Dictionary of E-Business.pdf

DICTIONARY OF

e-BUSINESS

A Deﬁnitive Guide

to Technology

and Business Terms

Second Edition

FRANCIS BOTTO

2003

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PREFACE

This dictionary deﬁnes important terms and phrases relating to e-business in

the context of design, development and usage. It addresses the many milestone

decisions, implementation processes and technologies along the migration

paths that lead to e-business sites, as well as those along the paths that lead

away from them. These deliverables via the Internet or World Wide Web

provide a borderless world with geographically insensitive marketing, adver-

tising and selling channels. Wall Street’s response to this most contemporary

of ‘gold rushes’ sees company revenues sky rocket as Web sites make the

transition from specialist entities to global successes. Virtual stores, search

engines, information services, and the many other Internet-related terms now

grace the vernacular of Internet Investors and analysts the world over.

A myriad of migration paths to e-business Web architectures exists as the

surrounding technologies develop at a pace, and as new and advancing method-

ologies dictate change. A notable change is the emergence of 3rd generation

(3G) mobile networks that are poised to advance the application of mcom-

merce (mobile commerce) where users may make purchases using mobile

handsets or phones

In spite of the seemingly singular medium that is the World Wide Web, CD-

based applications continue to play a role with DVD variants offering high

quality MPEG-2 video and an attractive medium for POI or E-catalogues.

Hybrid CD-ROM and DVD-ROM multimedia productions may provide the

local delivery of high quality video as well as present hyperlinks to e-business

Web sites for on-line ordering and for transaction processing.

E-business is another important chapter in the evolution of the role of tech-

nology in commerce. It is shrouded in a multiplicity of questions that this

dictionary seeks to address through an in-depth study of the technologies, the

services, their acquisition, migration paths, investment strategies and compar-

ative advantages. More than a glossary or dictionary with scant deﬁnitions, it

includes informative essays that address key issues.

It is hoped that you ﬁnd this text a useful source of information.

Francis Botto

INTRODUCTION

E-business is an awesome, fast changing subject, driving multiple paradigm

shifts that are as radical as those that splintered from the industrial revolutions

with all their recorded social, economic and technological impacts. For the

ﬁrst time virtual stores may provide advertising and selling channels leading

to the global market.

The beneﬁts of e-business have been the focus of numerous papers, publi-

cations and conferences for some time, and far outweigh the much-publicised

potential pitfalls that include security and the threat of larceny resulting from

illegally obtained customer payment details, and the threat of an exodus of

traders from the high street.

Industry’s response to the security issue has proved technically complex

with numerous solutions having been driven into obsolence in what seems

like a ﬂeeting moment. Standardisation and advancements in security – that

continue to exhibit minor ﬂaws – see today’s secure e-business sites win the

conﬁdence of consumers, banks and notable credit card companies including

Visa and MasterCard. E-business technology and the Web in general is shaped

by the:

•

constantly updated developer’s workbench that includes Microsoft Visual

Studio.NET

•

advancing operating systems (OSes) like Windows, Mac OS X, Linux

and Unix

•

evolving programming languages such as Java, JavaScript, XML, HTML,

DHTML, C

, C#, Objective-C, Visual Basic and VBScript

•

developing Object Web with its standard components and building blocks

constantly updated mainstream Web site development tools from software

publishers that include Microsoft, Asymetrix and Macromedia.

The aforementioned technologies are driving change, and are being driven

themselves by underlying hardware advancements including:

•

new processors primarily from Intel (and other chip makers)

•

client/server architectures that use server technologies like SMP, NUMA,

and MPP

vii

•

• advancing peripheral devices including modems

• the vast network that supports the Internet, including physical or wireless

digital pathways and mobile networks

• more efﬁcient protocols.

Access technologies like ISDN and cable are part of the English language,

with many people enquiring of their existence when buying or renting a prop-

erty. To the vast audience currently beneﬁting from e-business, these are as

transparent as the methodologies and the multiplicity of complex processes

and sub-processes that constitute the development life cycles of Web sites.

The same may be said of the development life cycle required to produce the

tools and technologies themselves, where the levels of granularity and tech-

nical detail are incomprehensibly ﬁne for all but those directly involved with

their creation.

Everyday e-business terms and phrases are entering the English language

at a pace, and are beginning to frequent dictionaries of a general nature; terms

that are preﬁxed by on-line are widespread, including on-line shopping, on-

line banking, on-line share dealing, on-line travel agencies etc. E-business is

yet another feature of modernity driven by the Internet and by technology as a

whole, and is a new specialisation for analysts, and for industry professionals

such as Web site designers, developers, researchers and technologists. Many

new technologies, software enhancements and development tools are now pre-

ﬁxed by the term e-business, and it drives new global markets in the effort to

capitalise on the swing of consumer shopping habits towards the Internet.

Coordination is a key feature pinned to that ubiquitous growing entity that

has come to be known as the Internet or to some, the Information Superhigh-

way. More than ever, standards organisations including the Object Manage-

ment Group (OMG), ITU, ISO and SET provide makers with the opportunity

to develop compatible products and at the same time reduce wasted resources

and expended energies while attempting to forge proprietary standards. Not

that major manufactures will ever be relieved of this effort, but the growing

transparency of hardware platforms from a Web-based e-business applica-

tion viewpoint introduces stability and reassurance for those investing in such

implementations and services.

E-business implementations used to address the mass market are at the heart

of the current revolution, but more specialist impacts such as those in banking,

stock markets, and money markets might be considered more signiﬁcant as

they are inﬂuential in determining the performance of an economy. A country’s

IT infrastructure, as well as those of its enterprises, drives trade at home and

abroad.

Selling via the direct channel off the page or over the telephone or via

TV shopping is meant to offer the consumer savings, but the theoretical price

differential does not always favour the direct seller. Some of the consumer

electronics giants favour high street and out-of-town stores with lower prices

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