Part 1
Network Computing:
Discovery, Communication,
& Collaboration
1
Learning Objectives
 Understand the concepts of the Internet and the
Web, their importance, and their capabilities.
 Understand the role of intranets, extranets, and
corporate portals in organizations.
2
Internet Application Categories
The Internet supports applications in the
following major categories:
 Discovery. Discovery involves browsing and
information retrieval.
 Communication. The Internet provides fast
and inexpensive communication channels that
range from messages posted on bulletin boards
to complex information exchanges among many
organizations.
 Collaboration. Due to improved
communication, electronic collaboration between
individuals and/or groups is on the rise.
3
Discovery
 Discovery is done by browsing & searching
data on the Web.
 There are 2 main types of search facilities
available on the Web:
 Search engines (e.g., Altavista, Google)
maintain an index of hundreds of millions of
Web pages and use that index to find pages
that match a set of user-specified keywords.
 Directories (e.g., Yahoo!, About.com) provide
a hierarchically organized collection of links to
Web pages.
4
Intranet


Intranets (Internal
Webs) are networks
designed to serve the
internal informational
needs of a company,
using Web concepts and
tools.
Intranets have the power
to change organizational
structures and reengineer
corporations.
Some functions of
Intranets:
 Easy and inexpensive
Internet browsing.
 Postings of employee
resumes, business
plans, and corporate
regulations and
procedures.
 Communication and
collaboration
capabilities, e.g.
newsletters.
5
Extranets
 An Extranet is an infrastructure that allows
secure communications among business partners
over the Internet.

It offers limited accessibility to the intranets of the
participating companies as well as the necessary
interorganizational communications.
 The use of extranets is increasing rapidly due to
the large savings in communication costs that can
materialize.
 Extranets enable innovative applications of
business-to-business (B2B) e-Commerce.

They are closely related to improved communications
along the supply chain
6
Corporate Portals
 With the growing use of intranets and the
Internet, many organizations encounter
difficulties in dealing with information
overload.
 One solution to the problem of scattered
and duplicative data are corporate portals.
 Corporate portals provide single-point access
to an organization’s information and
applications available on the Internet,
intranets, and extranets.
 Affinity portals are being built to support
communities such as labor minors, hobby
groups, and political parties .
7
Corporate Portals
(cont.)
The top corporate portal applications currently
under development include;









Knowledge bases and learning tools
Business process support
Customer-facing sales, marketing, and service
Collaboration and project support
Access to data from disparate corporate
systems
Internal company information
Policies and procedures
Best practices and lessons learned
Human resources and benefits
8
IT Technologies for
Communications
Several factors determine the IT technologies used to
provide communication support to an organization.
 Participants. The number of people sending and




receiving information can range from two to many
thousands.
Nature of sources and destinations. Sources and
destinations of information can include people, databases,
sensors, and so on.
Location. The sender(s) and receiver(s) can be in the
same room, in different rooms at the same location, or at
different locations.
Time. Messages can be sent at a certain time and
received almost simultaneously.
Media. Communication can involve one or several media.
9
Time / Place Framework
Same-time/sameplace.
In this setting, participants
meet face-to-face in one
place and at the same time.
An example is
communication in a meeting
room.
Same-time/differentplace.
This setting refers to a
meeting whose participants
are in different places but
communicate at the same
time. E.g., a telephone
conference call.
Different-time/sameplace. This setting can
materialize when people
work in shifts. The first shift
leaves electronic or voice
messages for the second
shift.
Differenttime/different-place.
In this setting, participants
are in different places, and
they send and/or receive
messages at different times.
10
Communications
 Electronic mail (email) is the most
used service of the
Internet.
 Instant messaging
services allow users
to identify and
exchange instant
messages in real
time.

ICQ is the most
popular instant
messaging tool on the
Internet.
 Messaging in
wireless
environments offer
access to the Internet
from cellular phones.
 Software agents are
programs that execute
mundane tasks for the
benefit of their users.
 E-mail agents assist
users with the often
time-consuming task
of managing their email.
11
Collaboration

Collaboration refers to
mutual efforts by two or
more individuals who
perform activities in order
to accomplish certain
tasks.

A work group refers to
two or more individuals
who act together to
perform some task.

E.g., a committee, a review
panel, a task force, an
executive board, a team, or
a department.
12
Groupware
 Groupware refers to software products that
support groups of people who share a common task
or goal and collaborate on its accomplishment.
 Groupware products comes in two forms:
 A standalone product supporting one task (e-mail).
 An integrated kit that includes several tools (e-mail,
workflow, etc.).
 Groupware products are either Web-based, which
is the trend today, or they are not related to the
Internet and work with other networks.
13
Real Time Collaboration
 Real-time collaboration (RTC) tools help companies
bridge time and space to make decisions and
collaborate on projects.
 Lotus Notes is one of the best-known of the RTC tools
and offers the following functions;
 online collaboration capabilities, workgroup e-mail,
distributed databases, bulletin whiteboards, text
editing, document management, etc.
 Microsoft NetMeeting, another RTC package, offers the
following;
 whiteboarding, application sharing, remote desktop
sharing, file transfer, text chat, data conferencing,
and desktop audio and videoconferencing.
14
Teleconferencing
 Teleconferencing is the use of electronic
communication that allows two or more people at
different locations to have a simultaneous
conference.
 Video teleconferencing enables participants in
one location to see participants at other locations.
 Data conferencing enables data to be sent along
with voice & video.
 Video mail is similar to voice mail; however, the
voice and image components of video mail can be
created from portions of conferences and stored on
a file server.
15
Distance Learning (DL)
 Distance learning (DL) occurs when learning is
performed with tools or technologies designed to
overcome the restrictions of either same time or
same place learning.
 Distant learning courseware packages are
software programs that enable distance learning.

E.g., Lotus Notes, Microsoft NetMeeting, Novell
GroupWise, and GroupSystems, Lotus Learning Space,
WebCT.
 Online Corporate Training allow IT organizations
to keep their staff members up to date with the
latest innovations in IT.
16
Ethics on the Net
 Privacy and ethics in e-mail
 Right of free speech
 Copyright
 The privacy of patients’ information
 Internet manners
 Monitoring employees’ use of the
Internet
17
Managerial Issues (cont.)
 Telecommuting. Not all jobs are suitable
for telecommuting.
 Cost-benefit justification. Information
technologies do not come free, and many of
the benefits are intangible.
 Legal issues. There are many unresolved
legal issues.
 Managing the intranet. This is becoming a
major problem due to the ease of placing
material on an intranet and the huge
volume of information.
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Part 2
Electronic
Commerce
19
Learning Objectives
 Describe electronic commerce, its dimensions,
benefits, limitations, and process.
 Describe the major applications of e-commerce
in the business-to-customer area.
 Describe B2B models and relate them to
supply chain management.
 Describe e-commerce in service industries.
20
Electronic Commerce (EC)
 Electronic Commerce involves making business
transactions via telecommunications networks,
primarily the Internet.
 It is also sometimes referred to as e-business (or ebiz)
 Evolution of EC:
 Electronic commerce applications began in the early
1970s.
 Electronic data interchange (EDI) extended the
types of participating companies.
 EC applications expanded rapidly with the
commercialization of the Internet in the early 1990s.
21
Electronic Framework
22
The Field of EC
The field of EC can be divided into two
segments:
1. Electronic markets, or e-marketplaces networks of interactions and relationships
where information, products, services,
and payments are exchanged.
 B2C, company-centric, and B2B transactions.
2. Interorganizational information
systems (IOS) - information flow among
two or more organizations.
 Applies to B2B applications only
23
Benefits of EC
Some benefits of EC to organizations are:
 EC allows vendors to reach a large number of customers,
anywhere around the globe, at a very low operating
cost.
 Companies can procure materials and services from
other companies rapidly and less expensively.
 Marketing distribution channels can be drastically cut or
eliminated.
 EC decreases the cost of based information by as much
as 90%.
 Customer services and relationships are facilitated by
interactive, one-to-one communication, at a low cost.
24
Benefits of EC
(cont.)
Some benefits of EC to consumers are:
 EC often provides customers with less expensive
products and services by allowing them to shop in many
places.
 EC provides customers with more choices.
 EC enables customers to shop 24 hours a day, year
round, from almost any location.
 Customers can receive relevant and detailed information
and other services in seconds.
 EC enables consumers to get customized products and
services.
25
Benefits of EC
(cont.)
Some benefits of EC to society are:
 EC is a major facilitator of the digital economy.
 EC enables more individuals to work at home, resulting
in less traffic and lower air pollution.
 EC allows some goods to be sold at lower prices, so less
affluent people can buy them, increasing their standard
of living.
 EC enables people in developing countries and rural
areas to enjoy products and services previously
unavailable.
 EC facilitates a superior delivery of public services.
26
Limitations of EC
Technical Limitations
 Lack of universally
accepted standards
 Insufficient bandwidth
 Still-evolving software
development tools
 Difficulties in
integrating the
Internet and EC
software
Non-Technical
Limitations
 Legal issues
 National and
international
government
regulations
 Difficulty of
measuring EC
benefits
 Customer resistance
 Lack of a critical mass
27
Models of EC
Business-to-Business (B2B)
Business-to-Consumers (B2C)
Consumer-to-Organizations (C2O)
Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C)
Intrabusiness (Intraorganizational)
Commerce
 Government-to-Citizens (G2C)
 Collaborative commerce (c-commerce)
 Mobile Commerce (m-commerce)





28
B2C e-Commerce
Business-to-consumer EC can be done in two
major ways:
1. Companies sell direct to the customer.

Such direct marketing has the advantage of
personalization and customization.
2. Companies use an intermediary.

There are two types of online infomediaries:
1. Pure online e-tailers e.g.
www.amazon.com.
2. ”Click-and-mortar” retailers
29
Disintermediation &
Reintermediation
Disintermediation
 Using the Internet,
manufacturers can sell
directly to customers
and provide customer
support online.
 In this sense, the
traditional
intermediaries may be
eliminated.
Re-intermediation
 The emergence of a new
breed of electronic
intermediaries.
 These include;



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e-malls
directory and searchengine services
market makers
comparison-shopping
agents
30
Impact of EC on Distribution
Strategy
 Avoiding channel conflicts
 Coexistence with the dealers
 Regionally mixed strategy
 Restraint of competition by
powerful distributors
 In-company channel conflicts
31
Models of Market Research
32
B2B Models
Sell-side model
Buy-side model
Exchanges
One company sells
to many
electronically.
An organization
(usually large)
buys from many
vendors.
Marketplaces in
which many
buyers and
sellers meet.
Reverse
auctions
(many-to-many)
Forward auctions
www.marshall.com.
(one-to-many)
(many-to-one)
33
Using EC in Service Industries:
Cyberbanking
 Cyberbanking (electronic banking)
 Bill-Paying Online
 Automatic payment of mortgages
 Paying bills from online banking account, etc.
 Personal Finance
 Bill paying and electronic check writing
 Tracking bank accounts, expenditures, and credit
cards
 Budget management and organization, etc.
34
Other EC Services
 Job Market Online
 Participants include: (1) Job seekers (2)
Job offerers (3) Recruitment firms (4)
Newsgroups.
 Travel and Tourism
 Real Estate
 Non-Internet Applications
 e.g. Smart cards
35
M-Commerce
 M-commerce (mobile commerce) refers to
the conduct of e-commerce via wireless
devices.
 Advantages of M-Commerce





Mobility
Reachability
Ubiquity
Convenience
Location of products and services
 L-commerce
36
EC Failures
 The major wave of EC failures started in 2000, as
secondary funding that was needed by Internet-based
EC began to dry up.
 Here are some examples;

PointCast, a pioneer in the personalized Web-casting,
folded in 1998 due to an incorrect business model.

An Internet mall, operated by Open Market, was closed in
1996 due to an insufficient number of buyers.

E-toys, a virtual toy retailer that impacted the entire toy
industry folded in 2001 due to inability to generate profit.

Advertising company Advertexpress.com, in the U.K.,
failed due to lack of second-round funding.
37
Managerial Issues
 Managing resistance to
change.
 Alliances. It is not a bad
idea to join an alliance of
companies to explore eCommerce.
 Integration of eCommerce into the
business environment.
 Lack of qualified
personnel and
outsourcing.
 Choosing the company’s
strategy toward eCommerce
38
Managerial Issues
 Implementation plan.
Because of the
complexity and
multifaceted nature of EC,
it makes sense to
prepare an
implementation plan.
 Responding to e-mail.
Some companies are
flooded by e-mail queries,
requests, or complaints.
 Justifying EC by
conducting a costbenefit analysis.
(cont.)
 Privacy. In electronic
payment systems, it may
be necessary to protect
the identity of buyers.
 Order fulfillment.
Taking orders in EC may
be easier than fulfilling
them.
 The impacts. The
impacts of EC may be
dramatic.
39