ECommerce Infrastructure

1
E-CommerceInfrastructure Security

• Lecture 4
• Hosting Business Models

2
An Interesting Story

• Managing large-scale courses
• System in use designed 10 years ago
• Has evolved into a scalable system
• Manages over 3000 students
• Over 200 TAs
• Many different courses

3
Entropy Kicks In

• Entropy states that everything moves from a
  complex system to breakdown
• Interesting to think how this coincides with the
  theory evolution
• System is plagued by entropy!

4
Current Problems

• Assignments lost
• Grades lost
• Inordinate amount of time spent hacking the
  system
• Dedicated, much-needed person required
• Stability of personnel!

5
Silver Lining?

• Wheres the fix?
• The existing system has been patched so much that
• Its not stable
• Its not viable to continue its upkeep
• Its not the Universitys mission to develop
  maintain software!

6
The Classic Problem

• Build (internal)
• vs.
• Buy (another company)

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Societys Complexity

• More and more, companies (and individuals) are
• Specializing in skills
• Increasingly reliant upon each other
• Have no idea how to do things other than their
  specialization
• Example making pies
• Cost effective, but with drawbacks

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The Least Common Denominator

• Companies are interested in increasing sales
• Thus they will want to maximize their market
  potential
• This often comes at the price of specialization
  lost

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Our Solution

• We had to find an outside vendor
• Manage the courses and the students
• Allow for an easier interface
• Reliability a must!

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Enter WebCT

• New functionality made it an option
• The vendor seemed reasonable
• The interface was much better than ours
• It was free USG licenses already

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The Stuff Hits the Fan

• Deployment delayed
• Reliant upon others now
• Additional functionality came months/years late

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But!

• We dont have to maintain the code
• Its better for the earlier reasons
• We can focus on teaching (right! ?)

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Whats the Point?

• Should we develop in-house?
• Should we outsource?
• Pros and cons either way!
• Stay Tuned!!!

14
Agenda

• Essentials of an E-Commerce Site
• Build vs. Buy Models
• Outsourcing Options
• Issues to Consider

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E-Commerce Essentials

• Web Presence
• Catalog Display
• Shopping Cart
• Transaction Processing
• Hooks

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Web Presence

• Obviously we need a Web site!
• Clean interface is a must
• Style reflects the company
• Make the purchase easy!

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Catalogs

• Small stores can get away with simple static Web
  pages
• But what issues are present with a large store?
• What might Best Buy want to have?

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Complex Catalog Features

• Search
• By name, brand, upc-code, model number
• Categories for organization
• Pictures
• Features list
• Never stand in the way

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Implementing the Catalog

• Wanna keep updating Web pages each time the
  catalog changes?
• Whats a better approach?

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DB Backend to Catalogs

• Database manages catalog content
• Tracks
• Availability
• Price
• All consumer info (features, etc.)
• Pictures

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Shopping Cart

• Replace legacy on-line forms
• NUTS!
• Preview order
• Add/Remove
• View total cost
• Allow customer to proceed to checkout

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Storing Information

• Browsers are stateless
• So how do you remember who has what in their
  shopping cart?
• How do you remember customer info from
  transaction to transaction

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Transaction Processing

• What the cashier would do
• Add sales tax (if applicable)
• Discounts
• Special Promotions
• Coupons
• Gift wrapping
• Shipping
• Order Tracking (typically outsourced)

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Hooks

• Other services are typicallycoupled with
  E-commerce sites
• Credit card processing
• Legacy systems
• Database systems

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Buy vs. Build

• Is the company in the Web design/upkeep
  business?
• Stores are interested in selling their products
• Should someone else run the site?

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Costs?

• What might some of the costs be in running your
  own E-commerce site?

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Cost Analysis Essential

• What does it cost to
• Purchase hardware
• Purchase software
• Network the office
• Purchase Net connection
• Build the site
• Maintain the site
• Hire full-time, 24-7 support
• Etc.

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Got Website?

• Why might you not want to outsource the whole
  enchilada?

WEB
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Why Not Outsource?

• Giving up some (all?) control
• Limited somewhat in offerings
• Service providers might be overselling
• Locking yourself into one-vendor solutions -
  YIKES!

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Outsourcing Options

• Use an ISP for connection
• Run the content off of your machines
• Web Hosting
• Put it all on their machines

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Pricing

• What can you afford?
• Micro stores
• Moms Pops
• Midrange
• Enterprise

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Micro Stores

• Less than 100 items in store
• Startup Cost 2,000
• Monthly Cost 0 - 100

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Small-Scale Development

• Smaller companies
• Want to test the water
• Gross sales 100,000
• Startup Cost 2,000
• Monthly Cost 3 of sales

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Mid-Range Stores

• Hosted on merchants machines
• Must pay for setup 30,000
• Setup machines
• Setup Web site
• Purchase connectivity
• Monthly Cost 12,000-20,000

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Monthly Expenses?

• No less that two full time people
• 60,000/yr minimum salary benefits
• 2,000 for co-location of machine(s)
• Machine upgrades, maintenance, etc.

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Enter the Big Dogs

• If youre doing B2B, youre going to pay
• Larger organizations
• More transactions
• More complete back-end features (hooks)

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EnterpriseArchitecture
Catalog DB
Corporate Server
Web Server
Client
Payment Server
Banks
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Naming Is Important!

• Which is better
• www.superstickers.com
• www.yahoo.com/superstickers

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Credibility

• Users of the site must
• Feel they can trust the owner
• Find what they are looking for quickly
• Want to come back
• Enjoy the experience

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Have a Nice Long Weekend!
FIN