NMIMS

E-BUSINESS
APPLICABLE FOR JUNE 2022 EXAMS

1. considering that cyberspace security is becoming a growing concern for any e-business,
enlist some of the major security threats (at least 5) faced by e-businesses across India
and give examples of few of the software (at least 5) that could be used to secure its
environment.

Answer:

Today, if you suddenly wish to own a copy of your favourite novel, you need not plan a trip
to the nearest book store and be disappointed if a copy is not available. Nor do you have to
make repeated trips to check whether the store has been able to obtain one for you. All you
need to do is, switch on your computer, log onto the Web and visit one of the numerous
online E-commerce which are selling books and buy your favourite book. That is how easy
electronic business or e-business has made shopping for you today. It is not just books that
can be bought in this manner. Everything is bought, sold, hired, exchanged or traded online
today—from books, toys, garments and electronic appliances to cakes, flowers and gifts.

Maintaining complete security: Online buying is easy and simple and saves our time as well
but still most of the people are hesitant to shop online and common reason is the security
issues so it is the duty of the e-businesses to assure them about the complete security.
These businesses should use best protection measures so that customers feel safe while
transacting and making the payment online. This is the common issue E-businesses face
while selling the products online.

Major security threats in E-business:

Social engineering: Phishing is another cyber-crime that is perpetrated through social
engineering. Phishing is done with fake websites that masquerade as real ones. Unlike
conventional attacks that exploit system vulnerabilities, social engineering attacks capitalize
on human weaknesses. By building elaborate phishing scams to trick top officials, hackers
gain access to login credentials. Hackers can use these credentials to steal critical data or
even encrypt data to lock users out of their systems.

Spoofing - It is a sophisticated technique used to set up fake or mirror sites that pretend to
be the official website of a particular bank. These fake sites allow customers to fill in their
sensitive personal information and then they make customers to visit a different website.

Malware - It is software program that alters and modifies the IS without the authority of the
user or owner. It affects the confidentiality, availability and integrity of the banking system.

Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) attack - It is an intrusion of an attacker who builds the
attack network by scanning for open port, poorly secure computer with no firewall or anti-
virus software. DDOS involves hundreds or more computers to launch the attack to the
targeted banking system. Banks experience loss of money, customers and information.

Data breach - It is a threat that allows confidential information to go out form the system
and makes it viewable to others, so that anyone can steal or use the other user information.

Anti-virus software against cyber-security threats:

Bit-defender: Bit defender Plus is the company’s entry-level antivirus software offering,
making it ideal for home users without technical skills and anyone who wants basic defence
against threats. Because viruses aren’t the only cyber security risks, Bit defender Plus offers
an array of security-first features, including ransomware prevention, monitoring online
purchases and web-based transactions, and password management that lets users create
unique passwords for everything, all managed through an easy-to-use dashboard.
Norton: Norton 360 with LifeLock keeps improving on its history as a top antivirus option
with its PC maintenance features, making it the best for Windows computers. He identity
theft protection capabilities of LifeLock alone give this product an edge. There are several
versions of this product, so users can pick the features they need, but even the lowest level
offers PC maintenance utilities (including the ability to produce a faster bootup) and 2GB of
cloud backup. Norton 360 Standard offers dark web monitoring, a VPN, and 100GB of cloud
backup.
Webroot: Webroot Secure Anywhere for Mac offers excellent phishing detection and fast
scanning ability specifically designed for Macs. This software boasts a very small footprint on
your computer’s operating system but offers very fast security scans and is one of the best
at phishing detection. Offering an email address when installing Webroot gives users alerts
for new threats.
McAfee: McAfee Antivirus Plus is the one antivirus platform that recognizes the growing
number of devices used in a single household, which could include four or more different
operating systems. While the protections and features are better for Windows and Android,
the protection is still good enough for all devices, so families don’t need to purchase
multiple antivirus subscriptions.
Trend Micro: Trend Micro Antivirus+ Security not only has an aggressive antivirus system at
a reasonable price, but it also offers a number of security tools, including layered
ransomware protections, firewall booster, and Pay Guard browser that provides the safest
levels of protection for online banking and purchases.

Anti-spyware software
Norton 360: Norton’s anti-malware scanner uses machine learning to detect 100% of
threats, including spyware that most other antivirus engines aren’t able to detect.
McAfee total protection: McAfee also has a good range of internet security features to keep
you safe from spyware and other types of privacy-based malware.
Bitdefender total security: Bitdefender’s cloud-based scanner detects and removes every
kind of spyware without causing any system slowdown. Bitdefender removes all of the
spyware including hidden spyware.
Avira Free antivirus: Avira Free Antivirus provides better spyware protection than some
paid antivirus suites — and it includes some pretty good additional features, as well.
Total AV: Total AV uses a whitelisted version of Avira’s excellent anti-malware engine, which
includes Avira’s PUA Shield feature.

2. with the rapid evolution of technology and penetration of the technology enabled
devices, e-businesses are gaining more and more prominence thereby generating
sustainable revenue. Discuss the various revenue models and the associated issues foran
e-business.

Answer:

E-Business
The term e-business refers to the amalgamation of tools built on information and
communication technologies (by and large known as business software),in the organization,
to enhance their performance. This builds value for the company, its customers and its
affiliates. E-business spans much further than e-commerce or purchase and sale across the
Web and delves into the procedures and background of a business venture. E-business is a
powerful business setting that is formed when one connects critical business systems
directly with consumers, workforce, traders, and business associates using intranet,
extranet, e-commerce technologies, two-way applications and the Web. It is more than a
smart Web presence or as lick, flash-driven shopping cart. This is a critical surfacing of
business across the world, with a number of technologies getting into the enterprise
computing ecosystem.

Risks associated with moving to E-Business:

Lack of prior knowledge: Brick and mortar business model is totally different from online
business so whenever any traditional business switches to online business, it faces the risk
of not getting customers as they do not have much knowledge about online business. Lack
of knowledge about the benefits of e-business may lead customers to show reluctance while
registering at various e-business sites.
Hard to retain your customers: When you enter in online business leaving behind your
traditional business, there are strong chances that you lose many of your customers. People
who have no knowledge about electronic communication like the Internet, and computers;
will find it difficult to transact electronically and if they do not get the desired process of
buying, they may approach any other brick and mortar seller.

Security issues: For traditional business, you just use few computers to tracking the stock
and create the purchase bills so you are not worried about the data security but if you are
doing online business, you need to take care of all your customers and the transactions
done by them. You should assure that all the online transactions are safe and secured and
their data will not be shared with any third party. Maintaining security is a huge task in any
e-commerce business.

Revenue models and associated issues

Web catalogue revenue model: In most of the traditional organizations, this model is
known as mail order model or catalogue model. Under this model, seller first needs to
create good image of the brand and when it is developed; it is used by the seller to market
the products and services. All this marketing is done using printed catalogues, which are
mailed to the potential customers. This was mostly done in traditional organization, but in E-
business organization, instead of mailing a printed catalogue, the seller displays it on its
website to give product information to customers browsing the sites. Customers can select
an item from the catalogue and place an order via an email or direct phone call to the
retailer. The payment received from customers is the source of revenue for this model.
When any business has large variety of goods to sell, this revenue model is appropriate.
Almost all the E-commerce websites follow this revenue model where they display all the
goods on their website and customers search them as per their requirements.

Digital content subscription revenue model: Another famous revenue model in E-business
organizations is digital content subscription revenue model which is used by the
organizations that use the Internet to distribute information. These organizations have all
the legal rights when they post any information on their websites so all the written content
is fully protected. When the written content is not available easily and it is unique, these
websites charge from the people to read it on subscription basis. There are so many
websites following this revenue model where they sell the subscription and earn money.
Digital content could be of many types such as legal content provided by many websites
such as Livelaw, academic research content websites such as research net, business content
websites such as businessworld. There are some websites that deliver content on
miscellaneous topics, such as automobiles, adventure, entertainment, health and lifestyle,
science and technology. This content is based on the digital content subscription revenue
model. To be able to access the content, people need to subscribe to these websites and are
periodically charged a certain fee.

Advertising-supported revenue model: In the world of advertising, Internet marketing is

one of the popular sources for promoting business, business products and services because
of its ability to reach the target audience. Advertising plays a very important role in the
overall marketing strategy. It involves bringing a product or service to the attention of
potential and current consumers. Third revenue model for E-business organizations is
advertising-supported revenue model where e-business organisations run advertisements
for different organisations to demonstrate their products or services to the audience along
with advertising messages. These organisations then collect revenue through payments for
advertising, which is sufficient to support the operations of the network and create or
purchase advertisements.

In this modern business world, E-businesses are adopting one of the abovementioned
revenue models but there are still some issues related to these models. One major issue
could be conflict of channel so when organizations use more than one channel to distribute
products and services and these channels compete with each other for resources or output
in terms of sales figures. To solve this issue, organizations should choose the channel wisely
and if they need to choose more than one channel, it should be done with proper planning
because in competitive business environment, sometimes it is good to use mixture of
channels to have better sales.
3. Let us suppose you have been hired by a promising startup (choose any
1industry/sector) in the e-commerce space as a marketing consultant to enhance their
business productivity. Post the initial survey you discovered that the company is still
replying on traditional tools and methods for their business operations. To enhance the
effectiveness of their operations, you decided to meet and explain to the management
about the various online marketing strategies and tools that are typically useful for e-
businesses like theirs.
a. What would you tell them about the available online marketing strategies for their e-
business?
b. What are the various kinds of online marketing tools for their e-business that you are
aware of?

Answer:
a)

E-business is the collection of business models and processes developed through the
Internet technology for focusing and improving the performance of extended enterprises. E-
business focuses on extended enterprises; it actually refers to the intra-organisational
business-to-consumer and business-to-business transactions. Many companies have
realised that the Internet has a huge impact on supply chain performance and that it helps
the companies to move away from push strategies. It may be noted here that in the initial
stage, the move was from push strategy to pull strategy. However, now-a-days most of the
companies are using push-pull supply chain strategy.

E-business strategies were developed to meet certain expectations like reducing

transportation cost, increasing flexibility and increasing profits in the business. However, in
reality, these expectations are not always met because the new e-business strategies are
not successful in many circumstances. There are many companies, which are successful in
developing new business models to increase profit and capture market share. It is found
that they were using the Internet as a driver for business communications.

Online marketing strategies

Market segmentation: In segmentation of consumers or markets, there are two approaches
as follows:
1. The market is analysed for customers who are similar, as the main aim is to recognize
groups that share some differences. This is called the breakdown method.
2. The market comprises customers that are different on the whole, and thus it is
particularly used to discover similitude. This is called as build-up method

Best solutions: A customer-centric organisation focusses on creating and offering the best
solutions for its customers rather than just the best products. It can do this by offering
customised packaging, after-sales service, discounts and offers, etc. All this helps in
developing customer loyalty as well as enhancing customer experience. For example,
travelling websites, like cleartrip.com andmakemytrip.com offer customised tour packages
to their customers depending on their preferences and budget. The e-commerce company
also offers numerous discounts on hotel bookings and special trips. All this is done to
provide best solution to the customers so that maximum satisfaction could be achieved.

Customer surveys: A customer-centric organisation should conduct customer surveys

regularly to determine customer preference so that the organisation is able to fine-tune its
products according to the needs of the customers. Surveys also help in obtaining customer
feedback and reviews, which the organisation can use to improve its products and services.
For example, online hopping websites, such as amazon.com conduct regular surveys to get
genuine feedback from its customers (after they make any purchase with the website).

b) There is a tremendous influence of the Internet and e-commerce on the economy and
business practices. For example, the direct-business model used by companies such as Dell
computers and Amazon.com facilitates the customers to order products over the Internet.
This facilitates the companies to trade their products directly to the customers without
depending on distributors and retailers. Due to this benefit, there is a huge level of
expectation on the Internet and the emerging e-business model to solve the problems
associated with supply chain.

Internet marketing tools used by companies involved in E-business:

Website: Most people feel that designing a website is an expensive project. This, however,
is not true. All that you need to do is to find the right Webhost. The benefits of a website
will certainly override the costs. Whether for personal use, or to aid a business venture, the
advantages of a website are tremendous. Many who have their own websites use them to
further a hobby or an interest since a personal website too can be an excellent avenue for
the exchange of knowledge with others. On the other hand, firms use websites such that
their goods and services are marketed and promoted. For them, the attractive advantage is
that they are able to cut costs involving postage, couriers and advertising, etc.

Online directory: It refers to a website that provides systematically arranged information

about companies, individuals or websites. An online directory helps customers to find
information about specific product/service over the Internet. The organisations frequently
visit online directories to upload and update information about their businesses and reach a
vast audience on the Internet. For example, Googlemybusiness.

E-mail advertising campaigns-mail marketing can be said to be the dissemination of a

commercial message through electronic mail (e-mail). E-mails can be used to send
advertisements, solicit sales or donations, request business for building loyalty, trust, as well
as to generate brand awareness. E-mail marketing is an important tool of e-marketing. In
the modern marketing world, Email-marketing has become really famous and millions of
organizations are using the same.

Affiliate programme: It allows organisations to advertise their products and services on

various marketing websites. It charges a certain fee for every click by the visitors on the
advertisement. It also charges a commission from the organisation on the sale of the
product. For example, eBay, The Home Depot, Amazon and other well-known ecommerce
have affiliate programs. The secret of its success is due to the performance it offers:
advertisers pay commissions only for the conversions they get, which means that the sales
cycle is financially beneficial to the company.
Google analytics: Google Analytics is a web analytics service offered by Google that tracks
and reports website traffic, currently as a platform inside the Google Marketing Platform
brand. For example, a website or property is selected and various analyses is done using
available data.