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Chapter 19

Chapter 19. Building E-Commerce Applications And Infrastructure. Learning Objectives. Discuss the major steps in developing an EC system. Describe the major EC development strategies and list their major advantages and disadvantages.

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Chapter 19

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  1. Chapter 19 Building E-Commerce Applications And Infrastructure

  2. Learning Objectives • Discuss the major steps in developing an EC system. • Describe the major EC development strategies and list their major advantages and disadvantages. • List the various EC application development methods along with their benefits and limitations. • Discuss various EC application outsourcing options, including application service providers (ASPs), software as a service (SaaS), and utility computing. • Discuss the major EC software packages and EC application suites.

  3. Learning Objectives • Discuss the value and technical foundation of Web Services and Web 2.0. • Understand service-oriented architecture (SOA) and virtualization and their relationship to EC application development. • Describe the criteria used in selecting software vendors and packages. • Describe various methods for connecting an EC application to back-end systems and databases. • Understand the value and uses of EC application log files. • Discuss the importance of usage analysis and site management.

  4. A Five-Step Approach to Developing an E-Commerce System Website development • The business type • The product line • The business’s organization • and the budget dictate what functionality the Webstore should have and how the Web site should be developed

  5. A Five-Step Approach to Developing an E-Commerce System • STEP 1: IDENTIFYING, JUSTIFYING, AND PLANNING EC SYSTEMS • STEP 2: CREATING AN EC ARCHITECTURE • EC architecture A plan for organizing the underlying infrastructure and applications of a site • scalability How big a system can grow in various dimensions to provide more service; measured by total number of users, number of simultaneous users, or transaction volume

  6. A Five-Step Approach to Developing an E-Commerce System • STEP 3: SELECTING A DEVELOPMENT OPTION • Build the system in-house • Have a vendor build a customized system • Buy an existing application and install it • Lease standard software from an application service provider (ASP), lease as a service (SaaS), or lease via utility computing • Enter into a partnership or alliance • Join a third-party e-marketplace or an exchange • Use a combination of approaches

  7. A Five-Step Approach to Developing an E-Commerce System • STEP 4: INSTALLING, TESTING, INTEGRATING, AND DEPLOYING EC APPLICATIONS • unit testing Testing application software modules one at a time • integration testing Testing the combination of application modules acting in concert • usability testing Testing the quality of the user’s experience when interacting with a Web site • acceptance testing Determining whether a Web site meets the original business objectives and vision • STEP 5: OPERATIONS, MAINTENANCE, AND UPDATES

  8. A Five-Step Approach to Developing an E-Commerce System • MANAGING THE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS • The development process can be fairly complex and must be managed properly • For medium-to-large applications, a project team is usually created to manage the process and the vendors • Collaboration with business partners also is critical • Three basic options for developing an EC Web site: • Develop the site in-house/outsource • Buy a packaged application • Lease the application

  9. Agile Methodology • Traditional project management methodologies still applied • Light weight and require iterative planning • People vs. process • Inspect and adapt approach • Reduced time to market • Project manager as a leader • Types of Agile Methods • Scrum • Extreme Programming (XP)

  10. Development Strategies for E-Commerce Major Applications • IN-HOUSE DEVELOPMENT: INSOURCING • insourcing In-house development of applications • reusability The likelihood a segment of source code can be used again to add new functionalities with slight or no modification • interoperability Connecting people, data, and diverse systems; the term can be defined in a technical way or in a broad way, taking into account social, political, and organizational factors

  11. Development Strategies for E-Commerce Major Applications • Insourcing Options • Build from scratch • Build from components • enterprise application integration (EAI) Class of software that integrates large systems • BUY THE APPLICATIONS (OFF-THE-SHELF APPROACH) • turnkey approach Ready to use without further assembly or testing; supplied in a state that is ready to turn on and operate

  12. Development Strategies for E-Commerce Major Applications • OUTSOURCING/LEASING EC APPLICATIONS • outsourcing A method of transferring the management and/or day-to-day execution of an entire business function to a third-party service provider • Outsourcing Options • Software houses • Outsourcers and others

  13. Selecting a Development Method • SOFTWARE ON DEMAND • utility (on-demand) computing Unlimited computing power and storage capacity that can be used and reallocated for any application—and billed on a pay-per-use basis e.g cloud computing

  14. Selecting a Development Method • application service provider (ASP) A company that provides business applications to users for a small monthly fee e.g hosting companies leasing software • software as a service (SaaS) A model of software delivery where the software company provides maintenance, daily technical operation, and support for the software provided to their client. E.gsalesforce, Goto meeting, etc • Platform as a service (PaaS) Evolutionary ASP model where developers can build/integrate custom solutions on managed applications. E.g Magento Go, Adobe Catalyst

  15. Selecting a Development Method • INTEGRATING WITH WEB SERVICES AND SERVICE-ORIENTED ARCHITECTURE • Technologies have made integration a difficult task for a number of reasons: • Platform-specific objects • Dynamic environment • Security barriers • A universal standard has emerged to assist the process of integration

  16. Selecting a Development Method • Web Services Self-contained, self-describing business and consumer modular applications, delivered over the Internet that users can select and combine through almost any device, ranging from personal computers to mobile phones • Web 2.0 Web Services that emphasize online collaboration and information sharing among users

  17. Selecting a Development Method • mashup Combination of two or more Web sites into a single Web site that provides the content of both sites (whole or partial) to deliver a novel product to consumers e.g use of google map to show store locations • widget A Web page feature or a small Web toolbox often designed on top of Web applications

  18. Selecting a Development Method • If a company decides to buy or lease an EC application, the following representative selection criteria need to be considered: • Flexibility - Commercial packages need to be modified or adapted to the specific requirements of an application. • Information requirements • User friendliness • Hardware and software resources • Installation - The installation effort required to implement the package is another • important consideration. • Maintenance services

  19. Selecting a Development Method • Vendor quality and track record • Estimating costs • Personnel • Technological evolution – upgrade of EC applications • Scaling – Consider the total number of users, the number of simultaneous users, and the transaction volume • Sizing – Size and performance of an a application • Performance - Performance is measured by two main metrics: latency and throughput. • Latency: The time required to complete an operation, such as downloading a Web page • Throughput: The number of operations completed in a given period of time; indicates the number of users that a system can handle • Reliability – System failures and downtime are costly • Security – Technological, physical and procedural security measures

  20. Technology Support • Ajax A Web development technique for creating interactive Web applications e.g update content without page refresh • Really Simple Syndication (RSS) A family of Web-feed formats used to publish frequently updated digital content • Atom RSS Internet standard created by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and formally known as the Atom Syndication Format

  21. Technology Support • FILE-SHARING TOOLS • Mobile Phones and Social Networks e.g zapr.net, yousendit.com • SUPPORTING WEB 2.0 IN THE ENTERPRISE • Support for Enterprise Wikis and Blogs • Software to Support Viral Marketing • viral video Video clip that gains widespread popularity through the process of Internet sharing, typically through e-mail or IM messages, blogs, and other media-sharing Web sites

  22. Technology Support • FUNCTIONAL SOFTWARE PACKAGES • electronic catalog The virtual-world equivalent of a traditional product catalog; contains product descriptions and photos, along with information about various promotions, discounts, payment methods, and methods of delivery • merchant server software Software for selling over the Internet that enables companies to establish selling sites relatively easily and inexpensively

  23. Technology Support • WHERE IS WEB 2.0 SOFTWARE GOING? • INFRASTRUCTURE SERVICES • virtualization A technique for hiding the physical characteristics of computing resources from the way in which other systems, applications, or end users interact with those resources • cloud computing Internet (cloud)–based development coupled with the use of computer technology (computing)

  24. Vendor and Software Selection • STEP 1: IDENTIFY POTENTIAL VENDORS • STEP 2: DETERMINE THE EVALUATION CRITERIA • request for proposal (RFP) Notice sent to potential vendors inviting them to submit a proposal describing their software package and how it would meet the company’s needs

  25. Vendor and Software Selection • STEP 3: EVALUATE VENDORS AND PACKAGES • STEP 4: CHOOSE THE VENDOR AND PACKAGE • STEP 5: NEGOTIATE A CONTRACT • STEP 6: ESTABLISH A SERVICE-LEVEL AGREEMENT • service-level agreement (SLA) A formal agreement regarding the division of work between a company and a vendor

  26. Connecting to Databases and Other Enterprise Systems • CONNECTING TO DATABASES • multi-tiered application architecture • EC architecture consisting of four tiers: Web browsers, Web servers, application servers, and database servers • CONNECTING TO BACK-END SYSTEMS • CONNECTING TO BUSINESS PARTNERS • middleware Separate products that serve as the glue between two applications; sometimes called plumbing because it connects two sides of an application and passes data between them

  27. Usage Analysis • LOG FILES • access log: A record kept by a Web server that shows when a user accesses the server; kept in a common log file format, each line of this text file details an individual access • Pageviews by time slot: Pageview statistics allow frequent review of the number of site accesses • Pageviews by customers’ log-in status: This information helps determine whether requiring customers to log in is worthwhile. • Pageviews by referrers. Track customers by referral links. . • Pageviews by visitor’s hardware platform, operating system, browser, and/or browser version.

  28. Hot EC Technologies • HAML – HTML Abstraction Markup language • SASS – Syntactically Awesome Stylesheets • HTML5 • AJAX - Asynchronous JavaScript and XML • Jquery – Most popular javascript library e.g JQTouch for mobile app development • Node.js – server side javascript • REST API (Representational State Transfer) - an increasingly popular, powerful, and simple method of leveraging HTTP as a Web Service. • Micorsoft Silverlight – web application framework for multimedia • Browsers: IE 9, Chrome, FireFox

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