E-Commerce Architecture

E-Commerce Architecture Top down approach A typical EC solution consists of: Web clients Web server software Commerce server software Back-end systems Connectivity tools Functions, features and relationships.

E-Commerce Architecture The role of technology is that of an enabler. What is it that we want to do or achieve? A system that may be used for selling over the Internet. Corporation Products Financing Accounting Sales Marketing Sales Executive Assistant Customers

E-Commerce Architecture Provide electronic access to customers - Web clients, browsers Provide electronic interface to the corporation - Web Server Provide assistance to fetch information - Commerce server Back-end systems Commerce server Web Clients Web server

E-Commerce Architecture Web Client (Hardware, Software, Communication capabilities) Web Browser An application program running on the workstation of a customer. Provides a graphical user interface to a customer. Internet Explorer 73% Netscape Navigator 25% Lynx, Opera, HotJava, etc. 2% Wireless access, cellular phones, palm pilots. (Microbrowsers) Web Browsers use HTML to display pages of information. Use the code that can be interpreted by majority of browsers.

E-Commerce Architecture Web Server Hardware - machine running the Web server software. Software - an application program that generates and / or delivers hypermedia documents to the Web clients. Always connected to Internet (HTTPd, HTTPs). Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS). IBM Lotus Domino server Apache server (60%, reliable but hard to configure) iPlanet Enterprise server (Netscape enterprise server)

E-Commerce Architecture Web Server Evaluation Performance, users have short attention span. (Connections per second or requests per second, bytes per second, round-trip response time and errors, scalability of architecture, multiple web sites hosting, version 1.1 or later, support to clustering and load balancing.) Development and deployment facilities. Security (hardware encryption reduces degradation) Interface to back end software. Management and administration. http://webcompare.internet.com

E-Commerce Architecture Web Server Performance Evaluation Tools Two important issues: Overall network traffic and performance of web server software and platform. Analysis of logs of active servers(Net.Genesis, Aria, WebTrends) Instrumentation of web software, OS and network. Benchmarks: Client (load generator), workload, measurements. The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) working on standards to test server performance. WebStone (Microsoft), WorkBench(Ziff Davis), SPECweb96 and SPECweb99(Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation)

E-Commerce Architecture Connectivity tools: Used to pull and push data to / from back-end systems. Normally provided by commerce server vendor. Use API’s and write programs if necessary. Back-end systems: Relation databases, transaction-based systems, ERP systems, EDI, third party and proprietary systems. Normally existing in the corporation before EC activity.

E-Commerce Architecture Commerce server software: Heart of E-commerce solution Provides facilities to create online storefront. Consists of storefront implementation tools, content management tools and back-end integration tools. Standard store templates - can be customized. Wizards that walk through the construction phases. Sample stores can be used as a basis.

E-Commerce Architecture Useful features: Selling products - shopping carts, payment, delivery Digital contents - third party software may be required. Vendor-oriented features: Home page, product information, inventory tracking, purchase order generation, credit card verification (by third party systems like Cybercash or VeriFone), tax and shipping calculations, shipment tracking systems and site analysis tools. Administration capabilities such as adding, updating or deleting products (preferably by mouse clicks).

E-Commerce Architecture Customer-oriented features: Product listing, discount pricing / auction technology. Question and answer listing, product comparisons, order tracking and search tools. Classification of products in multiple categories. Advertising features: Advertising and promotion tools, registration, cross-selling, push technologies and mail distribution tools. Management features: Content management, site usage statistics, remote administration, fault tolerance, load balancing, replication and clustering.

E-Commerce Architecture Fault tolerance and load balancing: Router Web Clients Web/Commerce Server Clustering: Real-time updates Replication: Scheduled updates

E-Commerce Architecture Customization: A typical EC solution implements a storefront for selling either products or services and generates a generic set of workflow and user interface. Why Customization? Both products and services Different workflow of a company Don’t like GUI Effort required depends on: Design of EC solution, cohesion and coupling.

E-Commerce Architecture Cohesion: Refers to the functional relationship between program instructions of a module. A high degree of cohesion means all instructions are working for solution of a specific problem. Coupling: Refers to the interdependence between different modules. Modifying workflow or business process - expert programmer. Modifying GUI depends on vendor implementation.

E-Commerce Architecture Build or Buy? Internal Development Advantages: Ensures familiarity with software and its configuration. Lower maintenance costs to keep the solution current. Continual tweaking possible. A sense of ownership. Disadvantages: Start from scratch, long time, high cost. Missed opportunities if the developers unaware of recent innovations.

E-Commerce Architecture Build or Buy? External Development Advantages: Opportunities to use best practices. Focus on your current business not implementation. Quicker delivery. Disadvantages: Higher costs. Changes more difficult and costly. Outside exposure to your business process knowledge.

E-Commerce Architecture EC solution selection criteria: Cost? Yes but weigh features and functionality against cost. Research companies on the Internet provide up-to-date reviews of EC packages. (www.internet.com,www.sellitonthewebccom) Look at customers’ profiles of vendor and references. Features: Variety of features but quality varies. Core feature - to get site up and running quickly and at a lower cost. Ask the following questions:

E-Commerce Architecture Does the solution allow selling both products and services? What facilities are there for delivery of digital content? How easy it is to edit fields or add new business processes? What type of advertising and promotional features it provide? Does it offer personalization for visitors? Is it capable of sending e-mails to customers? Does it provide robust security and workflow approvals? Commerce Server Management Tools: Does it provide tools for content management, replication, clustering, remote management and site analysis?

E-Commerce Architecture Integration Tools: What network operating system is required? Which web server is compatible with the commerce server? Does the vendor provide tools for connectivity to back-end systems in my company? Are there tools for integration of ERP systems? If you employ EDI, is connectivity with it available? Third Party Plug-ins: Can third party payment systems (CyberCash, VeriFone) be used as plug-ins? Can the existing tax and accounting systems be integrated? How about plug-ins for inventory tracking, shipment tracking, bill payment etc.