1、Unit 7 Software of Electronic Commerce,学习指导： 本章将介绍： 主机托管服务 电子商务软件必须具备的基本功能 电子商务软件的高级功能 中小型企业的电子商务软件,7.1 Web Hosting,When companies need to incorporate electronic commerce components, they may opt to run servers in-house; this is called self-hosting. This is the option used most often by large compan
2、ies.,Other companies, especially midsize and smaller companies, often decide that a third-party Web hosting service provider is a better choice than self-hosting. Many small Web stores use a third-party host provider for both Web services and electronic commerce functions, particularly when the Web
3、site is small or the company sells a limited number of products.,Service providers offer clients hosting arrangements that include shared hosting, dedicated hosting, and co-location.,Shared hosting means that the clients Web site is on a server that hosts other Web sites simultaneously and is operat
4、ed by the service provider at its location. With dedicated hosting, the service provider makes a Web server available to the client, but the client does not share the server with other clients of the service provider.,In both shared hosting and dedicated hosting, the service provider owns the server
5、 hardware and leases it to the client. The service provider is responsible for maintaining the Web server hardware and software, and provides the connection to the Internet through its routers and other network hardware.,In a co-location (also spelled collocation and co-location) service, the servic
6、e provider rents a physical space to the client to install its own server hardware. The client installs its own software and maintains the server.,The service provider is responsible only for providing a reliable power supply and a connection to the Internet through its routers and other networking
7、hardware. You can find service providers by looking in your local telephone directory or by using a Web directory such as The List.,7.2 Basic Function of Electronic Commerce Software,The specific duties that electronic commerce software performs range from a few fundamental operations to a complete
8、solution-from catalog display to fulfillment notification. In short , all electronic commerce softwares must at least provide:,A catalog displayShopping cart capabilitiesTransaction processing,Larger and more complex electronic commerce sites also use software that adds other features and capabiliti
9、es to the basic set of commerce tools. These additional software components can include: Middleware that integrates the electronic commerce system with existing company information systems that handle inventory control, order processing and accounting,Enterprise application integrationWeb servicesIn
10、tegration with enterprise resource planning (ERP) softwareSupply chain management (SCM) softwareCustomer relationship management (CRM) softwareContent management softwareKnowledge management software,The basic tools required by all lectronic commerce sites are described in the following sections. Th
11、e more advanced functions used by larger sites are covered later in this chapter.,7.2.1 Catalog Display,A catalog organizes the goods and services being sold. To further organize its offerings a retailer may break them down into different departments. As in a physical store, merchandise in an online
12、 store can be grouped within logical departments to make locating an item such as a camping stove, simpler.,Web stores often use the same department names as their Physical counterparts. In most physical stores, each product is kept in only one place A Web store has the advantage of being able to in
13、clude a single product in multiple categories.,For example, running shoes can be listed as both footwear and athletic gear.,A small commerce site can have a simple static catalog. A catalog is a listing of goods and services. A static catalog is a simple list written in HTML that appears on a Web pa
14、ge or a series of Web pages. To add an item, delete an item, or change an items listing, the company must edit the HTML of one or more pages .,Larger commerce sites are more likely to use a dynamic catalog. A dynamic catalog stores the information about items in a database, usually on a separate com
15、puter that is accessible to the server which is running the Web site itself.,A dynamic catalog can feature multiple photos of each item, detailed descriptions, and a search tool that allows customers to search for an item and determine its availability.,The software that implements a dynamic catalog
16、 is often included in larger electronic commerce software packages; however, some companies write their own software to link their existing databases of product information to their Web sites.,Small Web stores that sell fewer than 30 or 40 items need only a simple list of products or categories. Org
17、anization of the items is not particularly important. Companies that offer only a small number of items can provide a photo of each item on the Web page that is a link to more information about the product. A static catalog is sufficient for their needs.,Larger electronic commerce sites require the
18、more sophisticated navigation aids and better product organization tools,that are parts of dynamic catalogs.,It is very important for good sites to give buyers alternative ways to find products. Besides offering a well-organized catalog, large sites with many products can provide a search engine tha
19、t allows customers to enter descriptive search terms, such as mens shirts, so they can quickly find the Web page containing what they want to purchase.,Remember, the most important rule of all commerce is: Never stand in the way of a customer who wants to buy something.,7.2.2 Shopping Cart,In the ea
20、rly days of electronic commerce, shoppers selected items they wanted to purchase by filling out online forms.,One problem with forms-based shopping was that shoppers had to write down product codes, unit prices, and other information about the product before going to the order form, which was inevit
21、ably on another page.,Another problem was that customers sometimes forgot whether they had clicked the submit button to send in their orders.,As a result, they either sent the same order twice (pressing the submit button when they had already done so) or thought they had submitted the order when the
22、y really had not (consequently failing to submit the order). The forms-based method of shopping was confusing and error prone.,First, many new customers found it difficult to remember the exact spelling of the goods names. Second, customers had to enter the goods prices, which were located on a diff
23、erent Web page, in the text boxes. Thus, the customers needed to either write down or memorize the prices.,The forms-based method of ordering has given way to electronic shopping carts. Today, shopping carts are a standard of electronic commerce.,You all know that a shopping cart, also sometimes cal
24、led a shopping bag or shopping basket, keeps track of the items the customer has selected and allows customers to view the contents of their carts add new items, or remove items. To order an item, the customer simply clicks that item.,All of the details about the item. including its price, product n
25、umber, and other identifying information, are stored automatically in the cart. If a customer later changes his or her mind about an item, he or she can view the carts contents and remove the unwanted items. When the customer is ready to conclude the shopping session, the click of a button executes
26、the purchase transaction.,Clicking the Checkout button usually displays a screen that asks for billing and shipping information and that confirms the order. As you can see from the figure, the shopping cart software keeps a running total of each type of item. The shopping cart calculates a total as
27、well as sales tax and shipping costs.,Shopping cart software at some Web commerce sites allows the customer to fill a shopping cart with purchases, put the cart in virtual storage, and come back days later to confirm and pay for the purchases.,A number of companies, including B1ZNET Internet Service
28、s, Cartlt!, Sales Cart, and WebGenie Software, sell shopping cart software that sellers can add to their Web sites. These software packages range in price from a few hundred dollars to several thousand dollars, plus an ongoing monthly fee.,Because the web is a stateless system -unable to remember an
29、ything from one transmission or session to another -shopping cart information must be stored explicitly for the shopper to retrieve later.,Furthermore, it must distinguish one shopper from another so that the purchases are not mixed up.,One way to uniquely identify users and store information about
30、their choices is to create and store cookies, which, as you learned in earlier chapters, are bits of information stored on a client computer. When a customer returns to a site that issued a particular cookie, the shopping software reads either the cookie from the customers computer or the database r
31、ecord from the merchants server.,If a shoppers browser does not allow storage of cookies, sites can use another way to preserve shopping cart Information from one browser session to another . Some electronic commerce software packages, such as Shop Site , do this by automatically assigning a shopper
32、 a temporary number.,The number is added to the end of the shoppers URL and persists as he or she navigates from one Web site to another.,When the customer returns, the URL still contains the bits of information about his or her shopping cart. When the customer closes the browser, the temporary numb
33、er is discarded and thus cannot be reused, even if the customer later reopens the browser and returns to the same Web site.,7.2.3 Transaction Processing,Transaction processing occurs when the shopper proceeds to the virtual checkout counter by choking a checkout button. Then the electronic commerce
34、software performs any necessary calculations, such as volume discounts, sales tax, and shipping costs .,At check out, the customers Web browser software and the sellers Web server software both switch into a secure state of communication. Then a dialogue box will tell you that the browser is at a se
35、cure state to in or out.,Transaction processing can be the most complex part of the online sale. Computing taxes and shipping costs are important parts of this process, and site administrators must continually check tax rates and shipping tables to make sure they are current. Some software enables t
36、he Web server to obtain updated shipping rates by connecting directly to shipping companies to retrieve information.,Other calculation complications include provisions for coupons, special promotions and time-sensitive offers; for example, purchase a round-trip ticket before the end of the month and
37、 receive a 50 percent discount.,Some shopping cart software designed for small and midsize companies provides connections to accounting software so that Web sales can be entered simultaneously in the companys accounting system.,In larger companies, the integration of the Web sites transaction proces
38、sing into the accounting and operation- control systems of the company can be very complex.,7.3 Advanced Functions of Electronic Commerce Software,In this section, you will learn about the features that larger companies need in their electronic commerce software.,Although there are exceptions, such
39、as A and Buy .com, most large companies that have electronic commerce operations also have substantial business activity that is not related to electronic commerce.,Thus, Its very important integrate electronic commerce activities into the companys other operations.,7.3.1 Middleware,Larger companies
40、 usually establish the connections between their electronic commerce software and their existing accounting system by using a type of software called middleware Some large companies that have sufficient IT staff write their own middleware;,however most companies purchase middleware that is customize
41、d for their businesses by the middleware vendor or a consulting firm. Thus, most of the cost of middleware is not the software itself, but the consulting fees needed to make the software work in a given company.,Making a companys information systems work together is called interoperability and is an
42、 important goal of companies when they install middleware.,7.3.2 Enterprise Application Integration and Databases,A program that performs a specific function, such as creating invoices, calculating payroll, or processing payments received from customers, is called an application program , applicatio
43、n software or, more simply, an application.,An application server is a computer that takes the request messages received by the Web server and runs application programs that perform some kind of action based on the contents of the request messages.,The actions that the application server software pe
44、rforms are determined by the rules used in the business, These rules are called business logic. An example of a business rule is: When a customer logs in, check the password entered against the password file in the database.,7.3.3 Web Services,Companies are using Web services to offer improved custo
45、mer service and reduce costs. In some companies, Web services are used to provide the XML data feeds that flow from one application to another in enterprise application integration efforts.,In other applications Web services provide data feeds between two different companies.,J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.
46、, a major investment bank, uses Web services in its investment information portal. The Web services pull informations, such as general economic forecasts, financial analyses of specific companies, industry forecasts, and financial market results into continually updated online reports that customers
47、 can obtain on the J.P. Morgan Chase portal site.,The banks customers could obtain all of the information themselves, but the aggregation is a service that the bank provides. The information flow in this case is from the bank to its customers.,Vocabulary,opt / pt / vt. 选择co-location 主机托管 lease / li:
48、s / n. 租约,租期,租； vt. 出租,租出,租得Inventory / invntri / n. 详细目录, 存货清单counterpart / kauntp:t / n. 相似之物(正副二份中之一,对应物),athletic /AW5letik/ a. 运动的gear. / gi / n. 齿轮,传动装置,工具,用具 vt. 以齿轮连起,配搭活动,安排feature / fi:t / n. 特征,容貌,特点,特色, 特性; v. 起重要作用; 是的特色navigation /nvigein / n. 航行,航海awkward /:kwd / a. 笨拙的， 尴尬的inevitably / inevitbli / ad. 不可避免地,prone / prun / a. 俯卧的,易于.的,有.倾向的explicitly ad. 明白地, 明确地retrieve / ritri:v / v. 取回,恢复,补偿； n. 取回,恢复的希望temporary / temprri / a. 暂时的,临时的； n. 临时工coupon / ku:pn/ n. 试样(配给票,息票,附单)substantial / sbstnl / n. 重要部份,本质； a. 大量的,实质上的,有内容的interoperability /intr.prbilti/ n.互操作性,互用性,
