in which functions like forward

and reverse are simulated by transitions in discrete time intervals(typically 5 mins). T his capability can be provided by multiple channelswith the same programming skewed in time.T rue video on demand ( T -V oD) services in which the user has complete

control over the session presentation. T he user has full function V CR(virtual V CR) capabilities, include forward & reverse play, freeze andrandom positioning. T -V oD needs only a single channel per customer,multiple channels become redundant.


17/37

Example17


18/37


19/37

19Wh a t Ca n T rue V od ( T -V od ) B eUsed For?

Inter a ct iv e v ideo g a mes : User plays downloadable andinteractive games without having to own a physical copy.Inter a ct iv e news ser v ices : A combination of live news,business news broadcasts and stored video data can betailored to the users requirements with interactive selectionand retrieval.E duc a t ion a l ser v ices : College and university users can

access movies, video clips and interactive learning packages.

Students can record and distribute video images for study andresearch purposes.Vi rtu a l museums etc. : V ideo clips can be delivered to

interactive multimedia kiosks for information and educationalpurposes in museums and galleries.


20/37

2 0Wh a t T echnolog ic a l D e v elopmentsHav e L ed to the Introduct ion of I T V ?

Many different technological advances have combined to create the environment for iTV . T hese advances include the following:

A dvances in digital electronics have made it possible to build M P EG (MotionPicture Expert Group) decoders on a single chip and well within the costs neededby consumer products.A synchronous digital subscriber loop has enabled the delivery of a single 2 Mbit/s

MPEG encoded video channel over a standard twisted pair copper local loop.PCs have brought down the cost of computing power significantly to enable it to bebuilt into set-top boxes economically.WWW browsers and GUIs have advanced sufficiently to enable variants to be builtinto consumer products.Developments in video server technology now allow them to support tens of

thousands of customers from a single server.Consumers are prepared to pay for new technology: sales of multimedia PCs,cable and satellite TV services, video games, etc. are evidence of this.Major corporations in the computer, content, network and original equipmentmanufacturers (OEMs) have been committed to upgrading plant and equipment tohandle new video services for several years.


21/37

2 1T he Arch i tecture of a n It v S ystem

(a ) E ffect of M ethod of D el iv ery to the H omeT he architecture of an interactive TV system is highly dependent on thenature of delivery to the home. A cable company will utilize its coaxial tree &branch system. Cable networks usually have sufficient bandwidth to provideboth backward compatible analogue services & the delivery of new digitaltelephony, data, and video services.

Established telcos,which invested in their local copper wire networks, theuse of A DSL technology. A DSL allows sufficient bandwidth (2- 5M bps) for the delivery of a single digital MPEG-encoded video stream to the home,while allowing telephone calls to take place at the same time as watching afilm. T he A DSL technology, from the telcos viewpoint, is that it allows theexisting copper telephone cabling that is in the consumers home &connects the consumers home to the local telephone exchange, providethis high bandwidth service.T he use of coaxial cable for i TV has the benefit of maintaining compatibilitywith existing cable TV analogue set top boxes while enabling customers toupgrade to digital services when they so wish. T his ability is based onextending the bandwidth of current analogue coax standards.


22/37


23/37

23

T he Arch i tecture of a n It v S ystem(c ) S ubscr iber-end C omponents of the iT V Arch itecture

Figure 6.2 shows the equipment that is located in the home,the most important of which is the set top box (S T B).Figure 6.2 : Consumer-end VoD equipment Gare C (1994)


24/37

24

T he Arch i tecture of a n It v S ystem(d ) S et T op B oxes ( S T B )

T he S T B has three main components: the A DSL modem,MPEG decoder, and GUI browser software. T he A DSL datastream arriving from the exchange (which uses a realbandwidth of around 250 KHz) is demodulated into a 2 Mbit/sMPEG data stream by the A DSL modem. T he MPEG decoder then converts the 2 Mbit/s data back into analogue video that isthen delivered to the domestic TV .

(e ) O pt ic a l Network Un i ts ( O NU)T hese are installed in the newer apartment blocks that aredirectly linked to Hongkong T elecoms fibre network. T he O N Uterminates the optical signal, that enters the building via thefibre network, and converts it to an electrical A DSL signal that

is then distributed to apartments in the block via the metallicpair telephone cables that are already installed.


25/37

25

T he Arch i tecture of a n It v S ystem(f ) Ma k ing a V o D C onnect ion in the H ome

When subscribers wish to connect to the V oD service, they dial a specialnumber at the local exchange. T his connects them to an interactive voiceresponse (I V R) system that welcomes them to the service and asks for their service PI N code. Once the customers code has been verified usingthe intelligent networks (I N ) service control points (SCP) database, theSCP sets up a permanent 2 Mbit/s video connection between one port of the central video server & the A DSL modem connected to the customerslocal copper loop. Once this connection is made, the server transmits theservices menu screens over the network to the customers TV .

(g ) T he Network

T he V oD network capable of delivering a data stream of at least 2 Mbpsinto the home. T he reason for this is that full TV quality full screen digitalvideo, even when compressed, requires a data transfer rate of about 5Mbits/s. It uses the relatively new, but now fairly well established, high-speed Asynchronous T r a nfer M ode (A TM ) packet switching technologyat the datalink, network, and transport layers of the network.


26/37

26

T he Arch i tecture of a n It v S ystem(h ) Asynchronous D ig ita l S ubscr iber L ines (A DS L )

T his technology provides a means of using existing copper cabling for transmitting high bandwidth data streams, albeit over fairly short distances.T here are a two other technologies, very similar to A DSL, that have beendeveloped for the same purpose. Collectively these are referred to asxDSL. T he other two technologies are H igh-speed D ig ita l S ubscr iber L ines ( H DS L ) & V ery h igh-speed D ig ita l S ubscr iber L ines ( V DS L ).

(i) S ynchronous O pt ic a l Network ( S O NE T )SO N ET is now an ISO standard for optical transmission over fibrenetworks in the Mbps & Gbps transmission speed ranges. SO N ETstandard transmission speeds range from 52Mbps at optical carrier level 1to 10Gbps at OC-192.

(j) ATM (Asynchronous T r a nsfer M ode )T his is a new technology intended for very high-speed data transfer andswitching. Speeds of 155 Mb/sec to 2.4 gigabits/sec. are possible using AT M over fibre optic media. It is capable of handling real-time voice andvideo traffic, as well as data. It is sometimes referred to as BISD N .


27/37

2 7

T he S er v er Import a nce, Funct ion a nd Altern a t iv e Arch itectures

T he digital media centre, v ideo ser v er , control server, and other applications servers can be regarded as the master server. T he master server has to be located centrally in the network because it would need tohouse a massive and highly resilient database, particularly the videodatabase. T he master server is not itself directly connected to the user but

would act as a central repository for storing films and other material.One of the key components of the master server is the video and/or mediaserver. T his has to store a vast number of individual films & each film willrequire a minimum of 1.5GB to 5GB, even when MPEG2 encoded.T here are currently two solutions to this problem. 1 is to use a largenumber of very fast PCs on a very fast ( AT M) network and the other is touse m a ss iv ely p a r a llel processor ( M PP ) technology in conjunction witha very large database. T he latter is the approach favoured by nCube &Oracle. T his approach came from a partnership between Oracle andnCube, based on a combination of nCUBEs massively parallel processor (MPP) & Oracles database.


28/37

2 8

T he ser v er T he n C ube S er v er T he purpose of an i TV service to be able to provide subscribers with what theywant, whenever they want it. T herefore, a video server needs to be able to providetens of thousands of customers with individually controlled video streams. For V oD,this means that many separate parts of a single video, stored on a hard disk, mayneed to be accessed at the same time if many individual subscribers wanted toview different parts of the film at the same time. T he nCube solution to this problem

is a combination of the use of MPP computers & R A ID disk technology.M PP T echnology : an MPP computer has an array of individual computingelements that are interconnected. T hese nodes communicate with each other either directly/indirectly via another node & pass messages & data to each other. Anode can be a processor, an input/output port, or an SCSI disk chain. A processor node consists of a custom-designed RISC engine with either 32 / 64 Mbyte of R A M.RAID T echnology : Oracles video server use of RAID rotating disk technology.Rather than using a single and very expensive multiple platter disk, R A ID-basedsystems uses an array of low-cost SCSI disks as used on PCs. With R A ID level-2(up to R A ID-5), a variety of disk mirroring techniques is used to provide a highdegree of reliability & availability. Mirroring means that there are duplicate copies of files on different disks; if a disk fails, it can be physically replaced & the second

copy of the data copied back onto the new disk automatically by the OS.


29/37

2 9T echn ic a l S spec if ic a t ions of n C UB E sS tre a m ing M ed ia Appl ia nce

T he following extracts obtained from nCUBEs web sites outlines thefunctionality, capacity & performance of nCUBEs current stre a m ingM ed ia Appl ia nce n4 .VOD Syst em Ov er v iew - nCUBEs core V OD platform includes the n4Streaming Media A ppliance and the n A BLE system managementapplication. Using standard A PIs, the nCUBE platform easily integrates

with OD A

applications, giving operators flexibility in their choice of subscriber experience.nCUBE n4 - n4 Streaming Media A ppliance is nCUBEs 3 rd generationstreaming media system & 4 th generation supercomputer. Based on ahypercube architecture, n4 is an application-specific appliance speciallyengineered to perform massively parallel I/O streaming operations.

nABLE Syst em Ma n ageme n t Appl ica t io n - nCUBEs V OD managementapplication, n A BLE, coordinates & integrates all systems & operations inthe V OD solution architecture. T he n A BLE application is built upon amultithreaded, object oriented J AVA software architecture. n A BLEconsists of 2 server applications:

n A BLE Headquarters (HQ) & n A BLE Realtime (R T )


30/37

3 0Business and technology drivers that affected EC

B us iness D r iv ersLaudon and Laudon (1996) identify a number of important changesthat have occurred that are affecting todays organizations. T heseincluded the following:Globalization

(Problems of) Management and control in a global marketplaceCompetition in world marketsGlobal work groups & Global delivery systems

T ransformation of Industrial Economies(T he rapid shift toward) Knowledge- and information-based economies

(T he need for increased) Productivity(T he need to rapidly introduce) N ew products and services(T he need for changes in styles of) Leadership(Increases in) T ime-based competitionShorter product lifeT urbulent environment & Limited employee knowledge base


31/37

3 1Business and technology drivers that affected EC

Transformation of the EnterpriseFlattening (the organization

structure)Decentralization(T he need for increased)

FlexibilityLocation independenceLow transaction and coordinationcostsEmpowerment (of junior and

middle level employees)Collaborative work and teamwork

T hese important business drivershave significantly changed thenature and focus of business

strategy and business processes.

Figure 6.3 : Organizational responses tocontemporary business drivers


32/37

32Business and technology drivers that affected EC

Intern a l Integr a t ion: Impro v ing Intern a l O rg a n iz a t ion a l E ffect iv enessMany of the EC technologies, that have been introduced to in the earlier section on Emerging technologies leading to EC, are being used toimprove the internal integration and effectiveness of organizations.Usually, the implementation of these technologies has to be accompaniedby some form of business process reengineering in order for their potential

benefits to be realized.T he established EDI technology provides a good example. EDI canimprove internal organizational effectiveness by:

the simplification of the internal systems by the elimination or automation of labour intensive and error prone manual operations;integrating supporting technologies and systems to improve the linksbetween internal functions (e.g. making it uneccessary to have to keyin hardcopy transactions received from business parners & allow allinternal departments to have access to shared electronic documents).


33/37


E xtern a l Integr a t ion: Impro v ing the L inks in the S upply C h a inImproving the links in the supply chain and its overall effectiveness is themajor strategic benefit of EC technologies such as Extranets and EDI.Since the 1990s, the situation has changed. Manufacturers use JI Tmanufacturing methods, keep very small component inventories, andrely upon JI T supply. Consistent quality, availability, and timeliness of

delivery are now far more important than just buying price. T otal qualityis now required, and expected, along all links in the supply chain.Consequently, manufacturers now rely upon a much smaller number of suppliers and have a more open and trusting relationship with them. T herelationship between supplier and buyer now has to be a long-termpartnership, as opposed a short-term getrich-quick opportunity

accompanied by mutual distrust.Consequently, the cost & effectiveness of customer & supplier communications is now of paramount importance. Extranets and EDIprovide a means of providing major improvements in the linkingprocesses between trading partners. T hese process improvements canhelp in developing openness and trust, allow the earlier involvement of

suppliers in their customers activities and development plans, and foster better long-term & dependable relationships.


34/37


Impro v ing C ustomer Inter a ct ion & M icro- Ma rket ingKalakota & Whinston state that Companies also employ electronic commerce to provide marketing channels, to target microsegments or small audiences, and to improve post-sales customer satisfaction by creating new channels of customer service and support.

Impro v ing customer inter a ct ion : Dell Computers use of the Internet toconduct business to consumer EC provides a very good example of this. Italso demonstrates how EC can be used to substantially reduce amanufacturers marketing, operating, & distribution costs!M icrom a rket ing : refers to the practice of targeting very small specialized

markets to receive detailed product information that is particularly relevantto the micromarkets specific needs. In its ultimate form the micromarketcan be a single individual. Conventional marketing and advertising, suchas TV and newspaper advertising, is usually aimed at very large and verybroad market segments.


35/37


T echnology D r iv ers(a ) T he Impro v ed C ost-effect iv eness of D ig ita l C omponents D ue to

Impro v ements in V L S IT he continuing advances in very large scale integration ( V LSI) technologyhave dramatically improved the capacity and performance of, and reducedthe cost and size of, microelectronic components

(b ) T he E mergence a nd Adopt ion of O pen S ta nd a rdsEC relies upon data communications and the interconnection of tradingpartners computer systems. T his has been made possible by theemergence, & industry adoption, of a whole range of standards. Clearly,connectivity is not possible unless the devices and software to be

connected have common interfaces. Some of the more important standardsinclude:ISO OSI reference model (7-layer data communications protocols)T CP/IP (Internet network & transport layer protocol) & H TT P (WWW

protocol)Others include EDI messaging standards (EDIF A CT in particular), MPEGmotion video encoding and decoding standards, and open operating system


36/37


D eregul a t ion of the T elecommun ic a t ions Industry a ndAd va nces in D a ta C ommun ic a t ions T echnologyD eregul a t ion : refers to the changes in the ownership, control,and marketing of telecommunications services that have been

taking place globally since the mid-1980s.Deregulation has brought about much needed competition inthe industry and widened the market for newtelecommunications technologies, devices and services. It hasresulted in cheaper and better quality voice and datatransmission services, cellular telephone services, and privatesatellite services, and many other advances that benefitbusiness and the private consumer in general and EC inparticular.


37/37

3 7

END OF TOP I C

Chap 6 EC Technology

Documents

Transcript of Chap 6 EC Technology