Ch 2 Notes

There are 8 key elements of a business model:

• Value proposition - how the product or service fulfills the needs of the customers
  
• Revenue model - how the company plans to make money
  
• Market opportunity - the revenue potential within the intended marketplace
  
• Competitive environment - competitors doing business in the same marketplace
  
• Competitive advantage - how the company is different from its competitors
  
• Market strategy - how the company will enter the market and attract customers
  
• Organizational development - recruiting and hiring strong employees
  
• Management team - the people who guide the company's growth and expansion

Major B2C business Models:

• Portal
• E-tailer
• Content provider
• Transaction broker
• Market creator
• Service provider
• Community provider

Major B2B business Models:

• E-distributor
• E-procurement
• Exchange
• Industry consortium industry
• Private industrial network industry

Other business models of e-commerce:

• C2C
• P2P
• M-commerce
• E-commerce

Key business concepts of e-commerce:

• Industry structure
• Industry value chains
• Firm value chains
• Business strategy

Two Document Selling Websites

Socratek - sells legal documents
http://www.socratek.com/

gazhoo - sells various types of documents - allows uploading
http://www.gazhoo.com/index.aspx

2/19 Assignment - 2

Assessment of Buy.com

Ubiquity
Although I have not tried accessing Buy.com from another country, it is always accessibly from the United States. I have never experienced the website having downtime. I would assume that it can be accessed from anywhere in the world.

Global Reach
Buy.com has global reach because it is accessible to anyone with an Internet connection. So no matter where in the world you live, if you can get online, you can purchase items from Buy.com.

Universal Standards
Although I am not aware of the specifics of universal standards, Buy.com provides easy product searching, price comparisons with other websites, and other useful features.

Richness
Buy.com gives a rich presentation of each product. This includes multiple images, clearly listed specifications, similar products, and consumer reviews.

Interactivity
Buy.com provides interaction with it's customers through a suggestion box. Users can enter comments, problems, or any other information they feel the business could use.

Information Density
A large amount of information is presented with each product. I have listed some of this information previously. Some of the most helpful information comes in the form of specifications, images, and user reviews. Also, prices from other websites are displayed to the user.

Personalization/Customization
Buy.com personalizes its presentation of the website by monitoring the products that the user has recently viewed. They can then suggest other products that might be of interest to the user.

Social Technology
Users can communicate to other users and transfer information about products through User Reviews. This includes a rating of value, performance, ease of use, and overall satisfaction with the product. In addition to this rating, users can provide a brief summary of their experience with the product and Buy.com in general.

One of the aspects of ecommerce that Buy.com can work on is the interactivity of users with the business. Besides the Suggestion Box, there is no easy way of getting in contact with a person in order to ask questions, get guidance, or seek customer service. One thing they might consider would be a chat system where customers could chat with a business representative about products they are considering.

2/19 Assignment - 1

Business-to-business
http://www.staples.com/
Staples sells products to other businesses and is therefore uses business-to-business ecommerce.

Business-to-consumer
http://www.buy.com/
Buy.com is a business that sells products to consumers and is therefore using business-to-consumer ecommerce.

Consumer-to-consumer
http://www.half.ebay.com/
Half.com meets the requirements of consumer-to-consumer ecommerce because consumers are selling products to other consumers.

Peer-to-peer
www.kazaa.com
Kazaa is a peer-to-peer file sharing network in which people can share their files with others through the Internet.

M-commerce
http://movies.aol.com/
AOL Moviefone is a service that allows people to receive movie information on their mobile phones.

Ch1 Notes

Define Ecommerce

- started in 1995

- digital means to have some sort of transaction involving two organizations or an organization and a person

- current trend - new business models based on social technologies and user-generated content

- continued conflict over copyrights, content regulation, taxation, privacy, fraud, etc.

- definition – digitally enabled commercial transactions between and among organizations and individuals

e-business – digital transaction and processes WITHIN a firm, involving systems under firm’s control

ubiquitous – seemingly everywhere

global reach – can reach everyone in the world

universal standards – everything does the same everywhere

information richness – don’t have to sacrifice anything in getting your word out

interactive

information density

personalization / customization

social technology

types of ecommerce

b2c – business to consumer

b2b – business to business – trillions of dollars

c2c – consumer to consumer

p2p – peer to peer

m-commerce – mobile commerce

limits on growth of b2b ecommerce

- expensive technology

- complex software interface

- sophisticated skill set

- persistent cultural attraction of physical markets and traditional shopping experiences

- persistent global inequality limiting access to telephones and computers

E-commerce at Taylor University

Rod Ide and Rob Leniham came and spoke to us about the current E-commerce utilizations at Taylor University. It was an interesting discussion about the issues that come with E-commerce and why Taylor has been reluctant to implement this technology.

We started off our discussion by listing some of the reasons we as students use E-commerce in our every day lives. Some of these reasons included ease, efficiency, speed, and convenience. Convenience is the main reason. We find it much more convenient to get on the Internet and purchase a product than travel to the store for the same item.

Companies have different reasons for implementing E-commerce technology. Some of these reasons include organization, low overhead, can reach more people, track customer information, and less risk of chasing bad debt. All these characteristics come into play when deciding how, or even if, E-commerce should be used.

Taylor University has been slow to adopt E-commerce into its economic infrastructure. There are various reasons why this has occurred. Below is a list of the reasons and a short description of each:

• Discount Rates - Money taken from credit card payments is not necessarily the amount the University will receive. Credit card processors take a percentage of the money as a handling fee for processing the transaction.
• Credit card data storage - Storing credit card data would require an exponential increase in the security implementation at Taylor University. The security standard provided by the credit card industry, know as PCIDSS, is very detailed and specific on how the data is to be managed.
• Background complexity - Each department that has a store-front is required to have their own custom background implementation in order to hand to transactions. This increase of complexity cannot be handled by the current IT staff at Taylor University.

Rob and Rod tied all these issues together in simplified terms in order to define the current state of E-commerce at Taylor University. Although small steps are being taken around the campus, it will be some time before E-commerce becomes a prominent technology at Taylor.

John Peebles - Sentry Data Systems

John Peebles is the CIO of Sentry Data Systems in Florida. He is 26 years old and graduated from Taylor University in 2003. He is a laid back young man who has had trouble with academic life before starting his own business and taking on random programming jobs before finding his current position at Sentry Systems.

One of the first topics John talked about was the how best to run a remote development organization. In order to do this, it is very important to have good people. There is a large difference between a good programmer and an average or poor programmer. Another important attribute is a fast Internet connection. This ensures a constant line of communication between remote developers and managers. Bug tracking and organized documentation are tools that have also proven very useful.

Another principle John Peebles concentrated on was the community of the organization. Sometimes it takes a crazy project that developers can pour their creativity into in order to build up the community and bring people together.

I felt John Peebles presented his information well. He kept the students' attention and delivered his points in a way that was fun and interesting. Although I do not plan on pursuing a career at Sentry Data Systems, I can appreciate the principles of the development process that are in place there.

Blog has been created

This is my blog for eCommerce - Spring 08


Jason Love