Topic 3 - Digital Design

1) This week we are looking at Digital Design. Look at the Powerpoint presentation and explore some of the links. I recommend spending a good deal of time looking at 'Web Pages That Suck'

2) Listen to the podcast or read the transcript Digital Design on the Digital Enterprise page.

Questions

1. In two paragraphs explain why a customer centric Web site design is so important, yet so difficult to accomplish.

"Customer-centric" means creating a Web site that is centered around customer wants and needs. Savvy businesses are realizing that focusing their site on customer benefits and ensuring its visitors a unique experience are key drivers of sales, loyalty, and much-desired word-of-mouth advertising.

By proactively considering the needs, wants, and beneficial preferences of your customers, you can make more effective decisions about the content, offerings, design, and processes available on your site (http://www.4hb.com/0520cpcustomercentric.html).

It is important to have a customer centric website because it means that if a customer has an ‘enjoyable’ experience within your website, chances are they will return. Return custom is an important aspect of a sales based website. Not only that, but customers will also pass on your website to family and friends. This type of ‘marketing’ because of a good website design is invaluable.

Some websites can get so caught up in graphics and technology that they become almost impossible to use, and considering a lot of people only have bare knowledge of how the technology itself works, some would be put off a website if it proved too difficult to navigate, or couldn’t find what they were looking for either information or products and services.

2. Define the term 'presence'. Write an additional paragraph that describes why firms that do business on the Web should be more concerned about presence than firms that operate in the physical world.

I define ‘presence’ on the world wide web as meaning a combination of both a physical and mental sense. In the physical sense, that someone can go to a website and physically see what the site has to offer, whether it is goods, services or simply information. And in the metal sense that you know (or hope and pray) that the goods, services or information you’re looking for is there somewhere, it’s just a matter of finding it.

Firms that do business on the web versus the physical world seem to have a lot more competition. Not only is it possible to have more firms online than in the ‘local’ area that customers can have access to, but items are more easily transported from all corners of the earth, meaning that competition can come from all corners of the earth. To have a name (in a reputation and recognisability sense) that stands out from the rest, could mean the difference between boom and bust for a firm.

3. Write three paragraphs to briefly describe the things that Real Estate Agents can best accomplish through (1) their web sites (2) Mass media advertising (3) Personal contact.

1. Their websites: Put simply, information. People are able to use their sites to gather information, what properties they have for sale or rent, what their office hours are, who is on their staff.

2. Mass media advertising: Competition. By advertising what they have to offer, interest is generated to more people thus creating competition between prospective buyers.

3. Personal contact: Although the world seems to be turning towards digital technology, nothing REALLY compares to the physical senses human being possess. To be able to speak to someone in person and gage their reaction, to be able to smell a home and listen to the surroundings, to be able to shake someone’s hand. None of this is available in the digital world and is still very important to some people. Personally, I would never buy a house off a real estate agents website. I would have to see it for myself, meet the agent responsible and get a general sense of whether that home would be right for me and my family.

About the questions

You will need to look beyond the Powerpoint and the Digital Design notes, to answer the questions this week. Use a combination of your own opinion i.e. what do you think the answers would be, and search for additional information. The concept of 'Presence' on the web is very important. Just attempt to answer the questions, and we will also explore it on the discussion page. Towards the end of the week I will provide some additional notes.

Topic 2 - Navigating the Web

What are the four (4) main points Michael Rappa makes about search?

Point 1:

Search is still in its infancy. Users don’t know how to use search properly in such as way as to help narrow their search to more accurately find what they are looking for

Point 2:

Search is essentially a database that only holds a small amount of information compared to how much information is really available.

Point 3:

The search protocol and how users use it to search for something in particular.

Point 4:

Search is a ranking algorithm that determines how the results are presented to the user.

Watch or read the Marissa Mayer interview. Write a paragraph or two, on four points made by Marissa Mayer, that you think were the most interesting or significant for business. There are no right or wrong answers here, I just want your opinion.

Search, according to Marissa Mayer is still in it infancy. This could be problematic for a business wanting to trade in an electronic environment. How do consumers, suppliers etc. find them and the products or services they are offering? If the business can’t be found or found easily, the business will fail.

Privacy on the internet can be a huge issue. Businesses have to be clear about what sort of information they know and keep on their customers, eg. Email addresses, credit card details etc. This ‘transparency’ gives the consumer a choice about whether they want to do business with an organisation knowing they will have to give up a certain amount of ‘private information’.


Please watch the Bill Joy video, and it will give you a good background to the Internet and particularly to the emergence of the World Wide Web.

So what are the 6 webs?

The Near Web – is defined by information and being able to access this information using mobile devices…Bill also refers to it as the ‘typing style’.

The Here Web – is focused on the mobility of the internet and with you wherever you go…also referred to as the ‘pocket style’.

The Far Web – relates to technology that we sit back and use. Ie. radio, HD television and gaming machines such as Xbox and Playstation. Also referred to as the ‘sit back style’.

The Weird Web – known as the ‘voice style’, is focused on voice recognition to use with pocket style devices and also possibly household items.

B2B – Business computers talking to each other the enable to streamlining of business processes.

D2D – Device to device – using devices all connected to each other to provide real time information and connectivity to users.

Could there be more?

Perhaps not right now, but in the future as technology develops further and as user needs change, there could be room for more.


What does it mean for business?

All 6 different types of ‘webs’ could have a huge impact on business who are ‘brave’ enough to venture into an ‘electronic’ environment.From streamlining every day processes (such as placing orders), could not only save great amounts of money, but also ‘free up’ employees to work on more onerous tasks and in other areas where their talents could be better utilised, thus making the business more productive.

Topic 1 - Introduction to eBusiness and Getting Started Online

1)Internet risks – give examples of four things that can go wrong with a transactional site?

- Credit card fraud. The misuse of a credit card number by either an employee of the site or an unauthorised person using the card/number to purchase goods.

- Site could become non-operational, ie, site 'goes down' during a transaction or at any other time leading to downtime (or no 'orders' coming in) until the problem has been rectified.

- Risk of purchased items not arriving, whether it be a problem with the organisation with whom the transaction was placed or their delivery provider (ie, Australia Post or a private courier service).

- An authentic site could be 'duplicated' by an unauthorised person to mislead 'customers' out of money. For example, a bogus website portrayingitself as the Red Cross looking for donations to aid a cause they support.

2) Write down a definition for each:

a) E-commerce: All financial and informational electronically mediated exchanges between an organisation and its external stakeholders (Chaffey & Wood, Business Information Management, p. G5).

b) E-business: All digital information exchanges supporting business processes that are mediated through internet technology including transactions within and between organisations (Chaffey & Wood, Business Information Management, p. G5).

3) What is the difference between buy side and sell side eCommerce?

Buy side eCommerce are ecommerce transactions between a purchasing organisation and its suppliers, possibly through intermediaries (Chaffey & Wood, Business Information Management, p. G2), whereas sell side eCommerce are eCommerce transactions between a supplier organisation and its customers, possibly through intermediaries (Chaffey & Wood, Business Information Management, p. G12).

4) Describe the different types of eBusiness.

5) Which digital technology has the highest penetration rate? Explain and source your answer.

The answer to this question has to be, by far, mobile phones. “There were an estimated 4.6 billion mobile phone subscriptions at the end of last year, compared with about 1 billion in 2002, the International Telecommunication Union said in a report. In developing nations, 57 percent of people were signed up.” (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35539966/ns/technology_and_science-wireless/). Comparing mobile phone usage to internet usage, the UN report also says “An estimated 1.7 billion people, or 26 percent of the world's population, were online last year, up from 11 percent in 2002.” (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35539966/ns/technology_and_science-wireless/).

Incredible really when you think about it. But with the cost of setting up and maintaining broadband networks, developing countries could possibly be deterred from providing such a service, in favour of a mobile phone network, which could possibly (and obviously is) appeal to more users.

6) List: Four drivers to adoption of sell-side e-commerce by business.

Reduced costs, ie. With no physical shop front, costs can be reduced on expenses such as rent of premises, utility expenses (phone, power etc.).

Reach a wider target. With the assistance of postal services and couriers etc., people who live across borders and who wouldn’t normally shop in your ‘store’ are able to spend money with you online.

Also reduced sales and purchasing costs, by being able to ‘shop around’ online, could mean a business could buy supplies etc. at a much cheaper price.

Another driver is an increase in speed in which goods can be dispatched and delivered.

(see slide 16)

7) Four barriers to adoption of sell-side e-commerce by business.

No face to face contact can be a turn off to some customers, in particular, elderly consumers who are unfamiliar with and ‘scared’ of using the internet and/or computers.

Set up costs of a website may put some business people ‘off’ the idea of setting up online.

If the website were to ‘go down’, the cost of getting it back online added to the cost of lost sales.

Lack of skills and knowledge, both within management and staff in using the internet. Change can be very difficult to overcome for some, and a business who made a decision to go ‘online’ could face staffing problems.

8) How might a restaurant in Sturt Street Ballarat benefit from an online presence?

Personally, I wish more restaurants in Sturt Street had an online presence. I could search for them online, look at their menu options, pricing, make a booking or enquiry, and even their policy on alcohol (ie, can I BYO, is there a ‘corkage’ fee etc.) and be able to make an informed decision as to whether I want to eat there, or can I even get a seat here tonight???

9) What are some examples of Digital information??

Music, movies, photos, downloadable PDF files…I think this list could be endless. Anything from word processing files, to databases stored electronically, to all of the uni units I’ve completed so far and stored all of my work on a hard drive. Digital information has a very broad meaning these days, and I think it has different meanings to everyone.

10) What is the semantic web? Are we there yet?

According to W3 website, “The Semantic Web provides a common framework that allows data to be shared and reused across application, enterprise, and community boundaries.” (http://www.w3.org/RDF/FAQ).

Are we there yet? If the above explanation is accurate (and it seems to make sense to me), then no, we’re not. Many of us use different applications and even hardware (for example, Apple and Windows), that cannot be interchangeable and compatible with each other all of the time. Companies in the same fields use different computer programs to do the same task (ie. an accounting program), and ordinarily speaking, programs such as these cannot be used in ‘conjunction’ with each other, they have to be used separately.