Lecture E-commerce (7/e): Chapter 4 - Kenneth C. Laudon, Carol Guercio Traver

E­commerce: Business. Technology. 
Society.

E­commerce   

business. technology. society.

seventh edition

Kenneth C.
Laudon
Carol Guercio
Traver
 Copyright © 2011 
Pearson Education, Inc.
Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc.


Chapter 4: Building an E­commerce 
Web Site

Chapter 4
Building an E-commerce Web Site

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Pearson Education, Inc.
Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education, Inc.
Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc.

Slide 4­2

Tommy Hilfiger Right­Sizes Its Web Store
Class Discussion

 What

are the factors you should take
into account when sizing a Web site’s
infrastructure?

 Why

are peak times an important factor
to consider?

 What

reasons were behind Hilfiger’s
choice of ATG for its Web site solution?

 How

can operators of smaller sites deal
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with the right-sizing issue?
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Slide 4­3

Building an E­commerce Site: 
A Systematic Approach
 Most

important management
challenges:
1.

Developing a clear understanding of
business objectives

2.

Knowing how to choose the right
technology to achieve those
objectives

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Slide 4­4


Pieces of the Site­Building Puzzle
 Main

areas where you will need to make
decisions:
 Human

resources and organizational
capabilities
 Creating

team with skill set needed to build and
manage a successful site

 Hardware
 Software
 Telecommunications

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 Site design
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Slide 4­5


The Systems Development Life Cycle
 Methodology

for understanding business
objectives of a system and designing an
appropriate solution

 Five

major steps:

1.

Systems analysis/planning

2.

Systems design

3.

Building the system

4.

Testing

5. Implementation
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Slide 4­6


Web Site Systems Development Life Cycle

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Figure 4.2, Page 209
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Slide 4­7

System Analysis/Planning
 Business
 List

objectives:

of capabilities you want your site to have

 System

functionalities:

 List

of information system capabilities needed
to achieve business objectives

 Information

requirements:

 Information

elements that system must
produce in order to achieve business
objectives
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Slide 4­8


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Table 4.1, Page 210
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Slide 4­9


Systems Design: 

Hardware and Software Platforms
 System

design specification:

 Description

of main components of a system
and their relationship to one another

 Two

components of system design:

 Logical


design

Data flow diagrams, processing functions, databases

 Physical


design

Specifies actual physical, software components, models, etc.

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Slide 4­10


Logical Design for a Simple Web Site

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Figure 4.3 (a), Page 212
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Slide 4­11


Physical Design for a Simple Web Site

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Figure 4.3 (b), Page 212
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Slide 4­12


Build/Host Your Own versus Outsourcing
 Outsourcing: Hiring vendors to provide
services involved in building site
 Build


Build your own requires team with diverse skill set; choice of
software tools; both risks and possible benefits

 Host



own vs. outsourcing:
own vs. outsourcing

Hosting: Hosting company responsible for ensuring site is
accessible 24/7, for monthly fee
Co-location: Firm purchases or leases Web server (with control
over its operation), but server is located at vendor’s facility

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Slide 4­13

Choices in Building and Hosting

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Figure 4.4 Page 213
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Slide 4­14


Insight on Business

Curly Hair and MotorMouths:
Getting Started on the Cheap
Class Discussion

 How

does a small, niche Web site become
profitable?

 What

is the primary source of income for
these kinds of sites?

 What

benefits are there to starting a
business in a recession?

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Slide 4­15


Testing, Implementation, and 
Maintenance
 Testing
 Unit

testing
 System testing
 Acceptance testing
 Implementation
 Maintenance

and maintenance:

is ongoing
 Maintenance costs: Parallel to development
costs
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 Benchmarking
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Slide 4­16


Factors in Web Site Optimization

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Figure 4.7, Page 220
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Slide 4­17


Web Site Budgets
 From

$5,000 to millions of
dollars/year
 Components of budget:
System

maintenance
System development
Content design & development
Hardware
Telecommunications
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

Slide 4­18


Simple versus Multi­tiered Web Site 
Architecture

 System architecture
 Arrangement

of software, machinery, and tasks in an
information system needed to achieve a specific
functionality

 Two-tier
 Web

server and database server

 Multi-tier
 Web

application servers
 Backend, legacy databases
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Slide 4­19


Two­Tier E­commerce Architecture

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Figure 4.9(a), Page 222
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Slide 4­20

Multi­tier E­commerce Architecture

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Figure 4.9(b), Page 222
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Slide 4­21


Web Server Software
 Apache
 Leading
 Works

Web server software (54% of market)

only with UNIX, Linux OSs

 Microsoft’s

Internet Information Server

(IIS)
 Second

major Web server software (25% of

market)

 Windows-based
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Slide 4­22


 Copyright © 2011 
Table 4.3, Page 224
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Slide 4­23


Site Management Tools
 Basic

tools

 Included
 Verify

in all Web servers

that links on pages are still valid

 Identify

orphan files

 Third-party

software and services for
advanced site management
 Monitor

customer purchases, marketing
campaign effectiveness, etc.

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 e.g. WebTrends Analytics 9, Google Analytics
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Slide 4­24


Dynamic Page Generation Tools
 Dynamic

page generation:

 Contents

of Web page stored as objects in database
and fetched when needed

 Common

tools: CGI, ASP, JSP
 Advantages
 Lowers

menu costs

 Permits

easy online market segmentation

 Enables

cost-free price discrimination

 Enables

Web content management system (WCMS)
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Slide 4­25