Computer Applications In Business

E-Government

2012-01-25T21:45:00.000-08:00

In the commercial sphere, business to business (B2B), business to consumer (B2C) and business to employee (BTE) electronic business has come widely accepted.

Government are also embracing the internet to provide services to business (G2B) and citizens (C2C), as well as government to government (G2G), citizen to citizen (C2C), government to supplier (G2S) and government to employee (G2E).

In year 2000 European Union Summit in Lisbon set ambitious goal of making Europe the world most competitive and dynamic knowledge based economy. It resulted in the eEurope Action plan to exploit the full potential of the Internet to promote a competitive economy.

The objective is to make it easier to deal with local, regional and national governments by making services available electronically.

The benefits of e-Government are reduced costs through more efficient processes, the integration of disparate agencies systems, and improved service to citizens via the internet and other electronic channels.

Investment by government will also decrease the cost of doing business through simplification of procedures self-service systems and one stop shop for enterprises. The biggest beneficiaries here will be the small to medium enterprises, which are the backbone of the European economy.
E-Government

Targeting the Best Shoppers

2012-01-18T17:08:00.000-08:00

E-commerce ventures, just like retail stores, will sell their merchandise to three types of customers: the customers who know what they want and go get it, the customers who want to buy something but are undecided, and the potential customers who merely browse the Web.

The more directed the shopper, the easier the sale – as long as that shopper can quickly and easily find the product online, get all the information on the product and then complete the purchase. Therefore, websites should concentrate on the shopper who came for a product and wants to quickly and easily purchase that product.

The well known Amazon.com has a small search box that allows its customers to search for any product by title, author, artist, or other applicable data, the quickly lists all available versions, prices and the average shipping time of that product on the screen. One click shopping allows past customers to purchase the book or books without reentering credit card information. The directed shopper can access, buy, and leave the site with minimum effort.

However, sites that ignore the less directed, undecided buyers will miss a good deal of clientele. If site and products attract these types of buyers, it must be prepared to develop a storefront that help them easily and quickly browse products by brand, age, manufacturer, category, price and any other appropriate criteria. These shoppers will buy when they find a product they like, so they should be exposed to as many products as possible.

The least directed, browsing shoppers are the most difficult to convert into buyers. Personalized searches, specialty shops, hot products lists, and online promotions help attract these shoppers, who often will be drawn to a website’s “glitter’” or its look and feel, rather than its content, service, or products.

Sophisticated marketing campaigns and online tools such as generalized, all product queries; chat room and discussion groups; and other promotions can help turn these browsers into buyers, but a website should not count on these shoppers to succeed. Targeting a strong and directed base of customers is essential.
Targeting the Best Shoppers

Search engine optimization

2012-01-17T17:02:00.000-08:00

What is search engine optimization? Search engine optimization is nothing but is an updating of html codes that are needed to make a website search engine friendly. It is necessary to make a website search engine friendly in order to get high search engine rankings.

All the search engines have different algorithms to follow. Content plays an important role for a website in order to get top search engine rankings. A website that has good content always has an upper hand on the search engine visibility.

If we are thinking about online marketing then search engine optimization is the only technique that only can give more return on investment (ROI) for our business. If we have a website and we are thinking about getting business through the website then first thing is that we should host our website with a reliable web hosting company, after then have to go for search engine optimization for our the website.

Many companies are offering search engine optimization services throughout the World. There are so many companies those are offering search engine optimization services with some attractive discount. But cheap is not always better for our business. So we should decide before investing our valuable money.
Search engine optimization

Multimedia Software Technologies

2012-01-10T00:55:00.000-08:00

Hypertext and hypermedia are software technologies for multimedia presentation. By definition, hypertext contains only text and a limited amount of graphics.

Hypermedia are electronic documents that contain multiple forms of media, including text, graphics, video and so on.

Key topics and other presentation in hypertext or hypermedia documents are indexed by software links so that they can be quickly searched by the reader. For example, if you click your mouse button on an underlined term of hypermedia document, your computer may bring up another display using text, graphics and sound related to that term. Once you finish viewing that presentation, you can return to what you were reading originally, or jump to another part of the document.

Hypertext and hypermedia are developed by using software packages that rely on specialized programming languages like Java and the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), which create hyperlinks to other parts of a document or to other documents and multimedia files.

Hypertext and hypermedia documents can thus be programmed to let reader navigate though a multimedia database by following a chain of hyperlinks though various multimedia files.

The websites on the World Wide Web of the Internet are popular example of this technology. Thus, we use of hypertext and hypermedia software in Web browsers and other program provides an environment for online interactive multimedia presentations.
Multimedia Software Technologies

Software Outsourcing

2012-01-03T04:24:00.000-08:00

A first class software system is critical in delivering strategic intelligence and indispensable in managing the company’s greatest asset – information, but the actual management of the software systems can be a distraction and a burden for a company whose core competence is not related to IT.

Today, progressive organizations in both the private and public sectors are turning to software outsourcing, the so-called utility computing model, which allows a company to have its software professionally managed – either at their own offices, the IT vendor’s premises or at a third party’s premises – and to connect to their data through browser.

The benefits are enormous. Software outsourcing eliminates all the headaches of the sheer administrative burden of maintaining essential software, the deployment of new project IT, the ongoing upgrades, the sourcing of scarce IT staff, and the employee or consultant costs.

Combined with technical staff of the host’s staff, this results in negligible downtime. Users always have the latest version of the software. And the uptake of this model is increasing.

The outsourcing of the IT infrastructure is not new, but the traditional model is changing, as software delivered as a service using Internet technology is the next logical step.

There is no longer the need to distribute the computers and to co-locate them with the users. By providing software applications like a utility can better manage the distribution of their resource. Mobility of the workforce can be achieves easily and transparently by providing access to the corporate systems any place, any time via a spectrum of mobile devices.
Software Outsourcing

Micropayment System

2011-12-29T20:18:00.000-08:00

Other electronic payments systems include micropayment systems like Cybergold and Qpass.

Some of these technologies create electronic scrip or digital cash, sometimes called e-cash, for making payments that are too small for credit card transactions.

Encryption and authentication techniques are used to generate strings of data that can handled like currency for making cash payments.

For example, websites like ESPNET SportZone, Discovery Online and The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition let you chat with superstars, download video segments or pay for business reports by using digital cash micropayment systems.
Micropayment System

History of Business Intelligence

2011-12-20T06:19:00.000-08:00

In the 1970s and 1980s analytical software packages started showing up in the market place. However, lack of computing power, poor user friendliness and cumbersome and manual integration with the transaction system providing the data kept business intelligence tools from widespread usage.

The release of spreadsheet software like Lotus 1-2-3 and Excel in the 1980s opened up for end users creating their own data models for business analysis. Spreadsheets are still widely used in this area today, and probably will be for many years to come.

For a period in the 1980s and early 1990s so called executive information systems (EIS) grew in popularity with the promise that they would put key information on the desktops of executive. The idea was that colorful software screens with big buttons and sometimes touch screen, so that the user did not ever have to use a mouse. Should put data directly in the hands of top management to reduce the need for secretaries and assistants to write and print reports for them.

However, one of the biggest problems with executive information system (EIS) systems was that it took a lot of manual work to convert and lead data from the data sources, as well as to maintain customized versions of the user screens.

Major effect in maintaining the EIS made implementations short-lived. In the 1990s and the new millennium, with the widespread usage of SQL (standard query language) databases; datawarehouse technologies; extraction, transformation, and loading tools; as well as new and powerful end-user analytical software, the stage is set for fast growth in usage of business intelligence tools in the next decade.

Furthermore, most of the business intelligence software vendors have released web-based versions of their solutions. Companies can easily and at a low cost give users access to large amount of corporate data and sophisticated analytical tools.

By providing access to the internet or an intranet connection, a person can investigate and analyze data from home, when traveling, or from any other location at which they may happen to be.
History of Business Intelligence

Business to Business Model

2011-12-10T09:55:00.001-08:00

75% of future Net revenue is in business to business channels, then herein lies the greatest opportunity for e-commerce hopefuls. The B2Bs now publicly traded swim daily amid accusations of inflated value and short revenue. Investors jump onboard and offboard faster than passengers on tour cruise ship.

Regardless B2B e-commerce ventures will form the backbone of the new economy, which, like the industrial revolution, isn’t going away. If the publicly traded B2Bs are failing now, it’s only because the real gems have yet to be mined and brought to their initial public offering, the biggest opportunities are still in the napkin stages.

Because it offers such tremendous opportunity for specialization and capitalization, business- to-business models can be broken into several distinct forms. First, B2Bs often called “market makers” by investors – serve either vertical or horizontal markets.

Vertical markets

Vertical markets are industry specific. E-commerce solutions in this category most frequently address the inefficiencies within a given industry, and hundreds of vertical market makers have already emerged in highly scattered, highly populated industries such as steel, chemicals, and paper.

Horizontal markets
Horizontal markets span across multiple industries by offering common information, goods and services. They provided a venue for the transfer of goods, and services, including the outsourcing of basic services; data collection and analysis, human resources and general office operating supplies, to name a few.

Each of four additional types of B2Bs –
Online catalogs
Auctions
Community markets
Exchanges
-can fall within either the vertical or horizontal marketplaces.
Business to Business Model

Presentation Graphics and Multimedia

2011-11-29T16:21:00.001-08:00

Presentation graphics packages help us to convert numeric data into graphics displays such as line charts, bar graphs, pie charts, and many other types of graphics.

Most of the top packages also help you prepare multimedia presentations of graphics, photos, animation and video clips, including publishing to the World Wide Web.

Not only a graphics and multimedia displays easier to comprehend and communicate that numeric data but multiple color and multiple–media displays also can more easily emphasize key points, strategic differences, and important trends in data.

Presentation graphics has proved to be much effective than tabular presentations of numeric data for reporting and communicating in advertising media, management reports, or other business presentations. Presentation graphics software packages like Microsoft PowerPoint, Lotus Freelance, or Corel Presentations give you many easy to use capabilities that encourage the use of graphic presentations.

For example, most packages help us design and manage computer generated and orchestrated slide shows containing many integrated graphics and multimedia displays. Or we can select from a variety of predesigned template of business presentations prepare and edit the outline and notes for a presentations, and manage the use of multimedia files of graphics, photos sounds and video clips. And of course, the top packages help us tailor graphics and multimedia presentation for transfer in HTML formats to websites on corporate intranets or the World Wide Web.
Presentation Graphics and Multimedia

Large Organization with Single Database

2011-11-22T08:30:00.001-08:00

One of the reasons that organization were so slow to respond in the past was that they simply did not have a clear view of what was happening within their company. Yes, a large amount of data was available, but it was fragmented around the organization in many different places, different isolated systems and incompatible formats. Additional, the data was inconsistent due to different definitions, cut-off dates and measurement criteria.

Large businesses (and countries) have been traditionally less efficient than smaller organizations due to the cost of coordination and the increase in bureaucracy to deal with large amounts of information. Delegation of authority to compensate for this factor has led to lack of control, lower efficiency and fragmentation of business.

The solution is a single, logical, central database that gives everybody in the organization access to the same data at the same time. Many organizations are now bringing together all their separate systems to achieve this singular view.

A single source of data gives the organization the ability to combine information across all business operations. Whereas managers used to receive a separate printed monthly report from each system, they can now obtain daily, or even hourly, electronic reports that give a single view of what matters, as it happens, across their entire organization.

Chief executive can access a single dynamic report on screen to monitor their critical success factors and key performance indicators, such as sales, leads, liquidity, staffing or inventory levels. These interactive reports allow the user, not just to monitor everything that is important to the company, but also to investigate variances and get immediate answers within a few mouse clicks.

The availability of global information systems enables companies to maintain a functional structure on a large scale, which is more efficient, rather than creating multiple business units with complicated communication cycles.
Large Organization with Single Database

Consumer to consumer Business Model

2011-11-14T22:37:00.001-08:00

The above type of model facilitates commerce between consumers, plain and simple. Revenue streams are typically fees for matching buyers with sellers and vice versa. Flat fees and commissions may apply.

The most famous consumer to consumer (C2C) company is eBay, the world’s largest personal online trading community, which - for a tiny fee – allows consumers to offer their goods directly to other consumers in auction format.

Ebay contends that its cocktail napkin moment was a conversation between Pierre Omidyar and his wife, who collects Pez dispenser.

She wanted to use internet as a tool to expand her collection, and Pierre expanded that idea to include a central location for the trade of all collectibles and launched eBay on Labor Day in 1995.

Today the secret to eBay’s profitability is volume – insane volume. Individual consumers use eBay to buy and sell in more than 4,320 categories, including automobiles, collectibles, antiques, sports memorabilia, computers, toys, books, magazines, music, pottery and glass, photography, electronics, and jewelry and gemstones.

Buyers are compelled to trade on eBay due to the large numbers of items available. Similarly, sellers flock to eBay because that’s where the most buyers are. As a result, more than 450,000 items are posted for sale in any given day, and eBay collects a fee on each transaction.
Consumer to consumer Business Model

Marketing Information System

2011-11-08T06:01:00.000-08:00

Every firm organizes the flow of marketing information to its marketing manager as a support for his marketing interventions.

Companies are studying their manager’s information needs and designing Marketing Information Systems to meet these needs.

Marketing Information Systems is that part of Business Information Systems which meets the information needs for an organization in sales, distribution, advertising, market analysis, market intelligence, product research, service management, customer profile and other marketing functions.

A Marketing Information Systems consists of people, equipment and procedures to gather, sort, analyze, evaluate and distribute needed, timely and accurate information to marketing decision making.

The Role of Marketing Information Systems is to assess the marketing manager’s information needs, then develop the framework for collecting information and distribute the information gathered to the end-users in time.

The marketing information system is generally carried out marketing need analysis, planning, implementation, and control functions of marketing managers. The needed information is developed through internal company records analysis.

Relevance of Marketing Information Systems
Three crucial developments render the need for Marketing Information Systems.
• Firstly, when companies expand and diversify into new markets, the marketing managers have to necessarily deal with new situations both from the companies and from the customer’s point of view. Therefore, there would be greater need for marketing information.

• Secondly, when there is a perceptible and significant increase in the level of income of the buyers, consumers tend to get more selective and discriminative in their buying process. The marketers should be fully aware of what makes a buyer prefer a brand and what distinguished his brand from that of the close competitors. This awareness is possible only with the help of a well designed effective Marketing Information Systems.

• Thirdly, as the markets develop and the competition moves from price to non price grounds, it becomes increasingly important to find the moves adopted and implemented by the competitors and the response of the consumers towards them.

Analyzing the needs for Marketing Information Systems from a third person’s angle, three more factors come to the front viz., the information explosion, increasing complexity in decision making and the technological developments.
Marketing Information System

The Internet and Business

2011-11-01T16:57:00.000-07:00

In the early 20th century, the electricity grid became the underlying enabling backbone of the industrial economy. Today m the Internet, with over half a billion users worldwide, is becoming the enabling infrastructure of the information economy.

The internet has forever transformed the way we transact business, and how we work with our communities of citizens, customers, partners, suppliers and employees.

It is rapidly becoming the enabling infrastructure of modern business – what we learn e-business and companies realize they must incorporate it into their existing sources of value creation to improve competitive advantage.

By e-business, Oracle understands this to be an Internet technology-based business information architecture that transparently integrates all business information and flows, and allows access to this information anywhere at any time.

The use of common Internet standard and technologies promote efficient and predictable communication and dramatically lowers the cost of managing information. It no longer takes years to implement new systems or upgrade and modernize existing ones.

Many organizations are transforming their systems to embrace the Internet in just a few weeks or months, Solutions do not need to be complex, but they must be part of a wider effort to enhance information sharing, streamline operations and modernize business practices.

As we move from the early phase of the Internet infrastructure creation, the innovation will shift from products to services.

Any company will be able to use Internet to provide better, cheaper and more customized products and services to the consumers. And governments will be able to provide more efficient services to citizens, while reducing their internal cost.

The consumer will probably profit most from this improvement in market efficiencies, as more and more companies and public agencies put customer at the beginning of the value chain.

It is probable that a lot of the cost savings will be passed to the customer through lower prices for the same or better service.
The Internet and Business

Web Payment Process and Electronic Funds Transfer

2011-10-25T05:04:00.000-07:00

Most E-commerce systems on the Web involving businesses and consumers (B2C or business to consumer) depend on credit card payment processes.

But many B2B (business to business) E-commerce systems rely on more complex payment processes based on the use of purchase orders.

However both types of E-commerce typically use an electronic shopping cart process, which enables customer to select products from website catalog displays and put them temporarily in a virtual shopping basket for later checkout and processing.

Another one is electronic funds transfer (EFT). Electronic funds transfer systems are a major form of electronic payment systems in banking and retailing industries.

Electronic funds transfer systems use a variety of information technologies to capture and process money and credit transfers between banks and businesses and their customers.

For example, banking networks support teller terminals at all banks offices and automated teller machine (ATMs) at location through out the world.

Banks may also support pay-by-phone and Web-based bill payment services, which enable bank customers to use their telephones or networked PCs to electronically pay bills.

In addition, most point of sale terminals in retail stores are networked to bank EFT systems. This makes it possible for customer to use a credit card or debit card to instantly pay for gas, groceries, or other purchase at participating outlets.
Web Payment Process and Electronic Funds Transfer

Database Management

2011-10-17T18:26:00.000-07:00

Microcomputer versions of database management programs have become so popular that they are now view as general purpose application software packages like word processing and spreadsheet packages.

Database management packages such as Microsoft Access, Lotus Approach, or Coral Paradox allow customer to set up and manage databases in PC, network server, or the World Wide Web.

Most database managers can perform four primary tasks.
Database development
Define and organize the content, relationship and structure of the data needed to build a database, including any hyperlinks to data on Web pages.

Database interrogation
Access the data in a database to display information in a variety of formats. End users can selectively retrieve and display information and produce forms, reports and other documents, including Web pages.

Database maintenance
Add, delete, update, and correct the data in a database, including hyperlinked data on Web pages.

Application development
Develop prototypes of Web pages, queries, forms, reports and labels for a proposed application. Use application generator to program application.
Database Management

Computer Viruses

2011-10-11T01:49:00.001-07:00

One of the most destructive examples of computer crime involves the creation of computer viruses or worms. Virus is the more popular term but, technically, a virus is a program code that cannot work without being inserted into another program.

A worm is a distinct program that can run unaided. In either case, these programs copy annoying or destructive routines into the networked computer systems of anyone who accesses computers infected with the virus or who uses copies of disks taken from infected computer.

Thus, a computer virus or worm can spread destruction among many users. Though they sometimes display only humorous messages, they more often destroy the contents of memory, hard disks, and other storage devices. Copy routines in the virus or worms spread the virus and destroy the data and software of many computer users.

Computer viruses typically enter a computer system through E-mail and file attachments via the Internet and online services, or through illegal or borrowed copies of software. Copies of shareware software downloaded from the internet can be another source of viruses.

A virus usually copies itself into the files of a computer’s operating system. Then virus spreads to the main memory and copies itself onto the computer’s hard dick and any inserted disks.

The virus spreads to other computers though E-mail, file transfer, other telecommunications activities, or disks from infected computers. Thus, as a good practice, avoid using software from questionable sources without checking for viruses.

Also need to use regularly antivirus programs that can help diagnose and remove computer viruses from infected files on hard disk.
Computer Viruses

Electronic Payment Processes

2011-10-05T01:35:00.000-07:00

Payment for the products and services purchased is an obvious and vital set of processes in electronic commerce transactions.

But payment processes are not simple, because of the near anonymous electronic nature of transactions taking place between networked computer systems of buyers and sellers, and many security issues involved.

Electronic commerce payment processes are also complex because of the wide variety of debit and credit alternatives and financial institutions and intermediaries that may be part of the processes therefore, a variety of electronic payment systems have evolved over time.

In addition, new payment systems are being developed and tested to meet the security and technical challenges of electronic commerce over Internet.
Electronic Payment Processes

Desktop Publishing

2011-09-26T03:46:00.001-07:00

End user and organizations can use desktop publishing (DTP) software to produce their own printed materials that look professionally published.

That is they can design and print their own newsletter, brochures, manuals and books with several types, graphics, photos and colors on each page.

Word processing packages and desktop publishing packages like Adobe PageMaker and QuarkXPress are used to do desktop publishing.

Typically, text material and graphics can be generated by word processing and graphic packages and imported as texts and graphics files.

Optical scanners may be used to input text and graphics from printed material. Files of clip arts also can be used, which are redrawn graphic illustrations provided by the software package or available from other sources.

The heart of desktop publishing is a page design process called page makeup or page composition. Video screen becomes an electronic paste-up board with rulers, column guides and other page design aids.

Text materials and illustrations are then merged into the page format that has been design before.

The software will automatically move excess text to another column or page and help size and place illustrations and headings.

Most desktop publishing packages provide WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) displays so user can see exactly what the finished document will look like before it is printed.
Desktop Publishing

Piracy of Intellectual Property

2011-09-18T22:21:00.000-07:00

Software is not the only intellectual property subject to computer based piracy. Other forms of copyrighted material, such as music, videos, images, articles, books and either written works are especially vulnerable to copyright infringement, which most courts have deemed illegal.

Digitized versions can easily be captured by computer systems and made available for people to access or download at Internet websites, or can be readily disseminated by e-mail as file attachments.

The development of peer to peer networking technologies like the Napster and Gnutella models have made digital versions of copyrighted material even more vulnerable to unauthorized use.

For example Napster and other similar software enable direct MP3 audio file transfer pf specified tracks of music between PC and those of other users on the Internet.

Thus such software creates a peer to peer network of millions internet users who electronically trade digital versions of copyrighted or public domain music stored on their PC’s hard drives.
Piracy of Intellectual Property

Event Notification in E-commerce System

2011-09-12T17:49:00.000-07:00

Most E-commerce applications are event-driven systems that respond to a multitude of events – from new customer’s first website access, to payment and delivery processes, and to innumerable customer relationship and supply chain management activities.

That is why event notification processes play an important role in E-commerce systems, since customers, suppliers, employees, and other stakeholders must be notified of all events that might affect their status in a transaction.

Event notification software works with the workflow management software to monitor all E-commerce process and record all relevant events, including unexpected changes or problem situations.

Then it works with user profiling software to automatically notifying all involved stakeholders of important transaction events using appropriate user preferred method of electronic, messaging, such as E-mail, newsgroup, pager, and fax communications.

This includes notifying a company’s management so they can monitor their employees’ responsiveness to E-commerce events and customer and supplier feedback.

For example, when we purchase a product at a retail E-commerce website like Amazon.com, we automatically receive an E-mail record of our order.

Then we may receive e-mail notifications of any changes in product availability or shipment status, and finally, and e-mail message notifying us that our order has been shipped and is complete.
Event Notification in E-commerce System

Information Security And Secure Business

2011-09-06T18:47:00.000-07:00

Information Security And Secure Business
Practices The PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) stresses the importance of information security in the modern age of high-speed transactions and technologically advanced criminals. If someone were to appropriate a customer's sensitive information illegally, they could do serious harm to that customer – and in the end, damage to your business as well.

Information security is a key component of many requirements of the PCI DSS. Customers now expect a certain level of security before they will trust you with their information. As more and more security breaches reach the public notice, customers will become more weary, and more savvy as to how they guard their important information.

If they can't trust a merchant to guard their data, they will do it themselves, and that will most likely happen in the form of just not giving it out. And that's not good for any business.

Major principles of information security consist of maintaining confidentiality and integrity. Confidentiality implies that if a consumer entrusts sensitive data to you, you must do everything possible to protect it.

This means that disclosure is not an option. For many transactions, personal information must be used. As a merchant you must not allow unauthorized disclosure whether accidental or on purpose.

The integrity of a system refers to business practices that do not allow any unauthorized personnel to create, modify, or delete any sensitive data. This loss of integrity can occur through various means, including malicious criminal activity, accidents through improper precautions, or viruses or other malware.

The PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) was created to help merchants achieve a sufficient level of information security and secure business practices. Any company that stores, transmits, or processes credit card information is required to become compliant or risk a range of fines and penalties.

There are 12 requirements to the PCI DSS, and each of them contributes to the integrity of your information security system.

You begin by installing a firewall to control the traffic that can get into your system. You must also be sure to change any vendor-supplied passwords that may have come as defaults on your system.

Next is the protection of cardholder data. Information security can depend on strong encryption. This includes encryption on data stored on your system as well as data that is in transit.

Then, to guard against viruses and other invasive programs, you need to make sure you have updated anti-virus software and employ and maintain secure systems and applications.

Access to this critical data must also be strictly controlled. This means only people with a business need-to-know should have access and each person who does have access must have a unique ID assigned to them. Physical access must also be restricted so criminals can't walk out with hard copies or hardware.

Tracking and logging procedures should also be implemented. This way, should your information security happen to be breached, you can discover how it was done, and set in motion the proper procedures to rectify the problem. And all these procedures also need to be regularly tested and updated.

Once these practices are in place, you are almost PCI compliant. You still have to maintain a policy that addresses information security.

In other words, to maintain the integrity and confidentiality of personal information, you need to settle on the right practices and make sure that everyone in the company knows and understands their own responsibilities in preserving information security.
Information Security And Secure Business Practices
Written by: Andy Eliason
Source: http://www.Free-Articles-Zone.com

Electronic Spreadsheet

2011-09-02T18:52:00.000-07:00

Electronic Spreadsheet packages like Lotus, Microsoft Excel and Corel QuattraPro are used for business analysis, planning and modeling.

They will help develop an electronic spreadsheet, which is a worksheet of rows and columns that can be stored on PC or a network server, or converted to HTML, format and stored as a web page or websheet on the World Wide Web.

Developing a spreadsheet involves designing its format and developing the relationships that will be used in the worksheet.

In respond to the input, the computer performs necessary calculations based on the formula defined in the spreadsheet, and displays results immediately, whether at workstation or website. Most packages also help develop graphic displays of spreadsheet result.

Spreadsheet can be developed to record and analyze past and present advertising performance for a business.

Hyperlinks also can be developed to a similar websheet at marketing teams’ intranet website.

The computer can recalculate the affected figures, producing new market shares figures and graphics. So that better insight on the effect of advertising decision on market share.
Electronic Spreadsheet

Workflow management in E-commerce

2011-08-22T22:11:00.001-07:00

Many of the business processes in E-commerce applications can be managed and partially automated with the help of workflow management software.

Such E-business workflow systems help employee electronically collaborate to accomplish structured work task within knowledge-based business processes.

Workflow management in both E-business and E-Commerce depends on a workflow software engine containing software models of the business process to be accomplished.

The workflow models express the predefined sets of business rules, roles of stakeholders, authorization requirements, routing alternatives, database used, and sequence of tasks required for E-commerce process.

Thus, workflow systems ensure that the proper transactions, decisions and work activities are performed, and correct data and documents are routed to the right employees, customers, suppliers and other business stakeholders.
Workflow management in E-commerce

Software Piracy in E-Business

2011-08-15T18:14:00.001-07:00

Computer programs are valuable property and thus are the subject of theft from computer systems.

However, unauthorized copying of software, or software piracy is also a major form of software theft.

Several major cases involving the unauthorized copying of software have been widely reported.

This include lawsuit by software associations against major corporations that allowed unauthorized copying of their programs.

Unauthorized copying is illegal because software is intellectual property that is protected by copyright law and user licensing agreements.

For example, in the United Sates, commercial software packages are protected by the Computer Software Piracy and Counterfeiting Amendment to the Federal Copyright Act. In most case, the purchase of a commercial software package is really a payment to licenses its fair use by an individual end user.

Therefore any companies sign site licenses that allow them to legally make a certain number of copies for use by their employees at a particular location.

Other alternatives are shareware, which allows you to make copies of software for others, and public domain software, which is not copyrighted.
Software Piracy in E-Business

Word Processing in Business

2011-08-10T20:43:00.000-07:00

Software for word processing has transformed the process of writing. Word processing packages computerize the creation, editing, revision and printing of documents (such as letters, memos, and reports) by electronically processing your text data (words, phrases, sentences and paragraphs).

Top processing packages like Microsoft Word, can provide a wide variety of attractively printed documents with their desktop publishing capabilities.

These packages can also convert all documents to HTML format for publication as Web pages on corporate intranets or World Wide Web.

Word processing packages also provide advanced features. For example, a spelling checker capability can identify and correct spelling errors and a thesaurus feature helps you find a better choice of words to express idea.

You can also identify and correct grammar and punctuation errors, as well as suggest possible improvements in your writing style, with grammar and style checker functions. Another text productivity tool is an idea processor or outliner function.

It helps you organize and outline your thoughts before you prepare a document or develop a presentation. Besides converting documents to HTML format, you can also use the top packages to design and create Web pages from scratch for an internet or intranet website.
Word Processing in Business