@E-Commerce@

E-government in Malaysia:Its implementation so far and citizen's adoption strategies

2009-07-08T20:14:00.009+08:00

The MSC Malaysia Version from 1996 to 2020:
Phase 1 (1996 - 2004)
Successfully create the Multimedia Super Corridor Malaysia
Phase 2 (2004 - 2010)
Grow MSC Malaysia into a Global ICT Hub
Phase 3 (2010 - 2020)
Transform Malaysia into a knowledge society

To lead Malaysia into the Information Age, Electronic Government was launched to improve the government operation internally and also help government to deliver services to the citizens of Malaysia. It seeks to improve the convenience, accessibility and quality of interaction with citizens and businesses. In the same time, it enhances the information flows and processes within the government and speed up the policy development, coordination and enforcement. The main objective for E-government is to bring citizens, government and businesses to work together for the benefit of Malaysia and all of its citizens.
The myGovernment Portal (http://www.malaysia.gov.my/EN/Pages/default.aspx) acts as one-stop source of government information and services to the citizens.

There are 7 pilot projects of the Electronic Government Flagship Application are as follows:

Project Monitoring System (SPP II)
Human Resource Management Information System (HRMIS)
Generic Office Environment (GOE)
Electronic Procurement (EP)
Electronic Services (E-services)
Electronic Labour Exchange (ELX)
E-Syariah

The services offered by E-Government to citizens are:

1)Electronic Services (E-Services)
With this service, citizens can now enjoy a convenient way to conduct transactions with Government agencies such as the Road Transport Department (RTD) and other private utility companies such as Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) and Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM) without go out from home.

2)Electronic Labour Exchange (ELX)
ELX is an one stop-centre for labour information that supervised by Ministry of Human Resource (MOHR) to provide a communication platform between employers and job seekers. Its objective is to provide an effective and integrated job matching process. It can also improve mobilization of the nation's human resources and to ensure that manpower utilization is optimized.

3)E-Syariah
It is aim to integrate the processes related to management of cases for the Syariah Courts. With this service, the quality of services of the Syariah courts and the effectiveness of JKSM in coordinating and supervising related agencies under its jurisdiction can be improved. It upholds the splendors of Islam through the use of ICT and enhances the productivity and efficiency of the management of the Syariah courts throughout the country.

4)E-procurement
For those citizens who doing business, E-procurement enables suppliers to sell goods and services to the Government through the Internet. Its objective is to enable accountability and transparency. Government tries to equip more skilled and knowledgeable workforce with the latest technology at minimum cost.

5)Telehealth
The Telehealth initiative aims to keep people in the wellness paradigm through the availability of health information and virtual health services thus transforming the way health care services are delivered and accessed. There are four Telehealth Flagship Application pilot projects are as follows:

Teleconsultation (TC)
Mass Customized/ Personalized Health Information and Education (MCPHIE)
Lifetime Health Plan (LHP)
Continuing Medical Education (CME)

For further information, please refer to:

A discussion on E-learning offered in Malaysian universities: Pros and Cons from the student perspective

2009-07-08T17:10:00.010+08:00

I think most of you know about the E-learning , right? But do you know what 's the advantage and disadvantage against the students?

Electronic learning (or E-Learning or eLearning) is a term for all types of technology-enhanced learning (TEL), where technology is used to support the learning process. In Malaysia, e-Learning is largely used only for distance learning programmes at the university level or twinning programmes offered by private colleges along with foreign institutions.

Advantages
1)Useful to students with physical disabilities:
Their physical condition may prevent them from attending classes daily, but that does not mean that they should not be given the same opportunity to seek higher education. This also applies to students who are temporarily unable to attend classes due to critical illness.

2)Quality education, made affordable:
Recognized experts have the opportunity of making information available internationally, to anyone interested at minimum costs. An internet connection, a computer, and a projector would allow an entire classroom in Malaysia University to benefit from the knowledge of an opinion leader.

3)onvenience and flexibility to learners:
Learners are not bound to a specific day/time to physically attend classes. They can also pause learning sessions at their convenience.

4)Effective Distribution of Information:
Since students can access these materials at any time, this helps them to listen more effectively to the information that is being passed on from the professor, without having to scramble to jot down notes.

5)Increase the reach of Educational Institutions:
As long as the student is able to pay for the course, and has the basic facilities such as a personal computer, a printer and an Internet connection, it does not even matter if he lives in an isolated island or mountain without regular transportation.

While the advantages are obvious, the disadvantages need a little more scrutiny to be visible to us.

1)Lack of Human Interaction:
Not every type of knowledge can be written down and passed around. There is this thing called experience, which can only be passed on from one person to another through face-to-face interaction. Learning, at some point, involves getting a mentor or role model, and learning though their knowledge and experience.

2)Abuse and Misuse of Technology
Throughout Malaysia, there have been many cases of students who manage to break though online or intranet securities set by the university, and actually change their results or get a preview of the final examination questions. Due to the nature of anything digital, small mistakes can cause very big problems for the student body and the administration.

3)Lack of Motivation and Effort among Students
E-learning makes students lazy and ineffective, due to being spoon fed by the educational institutions. With e-learning, most educational task is done either by the tutor or some sophisticated software, leaving students with the simple task of just downloading notes and reading them.

References:

Corporate Blogging: A New Marketing Communication Tool for Companies

2009-07-06T20:42:00.012+08:00

A corporate blog is published and used by a business to attain its organizational goals. The advantage of blogs is that posts and comments are easy to reach and follow. Currently, all major browsers which are FireFox, Internet Explorer 7 support RSS technology. This technology enables readers to read recent posts easily without actually visiting the blog, which is very useful for low-volume blogs.

Most of them can be categorized as external and internal blog. An external blog is a publicly available weblog where company's employees, teams, or representatives share their views. The potential benefits include strengthening relationships with important target groups and the locating of the publishing organization as industry experts. An internal blog is a weblog generally accessed through the corporation's Intranet, that any employee can view. Internally blogs are basically used as tools for collaboration and knowledge management.

From a business perspective, there are several potential reasons for company to blog, but it always depends on what the company wants. First, the company decides to become the expert as well as the leader of the business. Besides, companies may want to have more personal relationships with the customers. Blogs are the fast way to join customers' discussions, provide insights or receive feedback. It is also a creative channel to where media regularly check what the company has said, instead of media just being passive. Furthermore, blogs can be used as a workspace where project members keep each other updated without wasting time writing report or searching the Outlook inbox.

Blogs work in 2 ways. First, it's an easy method for the users to discover information and resources. Second, blogging is on-the-job learning. In addition, it is a good chance for the readers to see the company is an attractive employer while there is recruitment. Blog is informal which part of conversation where people can comment. It issues an idea and observes whether it generates interest. If the blog is updated frequently and relates to other websites, Google and other search engines will rank the company high.

There are few successful corporate blogging in the world. One of them is Alerding Castor. It is a pretty small law firm but with a broad vision. While most of the law firms concentrate on local geography, it focuses on specific issues. To succeed with this unusual yet highly profitable policy, the organization needs to have a wide reach over literally thousands of keywords. Additionally, since clients are not used to consuming legal services long distance, the firm needs to turn up in the prospects' searches and also be able to demonstrate trustworthiness and launch the right to take the next step in determining if there is a fit.

If you want to understand more about this, you can refer to these websites:

The application of prepaid cash card for consumers

2009-07-03T17:07:00.003+08:00

Nowadays, there are many prepaid cash cards available for consumers.For example,
Itz Cash

ItzCash is India's first multi-purpose prepaid card. It is a smart option for all and the safest online and on-mobile transaction instrument that allows you to be in control of your spends. It is a full usage product without any hidden costs and is transferable and empowers you to do transactions anytime and anywhere. ItzCash enables consumers to perform a variety of transactions like:

Shopping
Travel booking
Mobile Top-ups
Utility Bill Payment
Entertainment Booking
Book Subscriptions
Gaming
Astrological Reading
Donations and Charity
Insurance
Matrimonial Education

VisaCard

VisaCard has offered a lot of convenient prepaid card. For examples,

1)Visa Reloadable Prepaid Card is a Visa card you load with your own money to make purchase anywhere Visa debit cards are accepted. It can pay bills, make travel reservations and buy gas at the pump. It eliminates the check-cashing fees and you can enjoy immediate access to your money through direct deposit of your paycheck, tax refunds or other income sources. It can let you to track your spending online for improved budgeting and cash flow management. To add funds to your reloadable Visa Prepaid Card, you can use the Visa ReadyLink. It's fast and easy to load additional funds to your card at a numbers of locations nationwide including:

Safeway
Carrs
Dominicks's
Genuardi's
Pak 'n Save
Pavillions
Randalls
Vons
Tom Thumb
7-Eleven

2)Visa Buxx is not a credit card but a prepaid card especially for teens that enables you to load the card online or over the phone and monitor spending. With this card, parents can work with their teens to review their spending habits. It acts as a powerful tool to encourage financial responsibility for parents and teens. It's very convenient and flexible to pay. It enhances parental control and peace of mind. It's best for schoolbooks, everyday errands, travel and life's little emergencies.
MasterCard
MasterCard also offers 3 types of prepaid card:

1)MasterCard Everyday Prepaid Card
By using this card, it is easier for you to shop, pay bills or manage your spending more effectively. There is no credit check and no bank account required. If your card is lost or stolen, you are protected from unauthorized purchase that you no need to take responsible for it.

2) MasterCard Travel Card
This card is the perfect alternative to cash and travelers' checks. It uses everywhere which Debit MasterCard are accepted likes hotels, restaurants, entertainment venues, ATMs and so on. It allows you to check balance, account information and transaction history on the web or by phone. It gives you a benefit of unmatched flexibility that allows you to choose the currency and cash back at participating merchants.

3)MasterCard Prepaid Gift Cards
You can choose MasterCard Prepaid Gift Cards as a gift for holidays, birthdays, graduations, anniversaries or other celebration to your family or friends. It is the ideal gift to give and receive. It provides a personal touch that it can be personalized with your own photos, messages and the recipient's name.

Same like VisaCard, MasterCard provides a easy way to reload your fund in your prepaid card by using its MasterCard rePower services.

For further information, please refer to:

Mobile Payment Systems' Potentials and Consumers' Adoption Strategies in Malaysia

2009-07-01T21:02:00.005+08:00

What is Mobile Payment System?
It is a system that works out the power of mobile phone to make payments, allowing the registered users to pay for goods and services at anytime, anywhere by using only a mobile phone coupled with a security PIN (Personal Identification Number) via SMS (Short Messaging Service). This gives freedom to customers to purchase products online and pay for them using mobile phone without physically present at the store.

There is a remarkable potential for mobile telecommunication networks to become an important electronic payment channel in Malaysia in view of 88% of Malaysian population are subscribing to mobile phone services. Bank Negara Malaysia Governor Tan Sri Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz said the high infiltration rate acknowledged mobile phone networks as an increasingly popular channel for Malaysians to perform a great deal of activities beyond voice communication, surrounding all forms of digital communication, commerce, banking and payments.

With 25 million mobile phone subscribers in Malaysia, there are enormous opportunities to carry out innovative mobile payment products that offer speed, simplicity and convenience at minimal cost for the public, as well as to provide an efficient and cost-effective method of delivering financial services. Besides, mobile payment system will encourage more consumers to shop online. It will definitely encourage more merchants to implement online selling as an extra sales channel which complement perfectly with their offline sales channel to help them sell more of their goods and services. For those retailers who sell online, there are low start up or sign-up fees and no minimum monthly transactions and no rental fees. It can be used to sell to anyone, anytime and anywhere.

For instance, Maxis Communications Berhad was testing a mobile phone multi-payment service integrating credit card and prepaid transit payment with Maybank, Visa International and Touch n Go in year 2007. Maxis’ ‘touch to pay’ occupied Near Field Communications(“NFC”) technology which leveraged on a short-range wireless connectivity standard embedded in mobile phones. This technology was currently available on Nokia 6131 NFC phones which allowed users to touch their handsets to make a payment.

If you are interested in this topic, you can browse the following websites:

Credit Card debt: Causes and Prevention

2009-06-30T20:57:00.014+08:00

Do you have credit card? Is it useful?

In fact, credit card is benefit to us. But while you overspend by using credit card, you will have a hard time making ends meet and trouble saving for the future. Because you will spend more if using credit cards.

There are several causes of credit card debts:
1) Increases the amount of debt
Finance charge: This is an interest charge (can be as high as 25 percent) on the unpaid portion of your bill each month.

Annual fee: Some companies charge yearly membership fees of anywhere from $20 to $100.

Cash advance fee: Avoid cash advances—fees are steep, and interest rates are usually higher.

Late payment fee: Paying late can also result in high interest rates.

2) Unemployment
In this recession, many people lost their job and unable to maintain their living expenses, this makes people using the future money (credit card) to cover their future living expenses.

3) DIVORCE
Fees that must spend for divorce such as attorney, division of assets between husband and wife, proceeds given to children are the way to rack up huge debts by using credit card if it is the gap between the expenses and income.

4)Poor money management

Some credit card holder do not having a monthly spending plan and not keeping track of your monthly bills makes you unaware of where your money is going.

5)Excessive medical expenses
If one of our family members suffers serious illness and our health insurance cannot cover the medical bills then our credit cards are probably the only source of funds to pay off the difference.

6)Gambling
This won't become a problem if we spend our spare money for gambling. But borrowing money through our credit cards for gambling will surely lead us to a financial disaster.

Thus, the prevention of credit card debts will be discussed in following:

1) MAKING AN BUDGET
People have to create clear budget and stick on it that includes monthly bills, food, clothes, entertainment and miscellaneous expenses will prevent from overspending and fall under deeper debt load.

2)Self control and discipline
People who using credit cards should learn how to have a better self control and discipline in order to learn not to overspend it. People can control themselves by limit their credits cards amount by stop them to use the money if they was expenses more than their budget

3)Keep your credit limit low:
A low credit limit will restrict your future money using. Personal finance is 80% behavior. We should pay off whatever we can as soon as you can do it, so our balance not grows exponentially as time passes. Thus, you need to cut out habits that make you spend more.

4)Increase your awareness
Being aware and being conscientious about our payment schedule are just a few little things that could keep us from adding to a debt we may have already created.
Keep our credit cards spending to amounts that we know we can pay off, don't go over-board with unnecessary purchases.

The websites that can be referred:

How to safeguard our personal and financial data?

2009-06-27T23:51:00.007+08:00

Nowadays, E-commerce security is very important as many organizations continue to experience cyber attack from inside and outside of the organization. The financial losses from the cyber attack can be substantial and this may also damage the reputation of the organization.

Furthermore, more and more people involve in internet transaction. They concern about how the company safeguard their personal and financial data.

So, have you done enough actions to protect your own personal and work-related data?!

The followings are the important tips for you to safeguard your data in company's perspective and consumer's perspective:

What should a company do?

Creates a page to educate visitors and customers on their website's information security practices and controls to inform consumers how card account information is protected during transmission on the merchant's server.
Includes a frequently asked questions (FAQ) page to answer on how consumers can protect themselves when shopping online.
Keeps its operating system patches up to date so that attackers cannot take advantage of known problems or vulnerabilities. It must have a formal process to update software, firewalls and anti virus programs regularly and promptly.
Safeguards personal information within workplace and restrict access to internal personnel on a "least privilege" need-to-know basis.
Implements standard computer system security and operational guidelines to support it that must be followed to maintain the security.
Interfaces with proprietary or confidential business application on networks in the manner in which they were designed.
Develop a crisis management plan which has been rehearsed and can be executed as soon as possible when detect a possible cyber attack.
Uses encryption to safeguard mobile devices that hold sensitive personal data.
Employs rigorous staff and implements regular staff training on security.

What should a consumer do?

Uses a strong password or pass-phrase to protect access to your data and allows only authorized individuals to access to those devices and monitor that store your sensitive or confidential data.
Encrypts your stored sensitive or confidential data whenever it is possible that it prevents unintended discloseure even if your system has been accessed by unauthorized person.
Refrains from transporting or transmitting sensitive or confidential data if you don't need to do so. Make sure the temporary data storage on a memory stick, laptop or other device is removed and completely erased. And also not allows your data to e sent via email.
Regularly scan your computer by a legitimate anti-spyware program because spyware or adware hidden in software programs may affect your computer's performance and give attackers to access your data. As for antivirus protection, AVG antivirus and Avira Antivir are popular choices.
Uses firewall to protect yourself against viruses and Trojan horses that may steal or modify the data on your own computer and leave you vulnerable.
Avoids accessing financial information in public. For example, do not log in to check your bank alance at a coffee shop that offers wireless access, Casual users have no way of assessing how sturdy their firewalls are.
Never open an attachment or click on a link to you that send by an unknown party. These attachments can contain viruses and lead unsuspecting users to dummy sites where they are asked to input your financial information.
Only downloads software and files from the sources you trust. Some files which are downloaded from the internet might include spyware or viruses that can harm your system.

The last and the most important tips is Never give a password, a credit number or any sensitive information to anyone or email.

For further information please refer to:

The threat of online security:How safe is our data?

2009-06-27T22:54:00.003+08:00

In the past, computers were mainly under threat from viruses and worms. Computer viruses are a program or fragment of code that duplicates by attaching copies of itself to other programs. However, some programs were cause damage to files and computer system.

The increasingly developed technologies sarcastically increase the risk every computer user faced. Everyone who owns a computer with internet connection is able to equip themselves with ‘hacking’ knowledge by making some research online. Internet provides the opportunities for users to share the knowledge without filtering the content. Therefore, everyone can learn skills that may jeopardize online security via internet and therefore increase the online security risk.

There are many threats to e-commerce that may come from sources within an organization or individual. The followings are some of the potential security threats that can be found.

1.Tricking the shopper - It is one of the easiest and most profitable attacks, also known as social engineering techniques. These attacks involve surveillance of the shopper’s behavior, gathering information to use against the shopper. For example, a mother’s maiden name is a common challenge question used by numerous sites. If one of these sites is tricked into giving away a password once the challenge question is provided, then not only has this site been compromised, but it is also likely that the shopper used the same logon ID and password on other sites.

2.Snooping the shopper’s computer - Most users’ knowledge of security vulnerabilities of their systems is vague at best. Additionally, software and hardware vendors, in their quest to ensure that their products are easy to install, will ship products with security features disabled. In most cases, enabling security features requires a non-technical user to read manuals written for the technologist. The confused user does not attempt to enable the security features. This creates a treasure trove for attackers.

3.Sniffing the network - Here, the attacker monitors the data between the shopper’s computer and the server. He collects data about the shopper or steals personal information, such as credit card numbers.

4.Using known server bugs - The attacker analyzes the site to find what types of software are used on the site. He then proceeds to find what patches were issued for the software. Additionally, he searches on how to exploit a system without the patch. He proceeds to try each of the exploits. The sophisticated attacker finds a weakness in a similar type of software, and tries to use that to exploit the system. This is a simple, but effective attack.

In conclusion, risk exposed by computer users is increasing with the increasing developed technology. Therefore, safeguards developed must be always up to date to enhance the defenses against online security threats. In the same time, users must be educated and informed about the crucial damages and loss caused by imposing online security threats.

Please refer to:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/03/27/tech/real_technology/main4896328.shtml

The application of 3rd party certification programme in Malaysia

2009-06-26T20:58:00.021+08:00

Have you heard about 3rd party certification programme before? Do you know what’s this? Now, I want to introduce it for you all.

Actually, the basic values of a third-party certification are to provide a measure of conformity, satisfy customer demands and limit supplier risks without the expense of repeating tests. 3rd party certification program is used to ensure that the original content of an electronic document is safeguarded from being changed by unauthorized person. For example:

MSC Trustgate.com Sdn. Bhd

The objective of MSC Trustgate is to secure the open network communications from both locally and across the ASEAN region. Trustgate provide digital certification services such as digital certificates, cryptographic products and software development. The products and services of Trustgate are SSL Certificate, Managed PKI, Personal ID, MyKAD ID, SSL VPN, VeriSign Certified Training.

Secured Sockets Layer

Secure Socket Layer (SSL) is a technology developed by Netscape and adopted by all vendors who are producing product that related to Web software for the exchange between client and server. It negotiates and employs the essential functions of mutual authentication, data encryption, and data integrity for secure transactions. SSL Certificate is also known as digital certificates which is an electronic file that enable secure confidential communications and identifies individuals and web sites on the internet uniquely by serving as sort of a digital passport or credential.

VeriSign
is the leading Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) Certificate Authority which also enabling the security of e-commerce, communications, and interactions for Web sites, intranets, and extranets. It provides security solutions to protect an organization’s consumers, brand, Web site, and network. VeriSign provides various types of security products such as digital certificates, payment processing, managed firewalls to mobile call roaming, toll free call database queries and downloadable digital content for mobile devices.

Digital ID
To ensure the confidential information remains private in transit, need to use Digital ID to sign and encrypt the transactions. Digital ID from MSC Trustgate.com is governed by the Digital Signature Act 1997. Without a legitimate Digital ID in your electronic transaction, your contract is not admissible in court in the case of dispute.

MyKey

is the MSC Trustgate.com Sdn. Bhd.'s Digital Certificate which is loaded into MyKad. It is accepted by the courts of law in Malaysia. Benefit of MyKey : Proven technology that has been deployed in 4500 corporations and government organizations, as well as 366,000 e-commerce websites worldwide, highest protection for your data and transaction online, accurate, secure and legally recognized, reliance limit for fraud protection coverage of up to RM25,000

Certification Authority (CA)
is a trusted third party. Certification Authority must take steps to establish the identity of the people or organization to whom they issue the ID. Authenticity is ensured when certificate is issued once establishes with its organization’s public keys and signs with Certification Authority’s private key.

By using those certification programmers, you can prevent threats of internet security spreading over the net. Besides that, the certification from 3rd party is needed to ensure their information traveled over the Internet reaches the intended recipients and is safe. Therefore, that can increases your confident towards the internet.

For further information please refer to:

Example of Phishing and Its Prevention Methods

2009-06-25T21:03:00.015+08:00

What is phishing? According to wikipedia, phishing is the illegally fraudulent process of attempting to obtain sensitive information, such as user names, passwords, credit card information by camouflaging as a reliable unit in an electronic communication. It is normally carried out by email or instant messaging and frequently directed users to go through details at a counterfeit website which looks like identical to the legal unit. Nevertheless, the website is set up merely to steal the user’s information. It can be used to trick users and abuse the poor usability of existing web security technologies.

There is an example in year 2003. Some users received email apparently from eBay claiming that the users’ account was about to be suspended unless they clicked on the provided link and updated their credit card information. In fact, the genuine eBay already had the information. The scam counted on people being tricked into thinking that they were truly being connected by eBay and were then going to eBay’s site to update their account information. This example showed that it is relatively uncomplicated to make a website looks like a legitimate entity site by mimicking HTML code.

How can we prevent phishing?

Phishing email can appear to be from any bank, PayPal, eBay, credit card companies, an online retail store where people may have registered for an account and generally have supplied financial information when registering. The golden rule to avoid being phished is to never click the links which are contained in the text of the email. Please always remove the email at once and afterward empty the trash box too. For those who truly worry that your account may be suspended if you do not validate your information, you should open your web browser, type the URL of the website and log in to the website as usual (without going to the email link as a quick way). This method will present to you with precise information about your account. You also completely avoid the opportunity of landing a fake website and giving your information to somebody you shouldn’t.

If you want to know more about phishing,you can refer to the following websites:

I hope that you all can get some ideas of preventing phishing.

The history and evolution of E-commerce

2009-06-19T18:49:00.011+08:00

What is E-commerce?
Electronic commerce (EC) describes the manner in which transactions take place over networks, mostly the Internet. It is the process of electronically buying and selling goods, services and information. Certain EC applications, such as buying and selling stocks and airline tickets on the internet, are growing very rapidly, exceeding non-Internet trades.
EC is not just about buying and selling, it also is about electronically communicating, collaborating, and discovering information (sometimes referred to as e-business). It is about e-learning, e-government, social networks, and much more. EC will have an impact on a significant portion of the world, affecting businesses, professions, and, of course, people.

History of E-commerce
Development of EC applications started in the early 1970s with electronic funds transfer (EFT), which refers to the computer-based systems used to perform financial transactions electronically. However, the use of these applications was limited to financial institutes, large corporations, and some daring businesses.

Electronic data interchange (EDI) was then developed in the late 1970s to improve the limitation of EFT. EDI enlarged the pool of participating company from manufacturers, retailers, services, and others. Such systems were called Interorganizational System (IOS).

An Interorganizational System (IOS) allows the flow of information to be automated between organizations to reach a desired supply-chain management system, which enables the development of competitive organizations.

From the 1990s onwards, electronic commerce would additionally include enterprise resource planning systems (ERP), data mining and data warehousing.

The term ‘electronic commerce’ was coined in the early 1990s when Internet became commercialized and users began flocking to participate in the World Wide Web. EC applications were then rapidly expanded.

Possibly EC is introduced from the Telephone Exchange Office. The earliest example of many-to-many EC in physical goods was the Boston Computer Exchange, a marketplace for used computers launched in 1982. The first online information marketplace, including online consulting, was likely the American Information Exchange, another pre-Internet online system introduced in 1991.

Evolution of E-commerce
Year 1984
EDI, or electronic data interchange, was standardized through ASC X12. This guaranteed that companies would be able to complete transactions with one another reliably.
Year 1992
Compuserve offers online retail products to its customers. This gives people the first chance to buy things off their computer.
Year 1994
Netscape arrived. Providing users a simple browser to surf the Internet and a safe online transaction technology called Secure Sockets Layer.
Year 1995
Two of the biggest names in e-commerce are launched: Amazon.com and eBay.com.
Year 1998
DSL, or Digital Subscriber Line, provides fast, always-on Internet service to subscribers across California. This prompts people to spend more time, and money, online.
Year 1999
Retail spending over the Internet reaches $20 billion, according to Business.com.
Year 2000
The U.S government extended the moratorium on Internet taxes until at least 2005.

For more information,please refer to:

An example of an E-commerce success and its causes

2009-06-19T12:50:00.004+08:00

If someone asks you the example of success E-commerce, I’m sure the answer that immediately pops out in your mind is DELL.

To briefly state down the causes that make Dell success in E-commerce, we should clearly know that how to measure E-commerce performance. E-commerce performance can be measured in a number of ways such as number of hits or number of unique visitors is often cited as indicators of online success. But the most important is its business metrics such as online sales and support service, cost savings and customer satisfaction.

1)Online sales and support service
Dell’s business has been built on direct sales, build-to-order strategy for producing and selling PCs. Dell sells its own products at the dell.com website. From the website, its customers can select and price different configurations with Dell’s online configurator. When they are ready to buy, their order is sent to a shopping cart. They can also select various add-ons such as software, peripherals, digital cameras, PDAs, etc. on the Gigabuys or DellWare sites and add those to the same shopping cart. Once an order is entered, the customer receives an order number that can be used to track order status until it is delivered. Dell also provides tools for customers to create their own pages. The major services available through Premier Pages include:
(a)Purchase history reports: A complete history of a customer’s purchases from Dell, including PO number, order number, date, SKUs, quantity, shipment dates.
(b)Standard configurations: To simplify a customer’s PC administration processes (installation, upgrades, help desk, technical support), the customer can specify a limited set of configurations for different employees. These are available for ordering on the customer’s Premier Pages at the price negotiated between Dell and the customer.
(c)Paperless online purchase orders: Dell and the customer sign a legal agreement that lets the customer place orders without mailing or faxing a signed purchase order. This allows the entire ordering process, from configuration to payment, to be done online, saving time and increasing accuracy.
(d) ImageWatch: A roadmap of future product plans available to large customers to help them plan their own IT strategies.

2)Cost Savings
By cutting operating costs, eliminating the middleman, scrapping inventory and spending a minimal amount on research and development, Dell is the first to admit that its sole goal is to offer computers at the lowest possible price and leave the cost and risks of innovating to others.

With a highly efficient supply chain and manufacturing organization, a concentration on standards-based technology developed collaboratively with its industry partners, and a dedication to reducing costs through business process improvements, Dell consistently provides its customers with superior value. By cutting out middlemen Dell has saved a ton of money in inventory cost.

The savings achieved by having customers interact with Dell electronically instead of on the phone are significant. Dell’s goal is to push customers as much as possible by continually making self-help more useful and easier to use. Dell tends to reduce the number of assisted-help incidents by greater use of automated service and support by continually improving product quality.

3)Customer satisfaction
Cost savings and customer satisfaction can both be achieved with well-designed e-commerce services. Dell develops a "customer-focused philosophy” that it considers its customers’ bottom line as well rather than just consider itself. Dell has made a point of studying his customers as opposed to his competitors, believing this would give him a greater competitive advantage. By focusing on product customization, customer needs and customer service, Dell has established his company as one of the most customer-centric in operation today.

Dell believes that the most efficient path to the customer is through a direct relationship, with no intermediaries to add confusion and cost. It committed to behaving ethically that responding to customer needs in a timely and reasonable manner, fostering open communications and building effective relationships with customers, partners, suppliers and each other, and operating without inefficient hierarchy and bureaucracy.

On the other hands, Dell provides customers exactly what they want in their computer systems through easy custom configuration and ordering. By having Build-to-order, Dell don't maintain months of aging and expensive inventory. As a result, Dell typically provides customers with the best pricing and latest technology for features they really want.

In conclusion, Dell has made a success in E-commerce by providing customers an easier way to access online sales, lower price product by reducing its cost, and customer services to maintain customer satisfaction and loyalty.

For further information about Dell, please refer to:
1) http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/15251.html?wlc=1245506176
2)http://www.dell.com
3)http://www.crito.uci.edu/giT/publications/pdf/dell_ecom_case_6-13-01.pdf
4)http://www.evancarmichael.com/Famous-Entrepreneurs/646/Computing-Success-How-Dell-Came-Out-On-Top.html

Nikolai.com Failure and Its Causes

2009-06-18T22:51:00.011+08:00

Nikolai.com is a company which was a network of children focused website. This website consisted of an online store Toyboutique.com, educational site (SchoolCity.tv) and entertainment and games site (Neowneow.com). It had been a focus for 500,000 visitors a month before it was bankrupt.

According to the Toronto Star in February of year 2001, the initiator and also the chief executive officer of Nikolai.com Inc., Isabel Hoffman has created the popular online characters and a handful of children’s website and educational programs related to them. However, she has been forced to shut down the business in the course of an unforgiving climate for dot.com risks.

Tyler Lang, an associate with HDL Capital Corp. of Toronto, who has assisted Hoffman increased funds, has told that Hoffman had some of the most applicable online content which could lead to hot deals. Nikolai.com had important policies to transform its characters into an animation series for television. The plans were nearly to become true through an agreement with Montreal-based Cinar Corp. Nevertheless, she removed the rights for the company after Cinar involved in a government funding scandal.

The day that the website shut down, Isabel Hoffman, posted a rant about how people don't care about children. Her key point was she (an independent content creator) was unable to obtain the big players to buy into her plans. Therefore, she had no "buyer" for what she was producing. This established that investors have become too impatient; the government has neglected the little guy and the big players like BCE Inc. and CanWest Global Communications Inc.

If you are interested to understand Nikolai.com more detail, you can refer to :

REVENUE MODEL for Google, Amazon.com &ebay

2009-06-15T21:19:00.021+08:00

Hello, everyone! Do you know about the different revenue model that adopted by Google, Amazon.com and eBay? If you don’t really understand about that, don’t worry, let’s me explain to you.

Most of the profit of Google is generated from advertising. Google advertising revenue model includes Google AdWords, Google AdSense and Froogle.

What’s Google Adwords?

Actually, it is a pay per click advertising program that is designed to allow the advertisers to present advertisements to people at the instant the people are looking for information related to what the advertiser has to offer. They are required pay Google a fee fro each time a user clicks on the advertisement. Google Adwords generated almost 90% of revenue for Google. That’s why it plays an important role.

Another Google revenue model is AdSense. Website owners can enroll in the program to enable text and video advertisements on their site. It also has a same concept as pay per click. AdSense program includes AdSense for search and AdSense for content. AdSense are less intrusive than most banners and the content of the ads is often relevant to the website.

Froogle is a price engine website launched by Google Inc. It is a service from Google that makes it easy to find information about products for sales online. It differs from most normal price engines in the sense that it neither charges any fees for listings, accepts payment for products to show up first nor make any commission on sales.

Amazon.com offers a list of items and sells the goods by online. Amazon charges a commission rate based on the sale price, a transaction fee, and a variable closing fee.

It generates revenue from commission from suppliers when there is a sale of goods. Amazon.com successfully earned distributed transaction fees which are fixed at price through creating virtual marketplace. An Amazon partner website can display Amazon books directly on their website and sends customers to the Amazon’s website when the visitor is ready to buy it.

Amazon.com also generated revenue by Affiliate revenue model. Amazon was one of the first online businesses to set up an affiliate marketing program. AStore is an Amazon.com affiliate product which website owners can use to create an online store on their site. The store does not allow website owners to sell their own product directly. Website owners pick products from Amazon’s store and earn referral fees on the products purchased by their readers. The fee structure is currently the same as for the other affiliate links and ranges from 4% to 10% of the product price.

eBay is an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell goods and services worldwide. eBay generates revenue from a number of fees such as:

Insertion fees: When an item listed on eBay, this nonrefundable fee is charged.

Picture service fee: The first uploaded in its site is free but the subsequent pictures incur fees.

Promotional fees: Fees that charged for additional listing options that help attract attention for an item, such as highlighted or bold listings.

Final value fees: Commission that charged to the seller at the end of the auction.

Reservation fees: It is only charged if the item listed is not sold.

For further information please refer to:

1)http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/fees.html
2)http://pages.ebay.com/storefronts/Subscriptions.html
3)http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.htmlie=UTF8&nodeId=200144530&qid=1213378239&sr=12
4)http://www.amazon.com/Advertising/b/node=276241011
5)https://adwords.google.com/select/Login

Who am I?

2009-06-12T10:04:00.000+08:00

Hi,I am Lim Wei Thu, I am just a student who studying Accounting course in UTAR Sg. Long campus.

I am Community Service Society member and also committee.I like the society very much because we are just like a big family. Besides that,CS society always organize many meaningful activities and events.

I like to go orphanage and some other charity organization.I want to help those who are unfortunate.

Every Friday,I will go to Home For Angel to give tuition or let them play some games.I feel happy when I saw their smile.

Our society members also bring them to climb the hill in garden park.

Last night(19th June 2009),I be a helper for charity dinner for the orphanage.When I saw many people donating their money into my box, I felt so touch.I know that they will have a better life in future.

This is my pet,its name is Qiang Qiang.Do you know why I want to introduce it here?Ha,cause it has a special background.Few months before,I saw an injured puppy sit beside the canal.It look so pitiful.I gave it some food and adopt it.Here,i want to remind all the human,don't throw away your pet when u feel bored to it.We have our entertainment,but your pet has only you as its master.

Sometimes I like to play basketball. My friends and I have also formed a team to join the competition organized by Sport Club.Because of our team members are CS society member,so many other CS member come and support us on that day.We loss but we enjoy,ha ha.

Besides all these,I like to online when I am free.Every morning,I will visit http://www.sinchew.com.my/ to read the news because it won't cost me any money.
http://www.youtube.com also is my favourite website.I can find many video clips inside.Every times when I participate an event or activity,I will upload my photo to http://www.facebook.com/ and http://www.friendster.com/. I meet many friends in these two websites.For the guys,sure they like to play games so I also always visit http://3go6.3kingdom.com.my/. It is an online games but I just play it when I was free.

That is all about me,if got any question,please call me,016-7654321. Thank you

Hello^^

2009-06-12T01:57:00.011+08:00

I am Tan Zhenniu, UTAR student who is studying Bachelor of Commerce (Hons) Accounting. This is my third year in UTAR. Studying in university is a good chance for your personal growth as it is the life that is totally different from secondary school life. You need to be independent, take good care of yourself, know how to control your emotion and the most important issue is to be sociable in order to meet more new friends. Anyway, be happy is the most important matter despite you are in which period of your life.

I like to stay in my home with my family when I am free. It is because I feel comfortable and I can do whatever I like to do there. In addition, I like to gather with my friends during my holiday. We talk about our recent life and share our special experience. I also like reading, listening music and writing letters. I hope to enjoy my life always.

I always visit http://www.spaces.live.com/ because I have my personal blog there. I also always visit http://www.google.com.my/ because it is the easiest way to search information. http://www.hotmail.com/ is another website that I visit most. I can receive any important email and read many interesting forwarded email. http://www.facebook.com/ is the website that I visit most recently because I can play many games and quizzes and contact with my friends there easily. Besides, I always visit http://wble.utar.edu.my because I am able to obtain the updated information about my units in every semester from there.

I like to chat with my friends through windows live messenger. It is also another convenient way to have a meeting through online. I always update my personal blog and also like to visit my friends' blogs regardless of their blogs are in the Google's blogger or WindowsLiveSpace. In addition, I always check mails, read comics, play online games through Internet.

That’s all for my self-introduction. I hope that everyone can always visit our blog and give your comments kindly. Happy always.

Haha, is me: suling tan

2009-06-11T02:40:00.016+08:00

HI, everybody…..

I’m suling. My hometown is johor bahru. I'm studying in University Tunku Abdul Rahman with Bachelor degree of Commerce (HONS) Accounting.

I like music very much. I also have liked sing karaoke since my childhood. When I was a child, I would sing a lot of song at free time with my sibling. I’m enjoying the process of singing; it makes me more relax and releases my pressure.

I interest in sports. My favorite sport is jogging. That is not only good for my healthy, but also can help me keep fit. I love enjoying in the beach and visiting mountains that makes me feel good. I also love looking at the stars and seeing flowers. I think that nature is great!!
In addition to them, I introduce my favorite things and dislikes. My favorite foods are chocolate, snack, biscuit, bread and dessert. I hate insects the most all over the world. I especially hate wall lizard.

I have a lot of good friends at my university. About my friends, they are very kind and fun. Whenever I'm in trouble, they’ll help me. I like talking with them. And I enjoy my school life.

One of the website I usually use is http://www.msn.com/. An advantage of MSN is obviously chatting with my friends for a low price. I can ask my friends about the homework if I don't understand something just by seeing if they are connected and typing away.
Besides that, I regularly visit the http://www.google.com.my/. There has a healthy and fitness page that provides cool fitness tips and health stuff. I’m very interesting in such topic. This website also provides an online shopping service where i can know the websites of the coolest shops.

In the http://www.wikipedia.org/, I can conduct research for an assignment, it is important for me to find out a valuable and informative resources required for the assignment.
I also obtain the daily news from http://www.sinchew.com.my/. It has interpreted the background information and a summary to help me for understanding events and the implications. This is a benefit for me to save the money of buying newspaper.
Another website I visit the most is http://www.xunlei.com/. There are tons of ways for me to download movies, music, and drama for free.

Lastly, if you have anything need to share with me, just post a comment to me.
Wish all of u have a nice day!!!!

ABout ME

2009-06-11T01:29:00.005+08:00

This is the first time I write a blog with proper english language. So weird as i can not put any short form and of cause the "la leh lo". Well, never mind, it give me a chance to improve my english writing.

First of all, I would like to introduce myself. My name is Chua Se Mang from BAC tutorial group 3. To be more friendly and easier to remember me, you can call me "mango". My birthday is fall on 10 May and the picture show above was taken while i was celebrating my 21st birthday this year with my lovely friends. My hometown is in Kuantan. I am the eldest children in my family and I have one brother and two sisters.

I like to sing and that's why I join music club in Utar Sungai Long. Singing makes me feel relax and it also can express my deep feelings. Besides, I also enjoy reading such as novel and comics during free times. I also like to watch movie and the followings are my favorite movies: High School Musical, The Holidays, Night at the Museum, Transformer, Pirate of the Caribbean and so on.

During free times, one of the top 5 websites i visited most is www.facebook.com. This website gives me a lot of fun and strengthen the relationship with my friends. Another website will be www.hotmail.com as I used to check mail every day. Furthermore, I also like to visit www.google.com while I am searching information for my assignment. It is the easiest way to search information that I need by only typing some keywords. The 4th website is comic.kukudm.com that I like to read comics so much. By visiting this website, I can enjoy reading free and the latest comics by internet. The last one will be kankan.xunlei.com. I can watch online movies by visiting this website with my sibling.

Lastly, that's all for my introduction. I hope you will enjoy reading our blog. We will kindly appreciate the comment you leave. Have a nice day!!