E-commerce

Since the modern information age arrived, businesses, educational institutions and governments have increasingly used the internet to disseminate information to their targeted groups. In the process, e-books have been increasingly adopted as an important medium for delivering educational information. The widespread adoption of e-books has however raised a number of issues, ranging from copyright issues to issues of acceptance. In this essay, the author aims to discuss the various issues that have risen as a result of adoption of e-books.

First of all, e-books threaten the traditional book publishing industry (Carey, 2006). E-books are particularly cheap to reproduce and distribute since they do not involve any paper printing, cover printing, warehousing and shipment. All a user has to do is point at a URL and click on the title he or she wants, and the e-book can be downloaded either for free or for a comparatively small fee. Publishing companies like Macmillan and Wiley have had a long standing dispute with major e-book distributor Amazon over this issue since the sales of traditional hardcover books have plummeted after the introduction of e-books (Carey, 2006).

Secondly, there has been an issue of copyright infringement (Kelly, 2006). The World Wide Web has many websites that have been built primarily for file sharing. An e-book can be purchased only once and subsequently posted in many sites where users from all over the world can download it free. The author or the publisher of the book therefore does not profit from the efforts put in towards delivering the work (Kelly, 2006). This trend has even been reported with books which have not been released in e-book format a buyer will digitize it maybe by scanning the pages and then publish it to the internet where everyone can have free access to the full content. No matter how law enforcers try, this has been one tendency which is virtually impossible to stop.

Copyright issues aside, the proliferation of e-books has raised issues surrounding the unavailability of efficient devices for reading or extracting the content (Rothman, 2006). Most readers access the content in e-books by using a laptop or a desktop computer, but there have been numerous complains that too much exposure to the radiation from computer monitors causes eye and brain fatigue. The smaller devices available like Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) and mobile telephones are too small and a user cannot read the content comfortably from such. In addition to this, all devices used in reading e-books are technology-based, and users have to be conversant with these technologies so as to be able to exploit the benefits of the e-book revolution.

Finally, there have been acceptance issues in the adoption of e-books in the contemporary reading culture (Nelson, 2008). Generations of readers have grown up reading paper books (printed books) and have gotten so used to this that making the transition to e-books is not a very comfortable venture. Many students have continued to prefer printed paper and only use e-books for referencing purposes. The reading society is not as biased towards modern technologies as everyone would like to assume. According to statistics, many college students and faculties have continued to exhibit preference for paper books (p-books) over e-books for research, textbooks and for leisure reading (Nelson, 2008). All in all, technology is continually becoming popular, and despite the issues related to widespread adoption of e-books, digital libraries are becoming a force to reckon with in the literary scene.

Every time new technologies are created, businesses are on the forefront in determining how these can be utilized to increase the efficiency of conducting business and therefore profits. The advent of internet technologies has to a large extent revolutionized organizational structures and operational structures. The internet revolution has greatly increased the ease with which organizational information can be transmitted from one place to another, all throughout the world. Be it within an organization or from an organization to its client base, the internet has transformed the process of doing business. Organizations have been offered unprecedented opportunities to re-think and transform their business models, processes and relationships in a manner that increases their chances of remaining profitable in a highly competitive environment. In this essay, the author discusses how e-markets have been responsible for redefining organizations.

Organizations which have embraced e-markets have, first of all, been able to radically change their supply chain and procurement procedures (Schnure, 2007). The level of communication between suppliers, retailers and manufacturers of goods and services has been greatly enhanced. Consequently, the cost of doing business has been significantly reduced since the cost of coordinating between the various parties which participate in a business endeavor has been greatly reduced (Schnure, 2007).  E-markets have had a great impact in the areas of marketing and organizational structure, and the impact is still continuing to exhibit itself.

Before the advent of e-markets, marketing of goods and services was done either through mail orders or the various forms of telemarketing available including telephone and telegram. However, e-marketing has greatly increased the efficiency of product marketing by organizations. Product and service information and pricing can now be directly transmitted to customers from all over the world in a manner that is both rich of all information required and also interactive (Sawyer,  Salazar, 2007). Many organizations have therefore been forced to re-think and modify their structures so as to reach new markets. As a result, organizations which have been operating on a wider scale with near-monopolistic advantages are at an increasing risk of losing their market niches to upcoming entrants. Focus has therefore been laid on beating competition emerging from already secured markets as well as in acquiring new markets.

E-markets have enabled imposed an ultimatum to many organizations to change so as to be compatible with the emerging technologies (Sawyer,  Salazar, 2007). In fact, the process has been as Charles Darwin stipulated to survive the onslaught of emerging technologies, companies have had to learn quickly and adapt, entrenching these technologies into their operations on a broad scale so as to remain competitive. E-markets have therefore offered organizations with the incentive to experiment in new products and services as well as business models, creating the need for strategic as well as structural changes (Sawyer,  Salazar, 2007). With these changes comes an overhaul of the processes that have been used to conduct business in the traditional context and a corresponding metamorphosis into entirely new operational structures.

E-markets are in essence new technologies, and the implementation of new technologies creates the need for new structures and approaches business in business (Whinston, Strader, Blanning,  Shaw, 2000). For example, the traditional methodologies of marketing products and services I have stated above follow rigid structures in contrast with the flexibility offered by e-markets. The structures of organizational units dealing with marketing will need to be transformed to some degree if the organization is in a period of transition from traditional (or conventional) markets to e-markets (Whinston, Strader, Blanning,  Shaw, 2000). New processes and approaches need to be put in place and so do new measurements of success and project viability.

E-markets have radically transformed the nature of work and the process of talent procurement and maintenance. They have increased competition in the global marketplace and organizations have had to reduce their numbers of staff to just the core essentials any other labor requirement is most likely remotely outsourced (Whinston, Strader, Blanning,  Shaw, 2000). These changes have created an upheaval in the labor markets and new opportunities as well. Organizations are consequently forced to restructure themselves as new risks emerge and new perspectives are required while thinking about human resource and compensation terms.

Workers in the new dispensation will need to be very flexible as the technology powering e-markets continues to evolve (Whinston, Strader, Blanning,  Shaw, 2000). Those with the need to secure permanent jobs in the traditional sense will need to develop the capacity to adapt to rapidly evolving technologies and many more will be forced to work from home. Organizations, while operating under this environment, will have to develop elaborate mechanisms to prize their core workers since they will be the most essential asset for their survival. Organizational structures will need to be reformed to cater for the nurturing of applicable skills and talents.

Finally, the e-market revolution is forcing many organizations to develop new sales models as the traditional marketplace gradually vanishes (Schnure, 2007). Advertising will change from the prevalent mass marketing to direct advertising. The process of receiving customer orders will be more and more based on the online system and the need for salesmen will be no more. On the average, e-markets are redefining organizations from all facets, and full impact is yet to be felt as new technologies continue to penetrate hitherto unreached markets.

Section 1

The internet consists of three main building blocks, these are transport protocol, Domain names and the hardware on the internet which may include servers, routers and client computers.

Transport protocol It is mainly mandated with establishing connections and ensuring data arrives safely to its destination. IT aids in moving packets from one node to another (PC MAG.COM)
Domain Names These are unique identification label that users enter into their browsers address bar in order to uniquely identify any WebPages and these domain names are assigned to IP addresses in which they are also used to translate those same IP addresses into human easy to remember format.

Internet Hardware These aids in the transmission of data packets among the different ISO layers, for instance, routers may be conveniently used to distribute information on wireless networks.

Latency This is the time it takes for a packet of data to rotate around the readwrite head.  This may interfere with internet functioning because it reduces the instantaneous transfer of data hence interfering with internet such as delay in loading web pages and other associated transactions such as e-mail delivery, payment processing e.t.c Whenever a webpage takes longer than usual to download, this disorientates the users performance which may make him switch to another site (Bruno, Robert, Jain, 2007, p.263).

Packet switching technology works by dividing messages into separate packets before they are sent to their destination, the packets are then sent individually and they may even follow different routes towards their destination, once they arrive at their destination, they are then automatically recompiled by the system into an original single message. This technology is ideal in expedient deliveries and it is mostly applicable for real time data such as live audio and video such as webcasts or video conferencing. A perfect example of circuit switching technology is an ordinary telephone line whereby a dedicated line is allocated for transmission between two different parties.

Transmission Control ProtocolInternet Protocol (TCPIP).
This is a communication standard between computers that is mainly used to transmit data over computer networks which may include both private and public networks. It is the de facto communication standards over the internet and it is built into the UNIX operating system.

It is a dual layer program and it is charged with assembling message files into some smaller packets in order for them to be transmitted over the internet and eventually to be received by a TCP layer resembling the packets into the original message. The Internet Protocol which is the lower layer, handless the addressing of the packets in order for them to get to proper destination. This concept embraces the clientserver model communication technology whereby the client computers request and is also provided a certain service by another computer within their same network (Douglas Comer, 2006).

Some of the application protocols that embrace the TCPIP concept to access the internet include, File transfer protocol (FTP), Simple mail transfer protocol (SMTP), File transfer protocol (FTP), Telnet among others.

However, there are some other protocols related to TCPIP such as the User datagram protocol (UDP) which in some circumstances is usually substituted with TCPIP.

WIFI  3G technology
Wi-Fi is basically 802.11 wireless Ethernet standards that have been designed to support wireless LANs while 3G on the other hand refers to collection of third generation mobile based technologies that enable mobile operators to offer integrated data and voice services over their networks (William  Lee, 2003).
Wi-Fi offers its end users some sorts of end-user centric decentralized approach to service provisioning while 3G technologies offers to the same users some sorts of vertically integrated, top-down service provider approach in delivering wireless internet connection (William  Lee, 2003).

Some of the similarities associated with these two technologies are, they are both wireless, they avoid cables and support mobility, this represents some significant cost saving due to the need of not installing or even reconfiguring a local distribution plant. Wireless technologies are easier to deploy to respond to the changing market dynamics.

3G and Wi-fi are both access technologies, they rely on similar network connections and the same transmission support infrastructure. In 3G the wireless link connects from the end users gadgets to cell base stations then the dedicated wire lines may aid in connecting the base stations to the operators network backbone hence to the internet cloud.

In Wi-Fi technology, the wireless technology in most cases is miles away from the end users to the base station which is connected to a wiredwireless LAN, then to the carriers network backbone hence the internet cloud.

Differences of Wi-Fi  3G
Their business models are different, 3G strives to upgrade existing mobile telephone services in order to expand capacity and add some value added services. End users are supplied a monthly bill as a recurring operating expense (Lindsay, McKnight  Lehr, 2002).

3G business concept is deployed on a top-down, vertically integrated and is also based on a centralized planning and operation and telecom operators already are offering the services as part of bundled service offerings mainly for the sake of taking advantages of price discrimination business strategies.
But in Wi-fi the end users are not directly charged for access and service is mainly provided free to the closed user community e.g. employees  students.

3G technology also uses some licensed spectrum while Wi-Fi uses unlicensed spectrum, this has an eventual cost implication in terms of cost of service, quality of service and congestion management, this is mainly because the cost of acquiring spectrum license represents a huge share of deploying 3G services while Wi-fi on the other hand only uses some share 2.4 GHz unlicensed shared spectrum.

3 G services are emerging slowly mainly due to the costs of acquiring 3G enabled handsets, this increases deployment costs while diminishing prospects for short term revenue while there is a large Wi-Fi base of networking equipments because vendors are pushing the home wireless networking  and at the same time, the commoditization of Wi-Fi equipments has already lowered the prices and simplified the installation and management of Wi-Fi networks hence making it feasible for non-techies to deploy these equipments (Dornan A, 2002).

SECTION 2

Electronic security breaches
Privacy incidence This may be defined as the loss of control. Compromise, unauthorized disclosure of a persons detail such as credit card and other related financial information falling into the hands of the wrong people unlawfully (DHS, 2007).

This particular situation is likely to arise when a user has recorded his financial related information in a computer system, the hacker manages to hack into his system, obtains his information and uses them in online purchases or effecting telegraphic transfers to some secret accounts. An identity may also be stolen when clients use less secure sites with no encryption  authentification technology such as the SSL signatures this makes his identity very vulnerable because traces  history of his online activities may be left un-cleared in a web browser which a hacker could easily exploit.

Spoofing Here a website may be created by some malicious personalityorganization with the main purpose of deceiving users that they are from the legitimate organization which may be the users bank, a non-suspecting user may then proceed and enter maybe some his personal details such as the credit card numbers, social security numbers, bank account details, title deed details which may eventually be used to commit some crime by wiring funds out of a users bank account either through telegraphic transfer, online credit card purchases, selling a persons property because you have some of his crucial details among others.

Public Key Cryptography
Cryptography may be defined as the science of using mathematical concepts to encrypt and decrypt data. This concept enables users to store or transmit sensitive information over insecure networks in order for the message not to be read by any unintended recipient. This technique works by integrating a mathematical function which is used in the encryption and decryption process. The mathematical function or rather the cryptographic algorithm works in a combination with a key, word, number or phrase to encrypt the plain text in which this same plain text encrypts to different ciphertext with different keys (Anoop MS)
There is the public key cryptography which uses some pairs of both public and private key for encryption. The public key encrypts data while its corresponding private key decrypts data.

Fig 1.0 Diagram depicting Public key encryption
One of its notable benefits is that anyone who has pre-existing security arrangement can exchange messages in a secure manner and both sender and receiver do not necessarily have to share secret key combination via some odd security channels.

There are also malicious codes which are basically computer programs developed with the sole intention of interfering with the normal operations of a computer system hence hampering e-commerce activities. These codes may be interested with a users general information, his financial information or his organizational based information. These codes include viruses, Trojan horses, worms, spywares, logic bomb e.t.c
Virus It is a computer program that copies itself into the different areas of a computers operating system while infecting the system, it is distributable on the network and medium such as floppydisks and may come in form of malware, adware or spyware.

Worms on the other hand are self replicating virus that resides in active memory of a computers operating system.

Challenges of e-payment
There are quite a number of challenges that are associated with international payments, to begin with there is the issue of security, most of the e-commerce shops available do not have a secure way of channeling money, it is only the well established brands such as e-bay, yahoo, ammazon.com and some few others that have a reputation for credibility. This makes clients to fear on the whereabouts of their financial information such as bank account details and credit card numbers.

Some countries especially the third world do not have a deeply entrenched financial system, this makes it absolutely hard for people from there to buy goods and services from western markets and vice versa. Also lack of creditdebit cards in these places is also hindering the growth of e-commerce.

There is the discrimination factor, some merchants only ship to some selected international destination which locks out the few from unfavored destinations whom well understand the benefits of e-commerce, but they are unable to participate, due to this particular discrimination of some selected key markets, which are likely to be Western Europe, north America, Japan and Asian tigers.

However, international merchant may protect themselves from repudiation by establishing a global brand that is reputable hence for any transaction they just charge upfront payments or full payments depending on the type of goods being sold. For instance, an organization like Papera traders (papera.com) which deals in second hand vehicles from Japan cannot charge full amount before a vehicle has been delivered to its port of arrival they can only charge for shipping and part of the payment in which once the vehicle has been confirmed as safely arrived at the port of entry the owner makes the remaining payment before he is issued logbooks and other documents such as bill of lading for the sake of clearing the car at his port of delivery. But when it comes to goods such as laptop computers these may be charged in full regardless of the location.

Exchange rates on the other hand, affect the cost of goods, for instance when a currency weakens, the prices of its goods on the international market becomes expensive, but when this particular currency weakens, the competing nations hosting their competitors, their currency do not necessarily weaken, this gives the competing nations some undue advantage because there goods may be 10-25 cheaper than their competitors and if this particular trend persists for some period of time, the merchant shop might even be closed to lay off or close shop.

However, when it comes to shipping charges, it is not likely to impact very much because most shipping companies have some somewhat similar charges which is based on the distance travelled by the ship and the bulkiness of the goods in which if it is expensive to ship certain products then the rule will apply to both parties which is indeed fair.

Whenever an international client makes some transactions from a US based account he is likely to find a lot of delays, this is because his credit card account has to be verified if it is genuine for the sake of countering money laundering and stolen identities. He is not likely to be given preferences  privileges because he is a non-American, privilege may involve rebates, after sales service and free delivery as long as you are residing on the lower 48 states. This means international clients are always overcharged because some parts of neighboring countries such as Mexico and Canada may be closer to the merchants headquarters  stores than some parts of the U.S, but these close parts of neighboring countries do not receive expedient and free shipping.

A2. Factors to consider when setting online sales operations
Advertisers should avoid placing online advertisement campaigns with a single ad containing several keywords in the advertisements. Advertisement campaigns should be organized by topics or themes or product brands or even by geographical considerations such that it is easier for a customer to locate a product without spending much in terms of on-store browsing. Keywords should be categorized together in order to place ads that target particular groups of customers. This assists in creating advert targeting and enhance the relevance of the ads. Another issue that should be considered is using the same structure for the campaigns in the websites. For instance, an online trader dealing with both tea and coffee should have separate campaigns for the two products and different accessories such as mugs and cups. Alternatively the commodities could be grouped by product lines and the keywords and ad text for the whole-bean coffee for instance placed in one campaign and the ground coffee placed in another (Lasica, 1998).

E-commerce sites should thus be placed in such a way that they provide the most relevant information in a precise manner to avoid too much expense in in-store browsing. Before setting up a store, a trader should organize the products and provide the customers with the easiest way to locate them. A trader can give intuitive links to various product categories and search functions to assist the customers retrace their moves in the website. The Website should be created in such a way that once a customer clicks the purchase button, the response is immediate to prevent wastage of time. This helps in maintaining the customers due to the certainty of the Website. The software and servers used in the Website should be able to handle the customers requests in the minimum time possible. The e-commerce provider should be in a position to accept the type of payment method used by customers in the transactions. This will make the payment process easy and also save time and expenses in in-store browsing (Chaudhury  Jean-Pierre, 2002).

B3. Digital media in customer relation management (CRM)
CRM is a company-wide business strategy created to minimize the costs and boost profitability by enhancing customer satisfaction, loyalty and advocacy. Digital media has been very effective in customer relation management particularly in the collection of information from data sources within a firm. There are many practical aspects that contribute to this success. Some of the practical success factors in using digital media in CRM include the availability of CRM management tools such as CRM.com and intouch.com. CRM.COM is a customer relation management and billing tool software that is web based. This automates and improves the entire customer relationship cycle in both B2C and B2B business relationships. This software supports he cycle from the sales to production both in post-paid and pre-paid transactions. The software is very useful in triple play billing in industries where multi service, package oriented and the promo based commodities are required to be flexible and fast. InTouch is another tool that contributes to the success of digital media in CRM. This is a highly powerful database and communication tool that assists firms to store customer contacts and then reach them through the email or SMS (Miller, 2002).

Other factors that contribute to the success of digital media in CRM include email campaigns and SMS marketing. Email campaigns enable business to communicate with their customers which is the core function of CRM. Through the use of digital media such as CRM.COM and InTouch communication tools, business firms are able to maintain the contacts of their customers. SMS marketing which is a fast growing trend in the current e-business world enables firms to send messages to their customers as a means of keeping them updated on the activities of the firm. This also contributes to the success of digital media in CRM for both B2B as well as B2C businesses (Beynon-Davies, 2000).

C2. Ethical issues associated with online advertisement
Traders place advertisements on the Internet due to the increasing popularity of the Internet in the world.  This is the major motivating factor of online advertisement. Online advertisements should however consider ethical issues in all aspects. Ethics include moral decisions made by people in relation to the rest in the society, standards of normal behavior and regulations controlling the behavior of people in a profession. Ethical issues in online advertisement include privacy and misuse of information, restriction to access of information and international standards. These issues could extend to electronic systems, electronic databases and geographical information systems. Some of the ethical considerations relevant in placement of online advertisements are  never waste peoples time by placing complex advertisement or unnecessary information in the ad. The ad should instead take minimum space and should be written clearly to prevent wastage of time (Paul, 2000).

When placing advertisement in the internet, traders should respect the policies of various networks. The networks that together form the Internet have various purposes and they permit diverse traffics to pass through. Traders placing advertisements should learn the policies, expectations and restriction of the networks they use to place their advertisement. Ethical issues of privacy should also be considered when placing online advertisements. Online advertisement may entail the use of social networking sites, email tools and browsing tools of different other websites. For some sites that assist online shopping, the users may be required to place private information such as credit card numbers. Traders should handle the information as stipulated by the privacy guidelines. They should consider whether the sites that collect private information from the users store or share it with other sites. The advertisement placed should bear sexually-explicit and pornographic material. In some nations, there are laws banning or restricting such material (Paul, 2000).

The importance of having effectively designed e-marketing strategy is to help achieve competitive advantage in e-commerce services. These strategies help the organizations to work towards achieving consistent trend of e-commerce transactions that support the entire business objectives and incorporate with marketing activities of other organizations.

Online retailers need to have a separate e-business and strategic models that are able to meet the following business requirements
Analyze the organizations strengths and weaknesses in relation to the opportunities and threats
Divided strategic development for formulation and assortment
Clearly stated visions and goals
The macro-environment of the internet

Demand analysis the actions of online customers such as preferences and taste changes, are the basic factors facilitating strategic objectives of e-marketing. This helps e-business organizations to evaluate the current rank and future projections of clients demand in order for them to create separate market segments as per the customer needs.

Competitor analysis E-business organizations normally compare the actions of any organization and those of its competitors in relation to different channels to achieve the following objectives the contribution of the business, the level of customer satisfaction, outcomes from the marketing activities, the behaviors of customers and promoting the site, therefore, for the organization to stay informed of the e-market situations, it should have distinctive strategies that can enable it to effective outcompete other organization.

The micro-environment of the internet
The demands of technology and legal constraints of the internet such as taxation and data privacy and online promotion, forces the need for e-commerce retailers to distinctively provide their services, with the attention of the future variations within the e-marketplaces.

Conclusion
E-business and strategic models need to be effective and constantly match the strengths and weaknesses of the organization as well as its opportunities and threats in the external environment.

The purpose of this paper is to explain 2 promotional strategies for Grandmas Treats. Further this paper also explains the CAM-SPAM Act and the legality and illegality of the law.

Among the various promotional strategies, available for implementation for Grandmas Treats, affiliate programs would be the most effective type of advertising. In affiliate programs the company affiliating with another has the chance to gain advantage and profit from the success of the company it has affiliated with. Mostly those companies who apply to be affiliates are aware of the affiliate company because they are already interested in the products they offer. Therefore affiliate programs by its nature cause the selection of areas of advertising that pertain to the product or service that the company offers.

Affiliate programs can be defines as programs which enable affiliates to increase their customer base and traffic and help the affiliates with increased sales (Site Nexus). Affiliate programs are based mostly on the basis of commission. Every time a new contract is secured or a sale is made by the affiliate, the affiliate is given commission (Harris).  This means that, no amount of payment is fixed. The payment will depend upon performance. As a result this meets the needs of the companies, i.e. cost effectiveness.

Every program selected must be effective if it is to succeed. The effectiveness of the affiliate program depends on amount of traffic that the affiliates receive on their web sites. However, just having traffic is not enough. The advertisement must be appealing enough, that the traffic coming on the website click on the link of the advertisement.

It is not as if affiliates can be found over night. In fact the company, who want affiliates, must first advertise about their intention to start an affiliate program on their website. This will attract companies who are interested and finally a strong affiliate program can start and go from strength to strength.

Like, everything cannot be successful similarly the least effective method of advertising would be via email. The first reason is basically a social reason. In todays world direct email advertising is considered as spam email. Spam emails take up space in the email inbox of the users and are a source of annoyance for the user, because they have not asked to be sent the emails. Moreover, users mostly mark advertising emails from companies to go directly into the Junk Mail box  (Spam abuse). This means they wont even read it.

Moreover, this frustration associated with spam email means the person has it in his mind about the unsolicited email sent by the company. This can result in the person removing his frustration by not buying the companys product. So this can do more harm than good. Only when the user has asked to be emailed will this strategy be useful.

As far as choosing a strategy for Grandmas Treat is concerned, I believe that the affiliate program is the best, because Grandmas Treat has a very narrow target audience. Affiliate programs work well when the target audience is narrowed down (Gardyne, 2003).  Grandmas Treat sells sugar free stuff hence they are targeting diabetic people. The affiliate program will work towards expanding the marketing of their product, every time a new customer joins.

By offering different incentives (such as buy one get on free etc) Grandmas treat will ensure that, not only are their existing customers retained but they will get new customers as well. This will happen when existing customers talk about Grandmas Treat to their friends and family as well as by using web site advertising that points to the Grandmas Treats web site. Moreover if the website is updated frequently and new incentives are also given the affiliate program will help a lot (100 best affiliate programs).

Likewise, certain strategies will not be appropriate for Grandmas Treat. Target market is one of them. Grandmas Treats products are purchased by people for reason that they would not like to openly discuss. Moreover in target market, Grandmas Treat will have to obtain a list of the people they want to target. This becomes difficult because, for example in case of people who are dieting, the company with whom these people have their dieting programs will not give out their customers information unless the customer has given permission. This makes it difficult and expensive.

The CAM-SPAM Act is a law that basically tells the people what is considered as acceptable spamming and what the penalties of unacceptable spamming are. Many people are against this act because they consider it as, giving permission to a spammer to go ahead and do spamming.

According to this act, spamming is legal within the definition of legal spamming. But this is not enough. Some other conditions must also be met. Firstly, legal spam must include an option of opting out from receiving the emails for the receiver  (Bick). The opt out requests must be fulfilled within 10 days.

Secondly, the source lines must be accurate and not source names. Moreover, the subject line must not be misleading and must include the real physical address of the sender of the email. Likewise, the content should have proper rating (Bick).

It can be easily be seen that, this act was difficult to prepare. It had to be such that it allowed advertising, but did not have any loop holes, which could be exploited by unscrupulous elements. It had to ensure no illegal activity was done. Moreover, it was important to protect the rights of the receiver, in that he can avoid receiving such spam mail.

Taking everything into account I would agree with the way the CAN-SPAM act was written. However, I disagree with the lack of enforcement of the Act and I believe that enforcement of this law is as important as any other law.

A1. Some providers of financial products, such as insurance policies, are happy to allow their products to be offered by independent comparison sites, (such as Moneysupermarket), while others (such as Directline) insist potential customers visit their sites directly. Critically evaluate the merits of both approaches, taking into account both online branding and intermediationdisintermediation, and using real-world examples to support your arguments.

Website comparison services cover a broad array of products. Consumers can get a comparative analysis of the various products being sold by different lenders. A buyer can see the price in the Internet and he will be aware whether he thinks the price mentioned is worth or not. It will provide full details of the costs of different companies and the quality of those products as well. It will help shoppers in doing the research work faster and makes them to do the shopping without going to different sites and different companies. On the other hand, visiting the sites directly gives the customer control on how the order gets routed to the various exchanges. Its just the customer and the market. Consumers directly buy products and services from a seller interactively in real-time without an intermediary service over the HYPERLINK httpen.wikipedia.orgwikiInternet o InternetInternet. There is immediate interaction unlike when you surf through a comparison site.

In directly purchasing a product, word of mouth has become a leading way by which people find shopping websites. When an online shopper has a good first experience with a certain website, sixty percent of the time they will return to that website to buy more.

With the advent and proliferation of the Internet, many aspects of business and market activities are changing. New forms of intermediation also called cybermediaries are becoming increasingly important as a coordinator of interaction between buyers and sellers in the electronic market environment. However consumers can always buy directly without intermediaries. For example, theycould buy books online directly from publishers who would ship the books directly from their printing plants. Authors can sell e-books directly to the consumer.

Branding plays an integral part behind a companys success. As in real life scenarios, a brand is the companys identity on the web and differentiates it from its competitors. Online branding decides the perception of targeted audience towards a companys e-commerce store. Consumers who rely on a particular brand wont need to do site comparisons. The customer visits the site directly.

B3. Discuss what the practical success factors are in using digital media in Customer Relationship Management (CRM), contrasting B2C and B2B relationships, supporting your answer with real-world examples.

The emergence of e-Marketplaces is causing new trading relationships to be established based upon highly competitive commercial terms. Nonetheless, for trading to commence some prior negotiations need to be undertaken between the business partners. Aside from commercial conditions, there are other matters of product quality and delivery that need to be addressed. Equally the process is driven by recognized business transactions and the supplier will most certainly demand a purchase order from the buyer to initiate the supply of goods. In business-to-consumer (B2C) markets the retailer is expected to handle many thousands of spontaneous purchasing transactions from equal numbers of anonymous consumers for which no prior commercial relationship necessarily existed. In other words, a consumer may never have purchased from the retailer previously, and certainly no preconditions existed prior to the consumer committing to the transaction by selecting the submit key on their Web browser. Since no prior commercial arrangements exist, sellers are naturally concerned to authenticate the buyer or limit their commercial risk. A fraudulent order from a non- existing customer could result in significant business resources being consumed or diverted from a genuine customer. For this reason e-tailers normally insist upon payment with order, typically by credit card, as a condition of doing business over the Internet.

B2B CRM is probably older and more established than consumer or B2C CRM, primarily because even before computers made it possible, sales reps would keep records of individual contacts, because it was worth it to do so. The difference between relationship management within the B2C space and within in B2B space is that in B2B you have just a few large customers, big organizations. And that means the statistical tools that are useful in B2C CRM are largely not relevant in B2B CRM. Another point is that, In the B2B world the channel distribution process can be extremely complex. You can have value added resellers in the IT business, for example, or you can have installers, enablers -- lots of people at different gates between the marketer and the customer.

C3. A major issue in the success of B2C retailing is consumer confidence in the security of their personal data, especially financial data, submitted to the online retailer.  Describe the threats to which online transactions are vulnerable, and discuss what controls (both technical and organisational) the retailer can deploy to counter these, balancing your discussion with  what consumers should do to protect their data, illustrating your answer with appropriate real-world examples.

Exchanging sensitive information on the internet without the appropriate security measures can make a company, as well as their clients and employees, vulnerable to phishing activities, online scams and identity theft. Security vulnerabilities typically arise in shopping cart and online payment systems because most web application developers are not well versed with secure programming techniques. Here are three of the most common vulnerabilities B2C retailers have to face

SQL  injection refers to the inclusion of SQL characters in the user input. While the user keys in the right information, it will be the attacker who queries the backend  database, and receives the correct response while the user receives an error message.  SQL injection techniques vary depending on the type of database being used. The most popular occurrences of SQL injections were on the ecommerce sites of Guess, and Petco.

Price manipulation is a vulnerability which is unique to shopping carts and payment gateways. Typically, the total payable price for purchased goods is stored in a hidden HTML and is sent to the payment gateway. Attackers can change the HTML field containing the final payable price and may go unnoticed if the volume of transactions is high. This vulnerability can be found in third party software such as 3D3 ShopFactory Shopping Cart and Smartwin Technologys CyberOffice Shopping Cart 2.0.

Buffer overflows involve the sending of large number of bytes which cannot be handled by a web application. This usually returns an error which contains the path of functions used by the database to process queries. Once this happens, attackers can now access the restricted admin folder and modify them according to their purpose. Multiple buffer overflows has been noted with software such as the PDGSoft Shopping Cart.

Fortunately, there are many ways that a company can secure its database. First level protection can involve the frequent changing of the password, and the use of unidentifiable keyword combinations. Many websites require their members to input alphanumeric combinations. Most passwords are case sensitive, and cannot be the same as the userid. Moreover, there are certain sites which prohibit the use of identifiable words as password. There are also several authentication methods which can be used by the site. Some of these include out-of-band authentication, adaptive authentication, software and hardware based one-time passwords.

Secure websites and pages will feature two important conditions that indicate they are using encryption technology and a 128-bit Secure Socket Layer certificates. This is indicated by https (letters after the http portion of the URL), and means that the server is a secure one. Microsoft Windows also offers an alert that relays a message indicating whether information over the network is secure. For customers, it is important that they check if the company they are dealing with is offering a safe checkout process. This is typically indicated by the VeriSign and TrustE logo. Companies can also signup with the Better Business Bureau to get privacy policy seals and enhance the sites credibility. Also, sites which require the input of credit card information and checking account information must have a padlock icon which ensures that the site has been assigned the authority to accept secure and protected information.

Many of the potential concerns that surround the safety of online shopping have been resolved by online payment services. The premier service of this type for example is PayPal, which has set the benchmarks for secure Internet transactions and ease of use. When purchasing something using PayPal, users simply carry out the transaction through their PayPal accounts, rather than a credit card. PayPal then charges each purchase to the individuals credit card or checking account. Because all PayPal transactions are based on the users e-mail address, and all payment processing is through the PayPal merchants never have access and store the users account information.

Wondering about how to start as an entrepreneur The process involved in starting a new business isnt rocket science for sure. What seems difficulty is the procedure one must follow eventually With technology booming like nobodys business the best possible way to make things work in ones favor would be to take advantage of something known as the internet. Lets start with the basics of starting with a business. First and foremost make sure that your capital is in place and device a business plan which answers the five important questions namely- who, where, when, why, and how What is essential for a business in any genre is the method you follow to accomplish the task of detailing the competition and forming a marketing plan to establish the companys proposed plans.

What can make life simpler would be to get hold of a web designer who can help you write the content and design a decent website since technology is what drives growth these days. Every company which aims at being successful someday, as far as the present scenario is concerned, understands the concept of marketing through the internet.

What takes the cake is that nowadays every single detail can be uploaded on the internet to give a better perspective about a firms services catering to various customers. Choose the business structure in a manner which appeals to everyone you are trying to cater to. Get all the licenses and permits and include them on the website so that people are aware about the authenticity of your organization. Prefer email marketing over anything else to ensure that the best deals are available for your organisation and you reap the benefits of good opportunities. Build upon your site traffic through advertisements, offline marketing, direct mailing, video and audio podcast.

You might end up collecting all the data possible of clients you would like to cater to but what is essential is to keep them updated about your companys growth as well. Send useful information maybe through a newsletter. The main aim of performing this exercise would be to turn prospect clients into permanent clients and then into ambassadors for the company or any of your products. Something as beautiful as sending designed virtual invitations or cards through emails also works wonders in keeping a tab on the responses you get from customers. The most vital thing would be to do a thorough research on your competitors and analyse their growth graph which will help you in determining yours.

Steps seem simple but what you need to be careful about are certain simple complications. Make sure that the website is designed in such a way that it does not derogate anybody elses business plans. Check for all developments in the internet world and keep refreshing your website pages to help get more people attracted towards your offerings and products. Hackers wont pose many problems once you learn how to play safe. And keep the spirit going, as there is no end to what might turn out to be lucky for you. Be safe while enhancing upon your online business because along with being the best tool available these days it might harm in a small way.  

Introduction of Business
Company X specializes in the production of electronic spare parts especially spare parts that are used in computers and its peripherals. Thus, this company can improve its position and operations through utilization of e-commerce (Latimer,  CCH Australia Limited, 2008). The architecture of the new e-commerce suite may be called collective architecture that is able to take into consideration various areas that includes catalog, content and checkout allows it to be utilized by different delivery channels through means such a email software and storefronts (Schneider, 2008). This means that the new architecture allows for channel management requirements such as promotions, store administration and content management. This type of architecture could provide a foundation that presents duplication of data (master point of data and no consistency) and cross-organization chimneys, and hence ensures general efficiency of the site. Moreover, the new technology is capable of replacing features such as CRM  ERP.

Applications Needed
E-commerce is a technology that requires numerous hardware and software components to ensure the requirements of e-commerce are achieved. Some common and important applications that could play a major role include

Database software  current consumer requirements is increasing and they require different means that allows for payments and accessing the required information.

Website  designing and features of a website defines the extent in which an e-commerce approach could be successful.

Security software  this application champions on security and privacy measures. It ensures that confidentiality of information is maximized while negating threats associated with e-commerce activities (Schneider, 2008).

Appropriate Interfaces and Necessary Standards
Experience is crucial for consumers who access general websites and there is special requirement for consumers who utilize e-commerce websites during the time of purchase. This is because a poor consumer experience may result in frustration during shopping, difficulty in moving around the website, resulting in loss of sales.

Difference with current application
Advancement in technology and organizational requirements shapes the way a product is viewed and its contribution towards fulfilling organizational requirements (Rich, 2008). E-commerce systems require high-level security measures. Many people especially hackers and eavesdroppers looks for means to access information regarding other companies or gain financialmonetary system. Moreover, information stored in these systems require high levels of privacy and confidentiality. Generally, it means that the security requirements should be of high standards. In the traditional and other applications, security is not an important requirement since these is no confidential or private information that is stored (Rich, 2008).
Another issue that makes it different is adaptability, functionality and operation of the e-commerce requirements. E-commerce requires centralization of data and hence requires a large storage means (Schneider, 2008). Moreover, the storage media should be capable to back up details to ensure that in the cause of any eventualities, the information and data can be retrieved. Traditional systems usually have small amounts of information and data, and hence usually require small amount of storage. In addition, e-commerce information should be stored for a longer period comparative to current systems that does not require long term (Latimer,  CCH Australia Limited, 2008).

E-commerce site should be secure and easily updated. Many organizations present information on their websites and due to competition, the prices keep fluctuating (Darie  Watson, 2009). This means that information posted ion the website should easily be updated while ensuring high levels of security (Latimer,  CCH Australia Limited, 2008). In the case of current systems, information can stay for long periods while issues of website security are minimal. It generally means that a website that is easily updatable and has high level of security should be utilized in e-commerce transaction (Darie  Balanescu, 2008).

Benefits
Some of the benefits associated with this new e-commerce architecture includes
It allows a favorable and convenient means or moving to a new e-commerce platform when compared to current e-commerce technologies.

This new architecture provides a means in which back end systems can operate together. This means that it provides foundation in which components can easily be swapped out and swapped in without interfering with the operational integrity.

It allows means for innovation it has numerous business specific services and brand definition and these features can be easily developed in house.

The architecture can allow commoditization of service, and these services can be outsourced e.g. customer reviews and payment processing (Darie  Balanescu, 2008).

It reduces the periods in which e-commerce functionality can be marketed (Darie  Watson, 2009). This means that the marketing and business department may require changes in certain functionality and should be implemented by IT department, but the information technology will not be required to deliver since the service already exists within the architecture. Hence, the e-commerce architecture allows for consumption and utilization of the services available (Latimer,  CCH Australia Limited, 2008).

Measurements of benefits
Metrics should clearly be developed that would be utilized to measure the success of e-commerce initiatives. The metrics should be based on business functions and units of individual sectors of an organization (Latimer,  CCH Australia Limited, 2008). This means that it is paramount to monitor both the specific aspects of e-commerce and the overall performance of e-commerce. Different techniques and tools can be utilized to measures the success of e-commerce may include polls and online surveys to determine whether this initiative improves on revenue generation or operates like other e-commerce sites. After the collection of data from this perspective, statistical approaches can be utilized to analyze the data that may include multiple regressions so that validity of the site can be understood (Darie  Balanescu, 2008). Utilization of these measures could determine whether the new e-commerce strategy is beneficial to the organization.

Generally, e-commerce applications come with different requirements and capability to accomplish e-commerce requirements. An example of such technology is the collective architecture that integrates different organization functions into ensuring the organization revenues are championed with profitability is maximized. The new architecture comes with numerous benefits that can be measured through utilization of online survey and polls, and later analyzed by the use of statistical tools such as multiple-regressions.

E-business which means electronic business is the process of conducting business activities on the Internet, which is not only to the conventional buying and selling, but includes servicing customers, managing relationships and collaborating with other business partners, such as suppliers. It can be thought of as information technology based Business Process Re-engineering.

Super-Pride Investments was a company founded by Jimmy Berry, with a core purpose of offering computing solutions such as computer sales, repair and maintenance, computer training, assembling, internet access, networking and computing consultancy. The company targeted the local market since it was opened in 2002 it has grown from a simple office to enigma in the computing field, boasting of more than twenty branches in the countries major towns. With no clear cut policy on adopting technology and innovations , the firm utilized the technology of yesteryears, for example, it was not uncommon to find the employees of the firm using Pentium one computers, utilizing Disk Operating System while elderly  fax and telephones,  this affected the operations of the company due to low employee performance, coupled with the increasing market competition, the company suffered several challenges such as poor communication within the employees, poor communication with the customers, with collaborating firms and even within the management. The effects were immense such as reduced customer loyalty and financial losses which prompted the owner to hire a professional consultancy firm, to recommend a remedy to the situation which was getting out of hand.

The consultancy firm having analyzed the firm, realized that the chief cause to the under performance of the company was poorineffective communication within the organization, within the different branches, with the customers and suppliers, with other collaborating companies and with the government agencies, this was chiefly caused by the utilization of legacy communication systems which were time bared. He therefore recommended that the company adopts electronic business by implementing an open source based collaboration functionality such as Bricolage which is a Content management system, EtherPad which is a Collaborative drafting with chat, Wiggio system which is focused on simplicity - group communication and content management toolkit, phpGroupWare which includes a project collaboration module and Plone which is a powerful, flexible Content Management that is Enterprise and web 2.0 tools for effective communication.

Migration plan 
Due to the apparent obsolescence of the legacy systems being used by the firm, there was need to migrate to the new collaborative communication system.  As argued by Tayntor (2007) the first step involves the requirement specification, where the firm shall develop the expected deliverables of the new system, this shall

Impacts to the organization 
The implementation of the collaborative communication system has several impacts in the organization, the impacts range from implementation process, impacts to the departments, stakeholder impacts total impacts to the entire organization, employment impacts, impact on information access, impacts on the individual employee and impacts and financial impacts. As regards to impacts during implementation,  the collaborative e-business system, shall require the firms members to arrive on to an agreement on which e-business system to implements, for example whether the system should be open source based, or whether it shall be implemented, by use of proprietary software. The members should also arrive at a conclusion on the specific type of the software to be used, this requires intense consultations, and therefore results to restructuring of the organization to utilize the new implemented communication structure, the e-business system therefore results to organizational restructuring.

The system also impacts on the departments and branches in the organization. Since the e-business implementation shall encourage communication between the different aspects of the organization as pointed out by Chaffey (2006), challenges and difficulties encountered in the different departments and branches in the organizations shall be availed within a click of a button to all concerned parties, hence improving the departmental performances hence improving the total organizations output. The system also has impacts on the stakeholders, this includes the business owners, the customers, the collaborating firms and the employees, since information access shall be fostered and improved, and this shall in the end affect the relationship between all the stakeholders. Whereas the systems have high initial set up costs, the system in the long run shall effectively lower the running costs in terms of communication. On employment and employees, the system shall provide opportunities for persons conversant with the technology to be employed, will improving the technical understanding of the new technology to other employees in the firm. The system shall also alter the employment dynamics in the industry, as more open source experts shall have to be hired, in order to achieve the success in the development and deployment of the collaborative system. This shall also affect the firm members work patterns and responsibility since, their work delivery and communication shall be web based. The members shall also have diverse information in their finger tips, hence enabling them to make informed decisions.

Changes to infrastructure 
Implementation of the e-business in envisioned offering a complete alteration to the firms total infrastructure in areas such as application infrastructure. This will require an overhaul of the operating environment in order to suit the new collaborative system, such as alteration of the physical environment like cabling, altering the office structure to suit the new system and the furniture in the working environment. The data management infrastructure in concerned with effects on the way the organization organizes, manages, retrieves and utilizes the available data. For example, the collaborative system shall enable the organization to outsource non core functions and commodity services, therefore the infrastructure shall be altered to accept communication with several parties.

Benefits of the e-business collaboration system
Workflows can be streamlined, this is because there shall be a centralized common system for communication in the entire organization, the collaboration system involves all the firms members communicating their needs and activities, and this shall help to ensure that there is a synchronized information flow, hence synchronizing the operations of the organizations. This can be measured by the quality of information it the organization as argued by Kimmons (1989), which must be accurate, Accuracy is concerned with data being sufficiently accurate for the intended use and should be captured only once, even if there exists several uses and should  be captured at the point of activity, the Validity of data is important, where data should be recorded and used in compliance with relevant requirements easy to comprehend by all the concerned parties, and the information should be supported by evidence to avoid repudiation Redundant data entry can be eliminated, the implementation of the system, shall ensure that validation procedures are used so that data is  data shall only be entered once from  any office or branch, this eliminates the existence of data redundancies as argued by Mochal (2007), existence on non duplicated and uniform information in all the branches and departments shall be used to gauge the effectiveness of the benefit, this is in addition to the fact that Information can be shared quickly and easily between departments and branch offices. In addition the online collaboration shall ensure that projects can stall be effectively be implemented even if the organization has different branches located in distant locations, this is ensured by the fact that persons can effectively communicate.  Moreover it helps to save on the available office space, since the firm members can hold online meetings rather than in a physical location. The system shall also enable the company to get up to date market information and utilize the information to gain competitive advantage, which can be measured by how effectively the organization utilizes the available information to beat market competition. Timeliness and reliability of the data is the main measurement metric.

Identify major risks
According to Greer (2002),  risk are future uncertain events with a probability of occurrence and a potential for loss, There exist several risks in the implementation of the project such  as schedule Risk, where the  project tasks and schedule release risks are insufficiently gathered for, this can cause ripple effects on the on the collaboration project and in the entire firm, this can lead to project failure,  this is usually caused by improper time estimation, inefficient resource tracking, and unexpected project scope and alterations, this can be minimized by  having a proper time plan, which should be adhered to . Financial and budget risks caused by unforeseen expenditure and improper budget estimation, with limited resources by the firm to gather for the extra costs, this can be minimized by having monetary contingency plans. Operational risks which can be caused by ineffective process implementation or some unforeseen external situations, failure to resolve responsibilities and poor team communication and resource utilization can be minimized by having a proper chain of command and span of control in the project implementation team.  Technical risks are another type of risks, which involves functionality of the system this may be caused by extremely complex project implementation, lack of proper technology and too much modularization.  Another risk is Programmatic Risks which as argued by Kerzner (2009) are risks beyond the scope of the project management team, can be minimized by having a provision for unpredicted situations.

Question two
Contributions made are about the concern of customers as it relates to personal data used in banking services, whereas banks are at the forefront to assure the clients that all is well with their records, critical examination of the same reveals otherwise. The existence of several data breaches in banks records worried customers that their personal data may be compromised, analysis have shown that more than records of ten banks are compromised annually worldwide, however, analysis reveals that this represents a small percentage of the entire banks in the world and that the breach rates have not reached alarming ratios, and  therefore. The unaffected banks just hope that they will not be the next victim of the attack and that the clients have no cause to worry. Analysis further reveals that the banking sector is a signatory to several legislations which ensures that banks have legal obligations to implement data security procedures, past researches have however the sufficiency of the obligations since whereas the banks may maintain the legal obligations, there may be elements such as hackers, former employees or organized underground software criminals who may maneuver and compromise the established procedures.

The client data is also in safe haven since there is regulatory supervision the bankers argue that their activities are generally subject to regulatory supervision by the Central Bank. In most countries however, central banks lack the capability and resources to effectively monitor and regulate the baking sector, the information about clients in the banks database can therefore be compromised intentionally for the benefit of the bank, without the realization of the regulating authority.  Technology changes also can be a cause to worry, whereas there may exist laws and regulations, banks may be using technologies e.g. encryption technologies that can be compromised by the current advanced decryption techniques, cases have existed such as in the HSBC private banking client accounts breach, where allegedly a former Information Technology employee compromised the records. According to the investigating experts, the relationship manager was rated as the weakest link since they have massive access to all the customers information.

In addition, banks have been sending unencrypted messages to the clients, this offers a possibility of compromising the information, by cyber stalking, moreover banks fail to inform and warn the clients the dangers of sending unprotected emails. The fact that security comes with a cost such as affecting on system performance and efficiency, as well as diverting the resources from the core objectives, has made some banks to compromise on security at the expense of improving system performance, this coupled with the high demand for confidential data has complicated the issues further for the banks, since there are underground organized criminals who utilize the stolen data.

The banks on the hand, have taken several steps to ensure that client information is kept confidential and safe, this includes the reduction use of recovery point objective, which is the duration of time at which systems and data must be recovered after a compromise, and recovery time objective which is the duration during which applications should be recovered after a compromise, so as to minimize the effects of the loss. Several banks have also implemented continuous data protection (CDP) where data are updated and backed up on regular basis. These are be used with policies and procedures aimed at improving data integrity and avoiding compromising of data, these policies include the limiting of the number of persons who can access the customers data, having clearly stipulated procedures on safeguarding the data and information of the customers, and ensuring that the data and information are backed up on regular basis.  Banks have also utilized tested, proven and reliable systems such as Database management systems, which are immune to flows and bugs, banks have avoided the use of cheaper systems which can be easily be compromised, but rather utilized reliable object oriented databases whose security can be guaranteed, this is in addition to using the latest security and encryptions technologies, and investing in the latest software and hardware. However, from the above from the above analysis, it is therefore apparent that whereas banks have immensely invented on the security of client data, several breaches have been reported, it is therefore evident the security of the customers data in the banks database cannot be hundred percent guaranteed, clients therefore have a cause of alarm.  

Question 3

What is the effectiveness of the application of e-business in reverse auction
The question above deserves further research and is interesting because it presents knowledge and ideas, which are in contrast to the universal belief on the on how the market operates, this question deserves research in order to obtain how effective e-business can be in a situation where the purchaser advertises that they require certain goods and services, and the suppliers place bids on what they expect to be paid in order to supply the good, or offer the service, in reverse auction there are several dynamics which influences the outcomes of the transactions, unlike conventional auctions where the factors influencing the market and the transaction can easily be determined, this calls for a further study, in order to establish the correlation, between the conventional factors, affection conventional auctions and the factors influencing reverse auction. Moreover, the practicality of the reverse auction, and the convenient situation, in which the auction can be applied is a question which demands further research..

To achieve the above, the research method involved is case study research, where an in depth investigation shall be carried out in a small representative sample population, in order to determine the underlying principles of the entire population, this shall involve the use of structured questionnaires, where the chosen respondents such as reverse action providers, purchasers and sellers shall be given questionnaires, and their responses analyzed for correlation, by use of statistical software such as STATA and SPSS.

Question one
E-business which means electronic business is the process of conducting business activities on the Internet, which is not only to the conventional buying and selling, but includes servicing customers, managing relationships and collaborating with other business partners, such as suppliers. It can be thought of as information technology based Business Process Re-engineering.

Super-Pride Investments was a company founded by Jimmy Berry, with a core purpose of offering computing solutions such as computer sales, repair and maintenance, computer training, assembling, internet access, networking and computing consultancy. The company targeted the local market since it was opened in 2002 it has grown from a simple office to enigma in the computing field, boasting of more than twenty branches in the countries major towns. With no clear cut policy on adopting technology and innovations , the firm utilized the technology of yesteryears, for example, it was not uncommon to find the employees of the firm using Pentium one computers, utilizing Disk Operating System while elderly  fax and telephones,  this affected the operations of the company due to low employee performance, coupled with the increasing market competition, the company suffered several challenges such as poor communication within the employees, poor communication with the customers, with collaborating firms and even within the management. The effects were immense such as reduced customer loyalty and financial losses which prompted the owner to hire a professional consultancy firm, to recommend a remedy to the situation which was getting out of hand.

The consultancy firm having analyzed the firm, realized that the chief cause to the under performance of the company was poorineffective communication within the organization, within the different branches, with the customers and suppliers, with other collaborating companies and with the government agencies, this was chiefly caused by the utilization of legacy communication systems which were time bared. He therefore recommended that the company adopts electronic business by implementing an open source based collaboration functionality such as Bricolage which is a Content management system, EtherPad which is a Collaborative drafting with chat, Wiggio system which is focused on simplicity - group communication and content management toolkit, phpGroupWare which includes a project collaboration module and Plone which is a powerful, flexible Content Management that is Enterprise and web 2.0 tools for effective communication.

Migration plan 
Due to the apparent obsolescence of the legacy systems being used by the firm, there was need to migrate to the new collaborative communication system.  As argued by Tayntor (2007) the first step involves the requirement specification, where the firm shall develop the expected deliverables of the new system, this shall

Impacts to the organization 
The implementation of the collaborative communication system has several impacts in the organization, the impacts range from implementation process, impacts to the departments, stakeholder impacts total impacts to the entire organization, employment impacts, impact on information access, impacts on the individual employee and impacts and financial impacts. As regards to impacts during implementation,  the collaborative e-business system, shall require the firms members to arrive on to an agreement on which e-business system to implements, for example whether the system should be open source based, or whether it shall be implemented, by use of proprietary software. The members should also arrive at a conclusion on the specific type of the software to be used, this requires intense consultations, and therefore results to restructuring of the organization to utilize the new implemented communication structure, the e-business system therefore results to organizational restructuring.

The system also impacts on the departments and branches in the organization. Since the e-business implementation shall encourage communication between the different aspects of the organization as pointed out by Chaffey (2006), challenges and difficulties encountered in the different departments and branches in the organizations shall be availed within a click of a button to all concerned parties, hence improving the departmental performances hence improving the total organizations output. The system also has impacts on the stakeholders, this includes the business owners, the customers, the collaborating firms and the employees, since information access shall be fostered and improved, and this shall in the end affect the relationship between all the stakeholders. Whereas the systems have high initial set up costs, the system in the long run shall effectively lower the running costs in terms of communication. On employment and employees, the system shall provide opportunities for persons conversant with the technology to be employed, will improving the technical understanding of the new technology to other employees in the firm. The system shall also alter the employment dynamics in the industry, as more open source experts shall have to be hired, in order to achieve the success in the development and deployment of the collaborative system. This shall also affect the firm members work patterns and responsibility since, their work delivery and communication shall be web based. The members shall also have diverse information in their finger tips, hence enabling them to make informed decisions.

Changes to infrastructure 
Implementation of the e-business in envisioned offering a complete alteration to the firms total infrastructure in areas such as application infrastructure. This will require an overhaul of the operating environment in order to suit the new collaborative system, such as alteration of the physical environment like cabling, altering the office structure to suit the new system and the furniture in the working environment. The data management infrastructure in concerned with effects on the way the organization organizes, manages, retrieves and utilizes the available data. For example, the collaborative system shall enable the organization to outsource non core functions and commodity services, therefore the infrastructure shall be altered to accept communication with several parties.

Benefits of the e-business collaboration system
Workflows can be streamlined, this is because there shall be a centralized common system for communication in the entire organization, the collaboration system involves all the firms members communicating their needs and activities, and this shall help to ensure that there is a synchronized information flow, hence synchronizing the operations of the organizations. This can be measured by the quality of information it the organization as argued by Kimmons (1989), which must be accurate, Accuracy is concerned with data being sufficiently accurate for the intended use and should be captured only once, even if there exists several uses and should  be captured at the point of activity, the Validity of data is important, where data should be recorded and used in compliance with relevant requirements easy to comprehend by all the concerned parties, and the information should be supported by evidence to avoid repudiation Redundant data entry can be eliminated, the implementation of the system, shall ensure that validation procedures are used so that data is  data shall only be entered once from  any office or branch, this eliminates the existence of data redundancies as argued by Mochal (2007), existence on non duplicated and uniform information in all the branches and departments shall be used to gauge the effectiveness of the benefit, this is in addition to the fact that Information can be shared quickly and easily between departments and branch offices. In addition the online collaboration shall ensure that projects can stall be effectively be implemented even if the organization has different branches located in distant locations, this is ensured by the fact that persons can effectively communicate.  Moreover it helps to save on the available office space, since the firm members can hold online meetings rather than in a physical location. The system shall also enable the company to get up to date market information and utilize the information to gain competitive advantage, which can be measured by how effectively the organization utilizes the available information to beat market competition. Timeliness and reliability of the data is the main measurement metric.

Identify major risks
According to Greer (2002),  risk are future uncertain events with a probability of occurrence and a potential for loss, There exist several risks in the implementation of the project such  as schedule Risk, where the  project tasks and schedule release risks are insufficiently gathered for, this can cause ripple effects on the on the collaboration project and in the entire firm, this can lead to project failure,  this is usually caused by improper time estimation, inefficient resource tracking, and unexpected project scope and alterations, this can be minimized by  having a proper time plan, which should be adhered to . Financial and budget risks caused by unforeseen expenditure and improper budget estimation, with limited resources by the firm to gather for the extra costs, this can be minimized by having monetary contingency plans. Operational risks which can be caused by ineffective process implementation or some unforeseen external situations, failure to resolve responsibilities and poor team communication and resource utilization can be minimized by having a proper chain of command and span of control in the project implementation team.  Technical risks are another type of risks, which involves functionality of the system this may be caused by extremely complex project implementation, lack of proper technology and too much modularization.  Another risk is Programmatic Risks which as argued by Kerzner (2009) are risks beyond the scope of the project management team, can be minimized by having a provision for unpredicted situations.

Question two
Contributions made are about the concern of customers as it relates to personal data used in banking services, whereas banks are at the forefront to assure the clients that all is well with their records, critical examination of the same reveals otherwise. The existence of several data breaches in banks records worried customers that their personal data may be compromised, analysis have shown that more than records of ten banks are compromised annually worldwide, however, analysis reveals that this represents a small percentage of the entire banks in the world and that the breach rates have not reached alarming ratios, and  therefore. The unaffected banks just hope that they will not be the next victim of the attack and that the clients have no cause to worry. Analysis further reveals that the banking sector is a signatory to several legislations which ensures that banks have legal obligations to implement data security procedures, past researches have however the sufficiency of the obligations since whereas the banks may maintain the legal obligations, there may be elements such as hackers, former employees or organized underground software criminals who may maneuver and compromise the established procedures.

The client data is also in safe haven since there is regulatory supervision the bankers argue that their activities are generally subject to regulatory supervision by the Central Bank. In most countries however, central banks lack the capability and resources to effectively monitor and regulate the baking sector, the information about clients in the banks database can therefore be compromised intentionally for the benefit of the bank, without the realization of the regulating authority.  Technology changes also can be a cause to worry, whereas there may exist laws and regulations, banks may be using technologies e.g. encryption technologies that can be compromised by the current advanced decryption techniques, cases have existed such as in the HSBC private banking client accounts breach, where allegedly a former Information Technology employee compromised the records. According to the investigating experts, the relationship manager was rated as the weakest link since they have massive access to all the customers information.

In addition, banks have been sending unencrypted messages to the clients, this offers a possibility of compromising the information, by cyber stalking, moreover banks fail to inform and warn the clients the dangers of sending unprotected emails. The fact that security comes with a cost such as affecting on system performance and efficiency, as well as diverting the resources from the core objectives, has made some banks to compromise on security at the expense of improving system performance, this coupled with the high demand for confidential data has complicated the issues further for the banks, since there are underground organized criminals who utilize the stolen data.

The banks on the hand, have taken several steps to ensure that client information is kept confidential and safe, this includes the reduction use of recovery point objective, which is the duration of time at which systems and data must be recovered after a compromise, and recovery time objective which is the duration during which applications should be recovered after a compromise, so as to minimize the effects of the loss. Several banks have also implemented continuous data protection (CDP) where data are updated and backed up on regular basis. These are be used with policies and procedures aimed at improving data integrity and avoiding compromising of data, these policies include the limiting of the number of persons who can access the customers data, having clearly stipulated procedures on safeguarding the data and information of the customers, and ensuring that the data and information are backed up on regular basis.  Banks have also utilized tested, proven and reliable systems such as Database management systems, which are immune to flows and bugs, banks have avoided the use of cheaper systems which can be easily be compromised, but rather utilized reliable object oriented databases whose security can be guaranteed, this is in addition to using the latest security and encryptions technologies, and investing in the latest software and hardware. However, from the above from the above analysis, it is therefore apparent that whereas banks have immensely invented on the security of client data, several breaches have been reported, it is therefore evident the security of the customers data in the banks database cannot be hundred percent guaranteed, clients therefore have a cause of alarm.  

Question 3

What is the effectiveness of the application of e-business in reverse auction
The question above deserves further research and is interesting because it presents knowledge and ideas, which are in contrast to the universal belief on the on how the market operates, this question deserves research in order to obtain how effective e-business can be in a situation where the purchaser advertises that they require certain goods and services, and the suppliers place bids on what they expect to be paid in order to supply the good, or offer the service, in reverse auction there are several dynamics which influences the outcomes of the transactions, unlike conventional auctions where the factors influencing the market and the transaction can easily be determined, this calls for a further study, in order to establish the correlation, between the conventional factors, affection conventional auctions and the factors influencing reverse auction. Moreover, the practicality of the reverse auction, and the convenient situation, in which the auction can be applied is a question which demands further research.

To achieve the above, the research method involved is case study research, where an in depth investigation shall be carried out in a small representative sample population, in order to determine the underlying principles of the entire population, this shall involve the use of structured questionnaires, where the chosen respondents such as reverse action providers, purchasers and sellers shall be given questionnaires, and their responses analyzed for correlation, by use of statistical software such as STATA and SPSS.

Electronic business strategies may be defined as the strategies that govern businesses via information system technology through calculated information dissemination techniques. This concept entails B2B which is basically businesses buying from and selling to each other on the internet (Stephen, Paige, Amy, 2005, p.319) and B2C which is basically a business selling to the consumer directly (Ray Wright, 2006, p.29)
According to IBM (2010) some of the available B2B applications available include
Buy side applications This is also known as the e-procurement application which may be used by a business establishment to purchase supplies, parts and materials from another Business (Trade partner). These applications provide pre-negotiated prices, connections to approved catalogs and they prevent maverick buying.

Sell side application These applications enable business customers and distributors to purchase goods and services via digital technology e.g. catalog  order entry systems.

Trading partner agreements This is an application that enables organizations to integrate their late order entry system and the legacy order system which makes it easier to synchronize the ordering of products-shipping-logistics.

E-Market places This is a B2B application that supports buyers and suppliers at the same place simultaneously and they are accessible via web browsers. E-market place work by routing product inquiries and purchase requests to the pre-approved sell side applications. Some of its functions may include auctions and exchanges.

Grandmas treats may proceed on a develop web based store that sells it products online and the store should integrate modern features such as shopping carts, online payment system to receive the funds from customers. The site should also be properly marketed via various online marketing channels such as pay per click, pay per play, banners, referrals and affiliates.

Due to the increasing business competition, Grandma Treats has embarked on an initiative that will enable it to sell its goods and services anytime, anywhere over the internet rather than relying on the traditional face to face selling.

However, there are different business models of online selling, which may include storefront, auction, portal or a combination of both.

According to Susan Royer (2005, p.16), storefront model can give organization such as Comp USA, an immediate advantage of the global basis on their first day of operations, they do not necessarily have to distribute their goods physically which engages them on an international e-business activities from the start.

With storefront, organizations that sell online such as Comp USA, are likely to generate more revenue with a unique customer shopping experience, this is because customers are able to navigate through their website while viewing products  services and comparing prices in a single, centralized platform, at their own conveniences (EFI). Other notable advantages may include order status, history, re-ordering mechanisms, shopping carts, multi lingual capabilities among others.

There is also the auction model such as the Ubid auction where the goods and services do not have a specific price, people place their bids for goods and the bids may be higher or lower than the market value.

However some of the drawbacks associated with this concept are that buyers whom are the bidders may be impatient in the sense that they want the goods immediately (Terrence Hendershot, 2006, p.324).

Other disadvantages may be related to the declining price anomaly whereby the organization may lose revenue just for the sake of maintaining its status as a legitimate organization.

For grandmas treat, CompUSA website concept would be the most ideal, this is mainly because there is no declining price anomaly, prices are fixed and it becomes easier for the organization to anticipate on its revenues.

According to Michael Schwind (2006, p.28)Dynamic pricing is applicable to the concepts employed by organizations such as CompUSA because it allows the adaptation of resources in the resource system according to demand function and current system load which makes it easier to price goods according to seasons such as Christmas, Easter and back to school offers.

In addition to this, the storefront model is easier to set up because there are hosted solutions available which can be bought as a package, you just load your products and things are up and running, the organization may sit and let their service provider do everything for them or go for a hosted solution in order to incorporate their website into their existing I.T infrastructure. There is no declining price anomaly hence easier to anticipate and plan for the future.

Original E Business Worth Further Investigation
The online wire less delivery of electricity  in other words a wire less smart grid, is one of the most profitable new e-businesses we believe worth investigating, if not pursuing as a startup investment (either as a sole investor or a lead investor) for several reasons.

First, we obviously have access to the credit, debt and equity we need.  Second, the nations need for electricity, is growing exponentially, as is the global need.  This means of transmitting and selling it not only allows us to participate in global sales of clean, carbon free electricity, but the global carbon auctions, thereby automatically generating two income streams immediately.  We have done enough research, as we explain below, to minimize regulatory interference and paperwork, where it will be required, can retain Washington D.C and local counsel and lobbyists who can essentially guarantee at least some federal and state funding as well, and of course expedite permitting from the agencies where necessary, so those issues will not be of major concern.

We will have first mover advantage in this space.  We have picked our first state as a pilot very carefully to both give us the advantage of the business climate, existing federal funding, the existence of CU Boulder (and of course Boulder itself, the first city in the country where a wire line smart grid in the United States has just been built), plus other advantages the area offers to create a pilot that will not only compete but differentiate ourselves, and thus will enable us to go national if not international, especially given the grants the area has already received for EXPORTS, particularly of cleantech and high tech product.

In addition, the benefits to existing businesses and even individuals are tremendous, not just in these services but in the tax breaks we can offer them, but the additional revenue streams we have identified and discuss in the report below for us, if we further split the network, essentially creating a wireless VPN and ISP, further garnering income from wire less e-commerce business, which is, as we again discuss below, expected to hit somewhere north of 23 Billion by 2015.  With that, we wrap up our introductory question and reason for inquiry into the subject in the first place and begin our report on the issue at hand, its feasibility as a business, and the other requirements you asked to report on.

Summary
The wire less delivery of clean electricity offers incredibly profitable ecommerce returns because there is such a need for it in addition to enabling said company to generate additional revenue streams via splitting the network, to provide traditional wireless data and video broadband services.

Brief Overview of Plan
The plan is to take existing studies, plus the one smart grid in Boulder Colorado, as well as applications used in other countries, (both Telco and electricity models will be used) to create a model as a starting point to show how provision of said services at cheaper rates is not only feasible, but can provide additional upsides.

Our model is based on proven concepts in e-commerce, electrical engineering, WAN and VPN proven technology and the regulatory environment in the U.S. and globally.  Furthermore, we can implement most of this without policy changes.  Where some might be necessary, our research is already prepared to influence policy makers where necessary, if for no other reason than our plan is to provide a cheap but much needed commodity in a world reeling from debt and forced to deal with climate change, and high levels of joblessness.

Overview
The niche we have identified is absolutely profitable and yet to be exploited.  Despite Googles installation of the first smart grid in Boulder using wire line broadband, combined with their recent authorization to sell electricity from FERC, and their undeniable monopoly of the browser space, a company willing to take on the powers that be to deliver carbon free, environmentally friendly, cheap, electricity via broadband WIRE LESS networks, plus value added services is guaranteed to be profitable, differentiate itself and have guaranteed market entry.

TechnologyCompany Infrastructure
Our technology has been proven  but has not been implemented commercially yet in the United States - from Marconis and Teslas early experiments to the first experiment at Ball State to models being used in both the First AND the Third World.  In addition, in a digital environment, the technology is the same  pushing ANYTHING through a pipe  whether it be land line or virtual (i.e. a VPN), depends on infrastructure that is identical.  To wit in an IP universe of cyberspace, data is sent in bursts, video and voice must be sent via pipes big and fast enough to ensure that no jerky interruptions of packet transmission creates breakups in voice calls or digital views of video.  Electricity is just the same, its just more like data.

Furthermore, since such networks, whether wire line or wire less, can be literally split as any Telco provider can affirm, (the simplest example is that they provide services to more than one customer on a T-1 line) one is suddenly left with the proposition of a company that can create an automatic e-commerce company that sells both cheap electricity, avoiding cumbersome regulations (further discussion below) AND become a cheaply and easily scalable ISP for other customers who can both use said electricity in various ways, to power their own e-commerce businesses via the SAME network.

Proposal
We already know we are extremely competitive.  The first smart grid was just built in Boulder using wire line rather than wire less technology.

Not only is this approach idiotic if one studies what the Telcos are doing, but the issue of both EIS studies and their manipulation, not to mention the agencies shameful misuse of the public land under their trust, is probably an issue here. Information can be found in the Bibliography on the only two documentaries that have ever been done on the subject and aired on PBS in 1994 (Air Wars and A New Range War  The Pentagon and Public Land.)

Schematic
The following is a very rough overview of what a wire less network would look like.  The amount of revenue we anticipate, purely through electricity sales and ecommerce alone (which are expected to reach 23 Billion plus by 2015 just through wireless mobile apps ALONE) is more than enough to justify more research.
                           
Although the U.S. market for distributed generation is substantial, perhaps the greatest potential is with the worlds 3 billion poor people who have no reliable access to electricity. On-site generators, as noted before, can save the 1,500 per kilowatt that developing countries would be required to spend on transmission lines. They could allow those nations to leapfrog the power grid, eliminating the need to build an expensive system based on giant generators and high-voltage wires, much the way that some countries are using cell phone technology to leapfrog the need to string expensive telephone landlines.

This is how it would look in the United States for an established business, for example one that is seasonal and needed income year round, and also needed to save on phenomenal electricity costs during the period it is in operation.
                           
This is what a model would look like if we could also provide the SAME SERVICES to the individual consumer, in conjunction with both legislative policy changes and a special product we would design, that would allow the consumer to both sell additional electricity from THEIR energy positive home back to the grid, but also participate via an online tool, in the carbon auctions.
                         
Benefits
Easier to Implement
Easier and cheaper to scale than traditional models
Smaller decentralized grids that tie into a national network are immune from cyber attack andor outages
Provide market entry and a competitive marketplace to smaller players
Provide incentives to economic growth
Provide incentives to start small business
Jump start the paradigm shift to a cleantech, environmentally conscious information economy with high wages that cannot be outsourced
Increase still falling home value
Provide passive income to consumers and businesses
Create incentives for both businesses and workers in creating more opportunities for teleworkers in the form of tax breaks
Allow consumers to create passive income in the face of a still horrific job market and foreclosure scenario by increasing home value, eliminating major utility costs, creating their own businesses and participating in the carbon auctions, which is currently not allowed under the Markey legislation.

Risks
Wire less switches are more complicated
FERC authorization will have to be obtained
Finding and retaining properly trained personnel (who will all be a virtual workforce to begin with) may be difficult to find and expensive to retain.

The idea of allowing consumers and municipalities to participate in the carbon auctions, while a relatively simple software program to design, would have to pass Congress.  As it is, only large corporate entities and utilities are allowed to do this.  This would require legislative change.  It may be that this could be done on a state by state level.

Airspace  As the military controls the majority of airspace in the United States, this may also be an issue that may have to be addressed at the Congressional andor Executive Branch level.  However, airspace is public property and thus it should not fall under military control.  We have included a very useful handbook that will be useful in such arguments, as well as those that preserve privacy and specifically combat FISA in the bibliography to support our claims and arguments.