CCT 355: E-Business Technologies Class 1: Introduction Sept. 10, 2007

1. CCT 355: E-Business TechnologiesClass 1: IntroductionSept. 10, 2007

2. Welcome! • A bit about me • A bit about you: brainstorming • a) What are e-business technologies? What aren't? • b) What are examples of e-business technology services? • c) Five years from now, what do you see yourself doing? How will you get there?

3. A few notes before we begin... • E-business is NOT simple e-marketing • E-business is NOT simple e-commerce • Both have roles in larger business concerns to be sure, but a shopping cart/web page wasn't cutting edge in 1997 and is easily done with a few clicks today • (But: the companies that facilitate such simplicity could be considered e-businesses...why?)‏

4. Course Outline • Contact and availability • Use of class hours • Prerequisite requirements • Text (hopefully this one's just right...)‏ • Guest lectures (might be shuffled depending on availability)‏

5. Assignments • Competitive Intelligence • Co-creation Assignment • Business Analysis Consulting Project • Test (X2)‏

6. Competitive Intelligence • Many active service providers in the GTA • It helps to know them – you do want a job, right? • Scan for e-business service providers • Talk to them, discover what they do, who their competitors and partners are, what they see the future of their business being, etc.

7. Guidelines • You must have contact with them! (e.g., email, face-to-face interview) Document analysis good background and support, but insufficient alone (why?)‏ • Friends and family probably not best – no sense networking with people you know • “I sell random stuff from my garage on eBay” guy – probably not all that interesting • “I make kewl web pages” girl – see above. • Where to look? What to ask? We'll talk more on this next week, but start thinking now

8. Co-Creation Assignment • Course run on Wikispaces • http://cct355-f07.wikispaces.com • Sign up/sign in now • Wikispaces vs. WebCT Vista – a great e-business case... • WebCT may be used for posting of grades (if it works...) Otherwise, please ignore it (I will.)

9. Article Analysis • New material emerges constantly (today's reading was released Thursday)‏ • Next week: create schedule for presentations • Find an article, summarize, link to concept and propose discussion questions • No boring presentations, please (what does this mean?)‏ • Subsequent wiki discussion

10. Glossary and Maintenance • E-business field can be jargon-laded • Short (e.g., 250-300 word) overviews of terms, with references to sites one can learn more • Individually written for Nov. 5 – first come, first served on terms • Editing and maintenance of entire site – continual – (start early, edit often for best results; last minute attention to this not effective)‏

11. Business Analysis Consulting • What does a BA do? (And what doesn't a BA do?)‏ • Group final project • Picking organization that could benefit from e-business solution and proposing solutions that could be implemented based on documentation presented

12. Guidelines • Perhaps where you can use friends/family contacts • Again, shopping cart and web page not a very solid solution, and will be reflected in final result • Contact still important – hypothetical situations are obvious and rather poorly done • Solutions should balance people, process, technology requirements and limitations • Presentation should be short and something you'd be proud to show them (bring them along?)‏ • More to follow...

13. Tests • One mid-term, one final term test • Both evaluate conceptual awareness and application vs. regurgitation of fact • Lecture notes and article analysis notes are your study guide (articles themselves aren't required readings, but ability to hold coherent opinions on discussion topics can be tested)‏ • Example questions will be discussed previous to first test

14. Policy Notes • Academic dishonesty is a serious matter • Assignments are structured to make dishonesty obvious and easy to catch • So, don't cheat. It's stupid, and will get you in a lot of trouble both here and in the business world (here you might only fail a class – in business, you can get fired or worse.)‏

15. Citation Standards • Referencing sources in papers essential (and rather poorly done these days)‏ • All citation standards a) cite information retrieved from outside sources; b) do so in context; c) make it easy for the reader to follow up and learn more from source • Style itself (e.g., APA, MLA, etc.) is arbitrary – but must be consistent • Poor citation will lead to poor marks

16. Accessibility and Due Dates • Notes on accessability resources and academic support – early identification and notification makes accommodation easy to grant • Due dates – same principle. Flexibility is easier to arrange with foreshadowing • Post-facto and undocumented excuses aren't very effective

17. Enterprise 2.0 - the IT “flower” • Old enterprise software does not leverage power of connectivity and mass collaboration • Generally conceived for individual use, centralized management and control • Emergence of Web 2.0 apps (examples?) has given rise to new branches of enterprise applications (hence the flower.)

18. Manufacturing Transactional Knowledge IT - mostly supporting simple structured processes and ad-hoc knowledge work Structured Ad-hoc IT across various roles

19. Limits of “MS Office” Model • Confusing to coordinate and share • Confusing version and shared access controls • Limited shared searching, confined mostly to desktop and search tools • Not strongly related to transactional or structured processes • Perhaps a dated productivity model - seems as much since Microsoft itself is extending it (e.g., SharePoint)

20. Solution #1: Web-based Office • Collaborative shared web-based documents vs. individual authorship on individual machines • Increasingly done by others - e.g., Google Docs and Spreadsheets

21. Solution #2: New Tools • Feed aggregators, blogs, wikis - an explosion of information • A move from managing old knowledge to facilitating new knowledge creation (and certainly managing infoglut) • Activity- vs. document-centered work - a move away from individually authored documentation towards leveraging network effects

22. Solution #3: Open transactional systems • SaaS - “software as a service” model - new markets for web-based services and modules • Open architectures (e.g., OpenBravo ERP, OpenID) and open APIs (application programming interfaces) leverage network effects in transactional/structured processes

23. Solution #4: Structured Tools for Ad-Hoc work? • Knowledge work is chaotic - infoglut common (e.g., popularity of lifehacker.com, lifehack.org) • Some emergent tools (e.g., Yahoo Pipes, Facebook apps) look to add some structured process to what otherwise might be information overload

24. Google’s Thoughts • “applications that are pieced together” • Small, fast, customizable applications • Distributed virally • Ubiquitous data • Platform independent

25. Next Class… • Intro chapter • setup and preparation for article analysis and competitive intelligence assignments