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A trade cycle is the series of exchanges, between a customer and supplier that take place when a commercial exchange is executed. A general trade cycle consists of following stages: Pre-Sales : Finding a supplier and agreeing the terms. Execution : Having decided to do business the buyer requests or orders from the vendor that which is required and the vendor hands over or delivers the goods or service. Settlement: At an appropriate stage the vendor asks for payment, the invoice, and, hopefully, the buyer makes the appropriate payment. After Sales: Once the sale is completed that is not necessarily the end of the story; depending on the nature of the exchange there may be a requirement for after sales activities. This trade cycle is shown in figure 1.6. The way the trade cycle operates can vary depending on the nature of the customer, vendor, goods being traded and the traditions of the market segment and/or culture in which the deal is being done. E-commerce can be applied to all, or ...

The several types of e-commerce models in use today are classified based on the nature of the interaction with players are: Business-to-Consumer(B2C) In B2C, businesses sell directly a diverse group of products and services to customers. In these cases, e-commerce supplements the traditional commerce by offering products and services through electronic channels. Wal-Mart Stores and the Gap are examples of companies that are very active in B2C e- commerce.  Some of the advantages of these e-commerce sites and companies include availability of physical space (customers can physically visit the store), availability of returns (customers can return a purchased item to the physical store) and availability of customer service in these physical stores.  Figure 1.2 illustrates a B2C relationship. (ISP- Internet Service Provider). For example , the Amazon.com is B2C e-commerce is. This e-tailor acts predominantly as a goods marketer in e-space. Amazon.com also sells digital goods such...

Contents E-Commerce and Business Strategy in an Electronic Age  Electronic Commerce  Introduction  Meaning and Definition  Features of Electronic Commerce   Framework of E-Commerce  Types of E-Commerce  Business-to-Consumer(B2C)  Business-to-Business(B2B)  Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C)  Consumer-to-Business(C2B)  Business-to-Employee (B2E)  Business-to-Government (B2G)  Electronic Commerce and Trade Cycle   Scope of E-Commerce  Traditional commerce Verses E-Commerce Advantages of  E-Commerce   Disadvantages of E-Commerce   Traditional Commerce Versus E-Commerce  E-Commerce in Perspective   Supply Chains/Value Chains  Introduction Benefits of Supply Chain in E-Commerce Porter's Value Chain Model  Inter Organisational Value Chains  Value Chain in Different Areas  Value Chain in Organisation  Competitive Advantages  Competitive Strategy  Porter's Model  F...

A stream cipher is one that encrypts a digital data stream one bit or one byte at a time. Examples of classical stream ciphers are the autokeyed Vigenère cipher and the Vernam cipher. In the ideal case, a one-time pad version of the Vernam cipher would be used in which the keystream (k) is as long as the plaintext bit stream (p.). If the cryptographic keystream is random, then this cipher is unbreakable by any means other than acquiring the keystream. However, the keystream must be provided to both users in advance via some free and secure channel. This introduces insurmountable logistical problems if the intended data traffic is very large. Accordingly, for practical reasons, the bit-stream generator must be applied as an algorithmic procedure, so that the cryptographic bit stream can be produced by both users. In this approach (Figure la), the bit-stream gen- erator is a key-controlled algorithm and must produce a bit stream that is cryp- tographically strong. That is, it must be co...

Cryptographic systems are characterized in three independent dimensions: The type of operations used for transforming plaintext to ciphertext . All encryption algorithms are based on two general principles: substitution, in which each element in the plaintext (bit, letter, group of bits or letters) is mapped into another element, and transposition, in which elements in the plaintext are realign. The fundamental requirement is that no information be lost (i.e., that all operations are reversible). Maximum systems, referred to as product systems, involve multiple stages of substitutions and transpositions. The number of keys used . If sender and receiver use the same key, the system is referred to as symmetric, single-key, secret-key, or conventional encryption. If the sender and receiver use different keys, the system is referred to as asymmetric, two-key, or public-key encryption. The way in which the plaintext is processed . A block cipher processes the input one block of elements at ...

A symmetric encryption scheme has five ingredients:- Plaintext Encryption algorithm  Secret key Ciphertext Decryption Algorithm Plaintext : This is the original intangible message or data that is fed into the algorithm as input. Encryption algorithm : The encryption algorithm performs various substitu- tions and transformations on the plaintext. Secret key : The secret key is also input to the encryption algorithm. The key is a value independent of the plaintext and of the algorithm. The algorithm will produce a different output depending on the specific key being used at the time. The exact substitutions and transformations performed by the algorithm depend on the key. Ciphertext : This is the scrambled message produced as output. It depends on the plaintext and the secret key. For a given message, two different keys will produce two different ciphertexts. The ciphertext is an apparently random stream of data and, as it stands, is unintelligible. Decryption algorithm : This is ess...

Figure 1.1 shows the generic framework of e-commerce. Elements of E-Commerce Framework Information Super Highway (I-Way) : Information superhighway is the transportation foundation that enables the transmission of content. The Information Superhighway facilitates the convergence of content and distributions channels, which brings corporations together, indicating huge commercial and cultural developments from the Internet. Any successful e-commerce application will require the I-Way infrastructure in the same way that regular commerce needs the interstate highway network to carry goods from point to point. A myriad (many) of computers, communications networks, and communication software forms the emerging Information Superhighway (I-Way). Multimedia Content and Network Publishing : The electronic system through which content is transmitted is an analogous to the non-electronic world in which different type of products are stored in distribution centers before they are loaded onto vario...

There are many ways of looking at e-commerce: Communication : It has the ability to deliver products, services, information, or payments via networks like the internet. Interface : E-commerce means information and transaction exchange: Business to business, Business to consumer, Consumer to consumer, and business to government. Business Process : E-Commerce means activities that support commerce electronically by networked connections. For example , business processes like manufacturing and inventory etc. Online : E-commerce is an electronic environment that allows sellers to buy and sell products, services, and information on the internet. The Products may be physical like Cars, Computers, Books or services like news or consulting. Structure : E-commerce deals with various media like data, text, video, web pages, and internet telephony. Market : E-commerce is a World Wide Network. A local store can open a web storefront and find the world at doorstep- customers, suppliers, competitors...

The disadvantages of e-commerce can be divided into two categories: Technical Limitations   Lack of Security : There is a lack of system security, reliability, standards, and some communication protocols.  Low Bandwidth : There is insufficient telecommunication bandwidth.  Needed More Applications Tools : It is difficult to integrate the Internet and electronic commerce software with some existing applications and databases. Vendors may need special web servers and other infrastructures, in addition to the network servers.  Incompatibility : Some electronic commerce software might not fit with some hardware, or may be incompatible with some operating systems or other components. Non-Technical Limitations   Cost and Justification : The cost of developing electronic commerce in- house can be very high, and mistakes due to lack of experience may result in delays. There are many opportunities for outsourcing, but where and how to do it is not a simple issue. Further...

The advantages of e-commerce can be enumerated in following categories: Advantages to Customers Reduced Prices : Cost of products are reduced since stages along the value chain are decreased. For example, intermediaries can be eliminated by the company directly selling to the consumer instead of distributing through a retail store. Global Marketplace : Consumers can shop anywhere in the world. Currently, according to the World Trade Organisation (WTO), there are no custom duties put on products bought and trade globally electronically. This also provides wide selection of products and services to consumers. 24-Hour Access : Online businesses never sleep as opposed to brick and mortar businesses. E commerce allows people to carry out businesses without the barriers of time or distance. One can log on to the internet at any point of time, be it day or night and purchase or sell anything one desire at a single click of the mouse. More Choices : Electronic Commerce provides consumers with ...

Lossy compression is a data compression method. It produces a close match of the data after decompression. The lossy compression method eliminates some amount of data that is not noticeable. this technique does not allow a file to restore in its original form but significantly reduces the size. It is beneficial if the quality of the data is not your priority. It slightly degrades the quality of the file or data but is convenient when one wants to send or store the data. It is used to store audio signals, images and videos. The data holding capacity of channel is more than the lossless method.  The application of the lossy compression are the following : JPEG, GUI, MP3, MP4, OGG, H-264, MKV, etc. Lossy Compression Technique Transform Coding: This method transforms the pixels which are correlated in a representation into disassociated pixels. The new size is usually less than the original size and reduces the redundancy of the representation. Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT): This ...

Lossless audio formats use compression to keep file sizes down to a reasonable level. Lossless formats use compression algorithm that reserve audio data so the audio is exactly same as the original source. Audio files are made up of sound and silences. Lossless formats are able to compress the silences to almost zero space while maintaining all the sound data. Examples of popular lossless formats used for storing music include: FLAC, WAV, ALAC, WMA, etc. Advantages : Ripping two lossless audio files gives you an exact bit-for-bit copy of the original music CD. Convert it to any format and achieve the highest quality that format can support. Disadvantages : Compared to the formats like MP3, lossless formats are not well supported on hardware devices such as smartphones and tablets. Lossless audio files typically require more storage space than lossily encoded once. Note : Lossless compression is used in the zip file format. Some image file format like PNG or GIF, use only lossless compr...

The strategy diagram divides implementation into the technical and the business aspects and these are briefly considered below: Technical Implementation : The approach to technical implementation of an E-Commerce system depends on the business objectives, business requirements and technologies that have been selected. It is noted that many internet E-Commerce systems are cobbled(repaired) together rather than designed and that is often apparent. It is important that the design process considers: Is of use of system by intended end-users : Always an important factor in system design but crucial if the end user are to be members of the public with perhaps limited computer literacy and the option to switch to an alternative website if not satisfied. Functionality that users need : This has to be what the users want rather than what the organisation things they need. Uses of e-commerce are not a captive audience that can be interviewed and evaluated like the uses of a traditional IS develo...

Silence compression provides way to squeeze redundancy out of the sound files. Note : Data redundancy is the existence of data that is additional to the actual data. The silence compression scheme is essential for efficient voice communication systems. It allows significant reduction of transmission band with during a period of silence. The silence compression scheme include a voice activity detection (VAD), a silence insertion descriptor (SID) and comfort noise generator (CNG) module. Parameters used for silence compression Threshold value The way to encode silence Threshold of recognising start of silence An indication of when silence is over A parameter to get a threshold, which means that there is no silence until or unless there is 3 silence in the rows. <Previous Next> Some more related topics : Speech Synthesis Speech Compression Sampling ( Signal Processing ) Digital Audio Concept Lossy Compression

Lossless compression is a data compression method. It creates exact original data after decompression.  Note: Data compression is a method of reducing the size of the data without significant loss of information. In the lossless compression the quality of data is not compromised. This technique allows a file to restore its original form. Lossless compression can be applied to any file format can improve the performance of the compression ratio. Lossless Compression Techniques Run length encoding (RLE) : This technique reduces the frequency of repeating symbols in a string by using a special marker at the beginning of the symbol. Lempel-Ziv-Welch (LZW) : This technique also works similar to the RLE technique and search for the repeating string or words and store them in variables. It then uses a pointer at the place of string, and the pointer points the variable in which string is stored. Huffman Coding : This technique handles data compression of ASCII characters. It construct a fu...

All new information system (IS) should be properly evaluated after implementation and this is particularly e important for a system that is used by people outside the company. Evaluating and e-commerce system will include the internal stakeholders but crucially their needs to be a way of of assessing customer reaction to the system (and potential customers who gave up before completing a transaction are particularly in accessible). Loopback (test) from the evaluation is sun at 3 levels: Improve it: Implementing an e-commerce site it remains an inexact science (if there is much science to it at all). Feedback from customers and testing using people not involved in the the site development it can indicate where changes are needed; the site can be improved. Revise it : Business results from the use of e-commerce may indicate the need to change the E-Commerce strategy and the implementation plan; the planning can be revised. Update it : Developments in the competitive position, changes in...

Ubiquity : E-Commerce is ubiquitous, meaning that is available just about everywhere at all times. it liberates the market from being restricted to a physical space and makes it possible to shop from your computer system (such as your desktop). The result is called a market space. From consumer point of view, ubiquity reduces transaction costs - the cost of participating in a market. To transact, it is no longer necessary that anyone spend time and money travelling to a market. At a broader level, the ubiquity of e-commerce lowers the cognitive energy required to complete a task. Global reach : E-Commerce technology permits commercial transactions to cross cultural and national boundaries far more conveniently and effectively as compared to traditional commerce. As a result, the potential market size of e-commerce merchants is roughly equal to the size of world's online population. Universal standards : One strikingly unusual feature of of e-commerce technologies is that the techni...

The term 'electronic commerce' is popularly known as e-commerce, used to mean all business operations and transactions that are performed through the internet and other electronic technologies. "Electronic Commerce is the business environment in which information for the buying, selling and transportation of goods and services moves electronically ( via internet )". According to Kalakota and Whinston , "Electronic Commerce can be defined from following four perspectives: Communications perspective : Electronic commerce is the delivery of information, products/services, or payments via telephone lines, computer networks, aur any other means. Business process perspective: electronic commerce is the application of technology towards the automation of business transactions and workflows. Service perspective : Electronic commerce is a tool that addresses the desire of firms, consumers and management to cut service costs while improving the quality of goods and incre...