MI0039

Q1
Web page:
A web page or webpage is a document commonly written in HyperText Markup
Language (HTML) that is accessible through the Internet or other network using an
Internet browser. A web page is accessed by entering a URL address and may
contain text, graphics, and hyperlinks to other web pages and files. The page you
are reading now is an example of a web page.
A web page (or webpage) is a web document that is suitable for the World Wide
Web and the web browser. A web browser displays a web page on a monitor or
mobile device. The web page is what displays, but the term also refers to a
computer file, usually written in HTML or comparable markup language. Web
browsers coordinate the various web resource elements for the written web page,
such as style sheets, scripts, and images, to present the web page.

Typical web pages provide hypertext that includes a navigation bar or a sidebar
menu to other web pages via hyperlinks, often referred to as links.

On a network, a web browser can retrieve a web page from a remote web server. On
a higher level, the web server may restrict access to only a private network such as
a corporate intranet or it provides access to the World Wide Web. On a lower level,
the web browser uses the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) to make such
requests.

A static web page is delivered exactly as stored, as web content in the web server's
file system, while a dynamic web page is generated by a web application that is
driven by server-side software or client-side scripting. Dynamic website pages help
the browser (the client) to enhance the web page through user input to the server.

Web browser
A browser is an application program that provides a way to look at and interact with
all the information on the World Wide Web. The word "browser" seems to have
originated prior to the Web as a generic term for user interfaces that let you browse
(navigate through and read) text files online.

Technically, a Web browser is a client program that uses HTTP (Hypertext Transfer
Protocol) to make requests of Web servers throughout the Internet on behalf of the

browser user. Most browsers support e-mail and the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) but a
Web browser is not required for those Internet protocols and more specialized client
programs are more popular.

The first Web browser, called WorldWideWeb, was created in 1990. That browser's
name was changed to Nexus to avoid confusion with the developing information
space known as the World Wide Web. The first Web browser with a graphical user
interface was Mosaic, which appeared in 1993. Many of the user interface features
in Mosaic went into Netscape Navigator. Microsoft followed with its Internet Explorer
(IE).

As of September 2006, Internet Explorer is the most commonly used browser,

having won the so-called browser wars between IE and Netscape. Other browsers
include:

Firefox, which was developed from Mozilla (the open source version of Netscape).
Flock, an open source browser based on Firefox and optimized for Web 2.0
features such as blogging and social bookmarking .
Safari, a browser for Apple computers (at this writing, the third most popular
browser).
Lynx, a text-only browser for UNIX shell and VMS users.
Opera, a fast and stable browser that's compatible with most relatively operating
systems.

Web Server
A Web server is a system that delivers content or services to end users over the Internet. A Web
server consists of a physical server, server operating system (OS) and software used to facilitate
HTTP communication.
A Web server is also known as an Internet server.
The most simple definition is that a Web server runs a website by returning HTML files over an
HTTP connection. This definition may have been true in the early days of the Internet, but the
line has blurred between websites, Web applications and Web services, etc. For example, a server
that delivers an XML document to another device can be a Web server. A better definition might
be that a Web server is any Internet server that responds to HTTP requests to deliver content and

services.
Web servers are computers that deliver (serves up) Web pages. Every Web server has an IP
address and possibly a domain name. For example, if you enter the URL
http://www.webopedia.com/index.html in your browser, this sends a request to the Web server
whose domain name is webopedia.com. The server then fetches the page named index.html and
sends it to your browser.
Any computer can be turned into a Web server by installing server software and connecting the
machine to the Internet. There are many Web server software applications, including public
domain software and commercial packages.

Website
A Web site is a related collection of World Wide Web (WWW) files that includes a
beginning file called a home page. A company or an individual tells you how to get
to their Web site by giving you the address of their home page. From the home
page, you can get to all the other pages on their site. For example, the Web site for
IBM has the home page address of http://www.ibm.com. (The home page address
actually includes a specific file name like index.html but, as in IBM's case, when a
standard default name is set up, users don't have to enter the file name.) IBM's
home page address leads to thousands of pages. (But a Web site can also be just a
few pages.)

Since site implies a geographic place, a Web site can be confused with a Web
server. A server is a computer that holds the files for one or more sites. A very large
Web site may be spread over a number of servers in different geographic locations.
IBM is a good example; its Web site consists of thousands of files spread out over
many servers in world-wide locations. But a more typical example is probably the
site you are looking at, whatis.com. We reside on a commercial space provider's
server with a number of other sites that have nothing to do with Internet glossaries.

A synonym and less frequently used term for Web site is "Web presence." That term
seems to better express the idea that a site is not tied to specific geographic
location, but is "somewhere in cyberspace." However, "Web site" seems to be used
much more frequently.

Internet

The Internet, sometimes called simply "the Net," is a worldwide system of computer
networks - a network of networks in which users at any one computer can, if they
have permission, get information from any other computer (and sometimes talk
directly to users at other computers). It was conceived by the Advanced Research
Projects Agency (ARPA) of the U.S. government in 1969 and was first known as the
ARPANet. The original aim was to create a network that would allow users of a
research computer at one university to "talk to" research computers at other
universities. A side benefit of ARPANet's design was that, because messages could
be routed or rerouted in more than one direction, the network could continue to
function even if parts of it were destroyed in the event of a military attack or other
disaster.

Today, the Internet is a public, cooperative and self-sustaining facility accessible to

hundreds of millions of people worldwide. Physically, the Internet uses a portion of
the total resources of the currently existing public telecommunication networks.
Technically, what distinguishes the Internet is its use of a set of protocols called
TCP/IP (for Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol). Two recent adaptations
of Internet technology, the intranet and the extranet, also make use of the TCP/IP
protocol.

For most Internet users, electronic mail (email) practically replaced the postal
service for short written transactions. People communicate over the Internet in a
number of other ways including Internet Relay Chat (IRC), Internet telephony,
instant messaging, video chat or social media.

The most widely used part of the Internet is the World Wide Web (often abbreviated
"WWW" or called "the Web"). Its outstanding feature is hypertext, a method of
instant cross-referencing. In most Web sites, certain words or phrases appear in text
of a different color than the rest; often this text is also underlined. When you select
one of these words or phrases, you will be transferred to the site or page that is
relevant to this word or phrase. Sometimes there are buttons, images, or portions of
images that are "clickable." If you move the pointer over a spot on a Web site and
the pointer changes into a hand, this indicates that you can click and be transferred
to another site.

Using the Web, you have access to billions of pages of information. Web browsing is
done with a Web browser, the most popular of which are Chrome, Firefox and
Internet Explorer. The appearance of a particular Web site may vary slightly
depending on the browser you use. Also, later versions of a particular browser are
able to render more "bells and whistles" such as animation, virtual reality, sound,
and music files, than earlier versions.

The Internet has continued to grow and evolve over the years of its existence. IPv6,
for example, was designed to anticipate enormous future expansion in the number
of available IP addresses. In a related development, the Internet of Things (IoT) is
the burgeoning environment in which almost any entity or object can be provided
with a unique identifier and the ability to transfer data automatically over the
Internet.

Q2 Advantages of B2C Model

Business to consumer (B to C) is business or transactions conducted directly between a company
and consumers who are the end-users of its products or services. Business to consumer as a
business model differs significantly from the business to business model, which refers to
commerce between two or more businesses.

Catalog Inflexibility
Direct "link" capabilities to content information and visual displays already existing on other
client web site. You can update your E-Catalog anytime, whether it's adding new products, or
adjusting prices, without the expense and time of a traditional print catalogs.
1. Extensive search capabilities by item, corporate name, division name, location,
manufacturer, partner, price or any other specified needs.
Shrinks the Competition Gap
Reduced marketing/advertising expenses compete on equal footing with much bigger
companies; easily compete on quality, price, and availability of the products
Unlimited Market Place
The Internet gives customers the opportunity to browse and shop at their place. They can access
your services from home, office, or on the road, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, monthly or
yearly.
1. The Internet allows you to reach people around the world, offering your products to a
global customer base there you can buy the product easily.
A 24 Hour Store Reduced Sale Cycle
Reduce unnecessary phone calls and mailings.

Lower Cost of Doing Business

It has Reduced inventory, employees, purchasing costs, order processing costs associated with
faxing, phone calls, and data entry, and even eliminate physical stores. Reduce transaction costs.
Eliminate Middlemen
Sell directly to your customers.
Easier Business Administration
1. By using with right software, store inventory levels, shipping and receiving logs, and
other business administration tasks can be automatically stored, categorized and updated
in real-time, and accessed on demand of customers.
Frees Your Staff
1. Reduce customer service and sales support service.
Customers will love it
1. Gives customers control of sales process.
2. Builds loyalty of customer.
More Efficient Business Relationships
Better way to deal with dealers and suppliers.
Workflow Automation
1. By using this process we can Shipp, real time inventory accounting system which adjusts
stock levels and site, location availability instantaneously
2. Secured, automated registration verification, account entry and transaction authorization
features
3. Banking and accounting features customized for pre-approved third party direct sales,
vendor, consignment or internal transfer transactions.
Secure Payment Systems
1. Recent advancements in payment technologies allow encrypted, secure payment online

----------Differentiation through individuality

By individually tailoring products to customers' specific needs, companies can effectively
differentiate themselves from mass-producing competitors: individually tailored products are
often percieved as more attractive by customers and are not as easily comparable as massproduced goods. In many cases, this allows companies to sidestep the pure price-cutting
competion characteristic of mass production.

Reduced capital commitment and less overproduction

Since production will ideally be geared to actual demand rather than to keeping the warehouse
filled, the capital commitment and high costs associated with stock-keeping can effectively be
reduced. In addition, no more sales or special reductions are required for selling-off surplus
production. Costs can be lowered further by interacting with customers online via Internet. Thus,
by making real-life sales advisors redundant, staff can be reduced. Similarly, by selling direclty
to their customers, producers can often bypass costly intermediaries.

Better knowledge of customers' needs

By registering customers' needs immediately and accurately, new market opportunities can be
discovered rapidly and the products adapted accordingly. Companies using Mass Customization
side-by-side with conventional mass production can profitably transfer and employ their
knowledge of customers' needs.

Higher customer loyalty

Information gained during the configuration process (product specifications, customer profiles,
etc.) work in favour of durable customer relationships. On one hand, this information can be used
to adress customers individually. On the other hand, it can be accessed and re-used for follow-up
orders. A second configuration will therefore be significantly quicker than the initial one. This
provides an incentive for customers to remain loyal to the company rather than switch to another
company and restart the entire configuration process from scratch.

Shopping as experience
(In the case of direct interaction between manufacturer and customers on the Web) the creative
aspects of configuration represent a special experience for many customers. The process is
therefore suitable to emotionally tie customers to a product by allowing them to become
designers. But integrating customers into the design process not only strenghtens identification
with the product, it also results in a positive percepetion of the actual sales process. This directly

affects customers' satisfaction with the acquired product, particularly in the field of onlineretailing.

-----------Business-to-business (B2B) ecommerce

Business-to-business (B2B) ecommerce provides a way for your customers to
purchase your products online, but also provides a host of other benefits to your
organization. Imagine your customers, dealers, or distributors seeing both their
online and offline orders in one place, managing their orders, budgets, seeing their
pricing and available promotions through an online experience.

1. Scalability An effective ecommerce solution will enable your organization to grow and
scale easily to meet market demand and customer needs by opening new sales channels
and continuously reaching new market segments.
2. Improved efficiencies Through integration to the enterprise resource planning (ERP)
and other back-end business systems, ecommerce provides marked efficiencies for B2B
organizations. Customers are able to order online at their convenience, customer service
can focus on actual customer service functions rather than simply being order takers, and
the need to rekey data in independent systems is eliminated, thereby eliminating the
possibility of errors and improving shipping processes and increasing order throughput.
3. More customers A B2B ecommerce site with public-facing catalog pages is a powerful
way to reach new B2B customers. Your future buyers not only prefer to shop online but
will demand it. As B2B buyers head online to find the best prices, manufacturers and
distributors can leverage the power of the searchand therefore, ready to indexpages
of their site to locate new visitors and convert them into customers.
4. Improved brand awareness Improve brand awareness in the market place.
Developing pages that can be indexed by search engine crawlers is a fast way to improve
your sites search engine optimization and improve the likelihood that your target
audience will know who you are.
5. Increased sales Not only will you reach new customers, ecommerce also allows you to
easily implement an automated cross-sell and up-sell recommendation program,
offering relevant suggestions to customers on the site and encouraging them to purchase
related items or items with more features and functionality.
6. Analytics B2B ecommerce provides the perfect platform for an organization to launch
a comprehensive analytics campaign. Through ecommerce, organizations can more easily
measure and evaluate marketing campaigns, sales effectiveness, product mix, inventory
turns, customer sales effectiveness, and customer engagement. Google Analytics offers
ecommerce tracking, but integrating analytics with your ERP as well gives you much
more valuable data with actionable insights.

7. Customer-centric experience Amazon.com sets the standard for providing an

exceptional ecommerce experience and todays online shopper expects an Amazon-like
experience whether they are shopping for business or pleasure. To remain relevant, B2B
organizations need to employ intuitive design, rich content, and interactive functionality
in their websites.
8. Exceptional customer service Ecommerce provides an exceptional opportunity for the
B2B organization to improve its customer service initiatives. Ecommerce sites can
provide access to self-serve portals with account, order, history and tracking information.
Through integration with an organizations enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, a
robust ecommerce site can display customer specific products, services and pricing based
on customer log in credentials.
9. Improved sales engagement Your physical sales team will also benefit from the
launch of a comprehensive ecommerce effort. A B2B ecommerce site or portal will
improve your sales teams visibility into customer orders, pricing, and history while on
the road or working remotely.
10. Multi-site capability Launching channel-specific or co-branded ecommerce sites is
easy with the right B2B ecommerce platform. This capability allows you to offer cobranded websites or microsites for each of your distributors or key clients as well allow
for sites that cater to a specific international audience by presenting content in alternate
languages or currencies.

Q3 Briefly explain the developments that IT

has driven in the banking industry
Explaining eight types of development
Technological innovations have enabled the industry to open up efficient delivery channels. IT
has helped the banking industry to deal with the challenges the new economy poses. Technology
is also changing the supervisory and regulatory landscape. It is creating new tools for supervisors
and new supervisory challenges. Technology-driven issues such as privacy and the nature of
electronic communications have reached the forefront of the policy agenda. And the line between
electronic banking and electronic commerce is becoming more difficult to define clearly. More
than most other industries, financial institutions rely on gathering, processing, analyzing, and
providing information in order to meet the needs of customers. Given the importance of

information in banking, it is not surprising that banks were among the earliest adopters of
automated information processing technology.
The Banking sector in India has experienced a rapid transformation. Due to the advent of
technology and automation there is a new trend in the banking system. The advancement in
technology and introduction of information technology played a significant role in improving the
services in the industry.
Electronic banking is giving competitive advantage to the banks. Online electronics banking,
mobile banking and internet banking are just a few examples.
1. Tele banking:

Telephone banking is a service provided by a banks and financial institution where customer
performs their transaction, over the telephone. Banking carried out over computer network is
called telephone banking.
It represents conducting financial transactions using computer and a telephone. Banking carried
out over computer network is called as Tele banking. Most telephone banking services use an
automated phone answering system. This technology facilitates to call the bank and give order to
a bank computer for carrying out of operation under your account.
2. Automated Teller Machine:

An automated teller machine is a computerized device that provides access for financial
transaction in a public place. The customer can have access to his bank account to make cash
withdrawals and check balances. Apart from these functions ATM facilitates to transfer money
from one account to another and can request for a cheque book.
3. SMS banking:

SMS banking is a technology-enabled service offered by banks to its customers. They permit the
customers to operate banking services over mobile phones using SMS messages. SMS banking is
more advantageous than Internet banking because people carry mobile phones everywhere. SMS
banking reduces the distances between banks and the customers.
4. Debit cards:

A Debit card is a plastic card with a magnetic strip that can be used by a consumer as a means of
payment. Unlike a credit card, there is no line of credit; the debit card is linked to the account.
Funds charged to a debit card are directly deducted from the bank account it is associated with. It
is card that provides an alternative payment method to cash for making purchases. It can also be
called as electronic cheque.

5. Credit card:

Credit card is a plastic card with a magnetic strip authorised to purchase upto a predetermined
amount i.e. a credit limit. Banks issue it to their customers to enable them to purchase on credit.
These cards store the information relating to customers account.
6. Internet Banking:

Internet banking means conducting financial transaction through a website. Internet banking is
also known as online banking. In Internet banking consumers have an access to their account
through a server.
Internet banking is also known as virtual, cyber, net, interactive, or web banking. It provides
various services like online trading, online bill payment, shop online etc. Rapid growth in the
number of Internet connection and user has opened up a large market for internet banking.
Consumer can operate their bank account from anywhere in the world from any personal
computer at any time with an internet connection.

Q4 What are the benefits and limitations of Online

Publishing
Benefits and Limitations of online publishing\
While the information available online is staggering, even in our technological age, we cannot
forget to mention the fact that not everyone in this day is ready to sit down at a computer screen
and read for any great deal of time. Curling up in front of the fire on a cold day with a book in
hand can never be replaced by sitting in a cold chair staring at the words on computer screen.
Costs
The costs of online desktop publishing are fairly low in consideration to those of print. Granted,
one must have access to a networked computer and a decent amount of usable software, but
those are things that anyone in the publishing business, print or online, will have to have anyway.
The other costs that may come into play are those associated with online access. These will vary
depending on your service provider; however, students enrolled in most universities will be
provided access (at least while using school computers) for free. Thus, for example, the Nieve
Roja Review required no startup costs whatsoever, having been published using campus services.
The other positive about low costs for online publishing comes into play when distribution is
considered. The distribution itself is free as well. There are no printing costs, which are usually
print publishers' biggest expense, nor the waste of large amounts of paper that go along with
printing. However, there are costs attached to some of the methods of marketing an online
publication. Just because your publication is online, doesn't mean anyone out there knows where
it is or is reading it.
Profits
It remains difficult to make any money off of online publishing. Most publications online right
now are free to readers and are merely charging for ad space. However, some are attempting to

require subsciptions. Much still seems up in the air in terms of what standard might come out of
online publishing --what will work and what will fail. It's a new medium and people using it are
still in the stages of trial and error. See Things to Consider for more information.
Marketing
Although there are no or few distribution costs for online publishing, it does take a bit of
marketing to get people to your site. You must register your publication with as many search
engines as possible and, often, this entails a cost. However, if this isn't done, no one will be able
to find your site. This process needs to be given regular attention as your description or focus
changes and as new search engines are introduced. Also, other sites that have agreed to link to
yours need to be regularly contacted to make sure that link will remain on their site. So, while
marketing and distribution might be cheaper for the online publication, it is not without it's costs
especially in terms of labor and time.
Editing
Editing is another plus involved in online publishing. For the most part, editing should and does
occur before the new issue goes online. However, we've all come across several typos in print
documents of any kind that weren't caught before the publication was sent off to the printer. In
online publishing, there is no "final" product. Errors can be corrected in a matter of minutes (or
seconds even). For example, in one issue of the Nieve Roja Review, we had a submission by a
fellow grad student that detailed events that very possibly could be considered sensitive material
if certain persons happened across the work. It also pointed out the private workings of an
industry that many people in the public might not be pleased to read about. They weren't
unethical, but merely contextual and possibly damaging to that particular institution. Therefore,
the author, after the issue went online, decided she'd rather make some changes to the names,
places, and descriptions used. We were able to take the work out of the publication with a notice
that it would appear again in the next issue. That would not have been possible in print. In print,
what's done is done once it's on the paper.
Time
An online publication also requires constant upkeep even in-between issues. Links need to be
tested regularly in order to avoid 'linkrot'. And because editing can be done at any time, there's a
responsibility attached to make sure what needs to be fixed is. Meanwhile, with print, once it's
printed, it's out of your hands. In addition, deadlines for online publication are merely self
imposed. For print, the editors have to take into consideration that the printing itself takes a
certain amount of time as does distribution. Therefore, their deadlines are fairly rigid. However,
for online publishing, deadlines are good to get the ball going, but the actual publishing can
occur at any time without the dependence on the time-frame of another.
Audience
Audience is a category that can be considered both a pro and a con for online publishing. While
your audience is not limited to only those hit in your distribution efforts, it is also not the
dedicated group of readers that most print publications can count on. So while your publication

may be more widely available, that doesn't mean that people are reading it. It's more difficult to
determine your readership in online publications. First, you can't know the demographics of your
readers as easily as you might with print. Some people have attempted to stick with the
subscription method to alleviate some of this problem, but then readership often goes down
because readers can often get the same information elsewhere for free on the Internet. Counters
help tell you how many have entered your site, but they can't tell you if that person stayed long
enough to read anything. While you might say the same of your subscribers in print publishing,
the subscribers paid for your publication for a reason and are most likely continuing to read it as
long as they're subscribed. Online, it's difficult to determine not just who your audience is, but
how many readers you have.
Standards
Because online desktop publishing is a fairly new field, there are no set standards deemed a
quality layout format. This can be seen as both a pro and a con. As a advantage, we can
understand this to mean that there's more room for experimentation. However, as a disadvantage,
there's been very little usability testing done on what readers like and dislike, what keeps them
there and what chases them away. So, while your content might be great, your layout could chase
the readers away, and vice versa. It's still a volatile situation without any standards to rely on.
Submissions
Submissions are another tough area to tackle in online publishing. For example, from a literary
journal standpoint, many authors are afraid to put their material online for fear of plagiarism as
well as copyright problems that may arise later when attempting to publish their work elsewhere.
Copyright laws for the Internet have not been firmly established yet, and because the Internet
was created with the intention of sharing free information, they appear difficult not just to enact
but to get users to abide by. Plagiarism, however, is a threat for publishing in any medium, print
or otherwise. Authors seem to be slow to realize this. However, because of this wide-spread fear,
many have deemed the work on the Internet to be poor and the authors published there to be
unworthy of higher esteemed print publications. This stereotype also keeps submissions low.
Nieve Roja Reflection
The Nieve Roja Review is an online literary journal run by graduate students in Colorado State
University's English department. We put out two issues a year --winter and summer. While our
readership could be large, it's hard to know just who is accessing our site and actually staying
long enough to read anything. We make an effort to only publish what we consider to be 'quality'
work in order to avoid the stereotype that published work on the Internet is merely trash.
However, it's this stereotype that keeps many of our colleagues from submitting their best work.
Currently, it feels like publishing on the Internet poses a 'damned-if-you-do, damned-if-youdon't' scenario, yet it has definite advantages to print as well.

Explaining the different approaches of online publishing

There are four contrasting content publishing approaches.

The online archive approach. This is new to the Web, but is a logical extension of
the trends in electronic delivery over the past several years.
The online archive approach (including bibliographic databases and full-text
search/retrieval services) is one that appeals to
corporate publishers and, to some extent, commercial publishers (such as academic
or journal publishers) who have an existing digital archive that they want to deliver
over the Web as well as on paper, CD- ROM, or other media.
The most prevalent example of online archive approach is library cata-logs and
bibliographic databases. Most libraries have replaced traditional card catalogs with
sophisticated electronic online bibliographic databases offering an incredible range
of functions. At revenues of over $1 billion a year, bibliographic databases represent
a sizable chunk of the online data-base market. An example of a bibliographic
database is MEDLINE, devel-oped by the National Library of Medicine (NLM), which
caters to an increasing number of physicians who rely on online medical databases
to keep up to date with the latest developments and literature. The spread of PCs
has enabled physicians to directly search databases used only by librar-ians in the
past. MEDLINE and other medical databases are available free of charge on the
Internet.

The new medium approach. This is more controversial and more difficult to
implement, but also more exciting.
The new medium approach (including real -time news delivery, personalized news
delivery, and edutainment) aims to create new material for the Web-to treat the
Web as its own medium, one deserving its own material. This approach will have the
most appeal to commercial print publishers, such as magazines, that view the Web
as an al-ternative, not a replacement, for print publications. For example, Wired
magazine sees very little
crossover in content between its magazine and its HotWired venture. Some writers
may write for both media, but separate content streams will be developed for each
medium.
This approach currently has some teething problems because of technolog-ical
limitations. For instance, the formatting limitations of the Web are frustrat-ing at the
moment, but with technological advancements they will soon be forgotten. The
frustrations are more than offset by the excitement of the inter-activity the Web
offers; its model is both broadcasting and conversation at the same time. With

online publishing there may be a well-known starting point, but with no controlling
gatekeeper, the subsequent value-added improvisation from readers makes each
online magazine a unique experience.

The publishing intermediation approach. This is an online extension of the thirdparty publisher role off-line.
The publishing intermedia-tion approach (including online directories) exploits new
service opportuni-ties for intermediaries. For example, in the growing market for
educational material such as course packs and other customized books, companies
offer-ing material owned by more than one publisher face the daunting task of
obtaining permissions. New organizations that specialize in the manage-ment of
copyright clearance are emerging as key players.
Online directories are important for several reasons. Companies and consumers
interested in conducting electronic commerce often struggle to navigate the
Internet to create an electronic marketplace. Once on that sprawling network, they
are having trouble finding other companies, prod-ucts, and services. The success of
Yahoos initial public offering (IPO) un-derscores the importance of online
directories. Yahoo (which stands for Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle) was
created in 1994 by David Filo and Jerry Yang, two Stanford, University electrical
engineering PhD stu-dents who began DY simply compiling lists of their favorite Web
sites. It went on to become one of the most popular means of navigating around the
Internet. Yahoo is the first place millions of Internet users go when they try to find
their way around the rapidly growing Internet. At
one time, Yahoo was getting about 6 million visitors per day, which made it the
second most active Web site next to Netscapes home page.

The dynamic and just-in-time approach. In this approach, content is assembled in

real-time and transmitted in the format best suited to the users tastes and
preferences.
The Online Archive Approach
Online content is no longer static information. Content can now be created in realtime and transmitted on the fly in the format best suited to the users location,
tastes, and preferences. More importantly, the content engine recognizes repeat
visitors to a site and configures the Web pages to match the individuals known
preferences. For example, a publisher planning to deploy a large product catalog
will no longer have to author and

update each individual Web page. Instead, the elements of each page-text,
graphics, video, and sound-are stored separately in a database and used to create
individual-ized pages on the fly as each user browses the site. The page content can
be further customized to reflect which Web browser is being used, the users
geographic location, and modem speed.
Another way of looking at dynamic publishing is that it is just-in-time publishing.
That is, the stories, applets, and content
flow into the computer just as consumers need them, and then self-destruct after
usage. A six-story subscription to Sports World might cost 99 cents. Pictures of your
favorite ac-tor might go for $1.99. Want to buy a round in a cyber adventure game?
How about a quarter? However, there is one question that constrains this vision:
How can payments be collected on a product that costs a nickel or dime? So who
cares if it costs 15 cents or more to process the transaction? Businesses do, and to
satisfy the small-amount transaction market need, micropayments are essential.

Q5 Elucidate the process of Electronic payment

The ease of purchasing and selling products over the Internet has helped the growth of electronic
commerce and electronic payments services are a convenient and efficient way to do financial
transactions. Current e-payment technologies depend on using traditional methods that are
common to non-electronic systems. Due to the nature of Internet, security and authenticity of
payments and participants cannot be guaranteed with technologies that are not specifically
designed for electronic commerce. We need an e-payment system that would not only provide
secure payments but should also have properties like online customer and merchant
authentication, unforgeable proof of transaction authorisation by the customer both to the
merchant and the bank, privacy of customer and transaction data. This chapter provides an
overview of e-payment architecture and their functionalities, their requirements and verification
of payment protocols.
Generic E-Payment System
1. Entities

Electronic payments involve a payer and a payee. A payer (buyer or customer), is an entity who
makes a payment. A payee (seller or merchant), is an entity who receives a payment. The main
purpose of an electronic payment protocols is to transfer monetary value from the payer to the
payee. The process also involves a financial institution (bank or mint).
Typically, financial institution participates in payment protocols in two roles: as an issuer
(interacting with the payer) and as an acquirer (interacting with the payee). The issuer is
responsible for validating the payer during account registrations and holds the payers account
and assets. The acquirer holds the payees account and assets. The payee deposits the payments
received during a transaction with the acquirer. The acquirer and the issuer then proceed to
perform an inter-banking transaction for clearance of funds. It is possible for the issuer and the

acquirer to be from the same financial institution.

Other parties that may be present in a payment protocol include a Trustee (arbiter) who is an
entity that is independent from all parties. All entities in a protocol unconditionally trust the
Trustee who is called to adjudicate any disputes between the payer and the payee. Certain
payment systems might involve more players like Payment Gateways (PG) who are entities that
act as a medium for transaction processing between other entities (e.g. MasterCard, Visa) and
Certification Authorities (CA) who are necessary if the e-payment systems involve PKIs. They
issue public key certificates to entities involved in a payment protocol so that their authenticity
can be publicly verified. Figure 1 illustrates the participating entities in an e-payment system.

Figure 1: Generic E-payment Protocol

2. Phases in E-Payment

An electronic payment typically involves the following phases:

1. Registration: This phase involves the registration of the payer and the payee
with the issuer and acquirer respectively. Most electronic payments designed
require registration of payers and payees with their corresponding banks so
there is a link between their identities and their accounts held at the bank.
2. Invoicing: In this phase, the payee obtains an invoice for payment from the
payee. This is accomplished by either browsing and selecting products for
purchase from the merchants (payees) website in case of purchases made
through the internet or obtaining an electronic invoice using other electronic
communication medium like e-mail. This phase typically is performed in an
unsecured environment and normally excluded while designing payment
protocols. The importance of this phase is that, it sets the mandatory and
optional data variables that should be included in a payment protocol.
3. Payment selection and processing: In this phase the payer selects type of
payment, (card based, e-cash, e-cheque, etc.,) based on the type of payment
the payee accepts. Based on the selection, the payer then sends the relevant

payment details like account number, unique identifiers of the payer to the
payee along with accepted amount based on the invoice. Certain protocols
might also require the payer to obtain preauthorised token (like bank drafts)
from the issuer before the payer sending the payment information to the
payee.
4. Payment authorisation and confirmation: In this phase, the acquirer on
receiving payment details from the payee authorises the payment and issues
a receipt containing the success or failure of the payment to the payee. The
payee based on the message may also issue a receipt of payment to the
payer.

Explaining the three different types of EPayment

Standards.
OFX
Transaction information for e-payments needs to be standardised so that all parties involved are
able to accept and read the information. The Open Financial Exchange is a unified and open
standard for secure electronic transfer of financial data between customers, financial institutes
and merchants through the Web. OFX was developed in 1997 by Intuit, Microsoft and
Checkfree. It is based on networking and Internet standards accepted worldwide, used by more
than 5500 banks and payroll processing organisations.

Jalda
EHPT (owned by Ericsson and Hewlett Packard) owns Jalda, an open and global payment
method. With Jalda, payments can be made from a computer, mobile phone or wireless device
with Internet connection. Jalda can be used to carry very small to large transactions. To be able to
use Jalda, both the customer and the retailer should be connected to a special account and the
system administers the transactions for both. Jalda uses digital certificates for authentication and
all the communication happens through Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) which is a protocol for
managing the security of a message transmission on the Internet. Jaldas Application
Programming Interface (API) appears as a payment standard on the merchants website. This is
connected to a server controlled by the Internet Payment Provider. When a transaction occurs
between the customer and the merchant, it travels from the customers device to the merchants
API and finally to the Internet Payment Provider.

EMV
EMV, the acronym for Europay, MasterCard and Visa, was developed in 1999. It is a global
standard for a global standard for inter-operation of integrated circuit cards or chip cards which

can be used at Point of Sale (POS) terminals and ATMs with the purpose of developing
specifications for secure payment transactions. A chip card or integrated circuit card is a card
with embedded integrated circuits, such as smart card. EMV standards for electronic payments
outline the interaction between IC cards and IC card processing devices for financial transactions
at physical, electronic, data and application levels.

Explaining 5 different objectives of e-Commerce strategies

Building e-commerce strategies is based on the accomplishment of certain objectives, which are
independent of the kind of e-commerce model adopted by an organisation. The main objectives
around which strategy formulation in e-commerce is based are listed below.
Value addition:
In an organisation, value is added by providing better quality products and services to customers.
Information regarding the needs, preferences, and level of satisfaction of customers with a
particular good or service can be used to add value. To achieve this objective, an organisation
deploys strategies to attain market information, customer orientation, and preferences. Some of
the techniques used to implement these strategies are as follows:

Data mining
Trend analysis
Market survey

Cost reduction: Through its strategies, an e-commerce organisation tries to bring down costs in
order to increase revenue. This can be done by increasing the efficiency of the business
processes. Strategies to bring down production cost can be achieved by creating, marketing and
delivering products or services using fewer resources than previously. An e-commerce
organisation promotes cost reduction strategies by performing the following:

Reducing paperwork
Bringing down the size of the human workforce required to run electronic processes
through automation
Improving communications, both internally and externally

Risk management: The dependence of e-commerce on the Internet makes it vulnerable to risks
and fraudulent practices. There are various types of risks that e-commerce is exposed to, such as
information risk, technology risk, and other business risks. Any organisation running its business
through the means of Web technologies needs to create a secure system and design strategies for
the same. Such organisations focus on the following:

Developing strategies to protect against theft of customer data

Preventing unauthorised use of consumer data during transactions

Creating a robust telecommunications network
Integrating business processes for better monitoring
Following policies and regulations as per the law

Product/service innovation: With more organisations entering the ecommerce industry, it has
become vital to innovate and offer new products or services to remain in competition. Hence,
creating strategies for promotion of product or service innovation is basic to e-commerce. Such
strategies are built around the following:

Promoting Research and Development (R&D)

Data mining to collect information about customer preferences
Adopting new technologies
Creating new ways to develop and offer products through the Internet

Customer base expansion: A basic objective of any organisation is to expand its customer base,
and e-commerce is no exception to this. This is essential for the growth and survival of ecommerce businesses in the market. These businesses adopt various strategies to expand their
market and acquire more customers. Such strategies include the following:

Using extensive advertising and promotion

Using social media marketing to attract customers
Using techniques such as Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) to increase Web traffic
Offering convenient modes of transaction and payment to customers
Efficient management of CRM and reverse logistics.

There are various other objectives that initiate development of new strategies, which are based
on the main objectives driving strategy building in e-commerce.