E-Government

Many countries even Malaysia are implementing electronic government which also known as 'e-government'. The initiation of e-government was initiated by the introduction of Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) in 1996. Using e-government, it will improve the accessibility and quality of interactions with citizens and businesses. Simultaneously, information flow and processed improved the quality of policy development and as well the coordination and enforcement.

The primary delivery models of e-Government can be divided into:

• Government-to-Citizen or Government-to-Customer (G2C)



• Government-to-Business (G2B)



• Government-to-Government (G2G)



• Government-to-Employees (G2E)

Electronic Services Delivery (eServices)

Now everyone can conduct transactions without going through queuing, traffic jams or any bureaucratic hassles as they can conduct transactions at their own wish and convenience through various convenient channels such as eServices kiosk and Internet. Examples of e-services includes Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) and Telekom Nasional Berhad (TM).

Electronic Labor Exchange (ELX)

ELX is a one stop-centre for labor market information that supervised by Ministry of Human Resource (MORH) that enables employer and job seekers to communicate at the same platform with the objectives of:

• Enabled an effective and integrated job matching process



• Provide an effective center of labor market information and references



• To improve mobilization of the nation's human resources and to ensure the manpower utilization is optimized.

Government to Businesses (G2B)

1) E-procurement

E-procurement system enables suppliers to sell goods and services to the Government through Internet. Suppliers advertise their pricing, process orders and deliveries. The objectives includes:

• Enables accountability and transparency



• Creates more skilled and knowledgeable workforce



• Equips the workforce with the latest technology at minimum cost

Government to Government (G2G)

1) Human Resource Management Information System (HRMIS)

HRMIS is integrated for the Malaysian Public Service , incorporating Global Best Practices in HR that allows Public service successfully deal with with the challenges of the K-Economy. The objectives are:

• Effective Staffing and right-sizing of civil service



• Improve paperless HRM capabilities



• Open and flexible system



• Automated human resource managerial and operational processes

Citizen's adoption strategies

Government should increase the awareness and gain as much attention as possible from the citizens for the services provided in e-government. A higher level of customer satisfaction will increase the rate of e-government adoption which moving the same way with the government. Satisfaction can obtained by providing a better protected privacy and confidentiality of the user's information.
Other than that, to retain a long-term users to use e-government frequently, service quality should be competitive with the other developed country in terms of speed, problem serving approach and ease of use of the website.

Lastly, e-government must be advertised through suitable medium such as radio or television. workshop can be held to create awareness on the existence of e-government as this services provides problem solving as they are all full-focus in providing the best services to its citizens.


More information:
1) http://www.intanbk.intan.my/psimr/articles/Article1%20-%20Full.pdf

2) http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTINFORMATIONANDCOMMUNICATIONANDTECHNOLOGIES/EXTEGOVERNMENT/0,,menuPK:702592~pagePK:149018~piPK:149093~theSitePK:702586,00.html

3) http://www.w3.org/2007/06/eGov-dc/papers/SecureEGovernmentPortals

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Review on Dell.com e-commerce site

This week would be the last week of posting for our e-commerce blog. My title for this week is on a review on a local, transactional e-commerce site. First company that came across my mind is Dell.com.

Dell.com, is incorporated in 1984 as a direct selling company selling computers to customers. Slowly evolving, it turns out to be one of the most successful e-commerce company specialized in selling computer merchandise.

The business model provides ease to customers by processing the whole procedure through the website together with doorstep collection and delivery. The whole process wouldn’t require the purchaser to spare time attending physically to make payment nor collecting the purchased merchandise.

Dell is competitive in pricing as most of the parts are made in-house and have unique features to attract customers. Furthermore, Dell.com provides a large variety of laptops, desktops and accessories to satisfy requirements of its large customer base. The products are customized to meet requirement of various business nature such as cybercafés, small and medium enterprise, and even large enterprise.

Personal desktop and laptop are the main categories of sales to customers. To attract home users to make purchase, Dell.com introduces financing packages such as the zero-interest scheme to offer credit insufficient users to own their computers in a more credit sufficient way. Furthermore, it allows user to optimize performance with add-on customization features of the basic models.

My family just bought a desktop from Dell.com. The design is really nice and the service that they provided is very efficient and convenient. Hope that Malaysia will have more e-commerce website for us because it brings a lot of convenient. It makes life for “lazy” and busy Malaysians much easier!

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Corporate Blogging : A new marketing communication tool for companies.

It is undeniable that blog has become one of the most popular communication tools on World Wide Web especially in today technology era. It is because blog offers everyone the opportunity to create their very own free website as well as encourages opinions and interactions among each other.

Corporate blogging refers to a company producing a blog to accomplish its business objectives. It serves as a channel between a company and its customers. The use of a blog allows a company to provide a destination of information for consumers, from commercials to promotional coupons, to directions on how to use products. Corporate blogs are primarily used for national branding. They allow companies to deliver accurate information without the filter of the media or advertising. Participating in the blogging world gives company a competitive edge. Those companies which start blogging could learn the skills at gathering competitive intelligence, language and etiquette of blogging.



Besides that, corporate blog can be divided into two types which are internal blog and external blog. An internal blog refers to access through the corporation's intranet. It helps the communication between different layers of management to share their experiences, opinions and thoughts which will help to improve their daily work. While an external blog is a blog that can be viewed by public. Public can leave their comment in the blog. It is useful for organizations to get the direct feedback from the customers. By using the external corporate blog, there is availability of updates about company new products or services on the blog. It becomes a platform between the corporate organizations with outsiders and will definitely help in building better relationship with customers.

There are a number of successful blog sites that keep public updates on the products they sell so as to attract more traffic through blogging. Below are the five types of corporate blogs with examples.

Company Blog
Examples: Google, Yahoo, Flickr, Facebook, Adobe.

CEO Blog
Example: Sun CEO – Jonathan Schwartz’s blog.

Industry Blog
Example: Miller Brewing’s Brew blog.

Department or Product Blog
Example: Google’s Product blog (blog roll on the sidebars)

Customer Service Blog





References:

http://www.businessknowhow.com/internet/corporate-blog.htm

http://mariosundar.wordpress.com/2008/05/19/the-5-types-of-corporate-blogs-with-examples/

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Discussion on E-learning offered in Malaysian universities: Pros and Cons from the students perspective

E-learning or networked learning has been becoming more and more popular among students living in developing and undeveloped countries. E-learning is defined by Webopedia as education via the Internet, network, or standalone computer. e-learning refers to using electronic applications and processes to learn. e-learning applications and processes include Web-based learning, computer-based learning, virtual classrooms and digital collaboration. Content is delivered via the Internet, intranet/extranet, audio or video tape, satellite TV, and CD-ROM.

In Malaysia, e-learning is still at its infancy stage, only UNITAR and OUM offer almost 90% of their courses on-line and with e-learning environment. Many public institutes of higher learning, for example, UMS, UPM, UiTM and USM, use e-learning in a mixed-mode environment. There is not yet a 100% e-learning. It is always a blended e-learning; a mixed mode e-learning whereby a combination of e-learning and FTF learning are used together.

There are pros and also cons in e-learning from students' perspective. They are...

PROS

- Students can afford getting higher education degrees at respectable universities and colleges by saving extra expenses for traveling, accommodation, food and high fees for tutors.

- Time flexibility. One can get online resources, communicate with his tutor or class mates, send his query and write term paper at any time he can get access to the Internet.

- Allow accessibility to all students irrespective of their residence. E-classes help students to communicate with their tutors, get clarifications regarding their subjects and study and access teaching materials through e-libraries

- E-learning can be more effective for certain types of learners such as students that are shy, reflective, language challenged, or those that need more time. It is also suitable for students who prefer to express themself in writing rather than verbally.

- Students can learn at their own pace and study at their convenience. There would be more flexibility to join discussions in the bulletin board threaded discussion areas at any hour, or visit with classmates and instructors remotely in chat rooms

CONS

- Lack of face-to-face communication with teachers contributes lack of understanding between a student and a teacher. While a teacher cannot easily feel a student’s demands, interests and motivations, a student can simply be lazy being non-motivated enough and having free time schedule for his e-learning. This may result a low scope of the student’s knowledge and the teacher’s accusation in lack of proficiency.

- Students may need to invest more money in getting the e-learning necessary equipment such as computer and software programs and pay for internet connection.

- Students may need to wait for feedback and responses from peers and instructors because there would be more learners are often actively involved.

- E-learning may require students to learn or enhance computer and troubleshooting skills. Managing computer files and online learning software can sometimes seem complex for students with beginner-level computer skills

- Without the routine structures of a traditional class, students may get lost or confused about course activities and deadlines.

References:

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/E/e_learning.html
http://writingandsnacks.blogspot.com/2006/08/pros-and-cons-of-e-learning.html
http://www.justcolleges.com/elearn/proscons.htm
http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/perth04/procs/jowati-poster.html
http://www.elearners.com/resources/elearning-faq5.asp

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Credit Card Debts : Causes and Preventions

Credit card debt is one of the major debts that have affected the economy in recent times. People are filing for bankruptcy, instead of settling their debts through debt negotiation and debt management. Credit card debt happens due to many causes, such as the following:

1. Poor Money Management
Poor money management is one of the main reason of why so many people accumulate lots of debt. They do not have a monthly spending plan and not keeping track of their monthly bills makes them unaware of where their money is going.

2. Saving little or not at all
Often people cannot control themselves from spending regardless of whether the purchase is nessacery or not. They will spend excessively but do not save, this lead themselves into trouble of paying the credit card debts when the bill come.

3. Financial Ignorance
Credit card debt may also due to the lack of knowlege of people on saving and investing personal finances. They do not learn how to save and how to spend wisely, they are not able to manage their finances properly.

4. Less Income, More Expenses
This situation happens when people lose their job but monthly expenses are not cut down in line wit the reduction in income. This obviously leads to a rise in debt because they are forced to use the credit card to pay all the monthly payment or living expenses.


Here are some prevention steps in order to keep you out from credit card debt:

1. Create a Budget and Saving Plan
A well thought out budget will help you to get out of debt and stay out of debt. It is important to have a plan for your money so that you will know exactly where all of your funds are going. Besides, you also need a saving plan too for rainy days. Set some amount aside for emergency use to shield yourself from surprise expenses. Saving with a goal in mind motivates many people to stick to their savings plan

2. Self Discipline
With the ease of use of credit cards, it can be easy to think you have additional funds in your wallet.In order to spend wisely, you must learn how to control and discipline to avoid overspending. You should control yourselves by follow the budget which have been planed.

3. Choose the Right Card
Choosing the exact card serves you all the well. Cards that have low or no fees at all and have interests that are low also, are the ones that are preferably appropriate especially to those who are only beginning to use credit cards.

4. Always Pay on Time
Always remember to pay your credit card bill on time, this can avoid from unnecessary debt accumulation and higher interest charges.

references:
http://www.stop-credit-card-debt.com/2008/07/24/tips-on-credit-card-debt-prevention/
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/tips-on-debt-prevention-and-management.html
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/credit-card-debt-settlements.html
http://www.3debtconsolidation.com/top10-causes.html

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Mobile Payment Systems in Malaysia : It's potential and consumer's adoption stratergies .

What is mobile payment ?

Mobile payment is new and rapidly-adopting alternative payment method – especially in Asia and Europe. Instead of paying with cash, check or credit cards, a consumer can use a mobile phone to pay for wide range of services and digital or hard goods such as:

• Music, videos, ringtones, online game subscription or items, wallpapers and other digital goods.


• Transportation fare (bus, subway or train), parking meters and other services


• Books, magazines, tickets and other hard goods.

There are four primary models for mobile payments:

• Premium SMS based transactional payments


• Mobile web payments(WAP)


• Direct Mobile Billing

Premium SMS based transactional payments

This is where the consumer sends a payment request via an SMS text message to a short code

and a premium charge is applied to their phone bill. The merchant involved is informed of the payment success and can then release the paid for goods.

Since a trusted delivery address has typically not been given these goods are most frequently digital with the merchant replying using a Multimedia Messaging Service to deliver the purchased music, ringtones, wallpapers etc.

A Multimedia Messaging Service can also deliver barcodes which can then be scanned for confirmation of payment by a merchant. This is used as an electronic ticket for access to cinemas and events or to collect hard goods.

Transactional payments have been popular in Asia and Europe but are now being overtaken by other mobile payment methods such as mobile web payments (WAP) and Direct Mobile Billing for a number of reasons:

1. Poor reliability - transactional payments can easily fail as messages get lost


2. Slow speed - sending messages can be slow and it can take hours for a merchant to get receipt of payment. Consumers do not want to be kept waiting more than a few seconds.
   
3. High cost - There are many high costs associated with this method of payment. The cost of setting up short codes and paying for the delivery of media via a Multimedia Messaging Service and the resulting customer support costs to account for the number of messages that get lost or are delayed.
4. Low payout rates - operators also see high costs in running and supporting transactional payments which results in payout rates to the merchant being as low as 30%.
   
5. Low follow-on sales - once the payment message has been sent and the goods received there is little else the consumer can do. It is difficult for them to remember where something was purchased or how to buy it again. This also makes it difficult to tell a friend.

Direct Mobile billing

This is where the consumer uses mobile billing option during checkout at an ecommerce site such as an online gaming site to make a payment. After two-factor authentication involving PIN and One-Time-Password, the consumer's mobile account is charged for the purchase. It is true alternative payment method that does not require use of credit/debit cards or pre-registration at online payment solution such as PayPal, thus bypassing banks and credit card companies altogether. This type of mobile payment method, which is extremely prevalent and popular in Asia, provides the following benefits:

1. Security - two-factor authentication and risk management engine prevents fraud.


2. Convenience - No pre-registration and no new mobile software is required.


3. Easy - It's just another option during a checkout process.


4. Fast - Most transactions are completed in less than 10 seconds.


5. Proven - 70% of all digital content purchased online in some parts of Asia uses Direct Mobile Billing method

Mobile Web Payments ( WAP)

This is where the consumer uses web pages displayed or additional application s/he downloaded and installed on his/her mobile phone to make a payment. It uses WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) as underlying technology, thus inherits all the advantages and disadvantages of WAP. However, using a familiar web payment model gives a number of a few proven benefits:

1. Follow-on sales where the mobile web payment can lead back to a store or to other goods the consumer may like. These pages have a URL and can be bookmarked making it easy to re-visit or share with friends.


2. High customer satisfaction from quick and predictable payments


3. Ease of use from a familiar set of online payment pages

However, unless mobile account is directly charged through mobile network operator, use of credit/debit card or pre-registration at online payment solution such as PayPal is still required just as in desktop environment.

Mobile web payment methods are now being mandated by a number of mobile network operators.

A number of different actual payment mechanisms can be used behind a consistent set of web pages.

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A review on a post on e-tailing

Nowadays, almost everything can be traded online. This applies to very subjective things such as music, reservation and even information. Due to technology changes, we now isn’t limited to just purchasing, we can also customize things online.
E-Tailing or also known as sales of product over the internet has been a trend of business in this high tech era. It helps exploit a whole new market of through the internet without imposing much constraint to operate.

In Malaysia they even sell fish online, Fishermen in Tanjung Dawai have preceded auction for their catches via the internet. Other than that, other recent examples would be touch’n’go ready to impose pre-load cash purchase with their card in fast food restaurants. It is been a trend in countries like Hongkong to use such pre-load cards in their daily shopping activity and proven successful.

Online banking should be another form of E-commerce which we should be very familiar of. In recent years, stock trading online had been actively used as a form of E-tailing by major banks to encourage convenience to the consumers. Maybank, as one of the largest bank to offer online stock trading even reduce its transaction cost to encourage usage of the facility.

In US, reservation for restaurant seats are made easy by the website called Opentable.com. This website offers reservation online in just a few clicks for more than 6000 restaurants alone in New York. It is a proven effective concept and should be more effectively implemented in other countries.

Furthermore, E-tailing could be used as a way to promote a countries’ tourism for example Malaysia’s http://www.tourism.gov.my/ which gives information on Major tourism spots, graphical illustration etc. Foreign tourist could visit the website to determine where to visit in Malaysia.

Conclusion is that life is becoming more and more convenient. I believe in near future everything can be done online. That’s awesome!

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The application of pre-paid cash card for consumers

Nowadays pre-paid cash card is getting more and more popular in aligned with the development of e-commerce. Pre-paid cash card is a card like credit card which can use to purchase goods and services. Pre-paid means pay in advance which also means that the card needs to be reloaded with money before consumers can use it. They can only spend the balance that has been pre-loaded onto the card.

An example of the application of pre-paid cash card in our country is Touch n Go card. It is a quite popular card that uses contactless and smartcard technology. This is introduced in Malaysia to increase the efficiency of public transport service. With this card, consumers do not need to queue for buying tickets especially during peak hours which is really a waste of time. Besides that, it is applicable for all highways tolls users too. Positive feedbacks obtained after the implementation of Touch n Go card as it helps consumers to save up a lot of time as well as it is very convenient to use.

Another widely used pre-paid cash card is the debit card. It is usually issued by the debit card companies or banks. Consumers can use this card to purchase their goods and services either in malls or through online transactions. For internet banking, they are required to key-in their password, debit card number and the amount of money for the transaction to take place. When using it for shopping at supermarket, consumers just simply hand the card to the cashier and will be asked to sign on the payment slip. The total amount will be deducted from the card immediately and the transaction is completed by then. Moreover, i-Talk pre-paid IDD card is a service provided by Telekom Malaysia that allows people to make local or international calls at low rates.

As in other country, one of the most successful applications of this pre-paid cash card is the Octopus Card in Hong Kong which is like a trademark for all Hong Kong citizens. It was the first contactless smart card system in the world. At first, it aims to provide a simple and easy way to pay fares on public transport in Hong Kong. Today it is also used for payment in convenient stores, supermarkets and car parks. It makes life much simpler and easier.

Apart from that, pre-paid cash card also can use for paying bills, topping up mobile phone, purchasing movie tickets and withdrawing cash from ATM machine. On the other hand, the main advantages of pre-paid card include it is an ideal way to control your spending. There is no chance of over spending as consumers are limited to the amount they put on the card. Furthermore it is very convenient because the pre-paid cash card can be used abroad or travelling to overseas and it is always safer to bring along a card rather than cash.

To sum up, pre-paid cash card is indeed a very useful item and contribute a lot in our daily transaction. Most of the teenagers are having a pre-paid cash card now as they are not eligible to apply for a credit card. Nevertheless some consumers still prefer credit card in terms of security.

References :
http://www.moneysupermarket.com/c/prepaid-cards/guide/

http://prepaidcreditcardapplication.info/

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Threat of online security

Nowadays, many companies as well as individual regardless of the size of the companies, use computer to process and store their important information. Thus, computer securities are very important to make sure that their information have not been misused by others, damage and loss. Similarly, online securities are also very important when an individual or company dispose their information online. For example if a company has their own designed website, they have to protect their website from potential threats, such as phishing, security hacking, information theft, virus, worms and etc.

However, the increasing development of technologies has also sarcastically increase the risk that every computer user has to face. Hacking means gaining unauthorized access to computer files. Everyone who expose to the internet is able to equip themselves with 'hacking' knowledge by making some research online. Internet provides the opportunities for users to share the knowledge without filtering the content. Therefore, everyone can learn the skill that may jeopardize online security via internet and therefore increase the online security risk.Nowadays, the few most famous threats are cybercrime, phishing, internet and network attacks such as computer viruses, worms, Trojan horses and back doors.

Cybercrime is known as online internet-based illegal acts. Hackers, crackers and corporate spies is part of cybercrime, who have advanced computer and network skills that access into computers and networks illegally with the intention to destroy data, stealing proprietary data and information.

An image on cybercrime

Phishing is a scam in which a perpetrator send an official looking email that attempts to obtain your personal information and financial information. In other words, this method is to collect information through fake websites. For example, some phishing email messages ask you to reply with your information, or a pop up window that looks like a website, that collects the information. The damages caused by phishing can be crucial. The following case illustrate potential thereat caused by phishing. One good example of this threat is a case which happened in year 2007. Click here to know in detail.

Images on phishing

Internet and network attack that jeopardize security include macro virus, worm, and Trojan horse.Macro virus is a piece of code that is secretly introduced into a system in order to corrupt it or destroy data. Macro virus such as Melissa and ILOVEYOU were propagated through Microsoft outlook email and whose payloads were delivered as Visual Basic for Application (VBA) programs attached to email messages. Virus attack can damage the operating system, causing the loss of data and other possible losses.

A Worm is a program that runs independently, copies itself repeatedly and consuming the resources of its host in order to maintain itself which it is capable of propagating a complete version of itself onto another machine. The repeatedly copied files use up the available space and slow down a computer operating speed.

Examples of worm

Trojan horse is a program that appears to have a useful function but that contains a hidden function that presents a security risk. Trojan may arrive in the form of file that looks like an interesting game or program. When this program is run, the Trojan program is installed and executed every time the attacked computer is turned on. This particular Trojan horse enable the perpetrator to capture user Ids and passwords, to display, delete messages and upload files on the affected computer.

Examples of Trojan horse

A back door is a set of instruction in a program that allow users to bypass security control when accessing a program, computer, or network. Once perpetrators gain access to unsecured computers, they often install a back door or modify an existing program to include a back door, enabling them to continue access the computers remotely without user's knowledge.

Examples of back door

In conclusion, risks exposed by computer users are increasing with the development of technology. therefore, safeguards developer must be always be up to date to enhance the defenses against online security threats. In the same time, users must be informed about the crucial damages and losses caused by imposing online online security threats.

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Phishing : Examples and its prevention methods

Phishing, this word is quite new to me and it sound like fishing! Phishing is defined by Webopedia is the act of sending an e-mail to a user falsely claiming to be an established legitimate enterprise in an attempt to scam the user into surrendering private information that will be used for identity theft. The e-mail directs the user to visit a Web site where they are asked to update personal information, such as passwords and credit card, social security, and bank account numbers, that the legitimate organization already has. The Web site, however, is bogus and set up only to steal the user’s information.

EXAMPLES
One example would be if you received an e-mail that appears to be from your bank requesting you click a hyperlink in the e-mail and verify your online banking information. Usually there will be a repercussion stated in the e-mail for not following the link, such as "your account will be closed or suspended". The goal of the sender is for you to disclose personal and account related information. This type of e-mail scam is also called phishing.

Let me shows another example of what a phishing scam e-mail message might look like.

Example of a phishing e-mail message, including a deceptive URL address linking to a scam website. To make these phishing e-mail messages look even more legitimate, the scam artists may place a link in them that appears to go to the legitimate Web site (1), but it actually takes you to a phony scam site (2) or possibly a pop-up window that looks exactly like the official site.
These copycat sites are also called "spoofed" Web sites. Once you're at one of these spoofed sites, you might unwittingly send personal information to the con artists.

PREVENTION STEPS!
After much study about examples and articles on phishing, this fraud action can be considered a dangerous online activity because they are usually used in targeting banks or other financial organizations that can allow the attackers to earn a considerable amount of money. Therefore, we need to be aware of this kind of fraud and must able to identify it before you get into trouble. So, here are some prevention tips to help you to avoid from getting “fished”!

1. Don't reply to email or pop-up messages that ask for personal or financial information, and don't click on links in the message. Don't cut and paste a link from the message into your Web browser — phishers can make links look like they go one place, but that actually send you to a different site.

2. Some scammers send an email that appears to be from a legitimate business and ask you to call a phone number to update your account or access a "refund." Because they use Voice over Internet Protocol technology, the area code you call does not reflect where the scammers really are. If you need to reach an organization you do business with, call the number on your financial statements or on the back of your credit card.

3. Use anti-virus and anti-spyware software, as well as a firewall, and update them all regularly.

4. Don't email personal or financial information.

5. Review credit card and bank account statements as soon as you receive them to check for unauthorized charges.

6. Be cautious about opening any attachment or downloading any files from emails you received, regardless of who sent them.

7. Forward phishing emails to spam@uce.gov – and to the company, bank, or organization impersonated in the phishing email. You also may report phishing email to reportphishing@antiphishing.org. The Anti-Phishing Working Group, a consortium of ISPs, security vendors, financial institutions and law enforcement agencies, uses these reports to fight phishing.

8. If you've been scammed, visit the Federal Trade Commission's Identity Theft website at ftc.gov/idtheft

references:

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/P/phishing.html

http://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/Internet/2005/phishing.asp

http://www.onguardonline.gov/topics/phishing.aspx

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How to safeguard our personal and financial data?

Last year researcher held a survey to monitor trends in identity fraud and according to the Federal Trade Commission, identity theft is the most reported form of fraud. This happened not only in our country but the whole wide world as well. It involved physical (lost wallet, phone sale) and online (phishing, e-mail scam) methods.

It is crucial for consumers to understand some simple and effective methods to protect themselves against identity theft. Below is a list of precautions which I can think of.

First and foremost, do not carry unnecessary information along during outings. For example, remove excess credit card from your wallet or purse since many of us like to put all the cards inside our wallet. Second, put passwords on all your accounts and do not use common terms such as your birthday date or phone number. Try to make up a fictitious word. It is suggested to combine both numeric and alphabetic characters when creating a password. Third, be cautious on the phone. Do not disclose your personal information over the phone if you do not recognize who is on the line unless you could positively confirm the caller’s identity. If there is any suspicion, confirm with the related organization or institution on how they store your personal information and why it is needed for any application. Do ensure that the information is dispose in a proper way.

Apart from that, avoid from creating the same password all the time. Double-check that all of your utility accounts and financial services have different passwords. If one of the accounts has security breached, it will prevent all of your accounts from being hijacked. Furthermore, please do not store your sensitive data on a mobile computer like laptop or PDA. However if you find that it is necessary to do so, encrypt the information with proper software. Next, report lost or stolen cards immediately and cancel all inactive accounts. Also, do not keep open credit cards that remain unused and unmonitored. If you had applied for a new card and do not receive it in a timely manner, contact your financial institution immediately. Be sure to sign the new cards upon receipt too. Besides that, consumers can also monitor their credit card and account statements online weekly to keep an eye on their transaction. It can prevent from unknown transaction occurs.

On the other hand, if your job is involve in creating documents like secretary or admin staff, do take the responsibility to protect client’s personal and financial data by shred the sensitive documents after using it. This is to ensure information is not accessible when you get rid of it. Moreover, staff should install anti virus software on all computers and change password regularly. All these are to make sure that office information systems such as computer network will not become target for identity thefts.

Last but not least, be aware of e-mail attachments. Even if you are certain they are virus-free, it can cause you to lose data too. The best way is to ignore all these e-mail attachments and junk mails. As a saying goes, prevent is better than cure. Hence hope the above precautions could help to safeguard our personal and financial data.

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Review of a post on Internet Security from My E-Commerce blog

Internet security is really important to me because I had been using the online banking service. I heard from some of my friend saying about their online bank account being hacked and losses in terms of cash occurred. It’s Horrible! So I wish to share some information for that.

Have u ever encounter spam messages in your e-mail or instant messaging device such as MSN, Yahoo Mail etc? There are solutions for all these irritating spams which disturbs your online activities namely anti-spams, which would give a peace of mind. Somehow, these spams may manage to outsmart the anti-spam softwares giving headache to users again. Below are some tips to avoid during daily online activities.

1. Do not open any attachments from an unknown user especially PDF files to prevent PDF Spam
2. Delete any greeting cards from an unknown user to prevent greeting card spam
3. Do not run any emails having .com or .exe at the end of the file name

I believe many of us had been watching free movies and listening to music online for some time. This had been a trend of youngsters nowadays and hackers see this as an opportunity to obtain user’s private data from personal computers

Internet security plays a vital role especially in such unsafe internet surfing environment. More than 1million computer viruses, worms, Trojans and malware were reported by Symantec according to their virus database. Efficient anti-virus software may be required to prevent unnecessary data losses. Known anti-virus software such as Kaspersky lab, Avira, AVG Trendmicro,Symantec and so on are recommended and trusted among user groups.

Since our E-commerce requires us to create a blog for our assignment then I share some info that Bloggers may have to take into consideration some of the security precautions as below to prevent blogs from being hacked

1. Must always keep your personal information private
2. Avoid using same password for all accounts
3. Use 'Alpha-Numeric' passwords ( password consist of word and number)
4. Don't use a password that can be found in your blog.
5. Avoid using public computers (cyber café) for important website
6. Use Anti-Virus software on your computer ( Avira is recommended by me)
7. Register and use your own domain name ( Be unique)
8. Always back-up all your post / content

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Revenue Model of Google, Amazon.com, and eBay

Hi there, I am here again to continue our discussion on e-commerce. Well we all know about Google, Amazon.com and eBay, these are the famous link sites which are very successful today and they generate billion of profit every year. How can they be so successful? What are the methods they used?

Basically, revenue model is a description of how the organization will earn revenue, produce profits, and produce a superior return on invested capital. Every organization has its own revenue model to generate income from the website.

Google’s Revenue Model
Google's revenue model includes Google AdWords, Pay per Click Advertising, Google AdSense, Froogle, GoogleAnswers and their latest advertising program which is Cost per Click model. It earns most of its revenue by allowing other website owners to advertise on their search result pages or by placing these same text ads (AdSense) on other sites based on relevance.

Google AdWords – This advertisement function plays a very important role in Google’s growth as 90% of Google's revenue is generated by Google AdWords. It is a pay per click advertising program which allows web advertisers to present advertisements to people at the instant the people are looking for information related to what the advertiser has to offer.

Pay per Click Advertising (PPC) - It is an online advertising payment model in which payment is based on qualifying click-throughs. An advertiser has to pay every time his advertisement receives a click. The Advertisers decide the keywords relevant to their offer that should display their advertisement and the maximum amount they are willing to pay per click for that keyword. This method is quite useful as income will increase if the number of people clicking on these advertisements increase. However, someone could just simply manipulate the search result and generate higher profit. As such, Google should deal with this kind of fraud properly.

AdSense – this is another advertisement program run by Google. Website owners can enroll in this program to enable text, image and, video advertisements on their sites. Revenue is generated on a per-click or per-thousand-ads-displayed basis and the ads are administered by Google. AdSense program includes AdSense for search and AdSense for content. Google advertisers are required to pay Google a fee each time a user clicks on one of their ads displayed on Google Network members’ web sites

eBay’s Revenue Model

eBay is an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety goods and services worldwide. Much of eBay’s growth is tied to huge new product categories. It earns transaction fee from owning paypal, an online paying service system for users to buy items online more conveniently as well as advertising fees. Their main sources of revenue is from fees charged to list items up, picture service fees, listing upgrade fees, final value fees and reservation fees.

Fees charged to list items up - For listing of regular items, eBay charges a fee which serves as a starting price.

Picture service fees - The first picture uploaded in its site is free but the subsequent pictures incur fees.

Listing upgrade fees - It provides various services to help its users to enhance their advertising or promotion of products but for a fee of course.

Final value fees - It is charged when there is a closing bid.

Reservation fees – It is only charged if the item listed is not sold.

Amazon.com’s Revenue ModelAmazon.com uses sales revenue model and transaction fee revenue model. Amazon Marketplace is Amazon.com’s fixed price online marketplace that allows sellers to offer their goods alongside Amazon’s offerings. Buyers can buy new and used items sold directly by a third party through Amazon.com using Amazon Marketplace. This sales strategy and program has been very profitable for Amazon.com. Amazon charges a commission rate based on the sale price, a transaction fee, and a variable closing fee.

In addition, Amazon.com also generates revenue by using Affiliate revenue model. Amazon was one of the first online businesses to set up an affiliate marketing program. AStore is an Amazon.com affiliate product which website owners can use to create an online store on their site. The store does not allow website owners to sell their own products directly. Website owners pick products from Amazon’s store and earn referral fees on the products purchased by their readers. The fee structure is currently the same as for the other affiliate links and ranges from 4% to 10% of the product price.

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E-commerce success and its causes

When we talk about successful E-commerce today, two best examples which will automatically come to everyone's mind are eBay and Amazon. But today I'll like to choose eBay and look into detail so that it will be more easier gain understanding . eBay is an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide. A majority of the sales take place through a set-time auction format, but subsequent methods include a substantial segment of listings in the "Buy It Now" category. In addition to its original U.S. website, eBay has established localized websites in thirty other countries. First of all, let me show you how the homepage basically looks like. You may also log on to http://www.ebay.com/ to find out more about eBay.

This is the main page of eBay website.

You can choose which category you would like to look into.

For example : Books
After you click on the category that you are interested, more categories within it will come out.

After showing you how the website actually works, I'm sure you'll have better understanding on eBay. So, now let us look at eBay's history, It was founded in September 1995, It has a global presence in 37 markets, including the U.S , 233 million registered users worldwide. It has 233 million registered users worldwide. Its marketplaces net revenue for first quarter 2007 totaled $1.25 billion, with 49% from US operations and 51% from our International business. eBay users worldwide trade more than $1.839 worth of goods on the site everyday second. Approximately 1.3 million sellers around the world use eBay as a primary or secondary source of income. September 2006, eBay members worldwide have left more than five billion feedback comments regarding their eBay transactions.

Why eBay came up to be so success ?

• The main reason eBay can be so success today is because they offers an exciting feature which provides buyers and sellers a quick, easy, and safe way to negotiate price online. It helps consumers to bargain for the best price on .This would probably build customer satisfaction as to bid desired item at reasonable price. eBay extensively offers products in different categories such as collectible, vehicles, real estate, office equipment and others. It has a safe and reliable reputation protected by the company.

• eBay has good strategies in terms of web site design, customer services, technical proficiency, advertising, accuracy of billing and guarantees and warranties. All these affords that eBay made can probably satisfy small and large consumers. Talented workforce, product innovation, brand name and expertise in technology are the strength that eBay has in order to survive in this competitive market.

• eBay always put customer satisfaction at the first place. They'll always have guidelines and tutorials for new customers, how to sell: http://pages.ebay.com/bestoffer/seller/index.htmlhow to buy: http://pages.ebay.com/bestoffer/buyer/index.html

• Other than the tutorials, eBay also provides various online help features which can help consumers and assist them when they have problems . The online help features includes help topics, learning center, resolution center, eBaY university and customers may contact them as well. eBay has considerate to the consumers situation and provides a lot of guidelines for them to refer and since then build up consumers network and satisfaction accordingly.

• eBay's website itself has also attracted many customers. Customers can easily find the instructions that they probably need to refer when they have problems . The layout of the website looks tidy , simple but not complicated . The guarantees and warranties which provided by ebay has build up customers confidence and trustworthy.

Sources :

http://www.slideshare.net/lars.schmidl/strategic-evaluation-of-ebay

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/aboutebay/thecompany/companyoverview.html

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The History and Evolution of E-commerce

The transaction of goods and services online by businesses and consumers is called e-commerce. It can be divided into three sub-categories which are B2B (Business to Business), B2C (Business to Consumer) and C2C (Consumer to Consumer). One of the most popular activities on the web is shopping. You can shop on your leisure, at anytime and anywhere as you like.

History of e-commerce started off with the invention of the very old notion of ‘sell and buy’. E-commerce became possible in 1991 when the internet was opened to commercial use. After the success of websites like Amazon, E-bay and Netscape, everybody wanted to start an internet business. Since then many businesses were traded online using World Wide Web.

With the help of leading technologies such as Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT), it provides an opportunity for users to exchange business information and do electronic transactions. Thus, these allowed business companies and organizations to send commercial documentation electronically. For example, banks have been using EFT for account exchange information over private communication networks. EDI occurs when business transmits computer-readable data in a standard format to another business.

E-commerce has evolved from online billboards to a fully functional and personalized shopping experience over the past decade. The 3C of first generation e-commerce: Content, Community, and Commerce have now evolved into 7C of second generation e-commerce: Content, Community, Commerce, Communication, Connectivity, Collaboration and Customization.

B2C models have been tried and tested during the first generation of e-commerce, but the newer trends are toward B2B as it provides advantage of close integration and communication with partners and suppliers. On the other hand, e-commerce strategy should include Customer Relationship Management (CRM) to help retain customers on a long-term basis. Besides that, security of e-commerce site remains a big concern for corporations and policies must be implemented to protect business strategy that relies heavily on technology. As a result, one of the most lucrative career paths is in the field of information security.

In a nutshell, e-commerce is a helpful technology which are at their peak and is predicted to grow even more. We as the consumers and internet users are responsible to keep it safe so that e-business can be more reliable in the future.

References 1

References 2

References 3

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E-Commerce Failure and its causes

From this week onward we will have weekly titles for the blog, as part of our group, I am responsible for E-Commerce Failure and its causes.

In my daily life, I have the habit of purchasing goods online. Although there it provides convenience but disadvantages accompanies it. I found that the delivery process is upmost troublesome. It’s time-consuming and costly. If we buy thing in supermarket, it’s on cash on delivery system whereby online transaction have time-slack problem. After the payment, I have to wait few days only get the goods. Moreover, buyer normally needs to bare the delivery cost, the cost make the goods become more expensive. Sometimes I feel that is not worth to purchase online.

I have read though some article about the E-Commerce Failure and its causes. I found out that publicity of a company is rather important as a way of communication of the company with the public or rather provides brand awareness in the market. Advertisement, as one of the method of publicity is much focused for E-companies mainly because it needs to have internet traffic into the particular website to operate.

However, one of the main causes of failure is due to advertisement investment done by the companies. Overinvestment in advertisement is the main reason of several dot.com flops such as Pets.com.

Delivery problems prove another critical issue to be dealt with E-Commerce. Customer base of these online services will be rather wide in geographic locations. Delivery cost and time would be crucial to provide competition with local competitors such as shops and hypermarkets. Compared to its advantage of convenience, its cost of shipping would reduce consumer incentive to purchase online. Nevertheless its shipping time would be a disadvantage for many products for example pet litter sold by Pet.com. Urgent necessities would not be delightful to be delivered late to consumers. Another obvious example is from Kozmo.com, which operated well and were optimistic about their future, but failed to see delivery cost as an important factor to the operation of business.

Many other factors such as mismanagement, overly rapid expansion and so on would cause E-Commerce Failures. Therefore, companies operating E-Commerce would require extra attention to the above matters.

Everything has its pros and cons; we have to balance it ourselves. Before “shopping “online we should consider the consequences.

References

http://http//www.cnet.com/1990-11136_1-6278387-1.html?tag=feat.2

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About Jia Huan

Hi, my name is Lim Jia Huan and I was born in Seremban and was brought up in Kuala Lumpur. My hometown is located at Batu Caves, a place where many Hindus and tourists love to visit, as well as monkeys!!! I am currently studying in Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, taking Accounting course.

This is my first time blogging as I never write a blog before. This is a good try for me and I will post up some of my view on e-commerce as this is part of our assignment.

In this generation, most of the youngsters, children, businessman will spend time with internet. So of course, internet is also part of my life now. For me internet is more than just an encyclopedia, I can obtain knowledge, entertainment, friends and information from it. You really can widen your scope of knowledge by browsing through internet. Internet is a need!!

The website that I always visit is http://www.hotmail.com/, where I will check my inbox for important or funny or junk e-mail. Other than that, when I want to search for movies, I will visit http://www.ppstream.com/. This is where I can watch my favorite movie or drama without downloading it or pay for it. That’s why it is my favourite, haha…Besides, when I want to keep in touch with my friends and get updated with what happening to them, I will just click to http://www.facebook.com/. Photography is my hobby, as such I also like to visit a few websites about photography where I can check out the piece of art of professional photographer and get to learn how to take a good photo. One of the websites is http://www.photoforum.com/. In addition, when I am looking for answer for the questions in my mind, I will just do a searching in http://www.google.com/. From it, I can get a lot information and knowledge, it can help solving our problems.

Internet really provides us a good access on what happening around the world. Without internet, we really can’t complete our work easily. It is a convenient, so utilize it or you will waste it. Well, this is some information about me, so please drop by on our blog anytime and provide feedback to us ya!: )

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