EXAMINATION PAPER: ACADEMIC SESSION 2003/2004 Campus School Department Level TITLE OF PAPER COURSE CODE Maritime Computing and Mathematical Sciences Information Systems and Multimedia Three ecommerce COMP1308 Date and Time SAMPLE EXAM PAPER This paper contains SIX questions. ALL questions carry the same number of marks. Marks will be awarded for the best FOUR answers. Each Question is Worth 25 marks. Page 1 of 1
Q1.Part 1. Discuss critically what is the difference between E-Commerce and E-Business? Answer 1- Part 1. There is a clear need to distinguish between e-commerce and electronic business (e-business). E-commerce relates to buying and selling goods and products on the internet while E-business can mean any electronic transaction, including for example exchange of information. E- Business encompasses all the activities that a firm performs for selling and buying services and products using computers and communication technologies (i.e. the Internet). More specifically e-business includes a host of related activities including on-line shopping, sales force automation, supply chain management, electronic payment systems and order management. Some ecommerce web sites sell products, such as DVDs Computers etc. Some ecommerce Web sites sell services, such as consultancy, training etc. Any company could have an ecommerce presence, but it is not necessarily an e-business. A good example of an e-business would be Amazon.Com Q1.Part 2. - There are several categories of E-Commerce, discuss what is meant by Business to Consumer categories? There are several categories of e-commerce classified based on the nature of the transactions. Business to Consumer category of e-commerce referrers to businesses selling directly to consumers. Amazon.com, barnsandnoble.com are good examples of this category. B2C commerce could include all sort of selling and buying, including books, CDs, games and DVDs. On-line auctions also fall into this category. In a lot of cases B2C e-commerce acts as a supplement to the traditional channels of commerce already in place by companies. Q2.Electronic payment systems are a crucial resource in developing ecommerce solutions. Discuss what is meant by Electronic Cash? Electronic cash (e-cash) is a secure and convenient alternative to money used in normal commercial activities. The e-cash system complements credit, debit and charge card and is aimed at adding additional convenience and control to commerce activities on the Web. E- cash usually operates on a Smart Card. A smart card is a small plastic card similar to ordinary credit cards but includes and embedded microprocessor. The processor stores the cash value and the security features of the card. E-cash transactions usually require no remote authorization or personal identification number (PIN) codes at the point of sale. With e-cash the customer usually has two options: a stand alone card containing cash or a combination card incorporating both e-cash and debit. E-cash can be transferred over a telephone line or over the Internet. Page 2 of 2
What is meant by Public Key Cryptography Cryptography is the process of protecting the integrity and accuracy of information by converting (encrypting) data into an unreadable format, called cipher text. Only those who poses a private key can decrypt the message into plain text. Public key cryptography uses two keys, one public and one private key to encrypt and decrypt data, respectively. The advantages of a dual key technique is that it allows the businesses to give away their public key to anyone who wants to send messages, which in turn allows the sender to encrypt the messages and sent them. Q3. Discuss what is meant by Copyright? Can an HTML code be copyright protected? According to what is copyright.org copyright could be defined as: Copyright is a protection that covers published and unpublished literary, scientific and artistic work, whatever the forms of expression provided such works are fixed in a tangible material form. This means that if you can see it, hear it and / or touch it may be protected. If it is any essay, HTML codes or a computer graphic that can be set on paper, recorded on tape or saved on hard disk, it may be protected. Copyright laws grant creator exclusive right to reproduce, prepare derivative works, distribute, perform and display work publicly. Exclusive means only the creator of such work, not anybody who has access to it and can grab it. According to the law management is responsible for use and misuse of information by employees. Discuss what main areas of concerns for management are as far as misuse of information is concerned. There are three main areas of concerns for management, which should be discussed. These are: Provision of functionality without impinging on the intellectual property rights of external programme creators (privacy) Acquisition and utilisation of external information without violation of copyright or licensing agreements (proprietary databases) Utilisation of information about individuals without violation or persons right (privacy) Q4. In terms of Web Marketing discuss two key methods of promoting an E-Commerce site. [25 marks] For an e-business to sell its products and services it must attracts customers to its e-commerce site. There are different methods of aggressively marketing an ecommerce site. The following two are amongst the key approaches that could be used and should be discussed. Page 3 of 3
Register the ecommerce web site with search engines and directories. For most part these services are free. Being registered with popular search engines means that customers looking and searching for a keyword could come to your site. It is also important to make sure that the search engines list the e- commerce site in their top 10, otherwise the chance of customers coming to the site is low. Research shows that a typically surfer looks at the top 10 20 search results. Another method that could be discussed is the use of banners and other Web advertising methods on popular search engines, web portals (like MSN.com) or other popular sites which attract a lot of visitors. Banners are still viewed as an effective way of promoting a Web site. 5. List the four major dimensions of a feasibility study for an e-commerce site development. [5 marks] The four major dimensions of a feasibility study are: - economic - technical - operational - schedule - Critically discuss four different approaches to establish an e-commerce site to sell goods and service online (5 marks each) [20 marks] The following four approaches to establish an e-commerce web site may be discussed: - on-line auction this option is a good choice for selling excessive inventories, memorabilia, classic cars, etc. Good examples of popular auction sites are: ebay.com and priceline.com. - internet shopping malls these provide tools and capabilities to establish an on-line shopfront. In addition to site building capabilities, they can also provide significant traffic which can create potential customers for the e-commerce site. A good example of this is: store.yahoo.com. - web hosting services where companies outsource their web resources; most ISPs (internet service providers) provide these services. An example of this is demon.net or bt.net. - building the site from scratch where most medium and large sized organisations build their sites from scratch using commercial authoring tools. 6. Critically discuss what are the differences between Intranets and Extranets? [25 marks] Internet technology has provided companies with the facility of worldwide connectivity. Based on a client-server technology, the internet technology provides the organisations with the point and click approach to finding and retrieving information easily. Page 4 of 4
The creation and use of intranet which is an internal internet structure within a company helps companies to disseminate information faster and easier, both for internal operations and for vendors and customers to whom they wish to allow access. In simple terms, an intranet is a network within an organisation which uses web technologies, i.e. TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/ Internet Protocol). Various company departments such as finance, human resources, information services, marketing and sales can have their own web sites and pages within the organisation s intranet. As far as Extranet is concerned, this refers to inter-organisational systems that facilitate information exchanges amongst business partners. Some of these systems such as EFT (Electronic Fund Transfers) and email have been around for a long time. Extranets, like intranets use web technologies such as TCP/IP to provide an information system environment where business partners can access and update mutually required information. Page 5 of 5