Q.1 Warigon is a retail company and they want to automate the payment system. Assume that you are the design engineer of that company. What are the factors that you would consider while designing the electronic payment system?
The following factors like non technical in nature, that must be consider while designing the electronic payment system for the retail company to automate the payment system:
Privacy. A user expects to trust in a secure system; just as the telephone is a safe and private medium free of wiretaps and hackers, electronic communication must merit equal trust.
Security. A secure system verifies the identity of two-party transactions through “user authentication” and reserves flexibility to restrict information/services through access control. Tomorrow’s bank robbers will need no getaway cars-just a computer terminal, the price of a telephone call, and a little ingenuity. Millions of dollars have been embezzled by computer fraud. No systems are yet fool-proof, although designers are concentrating closely on security.
– Intuitive interfaces. The payment interface must be as easy to use as a telephone. Generally speaking, users value convenience more than anything.
– Database integration. With home banking, for example, a customer wants to play with all his accounts. To date, separate accounts have been stored on separate databases. The challenge before banks is to tie these databases together and to allow customers access to any of them while keeping the data up-to-date and error free.
– Brokers. A “network banker” -someone to broker goods and services, settle conflicts, and facilitate financial transactions electronically-must be in place.
– Pricing. One fundamental issue is how to price payment system service. For example, should subsidies be used to encourage users to shift from one form of payment to another, from cash to bank payments, from paper: based to e-cash. The problem with subsidies is the potential waste of resources, as money may be· invested in systems that will not be used. Thus investment in systems not only might not be recovered but substantial ongoing operational subsidies will also be necessary. On the other hand, it must be recognized that without subsidies, it is difficult to price all services affordably .
– Standards. Without standards, the welding of different payment users in different networks and different systems is impossible. Standards en at interoperability, giving users the ability to buy and receive information, regardless of which bank is managing their money. None of these hurdles are insurmountable. Most will be jumped within t next few years. These technical problems, experts hope, will be solved as technology is improved and experience is gained. The biggest question concern how customers will take to a paperless world.
the e? yw?[ ?U mesh of interconnected data highways of many forms: telephone wires, cable TV wires, radio-based wireless-cellular and satellite.
Far from complete, the I-way is quickly acquiring new on-ramps and even small highway systems. The numerous constructors are either in competition with or in alliance with one another, all in an effort to convince traffic to use their on-ramps or sections of the highway because, like toll ways, revenues in e-commerce are based on vehicular traffic, in our case, vehicles transporting information or multimedia content. The myriad transactions among businesses means that the ultimate winner must select the technology for the I-way that best matches future business needs by using today’s tools. Building an access road to a ghost town or a highway too narrow to handle the traffic will yield equally little return on investment for those who have been less successful at matching needs with the infrastructure.
Building the various highways is not enough. Transport vehicles are needed, routing issues must be addressed, and of course, the transportation costs must be paid. On the I-way, the nature of- vehicular traffic is extremely important. The information and multimedia content determines what type of vehicle is needed. A breakdown of potential everyday e-commerce vehicles into their technological components shows that they vary widely in complexity and may even need to travel different routes on the I-way, much the way an eighteen-wheeler may be restricted from traveling roads that cannot accommodate it:
Movies = video + audio
Digital games = music + video + software
Electronic books = text + data + graphics + music + photographs + video.
Final pillar on which the e-commerce framework rests is technical standards without which the impact of this revolution would be minimized. For e.g., returning to our analogy with traditional transportation systems, railroad would not have flourished had each state established a separate track standard (meter gauge versus broad gauge, for example) and goods would have to be constantly moved from one train to another every time the standard changed, as they do today at the border between Russia and Western Europe. Similar differences in standards exist today in electricity distribution (110 versus 200 volts) and video distribution(Sony Beta versus VHS), limiting worldwide use of many products.
Standards are crucial in the world of global e-commerce, to ensure not only seamless and harmonious integration across the transportation network but access of information on any type of device the consumer chooses-laser disc, PCs, portable hand-held devices or television + set-top boxes (cable converter boxes) and on all types of operating systems. For example, without the adoption of video standards, video conferencing will never become widespread, as each manufacturer will attempt to develop equipment that maximizes their short-term profits rather than working toward customer goals such as interoperability. While we have strived to limit our initial discussion of the elements of a framework for electronic commerce to an understanding of what part they play within this complex network, it is no accident that we have ended with a convergence of technical, policy, and business concerns. The concept of “convergence” is essential to the operation of the Information Superhighway and to the way the business world is gearing up to deal with it. It is only fitting that we preface our discussion of the one element of our framework we have not yet discussed in detail-e-commerce application them selves with a clarification of the concept of convergence.
