ASSIGNMENT : 4

1. Explain VPN and WiFi.

VPN: VPN stands for "Virtual Private Network" and describes the
opportunity to establish a protected network connection when using public
networks. VPNs encrypt your internet traffic and disguise your online
identity. This makes it more difficult for third parties to track your activities
online and steal data. The encryption takes place in real time. It hides your IP
address by letting the network redirect it through a specially configured
remote server run by a VPN host. A VPN works like a filter that turns all
your data into "gibberish". Even if someone were to get their hands on your
data, it would be useless.
WIFI: Wi-Fi is a wireless networking technology that allows devices such
as computers (laptops and desktops), mobile devices (smart phones and
wearables), and other equipment (printers and video cameras) to interface with
the Internet. It allows these devices and many more to exchange information
with one another, creating a network. Internet connectivity occurs through a
wireless router.
2. What is Electronic Cash? Explain its Advantages and Disadvantages.

Ans: Electronic Cash: Electronic cash (also called e-cash or digital cash) is
any value storage and exchange system created by a private (non-governmental)
entity that does not use paper documents or coins and that can serve as a substitute
for government-issued physical currency. Since e-cash is issued by many private
companies, we need common standards for all e-cash issuers so that they are
accepted by each other. Until now those common standards were not met. It must
be spent only once and it must be anonymous.

E-cash is independent and portable. E-cash is independent, if it is not related

to any network or storage device. It is portable, if it can be freely transferable
between any two parties.

ADVANTAGES OF E-CASH:

 Anonymity and non-traceability can be maintained with e-cash.

 User ids are kept highly confidential.

 There are hardly any issues regarding “double spending”.

  Real-time checking of all transactions makes the possibility of multiple

expenditures negligible.

 There is no requirement of additional secure hardware.

 The existing POS (point of sale) hardware can be updated and used.

DISADVANTAGES OF E-CASH:

 There are communication overheads; security and anonymity cost

become a bottleneck of the system. This can happen at times during real-

time verifications.

 The bank has to maintain massive, detailed, and confidential databases.

 The bank needs to synchronize its server every time transaction is made.

It would be insanely impractical to maintain.

3. What is Payment Card? Explain its Advantages and Disadvantages.

Ans: Payment Card : Payment Card is a card for cashless payments at

retailers, internet stores or for cash withdrawals at ATMs. The payment card
gets the customer (the cardholder) from the card issuer - usually from a bank,
but also from various financial institutions, department stores, loan
companies,telecommunications, utility and airline companies World’s largest
associations of card issuers are:

 VISA (USA, UK)

 MasterCard (USA)
 American Express (USA)
 Diners Club (USA)
 Discover Financial (USA)
 JCB Card (Japan)

Cards expansion, issued by individual associations, varies in different states -

each state has different coverage of ATMs and points of sale-brand cards. In
some states it is possible to pay with all brands of cards, while somewhere are
very significant disproportions.
Payment cards exist is many different types, the most common types of
payment cards are:

 Debit Cards
 Credit Cards
 Charge Cards
 Prepaid Cards
 Shopping Credit Cards
 Business travel cards
 Purchasing cards

ADVANTAGES OF PAYMENT CARD:

Convenience - cards are quicker and might be cheaper to use than

cheques. They're useful for everyday expenses and can be used over the
phone and internet.
 Credit - credit or charge cards can offer an interest-free period of varying
lengths, dependent on which card issuer you use.
 Most cards are globally recognised - using cards for foreign travel
purchases may give you better exchange rates.
 Ability to monitor expenditure - you can specify which employees
receive cards and set different credit limits for each card.
 Fast access to cash - cash can be withdrawn from ATMs. However, card
issuers may levy a commission and - if given on credit - interest is
payable from the day the cash is withdrawn.
 Reduction in administration - with a company credit or charge card,
you pay one bill each month, no matter how many purchases you make.
Itemised monthly statements can help with your accounting and
administrative procedures.
DISADVANTAGES OF PAYMENT CARD:
  Card fraud - if the card details are discovered or revealed, you may find
fraudulent purchases appearing on your statement. If this is due to an
employee's negligence, your business will be liable for the payments.
Financial Fraud Action UK provide guidance on preventing card fraud.
 Debt - with the convenience of a plastic card and the time lapse between
purchase and payment, it can be tempting to overextend yourself and
build up debts for the business. Remember, if you make purchases with a
credit card and don't pay off the bill in full, you'll incur interest charges.

4. Explain Electronic Wallet and Stored Value Cards in brief.

Ans: Electronic Wallet: E-wallet is a type of electronic card which is used for
transactions made online through a computer or a smartphone. Its utility is same
as a credit or debit card. An E-wallet needs to be linked with the individual’s
bank account to make payments.
Descriptions: E-wallet is a type of pre-paid account in which a user can store
his/her money for any future online transaction. An E-wallet is protected with a
password. With the help of an E-wallet, one can make payments for groceries,
online purchases, and flight tickets etc

E-wallet has mainly two components, software and information. The software
component stores personal information and provides security and encryption of
the data.
For setting up an E-wallet account, the user needs to install the software on
his/her device, and enter the relevant information required. After shopping
online, the E-wallet automatically fills in the user’s information on the payment
form.

 Stored Value Cards: A stored value card, or gift card, is a type of

electronic bank debit card. Stored value cards have a specific dollar value
pre-loaded to them. Credit card networks, bank card issuers, and retail
merchants provide these cards as a way to provide non-cash payment
cards to the public for a variety of purposes. Cards issued by merchants
can only be used for goods and services from those specific retailers.
Store value cards—better known as gift cards—function like debit cards
specific to a certain retailer or set of retailers.
 There are two main types of stored value cards: closed-loop and open-
loop cards.
  While closed-looped cards can only be prepaid and use once, open-loop
cards may be reloaded with funds and used continuously.

Stored value cards come in two major categories. Closed-loop cards have
a one-time limit, as with Visa, Mastercard, and American Express gift
cards, merchant gift cards, and prepaid phone cards. Holders of open-loop
cards, on the other hand, may reload these with funds and use them again.

5. Define CRM and explain its architecture.

Ans: CRM: CRM(Customer Relationship Management ) is the broad

category of concepts, tools, and processes that allows an organization to
understand and serve everyone with whom it comes into contact. CRM is about
gathering information that is used to serve customers basic information, such as
name, address, meeting and purchase history, and service and support contacts.
In a supplier relationship it might be procurement history, terms and conditions,
or contact information. This information is then used to better serve the clients.

Implementing CRM

Customer relationship management is a corporate level strategy, focusing on

creating and maintaining relationships with customers. Several commercial
CRM software packages are available which vary in their approach to CRM.
However, CRM is not a technology itself, but rather a holistic approach to an
organisation's philosophy, placing the emphasis firmly on the customer.

CRM Architecture

There are three fundamental components in CRM:

 Operational - automation of basic business processes (marketing, sales,

service)

 Analytical - analysis of customer data and behavior using business

intelligence

 Collaborative - communicating with clients

Operational CRM
Operational CRM provides automated support to xxx "front office" business
processes (sales, marketing and service). Each interaction with a customer is
generally added to a customer's history, and staff can retrieve information on
customers from the database as necessary.

According to Gartner Group, operational CRM typically involves three general

areas:

Sales force automation (SFA)

SFA automates some of a company's critical sales and sales force management
tasks, such as forecasting, sales administration, tracking customer preferences
and demographics, performance management, lead management, account
management, contact management and quote management.

Customer service and support (CSS)

CSS automates certain service requests, complaints, product returns and

enquiries.

Enterprise marketing automation (EMA)

EMA provides information about the business environment, including

information on competitors, industry trends, and macroenvironmental variables.
EMA applications are used to improve marketing efficiency.
Many call centers use CRM software to store customer information. When a
call is received, the system displays the associated customer information
(determined from the number of the caller). During and following the call, the
call center agent dealing with the customer can add further information.
Analytical CRM

Analytical CRM analyses data in an attempt to identify means to enhance a

company's relationship with its clients. The results of an analysis can be used to
design targeted marketing campaigns, for example:

 Acquisition: Cross-selling, up-selling

 Retention: Retaining existing customers (antonym: customer attrition)
 Information: Providing timely and regular information to customers
 Other examples of the applications of analyses include:
 Contact optimization
 Evaluating and improving customer satisfaction
 Optimizing sales coverage
 Fraud detection
 Financial forecasts
 Price optimization
 Product development
 Program evaluation
 Risk assessment and management
 Strategic Marketing
 Operational marketing

Data collection and analysis is viewed as a continuing and iterative

process. Ideally, business decisions are refined over time, based on
feedback from earlier analyses and decisions. Most analytical CRM
projects use a data warehouse to manage data.

Collaborative CRM

Collaborative CRM focuses on the interaction with customers (personal

interaction, letter, fax, phone, Internet, e-mail etc.)

Collaborative CRM includes:

 Providing efficient communication with customers across a variety of

communications channels
 Providing online services to reduce customer service costs
  Providing access to customer information while interacting with
customers
 Driven by authors from the Harvard Business School, Collaborative
CRM also seems to be the new paradigma to succeed the leading
Efficient Consumer Response and Category Management concept in the
industry/ trade relationship.

6. Explain Ethical issues related to Electronic commerce.

Ans: Some ethical issues related to electronic commerce are:

Web tracking:
Every time someone visit the web, the website system retains some trails of the
users that can be refer later, this trails are normal call logs. These logs contains
all the records pertains to what the users perform in the site. Logs as records
mean, they can be retrieve or save for later use.
Analysis of log file means turning log data into application service or installing
software that can pluck relevant information from files in-house.

Online Privacy
Most Electronic Payment Systems knows the identity of the buyer. So it is
necessary to protect the identity of a buyer who uses Electronic Payment
System. A privacy issue related to the employees of company is tracking.
Monitoring systems are installed in many companies to monitor e-mail and
other web activities in order to identify employees who extensively use business
hours for non-business activities.

Web Spoofing
Web spoofing is an electronic deception relates to the Internet. It occurs when
the attacker sets up a fake website which almost totally same with the original
website in order to lure consumers to give their credit card number or other
personal information. For example, is the attacker setup a site called
www.jumiaa.com using addiction of later ‘a’ at the end, which many users
sometimes type by mistake.
Cyber-Squatting
Cybersquatting is an activity which a person or firm register, purchase and uses
the existing domain name belong to the well-known organization for the
purpose of infringing its trademarks. This type of person or firm, called cyber-
squatters usually infringed the trademarks to extort the payment from original
trademark’s owner. The extortion of payment occurs when they offers the prices
far greater than they had purchased the organization’s domain name upon.

Privacy Invasion
The privacy invasion occur when the personal details belong to consumers are
exposed to the unauthorized party. These can be seen in the following ways.

 The personal information of consumers being transmit may be intercepted

by anyone other than the person whom it is intended. Protecting the
privacy of communication is a great challenge, due to the very nature of
the online medium, an open network of digital telecommunications.
 Malicious programs delivered quietly via web pages could reveal credit
card numbers, usernames, and passwords that are frequently stored in
special files called cookies.

Email Spamming & phishing

E-mail spamming involved unsolicited commercial e-mail (UCE) sent or
broadcast unwanted advertisement or correspondence over the Internet. The use
of e-mail spammers meant to lure consumers to enter their personal information
on fake website using e-mail, forged to look like it is from authorized
organization such as bank. The content of e-mail often directs the consumers to
the fake website in order to lure them to fill their personal information such as
credit card or bank account’s details.

Intellectual Property Theft and Copyright Trolls

The basic cut-and-paste allows anyone with Internet access to directly copy the
original works of another. Text, photos, music, artwork and ideas routinely
move from the creators to the copiers, with no permission for use granted or
sought. The victim of this theft only has recourse if he's registered a copyright
and then wants to spend the time and trouble to write demand letters and
threaten lawsuits.
7. Define ERP and explain benefits of ERP.

Ans: ERP: Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is the integrated management of

core business processes, often in real-time and enabled by software and
technology. ERP is usually referred to as a category of business-
management software typically a suite of integrated applications for each core
business function that an organization can use to collect, store, manage, and
interpret data from these many business activities in real time and use the data
for managing the business functions and also for decision making

While the standalone systems will have their individual databases for storing
data, ERP will have a common central database from which the various
software modules will access information.

BENEFITS OF ERP:
1. Competitive Advantage
It’s true that ERP software requires a major investment, but there’s also an
even bigger cost in not making the investment. While some manufacturers
choose to stick to the tried and true methods of the past, others seek
technology solutions. With so many enterprise resource planning advantages
the software provides, users can see improvements within multiple
departments. Implementing the software helps to keep you ahead of the
competition because you no longer run the risk of making costly business
mistakes, which could place you behind the pack instead of ahead.

2. Improved Process Efficiency

An ERP platform eliminates repetitive processes and greatly reduces the
need to manually enter information, which not only improves user
productivity, but it eliminates the possibility of inaccurate data which could
lead to making costly business mistakes. The benefits of implementing an
ERP system in an organization will also improve daily business activities by
streamlining business processes, which makes it easier and more efficient for
companies to collect data, no matter what department they’re working in.

3. Accurate Forecasting
Enterprise resource planning software gives your users, and especially
managers, the tools they need to create more accurate forecasts. This helps
software users, and businesses as a whole, think ahead and properly plan
what they need from inventory and sales down to financials and customer
service. With stronger forecasting, businesses can effectively decrease
business costs, which saves money as well as become an more overall
proactive unit.

4. Scalable Resource
 Structured ERP systems allow the addition of new users and functions to
grow the initially implemented solution over time. No matter how big or
small your business is ERP grows with it, being able to occupancy new users
and new rounds of data whenever your business is ready to expand. There is
no worry about whether you will need a brand new system once a new user
or two needs to be added.

5. Integrated Information
Enterprise resource planning software acts as a central hub for all of the
important information that your business and the departments within it need
to maintain daily business practices and operations. No more issues with data
spread across separate databases; all information will be housed in a single
location. This means you can integrate platforms like your CRM software
with your ERP software, keeping data consistent, accurate, and unique.
Know your customer, their orders, and your inventory, all in one place.
There is also no need to worry about whether the information that you are
using from the system is accurate, since it is updated in real time across the
board.

6. Cost Savings
With every business, you want to be smart with your financials and avoid
making costly mistakes that could hurt your business in the end. With one
source of accurate, real-time information, enterprise resource planning
software reduces administrative and operations costs, allows businesses to
utilize money in other, much needed areas. It allows manufacturers to
proactively manage operations, prevents disruptions and delays, breaks up
information logjams and helps users make decisions more quickly.

7. Mobility
An enterprise resource planning advantage is the software’s ability to make
users the center of its attention, providing deployment styles that will give on
the road sales reps the same opportunities as in-office users to use ERP
whenever and wherever they need. With WorkWise ERP software, users
have access to a centralized database from anywhere you work and from
different devices including your laptop, tablet or cell phone. The adaptability
of a ERP software is crucial, as it increases productivity and makes
information accessible no matter where you are.

8. Increased Productivity
Save time and increase productivity levels. Sound too good to be true? It’s
not with ERP software’s automation and streamlining capabilities. Often
 times, when tedious tasks take up much needed business time, there can be a
delay in production, which can effect your business and even the customer
service experience.

9. Flexible Systems
Modern ERP software platforms are robust, flexible, and configurable. They
are not a one-size-fits-all proposition but can be tailored to the unique needs
of a business. ERP software can adapt to the ever-changing needs of a
growing business, ensuring you won’t have to buy a new solution once your
needs change or your business grows. When implementing the ERP software
of your choice, it is important to make sure that you can customize
applications and suits, so that your system has every function needed in
order to assist with daily business operations.

10.Customer Service
It’s easier to provide high-quality customer service using an enterprise
solution, especially when you’re using one as well-equipped as WorkWise
ERP. Sales and customer service people can interact with customers better
and improve relationships with them through faster, more accurate access to
customers’ information and history. You’ll also have access to marketing
automation and contact center software, ensuring your customers are being
interacted with consistently.

11.Data Reliability
ERP provides reliable data that can be accessed from different locations (if
implemented in the cloud) and through multiple devices including tablets
and smartphones. With the ability to update in real time, ERP improves data
accuracy and consistency. With this, users can ensure that all data and
analytics are safe to use, without running the risk of errors. ERP user data
can also have additional security through firewalls and built-in protection
resources.