E-Commerce - Ictbuild Ltd - Coursework Example

E-Commerce (Ictbuild Ltd) Introduction 1 Overview Ictbuild Ltd. is a medium sized company that develops software andsystems for use in the construction industry. It originated approximately 15 years ago as a foundling company. The company has a chairperson more specialised in construction to computers, software development and electronic commerce. The company has 30 employees including “sale staffs”, “Research and Development Staffs”, “Technicians”, “Construction Industry Specialists” and “Programmers”. Sale staffs travel to client offices giving demonstrations and all have portable PCs and mobile phones. The R&D staffs are predominantly involved in developing and maintaining software that is specific to construction industry applications. The company also employs several technicians who install software on existing client hardware or on proprietary PCs and networks that are delivered as a complete system to the client. Construction Industry Specialists form a buffer between the sales staff, who generate ideas for new products and features and the Programmers are the staffs that transform the ideas into reality. Although Ictbuild Ltd is a successful company, it is suffering from some issues : Sale staffs are wasting a great deal of time stuck in traffic. Most Research and Development staff have home computers and the team is thinking about working from home where appropriate. Due to the pressure of work, endemic in the organisation since the leaner years, software staff are little more than programmers. Some of the principles of good Software Engineering practice are rather abused or ignored, especially: requirements elicitation, testing, documentation The company needs a web site to handle electronic commerce in order to sell hardware and software needed by many small construction companies. 1.2 Aims and Objectives The aims and objectives of this technical report is 1. Identifying and prioritising the problems facing the company. 2. Providing solutions to the identified problems. a. Providing design approaches to develop an electronic commerce website for Ictbuild. b. Highly secure staff interface which allows them to login to the Intranet to do the following: i. Remote login to update work ii. Carry out meetings via video conferencing links with remote clients. c. An Enquiries System that deals with client queries and problems. d. A budget proposal which covers the following areas: i. Set up and Development costs ii. Maintenance costs 2 Problem Identification and Justification 2.1 Introduction Ictbuild Ltd. is a producer of software systems for construction companies. They have different clients with different needs and they are doing their best to provide products and services (including the hardware and software) that suits their clients need in the best possible way. The company at the moment is suffering from issues: - Sale staffs need to meet the clients in person to give a demonstration of the software and install them on clients computers, therefore lots of time and energy is wasted (for example in the traffic, because the company is close to a busy area). The company headquarters are seeking ways to sell the products and services online through a website. This way, the sale staff can stay in their offices provide support using telephone, email or even video conferencing. Clients will be able to find the details of the products and services online and at any time they need. - The research and development staffs do not see a necessity to be present at the office every single day. They are already working together through a computer network. They prefer a system to allow them secure access to the company’s website and work and communicate with other developers online. They need a space to securely share and update the files and get them to work altogether. - The company at the moment has more software staff than programmers. These staffs are the persons that need to meet every single client and help them with installing and using the software. Headquarters are thinking of providing support through a website with a complete help and support section since the number of clients is increasing every day. 3 Literature Review Electronic commerce is about using the internet for purchasing/selling products/services online. The number of internet users is increasing every single day and electronic commerce is representing itself as a real opportunity for companies to find new markets and provide their good and services more efficiently to their existing clients. There are enormous benefits for a company like Ictbuild Ltd. by using an e-commerce system. For example they will gain the access to the global market, they can sell their software, hardware and services without the need of middleman businesses and they can save time and energy for their sale staff. Apart from that, their business will be a 24 hours business because the clients can pay online even when the office is closed. Customers will be more satisfied and the website will build customer loyalty. Marketing costs will be reduced because the marketing can be done through email marketing and search engine rankings. By giving the clients the password to access their customised web page, they will tend to visit the website for more shopping because their information is saved and they do not need to fill forms again to make a purchase. At the most simple level, Ictbuild Ltd. will need basic ecommerce facilities like computers, access to the internet, email and a website and a hosting service. The details of the products and services can be handled by web pages and images. At an intermediate level which seems appropriate for Ictbuild Ltd., the e-commerce website will need enhanced user processing (who can access a web page and who cannot), encryption and payment processing and broader range of design templates, for example the interface for the staffs to access their control panel has to be different than the one a registered client uses to purchase a product or service or receive technical support. Even the web page for a registered client has to be different from the pages everyone could access online. 4 Recommended Solution 4.1 Overview In order to establish the e-commerce website for Ictbuild Ltd., we need to clearly define why we need the website, who the people that will use the website are and how they interact to each other. 4.2 Design Approach 4.2.1 Analysis System Description Ictbuild Ltd.’s e-commerce website is an online web based system capable of providing product and services to the clients (small construction companies that need construction design softwares). The product and services will include an enquiries system, an advanced help system providing answer to general and specific user enquiries. The Ictbuild Ltd.’s e-commerce system will also allow staffs of different levels and functionalities to login to the website and communicate with each other or the clients. This will include messaging systems, electronic mail or video conferencing. Stakeholders Manager: The manager or administrator is the person who controls the content or the operation of the website. The administrator also keeps control of other aspects of a website like hosting, databases and technical support. The manager has full access to the content of the e-commerce system, capable of controlling the procedure of software development, communications between the staff and clients and making high level decisions. Staffs: Staffs are the working members of the company. They include “sale staffs”, “Research and Development Staffs”, “Technicians”, “Construction Industry Specialists” and “Programmers”. They will use the system and they will need their own interfaces to help them work with each other or communicate with the clients. Registered Users: Registered user is the person who makes a purchase and for the next time they wish to seek a newer product or some technical support, they just login to their control panel without the need to entering their purchase detail or the support type they need again. General website visitors: General website visitor can be anyone who searches the internet for construction related software and services. However they will not have the access to higher level web pages including the registered users, staff or manager(s). Key system features Providing secure interface for clients to make purchases and seek technical support online. This will include encryption techniques, user authentication and secure third party payment processors. Highly secure staff interface which allows them to login to the Intranet to do the following: i. Remote login to update work ii. Carry out meetings via video conferencing links with remote clients An Enquiries System that deals with client queries and problems. The physical environment In order to implement an e-commerce website for the company, a secure and reliable hosting company will be needed. All the data, including web pages and images or other objects will be copied into sub-folders. The content of these sub folder will only be accessible to users based on their access levels though login forms. For payment processing, the e-commerce website will use a third party for processing the payments like PayPal or Verisign. The advantage of using these third party services is their reputation and that they are trusted by millions of online shoppers. The setup is easy and they get a small percentage of commission for the great service they provide. Ensuring the reliability of the physical environment is the job of managers and programmers or software staffs. Performance Goals The main performance goal of the e-commerce system is Reliability: The system has to perform as it is designed and it has to meet the objectives demanded by users. The main task of the system is to make sure the data has been stored and retrieved correctly. The structure of database has to be designed in a way to comply with issues like data integrity. So the main focus has to be on the relational database and normalisation. Making sure that the query, insert, update and delete commands operate correctly, otherwise that could lead to a loss of data integrity. The reliability of this system will be achieved when all the tables in the relational database are of Third Normal Form (3NF). The reason is that most 3NF tables in relational databases are free of insertion, deletion and update anomalies. Security: Without security and privacy policies, clients will not trust a website and will not make a purchase. Different access levels to different contents on the website have to be securely implemented. What happens if general users or staffs have the access to client’s sensitive information like credit cards or addresses? 4.2.2 Design and Development Approach There are many different software development techniques used/employed when software (here an e-commerce application) is being developed. These methods or approaches are also called "Software Development Process Models". Each process model follows a specific life cycle to ensure the overall success of software development. One of the approaches/processes employed in Development of Software is "The Waterfall Model". It was the first Process Model introduced and was followed widely in Software Engineering projects. In this model, the overall process of software development separated into process phases. These phases are: Requirement Analysis, Software Design, Software Implementation, Testing & Maintenance. (Pressman, 2006) All these phases are connected together like a small series of waterfall. Second step is started as and when defined set of goals are attained for the first step. It is a structured software development paradigm. Below is more explanation for the different stages of "The Waterfall Model" (Pressman, 2006): Requirement Analysis: All potential requirements of the software to be developed are analysed in this step. Requirements are the outcomes expected by the final user form the system. These requirements are captured by consultation, and then analysed whether it is possible to incorporate them in the system to be developed. At the end, a Requirement Specification report is created. We use this report in the next step of the waterfall model as a guideline. System & Software Design: Before writing codes, it is very important to define what we are about to create and what the final product will look like? The requirement specifications from first step are used in this phase to prepare system design. In System Design we specify the hardware and system requirements and also the overall architecture of the system. The output of the System & Software design serves as the input for the next step of the waterfall model. Implementation & Unit Testing: After the design documents are ready, the project is divided in modules/units and coding phase is started. The software is first developed in small programs/units and then they are integrated in the next step of the waterfall model. Each small program (unit) is developed and tested to make sure it works properly. We call it “Unit Testing”. It just helps verifying whether the units meet their requirements. Integration & System Testing: After the units are tested and implemented, they are integrated into a complete system and then tested to make sure if all the units work properly together and the overall system meets the requirements. After the software testing was successful, it will be delivered to the customer. Operations & Maintenance: After the software is delivered to the customer and the practical use has started unforeseen problems from the previous phases may be reported by end user. In the Operation and Maintenance, these problems will be resolved. 4.3 Highly Secured Staff Interface In order to implement a highly secured interface for the electronic commerce website of the company, two items have to be considered: The infrastructure has to be secure: This will include the web hosting service and the security packages they provide. For example for a price of $20 a month, we can have a SSL256 encrypted e-commerce website. The development environment has to provide security: The server technologies generally used in web hosting services are usually Linux or Windows based. Windows based systems have their .NET and SQL Server option enabled. But linux servers use PHP and MySQL technology. Linux servers are cheaper but still secure. PHP forms provide advanced levels of security both in the login forms and connecting to the databases. That is the reason many e-commerce websites choose php, MySql and Linux based servers. Once a secured interface has been designed, each staff will gain their own username and password which once they are entered, they will be directed to their special interface. They can communicate with each other, management or the clients to provide support and to upload and update their work remotely at home or in their office. 4.4 E-Enquiries Systems E-Enquires systems include the forms accessible in the control panel of the registered user’s account or at the contact us section of the website. The website also supports online chatting and video conferencing. 5 Budget Implementing an e-commerce website for the company will not impose a considerable amount of budget because the web hosting costs per month are very low and the company already has software developers, technicians and programmers to develop a web based software. However making a website is like opening an store in the north pole. No one will realise the e-commerce website exists until we broadcast that. For advertising, including email marketing or appearance in the search engines there is no limit for the budget. The more we spend, the more clients will notice the website exists. 6 Technical Specification Review -Linux based web hosting -php and MySql support -different access levels -web 2.0 technologies -Integration with secure transaction systems 7 Conclusion and Recommendation In this report we analysed the needs of the company for an e-commerce system. We identified the users of the system and their different access level. We also pointed out the importance of security and reliability of the website and its functions including online purchasing and online support/e-enquiry system. We discussed the design approach of the e-commerce website by a famous software engineering technique called “The waterfall model” and provided recommendations on the type of webhosting and the payment processing systems in a way they could be cost effective yet secure and reliable. 9 Bibliography Thomas M McFadyen and McFadyen , eCommerce Best Practices - How to market, sell, and service customers with internet technologies (2008) Kenneth Laudon and Carol Guercio Traver , E-Commerce 2010 (6th Edition), 2009 Jason R. Rich, Design and Launch an eCommerce Business in a Week (Entrepreneur Magazines Click Starts),2008 Emilian Balanescu and Cristian Darie, Beginning PHP and MySQL E-Commerce: From Novice to Professional, Second Edition (Beginning: From Novice to Professional) (2008) David Meerman Scott, The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use Social Media, Blogs, News Releases, Online Video, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly, 2nd Edition (2010) Michael Miller, Selling Online 2.0: Migrating from eBay to Amazon, craigslist, and Your Own E-Commerce Website (2009) David Travis, E-Commerce Usability: Tools and Techniques to Perfect the On-Line Experience (2002) Roger S. Pressman, Software Engineering: A Practitioners Approach (2009) Read More