CAB

Unit 1. Information System Environment

Information Technology

It consists of all hardware and software that a firm needs to use in order to achieve its business
objectives.

The commercial use of IT entails or encompasses both computer technology and

telecommunication.

Information System

An IS can be defined technically as a set of interrelated components that collect, process, store
and distribute information to support decision-making, coordinating and control in an
organization.

Key Concepts

1. DIKW Model
The DIKW model is method with its roots in management, to explain the ways we move
from Data to information, knowledge, and wisdom with a component of actions and
decision.
It looks at various ways of extracting insights and value from all sorts of data: big data,
small data, smart data, fast data, slow data, unstructured data.
The model is quite linear and expresses a logical consequence of steps and stages with
information being contextualized progression of data as it gets more meaning.
Each step-up answer question about the initial data and add values to it.
a) Data: Collection of facts in a raw or unorganized form such as numbers or characters.
It is conceived of symbols or signs, representing stimuli or signals that are of no use
until it is in a usable form. Without context data can mean little. For e.g. 12012012 is
just a sequence of numbers without appropriate importance. The color ‘red’ has little
meaning without context. Data is related with Transaction Processing System.

By:
Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
 b) Information: Data given context becomes information. It is a next building-block of
DIKW model. It is the data that has been cleaned of errors and further processed in a
way that makes it easier to measure, visualize and analyze for a specific purpose.
OR
“Information is defined as organized or structured data which has been processed in
such a way that the information now has a relevance for a specific purpose or context
and is therefore meaningful, valuable, useful and relevant.”
It is inferred from data in the process of asking interrogative questions. For e.g., who,
what, where, when, etc., thereby making data useful.
E.g., Given a context of date, 12012012 becomes 12th Jan 2012. And given the
context of traffic light, red becomes signal. Information is related to Information
Management System.
c) Knowledge: Information given meaning becomes knowledge. Information which is
processed, organized or structured in one way or else as being applied or put into
action.
“Knowledge is a fluid mix of framed experience, values, contextual information,
expert insight and grounded intuition that provides an environment and framework
for evaluating and incorporating new experiences and information.”
When we don’t just view information as a description of collected facts, but also
understand how to apply it to achieve our goals, we turn it into knowledge.
E.g. Given meaning to the red signal, it becomes a knowledge that we are driving
towards a traffic signal that has turned red.
Knowledge is the edge that companies have over its competitors. Knowledge is
related to Decision Support System.
d) Wisdom: It is top of the DIKW model. Knowledge given insight becomes wisdom.
“Wisdom is often defined as an evaluated understanding, where in the understanding
their acts as a layer between knowledge and wisdom.”
Wisdom is knowing the right thing to do. It is the knowledge applied in action.
E.g., Stopping when you see a red light is wisdom. Wisdom is related to expert
system.
Note: Data and information are like a look back to the past.

By:
Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
 Knowledge and wisdom are associated with what we do now and what we want to
achieve in the future.

Definition of Information System: Two Perspectives

a) Functional Perspective: “An Information System is a technologically implemented

medium for the purpose of recording, storing and disseminating linguistic expressions as
well as for the supporting of inference making”. Focuses on what actual users do with
IS while using it.
b) Structural Perspective: “An IS consists of people, processes, data, models, technology
and partly formalized language, forming a cohesive structure which serves the
organizational purpose or function”. Make clear that IS are socio-technical system, i.e.,
systems consisting of humans, behavioral rules and conceptual and technical
artifacts.

3 activities in IS produce information that organization needs to make decisions, control

operations, analyze problem and create new products/ services.

i) Input: captures raw data from within the organization or from its external
environment.
ii) Processing: Conversion of raw input into meaningful form.

By:
Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
 iii) Output: Transfers the processed information to people who will use it or activities
for which it will be used.

Components of Information System

a) Hardware: It provides computing power for processing data, networking and printing
capabilities. It speeds up processing of data into information.
It consists of:
Machines- computers, printers and other equipment along with all data media.
Computer system- variety of inter-connected peripheral devices like micro computer
system, mid-range and large computer system.
b) Software: It includes all set of information processing instructions. It is the program that
runs on hardware. It not just includes programs which direct and control computers but
also the sets of information processing (procedures).
Software broken down into 2 categories:
i) System Software- Operating System, e.g., Windows, MacOS, etc.
ii) Application Software- Specialized software or accomplishing business tasks. E.g.,
Payroll program, Banking system, FOS System, etc.
c) Network Resources: Telecommunication networks like internet, intranet and extranet
essential for the success and all types of organization. Emphasized communication
networks are fundamental resource component of all IS. It consists of computer,
communication media and controlled by communication software.
d) People Resources: Users who use information system to record day-to-day business
transactions.
i) End Users- also known as users or clients are people who use IS or information it
produces>>> most of us are end users. E.g., Accountants, salespersons, engineers,
clerks, customers or managers.
ii) IS Specialist- These are people who develop and operate IS. It includes:
System analyst- Design IS based on the information requirement of end-users.
Programmers- Prepare computer programs based on specification of system
analyst.
Computer analyst- Operate large computer system.

By:
Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
 Other managerial, technical and clerical IS personnel.
e) Data resources: These are the raw material of IS. It takes many forms: alpha-numerical
data, numbers, alphabets and other characters. Data resources must be comprehensive,
non-reluctant and well-defined with appropriate structure. Data resource of IS typically
organized into Processed and organized data, i.e., Databases and Knowledge in the form
of facts, rules and case studies.
f) Processes: It is a series of steps undertaken to achieve a desired outcome or goal. IS
becoming more and more integrated with organized process bringing more productivity
and control to processes. Its ultimate goal is to use technology to manage and improve
processes.
3 business procedures which bring in continued improvement and integration of
technology with them.
a) Business Process Automation (BPA): It refers to the activity of applying technology
to automate the routine manual processes that takes place in businesses every day.
Most frequently repeated, recurring tasks are automated to increases speed, accuracy
and consistency to improve overall operating efficiency. Studies show that at least
1/3rd of 60% of jobs can be automated.
Prime areas: Sales, Procurement, Finance, HR and onboarding, Product development,
inventory tracking, logistics and delivery, education.
Companies/ Software for BPA: Kissflow Inc., Laserfische, Bizagi, etc.
b) Business Process Improvement (BPI): BPI is an operational practice where process
owners use different method to analyze, redesign, implement and optimize their
existing process. It is done for the sole purpose of increasing efficiency. The main
goal is to reduce overall process completion time, improve quality of output, reduce
the friction in the process, meet regulatory compliances, etc. BPI methodologies: Six
Sigma, Total Quantity Management, Lean Management, etc.
c) Business Process Reengineering (BPR): BPR is the radical re-design oof business
process to achieve dramatic improvements in critical aspects like quality, output, cost,
service and speed. It aims at cutting down enterprise cost on a very huge scale. It
typically aims at adopting a new value system that places increased emphasis on
customer needs.

By:
Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
 Functions of Information System
An information system provides informational support for decision makers within an
organization or company, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the
United Nations. Such a system is designed to collect, transmit, process and store
relevant data to be utilized by management to make decisions with regards to an
organization's progress.
The types of data organized by an information system include statistics regarding a
company's resources, programs, accomplishments and transactions. The most
effective information systems process data in real time so managers can make
effective decisions with the most up-to-date information.
Various kinds of information systems are tailored to transaction processing,
management, decision support and strategy. Each type of information supports the
department for which it is designed. All these systems help companies reach future
goals by processing valuable information.
Good information gathering depends on relevancy, timeliness, accuracy, usability,
reliability, exhaustiveness and aggregation level. For instance, relevant and timely
information on the price of corn is usable and reliable if a company needs to know
how much cattle feed will cost with respect to beef production. This kind of
information is vital to determine prices at butcher shops and supermarkets.
Information systems help companies during the design stage of a decision process.
Intelligence, such as trends and status reports, must be gathered before a design is
made. Analytical tools and models are needed for designing a plan, process or
product. Choices must then be made moving forward to the review stage to see if the
decisions made were the correct ones.
In simplified way, these are the functions of IS:
1. Input: - Input refers to the primary information fed into the system. The input in
an information system has two major uses: -
• Output is developed by using the detailed input data which is stored.
• The type of analysis to be done by the analyst should be clearly specified in
advance.

By:
Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
 2. Storage: - The data should be stored in the most detailed and well-defined level
plausible. In order to prevent the data from being lost backups and summaries
should be regularly compiled.
3. Processing: - A process is a step-by-step procedure wherein the primary data is
converted into information. A process can be a simple procedure which consists
of listing details in the most simplified manner and can be a complex one which
consists of complex assumptions and variables.
4. Output: - Output is the desired outcome of the process. There are majorly two
types of output: -
• Graphical output which is utilized to study the information given on a large
scale which are then represented graphically in terms of charts, bar graphs,
diagrams, etc.
• Textual output which is used to study information given on a small scale
presented as variables, numbers, text, etc.
5. Feedback / control loops: - The IS helps in checking whether the processed output
is working in the present circumstances taking into consideration the external
factors.

Value Chain- Michael Porter

“A value chain is a set of activities that an organization carries out to create value for
its customers”. It highlights the specific activities in the business where competitive
strategies can be best applied and where IS are most likely to have an impact. A value
chain is a step-by-step business model to increase a business’s efficiency so that
business can deliver the most value for the least possible cost.
The end goal: To create a competitive advantage for a company by increasing
productivity while keeping cost reasonable.
Michael Porter’s value chain helps to disintegrate a company into its strategically
relevant activities. Porter proposed a general-purpose chain that companies can use to
examine all the activities and see how they are connected. The way in which the
activities are performed determines costs and affects profits>>> helps in
understanding the source of value for a company.

By:
Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
 Elements in Value Chain
Porter’s Value chain model focuses on systems and how inputs are changed into the
output by consumers. It is divided into two activities:
a) Primary activities: These are the activities related to physical creation,
maintenance and support a product or service. It has direct involvement in plan
and sales of the product/ service.
i) Inbound Logistics: It contains processes related to receiving, storing and
distributing inputs internally. The supplier relationship is the key factor in
creating value. For e.g., material handling, warehousing, inventory
control, vehicle scheduling, etc.
ii) Operations: It contains transformation activities that change inputs into
final outputs. A company’s operational system creates value here. For e.g.,
Machining, Packaging, assembly, testing, printing and facility operations.
iii) Outbound Logistics: It includes activities delivering products/ services to
your customer. It involves collecting, storing, and physically distributing
the product to buyers. For e.g., Finished goods, warehousing, material
handling, order processing, etc.
iv) Marketing and Sales: It includes promotion or persuasion strategies or
activities used to lure in potential customers. Source of value creation>>>
the benefits you offer and how well you communicate them. For e.g., Ads,
sales, quoting, etc.
v) Services: It includes after sales activities to maintain value of the product/
service to customers. For e.g., Installation, repair, training, etc.

b) Support Activities: These are the activities which go across primary activities
and aim to coordinate and support their functions as best as possible. It assists by
providing purchased inputs, tech, HR, etc.
i) Procurement: It is the function of purchasing inputs used in firm’s value
chain. It includes finding vendors and getting or negotiating best prices.
Purchased inputs include raw materials, supplies, consumable as well as

By:
Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
 assets. Hence, it assists multiple value chain activities, not just inbound
logistics.
ii) Technology Development R&D: It includes activities relating to managing
and processing information; protecting companies knowledge base. Source
of value creation>>>minimizing tech cost, staying updated with technical
advances and maintaining technical excellence.
iii) Human Resource Management: These are the activities involving in
recruiting, hiring, training, developments and compensation of all types of
personnel. Source of Value Creation>>> Good HR practices.
iv) Infrastructure: It is a companies support system and functions that allow it
to maintain daily operations. It usually supports the entire Value chain.
For e.g., Planning, finance, etc.

Value Web
A value web is a collection of independent firms that use IT to coordinate their value
chains to produce a product or a service for market collectively. It is used as a strategy for
achieving competitive advantage at the industry level. It is a more customer driven and
operates in a less linear fashion than value chain. It is a networked system that can
synchronize the value chains of business partners within an industry to rapidly respond to
changes in demand and supply.
Note: Firm can achieve competitive advantage by doing value chain analysis while an
industry achieves competitive advantage by doing value web analysis.

By:
Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
Strategies used by the firm to achieve competitive advantages

Synergies: The idea of synergies is that when the output of some units can be used as inputs to
other units, or two organizations pool markets and expertise, these relationships lower costs and
generate profits.
For example, acquiring Countrywide Financial enabled Bank of America to extend its mortgage
lending business and to tap into a large pool of new customers who might be interested in its
credit card, consumer banking, and other financial products. Information systems would help the
merged companies consolidate operations, lower retailing costs, and increase cross marketing of
financial products.
Core Competencies: A core competency is an activity for which a firm is a world-class leader.
Core competencies may involve being the world’s best miniature parts designer, the best
package delivery service, or the best thin-film manufacturer.
In general, a core competency relies on knowledge that is gained over many years of practical
field experience with a technology. This practical knowledge is typically supplemented with a
long-term research effort and committed employees.
Network-based Strategies: Business models built on a network helps firms by taking advantage
of network economics. Availability of internet and networking technology have inspired
strategies that take advantage of network economics. It includes- Network Economics, Virtual
Company Model and Business ecosystem.
A) Network Economics: A situation in which a business will benefit through the feedback
provided by those who use the product or service.
Network economics is a product of the network effect, whereby an increase in the value of a
good or service increases as the number of buyers or subscribers multiplies.
For example, online communities like LinkedIn and Twitter continually evolve with respect to
their service offerings, providing a wider set of products as their online communities continue to
grow
B) Virtual Company Model: It uses networks to link people, assets and ideas enabling it to ally
with other companies to create and distribute products and services being limited by traditional
organizational boundaries or physical locations.
C) Business Ecosystem: An economic community supported by a foundation of interacting
organizations and individuals — the organisms of the business world. The economic community
By:
Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
produces goods and services of value to customers, who are themselves members of the
ecosystem.
The member organisms also include suppliers, lead producers, competitors, and other
stakeholders. Over time, they co-evolve their capabilities and roles, and tend to align themselves
with the directions set by one or more central companies.
Gartner’s Life Hype Cycle
The hype cycle is a branded graphical presentation developed and used by the American
research, advisory and information technology firm Gartner to represent the maturity, adoption,
and social application of specific technologies. Each year, Gartner creates more than 100 Hype
Cycles in various domains to enable clients to track innovation maturity and future potential.
Gartner Hype Cycles helps in providing a graphical representation of the maturity and adoption
of technologies and applications, and how efficient they are in solving the real-world business
problems. Gartner Hype Cycle method helps in giving a view of how a technology or application
will change and get evolved over time, thus providing crucial info on how to efficiently utilize
these resources to achieve specific goals.
It characterizes the evolution of technology and innovation from overenthusiasm to a period of
disillusionment and eventually to a period of understanding the utility of the innovation.

By:
Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
Innovation Trigger: The Hype Cycle starts when a breakthrough, public demonstration, product
launch or other event generates press and industry interest in a technology innovation.
Peak of Inflated Expectations: A wave of “buzz” builds and the expectations for this
innovation rise above the current reality of its capabilities. In some cases, an investment bubble
forms, as happened with the web and social media.
Trough of Disillusionment: Inevitably, impatience for results begins to replace the original
excitement about potential value. Problems with performance, slower-than-expected adoption or
a failure to deliver financial returns in the time anticipated all lead to missed expectations, and
disillusionment sets in.
Slope of Enlightenment: Some early adopters overcome the initial hurdles, begin to experience
benefits and recommit efforts to move forward. Organizations draw on the experience of the
early adopters. Their understanding grows about where and how the innovation can be used to
good effect and, just as importantly, where it brings little or no value.
Plateau of Productivity: With the real-world benefits of the innovation demonstrated and
accepted, growing numbers of organizations feel comfortable with the now greatly reduced
levels of risk. A sharp rise in adoption begins (resembling a hockey stick when shown
graphically), and penetration accelerates rapidly as a result of productive and useful value.
Decision Making Process
Making decision is central to managing organizations. Organizations today can no longer use a
'cook book' approach to decision making. In order to succeed in a business today,
companies need information system that support the diverse information and decision-making
needs for their operations. the rapid development of the internet and other information
technologies has further strengthened the role of information systems for decision making
support.

Step 1: Identification of the purpose of the decision

In this step, the problem is thoroughly analyzed. There are a couple of questions one should ask
when it comes to identifying the purpose of the decision.

• What exactly is the problem?

• Why the problem should be solved?

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Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
 • Who are the affected parties of the problem?

• Does the problem have a deadline or a specific time-line?

Step 2: Information gathering

A problem of an organization will have many stakeholders. In addition, there can be dozens of
factors involved and affected by the problem.

In the process of solving the problem, you will have to gather as much as information related to
the factors and stakeholders involved in the problem. For the process of information gathering,
tools such as 'Check Sheets' can be effectively used.

Step 3: Principles for judging the alternatives

In this step, the baseline criteria for judging the alternatives should be set up. When it comes to
defining the criteria, organizational goals as well as the corporate culture should be taken into
consideration.

As an example, profit is one of the main concerns in every decision-making process. Companies
usually do not make decisions that reduce profits, unless it is an exceptional case. Likewise,
baseline principles should be identified related to the problem in hand.

Step 4: Brainstorm and analyze the different choices

For this step, brainstorming to list down all the ideas is the best option. Before the idea
generation step, it is vital to understand the causes of the problem and prioritization of causes.

For this, you can make use of Cause-and-Effect diagrams and Pareto Chart tool. Cause-and-
Effect diagram helps you to identify all possible causes of the problem and Pareto chart helps
you to prioritize and identify the causes with highest effect.

Then, you can move on generating all possible solutions (alternatives) for the problem in hand.

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Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
Step 5: Evaluation of alternatives

Use your judgement principles and decision-making criteria to evaluate each alternative. In this
step, experience and effectiveness of the judgement principles come into play. You need to
compare each alternative for their positives and negatives.

Step 6: Select the best alternative

Once you go through from Step 1 to Step 5, this step is easy. In addition, the selection of the
best alternative is an informed decision since you have already followed a methodology to
derive and select the best alternative.

Step 7: Execute the decision

Convert your decision into a plan or a sequence of activities. Execute your plan by yourself or
with the help of subordinates.

Step 8: Evaluate the results

Evaluate the outcome of your decision. See whether there is anything you should learn and then
correct in future decision making. This is one of the best practices that will improve your
decision-making skills.

Types of Decisions

1. Structured Decisions: These are the ones where an action plan needs to be drawn for routine
and everyday work in an organization. These are well defined decisions and work in everyday
problems that an org faces,

2. Unstructured Decisions: These decisions are the ones which are not well defined and have
to be made as per the demands of the situation. These decisions are made in order to tackle with
the extraordinary circumstances which the business might have to face and these are not routine
in nature.

3. Semi-structured Decisions: These decisions are a mix of both structured and unstructured
decision making. Only a component of the decision is well defined procedure to tackle the
By:
Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
problem and the other component need the org to allow flexibility in decisions as per the
situation. These decisions have three dimensions to it:

• The degree of decision-making skill required.

• Number of criterions taken into consideration.

• The degree of complexity of a problem.

Types of Information System

1. TPS: Transaction processing systems are used for recording daily and routine business
transactions of the company or organization. They are mainly used by officials working
in the operation level of management. By making records of the daily business
transactions, TPS system helps in providing every information in timely and effective
manner. The information provided by TPS is in a very detailed form.
Objectives:
• It helps in making the operations and working of the organization efficient and
effective.
• It helps in reducing time taken to search for information as it provides each and every
detail about the day-to-day transactions in a timely manner.
• If a company is aware of their resources, clients and volumes of sales then a company
can get a competitive advantage over the other companies.
• It helps in providing necessary data sets which are important for tactical and strategic
systems like DSS.
• It helps in providing a well-defined framework to evaluate and analyze the activities of
the organization.
Examples:
• Point of Sale Systems – records daily sales
• Payroll systems – processing employee’s salary, loans management, etc.
• Stock Control systems – keeping track of inventory levels
• Airline booking systems – flights booking management

By:
Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
 2. MIS: Management Information Systems (MIS) is used by managers to tactically monitor
and analyze the current status of organization's performance. The output that we receive
form TPS is used as an input The MIS system analyses and evaluates the input by
employing routine algorithms such as aggregation, comparison techniques and makes a
summary of the results to produce and develop reports that managers use to evaluate the
current performance. For example, input from a point-of-sale system can be used to
identify and come up with trends of products that are performing well and are being
bought in bulk. Other examples include sales management system, inventory control
system, budgeting system, human resource mgt system, etc.
Objectives:
• It is useful in making structured decisions. MIS provides the information required to
make structured decisions and on the basis of these the management makes structured
decisions.
• It provides a summary of info regarding the organizational activity at regular and
periodic intervals.
• The main focus of MIS is on internal information of the organization to help the
management in devising action plans.
• They are used by lower and middle level management and is efficiency oriented.
• It deals with the information pertaining to past and the present and does forecast the
future projections.
Functions: In terms of requirements for data processing.
• Inputs are the internal transactions, files and structured data of the organization.
• The processing includes sorting, merging and summarizing of data.
• Outputs are detailed, summary and action reports which are used by managers to devise
action plans.
3. DSS: Decision support systems are the systems which are used by top level management
to formulate non-routine decisions. Decision support systems take inputs from internal
systems (TPS and MIS) and external systems and the produces the outputs which help the
top-level managers to tackle extraordinary and non-routine situations.

By:
Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
 Objectives:
• It supports the management in making unstructured and semi structured decisions to
tackle non-routine circumstances.
• It has an analytical and modelling capacity which helps to forecast the future
environment.
• DSS if effectiveness oriented and helps the organization to boost efficiency.
Examples:
• Spreadsheet models
• logistics system
• financial planning systems, etc.
4. ESS: Executive support systems are strategic-level information systems that are used by
the top-level management. The system helps executives and senior managers to evaluate
and make an analysis into the environment in which the organization functions so as to
identify long-term patterns and trends, to chalk out appropriate courses of action. Also
known as Executive Information System.
Objectives:
• It reduces the burden of information on executives and makes use of both internal and
external systems.
• It provides managers and executives flexible and open access to data which is required
to monitor the current situation and forecast the future prospects.
• It provides a comprehensive picture of the performance of the business by taking into
consideration the key areas for growth.
• It helps in meeting the strategic information needs of the top-level managers.
• It is effectiveness oriented and is highly flexible.
• It supports the organization in making unstructured decisions.
Functions:
• Inputs of the system is external info, internal files and documents and pre-defined
models.
• In the processing stage it summarizes and simulates data.
• The output are the summary reports, future forecasts and projections and graphs
depicting trends.

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Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
Ethics in Information System
IS ethics is defined as the branch of ethics that focuses on the relationship between the creation,
organization, dissemination and use of information and ethical standards and moral codes
governing human conduct in the society.
It examines the morality that comes from information as a resource, a product or a target.
It provides a critical framework for considering moral issues concerning information privacy,
moral agony, etc. It also provides framework for critical reflection on creation, control and use of
information. It raises question about information ownership and access to intellectual property
rights.
Moral dimensions of IS
1. Information Rights and Obligation: It’s the info relating to ourselves and our organization.
(Privacy and Freedom in the internet age).
2. Property Rights and Obligations: Protection of intellectual property rights. (Intellectual
property is considered to be an intangible property created by individual/ organization).
3. Accountability, Liability and Control: Who will be held accountable if any harm is done.
(Whether individuals or organization that create, produce and sell system are morally responsible
for the consequence of their use).
4. System Quality: Standards of data and quality. (Individual and organization may be held
responsible for avoidable and foreseeable consequences, which they have duty to perceive and
correct).

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Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
5. Qualities of Life: Preservation of values, cultures. (The negative social cost of IS not only
result in violation of individual rights but also bring extreme harm to individuals, institutions and
societies).
Non-Obvious Relationship Awareness (NORA)
NORA is a data analysis technology that can take information from desperate sources such as
employment applications, telephone records, customer listings and wanted lists and correct
relationships to find obscure hidden connections that might help identify criminals or raise
ethical issues.
Basically, it helps you to discover relationship between data type and data location to uncover
‘non-obvious’ relationship.
It collects large quantities of variety information from our location to our web-surfing habits to
our criminal reports to our credit reports to create profile of individuals. It creates table of data
and cross-reference data; concerned with fraud-detection.
Features:
1. Perpetual Analytics: The system keeps on running analyses to find a lead between the relation
of entities and alerts the user when one is found.
2. Extensible: It always accepts new data sets and other info as its input and makes changes to its
operations.
3. Dynamic: Every time it receives some new inputs it has to make changes in its operation to
find the match.
4. Real Time: It has real time system for identification and alerting users. 5. It can handle huge
loads of data.
Limitations: Invasion of Privacy, may not be always accurate, can’t recognize the type of
activities that happen are legal or not.
Ethical Analysis
Ethical analysis can be defined as the branch of ethics that emphasizes on the relation between
development, structuring, dissemination and utilization of information and the ethical and moral
codes governing conduct of people in a society.
Basic Concepts: Responsibility, Accountability, Liability and Due Process
Responsibility means that you accept the potential cost, duties and obligations for the decision
you make.

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Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
Accountability means mechanisms are in place to determine who took responsible actions and
who is responsible.
Liability is the feature in which body of laws is in place that permits individuals and others can
recover damages done to them by other actors, system or institution.
Steps in Ethical Analysis
1. Identify and describe clearly the facts (Collection of Facts): The facts and other details of
the conflict should be identified and gathered in a systematic manner before jumping onto
conclusions.
2. Define the Conflict and identify high-order value: The ethical issue must be well
understood and defined and systematic identification of high order values is required.
3. Identify the Stakeholders: Proper and timely identification of the parties involved or the
stakeholders in the issue is required.
4. Identify the options that you can reasonably take: The next step is the listing out and
evaluation of the prospective options to be taken to resolve the conflict is to be done and the
options are to be evaluated in the most logical and rational sense.
5. Identify potential consequences of your options: It is important to evaluate the consequence
which might entail due to the solution selected.

Candidate Ethical Principle

1. Do Unto others as you would have them do unto you – Golden Rule

2. If an action is not right for everybody to take, it is not right for anyone – Immanuel
Kant’s Categorical Imperative

By:
Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
 3. If an action is not right to take repeatedly, it is not right to take at all – Deschartes’ Rule
of Change

4. Action that achieves the higher or greater value- Utilitarian Principle

5. Action that produces least harm least potential cost – Risk Aversion Principle
6. Assume that virtually or tangible and intangible objects are owned by someone else
unless there is a specific declaration otherwise – Ethical ‘No Free Lunch’ Rule
Telecommuting and E-waste
Telecommuting is the ability of an employee to complete assignment from outsiders the
traditional workplace by using telecommunication tools. It is also known as remote working.
Benefits of Telecommuting
• You do not have to spend time commuting back and forth from work.
• It is easier to focus without the usual workplace distractions.
• There are no transportation costs.
• It can provide a better balance of work and personal pursuits.
• Employers may save money on real estate and other overhead expenses.
• It has shown to be more productive for many employees.
• People can work at their own pace without pressure.

Drawbacks of Telecommuting
• The employee has less personal contact with managers and coworkers, hindering
communication.
• It can be more difficult for managers to supervise someone working from home.
• The worker may have more disruptions at home, resulting in reduced productivity.
• You might miss the social aspect of working with peers.
• Having a remote workplace could jeopardize security for the company.

By:
Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
 Additional information
• 84% of European businesses purchased additional hardware due to remote working to
maintain operations.
• 60% of businesses now planning to allow employees to continue to telecommute (work
from home).
• The research shows almost a quarter (23%) of desktop PCs are expected to be thrown away
in the following year.
• 53.6Mt of e-waste is generated every year (the equivalent of throwing away 1000 laptops
per second).
• 36% admitted they did not know where their e-waste ended up
Deskilling
It is a process by which skilled labor within an industry or economy is eliminated by the
introduction of technological equipment operated by semi or unskilled workers. It involves a
decrease in the skill content of a particular job over time and an increase in no. of people in less
skilled jobs. Skills that would have required skilled labor can be done with unskilled labor
with the help of machinery. For e.g., Barista, Cashier, factory works, etc.
Alienation
Separation of human beings from some essential aspects of their nature or society resulting in
feelings of powerlessness or helplessness. When people are alienated, they feel detached; they
feel detached from the society and loved ones leading to unhappiness.

By:
Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
By:
Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
 Unit 2. ERP Systems and IT Trends

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) refers to a type of software that organizations use to manage
day-to-day business activities such as accounting, procurement, project management, risk
management and compliance, and supply chain operations.
An ERP system is an attempt to integrate all functions of an organization together to a single
computer system that can serve all those function’s specific needs. It is a type of a software
system that helps an organization run its entire operations such as accounting, finance,
manufacturing, processing. It may also integrate clients and various suppliers as part of the
organization’s operations. Thus, it provides an integrated database.
Advantages/Importance
• It is the best solution for an effective and efficient management as the managers will have
access to everything regarding the company thus facilitating decision making and less time used.
• It gives the management a comprehensive view of what is happening in the company thus
providing them a clear picture.
• It helps in reduction of cycle time i.e., the time taken in receiving the order and delivering the
same to the customer.
• It provides a real time data processing so that no update or alert goes unnoticed.
• It helps in achieving cost control and low working capital.
• If a company has a well-developed ERP, then it has a competitive advantage above others.
• It helps in satisfying the demands of the customers across the world by eliminating
geographical barriers.
Features
• Integrates every department
• Real time
• Quick in adaption to changes (dynamic)
• Is a common database for all the functions of the org across all dept.
• Gives a comprehensive view.
Reasons for Adapting ERP
• Integrates financial info.
• Reduces inventory

By:
Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
• Reduces cycle time
• Reduces costs
• Standardizes and speeds up operations.
• Standardizes human resource info.
• Integrates customer order info.
IMPLEMENTATION OF ERP SYSTEMS
1. Defining the scope: The scope of implementation of an ERP is the connection between the
evaluation and implementation of it. A specific goal should be defined in respect to the scope
and the action plan.
2. Business Requirements: The second step is the analysis of the need of the business. The ERP
system should be set up in a dummy business environment to check whether the assumptions
made in the plan will stand true in the real world or not. Accordingly keeping in mind, the
requirements of the business, the ERP has to be developed.
3. Feeding Data: The data pertaining to the internal as well as the external environment has to
be fed into the new system and a series of verification checks have to be carried out.
4. System Testing: The next step comprises of the checking and testing whether the system is
working efficiently across all the departments of the organization.
5. Training the Workforce: A proper training needs to be given to the employees whom the org
thinks worthy enough to supervise the functioning of the ERP. They have to be trained on the
topics like role and functions of ERP, etc.
6. Software Deployment: This is the stage where the system software is deployed into the real
working business environment. It is also known as going live.
7. Controlling and Feedback: Post going live the system is to be evaluated whether it is
working well in the prevalent circumstances and feedbacks are received for further advancement.
Challenges For ERP Implementation
1. Transitioning: When a business makes a shift from manual scavenging of data to an efficient
and high-tech system like an ERP, the org faces a lot of troubles as every employee will have to
be well versed with the new changes in data storing.
2. Inconsistency: The ERP may also be inconsistent with the way in which the organization
works thus requiring a significant downtime for the org to adapt.

By:
Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
3. Cost: The cost of setting up the various components of ERP like hardware, software, etc. and
maintenance of these involves huge costs that has to be incurred by the org.
4. Industry Standards: ERP systems usually have pre-determined industry standards for a
particular type of business which may reduce the productivity and creativity in an org.
5. Training procedure: The org has to ensure that its employees are properly trained in using
the ERP systems. Training the employees entails costs for the company and also takes longer
time for the employees to get acquainted with the technicalities.
6. Changes in Employment Responsibilities: The responsibilities of the employees in the set
up prior to implementation of the ERP tends to change which creates a lot of confusion in the
minds of the employees.
Types of ERP modules
1. Finance Management Module: This module helps in tracking and recording the financial and
accounting information and presenting it in the form of financial statements. The key function is
to keep on time records of various accounts of the company and timely presentation of this
information in the form of fin statements such as balance sheet, trial balance, cash flows, P&L
account.
2. Inventory Management Module: The major function of this module is to keep records of the
stock of inventory in an org so as to ensure uninterrupted supply and production of goods. The
other functions include keeping a check on the stock levels, supervising go down management,
stock profitability, etc.
3. Production Management Module: It helps in devising plans for managing the various steps
in a manufacturing procedure like maintenance of raw materials, functioning of machines,
manufacturing capacity, on the basis of past records on consumption and production. It also
undertakes estimation of product costs and tracking and analysis of additional costs.
4. Purchase Management Module: This module is in charge of implementation of an efficient
procedure right from the procuring of raw material till these goods are received. This module
also involves sending purchase orders, invoicing, rejection of below standard goods, etc.
5. Sales Management Module: This module helps in managing all the activities related to sales
such transportation of goods, delivery time, invoicing, sending quotations, real time reports, etc.
6. Payroll Management: This module helps an org to efficiently manage the payout system of

By:
Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
the employees. It also involves keeping a record of employee absenteeism, remittances, tracking
of employee’s productivity, etc.

ERP Implementation strategies

1. Big Bang Implementation: In this approach the whole organization including all the
departments have to change their way of working and switch to the ERP system at once. For this
the testing of the system and training of the employees needs to be completed before the go live
date. The advantages of this approach are that the whole org at once will get access to an
efficient method of working thus increasing the productivity. But sometimes it can work against
the org as the employees will need time to adapt to the new mode of working.
2. Phased Implementation: Under this approach the resources and tools of the org are deployed
in a phased manner over a period of time, with the first ones being those areas which deliver
more benefits by switching to ERP. In this way the employees and different departments get
sufficient time to make themselves well versed with the automation. But due to longer time, the
benefits of ERP do not trickle down to each dept at once the org has to incur costs of both the
systems of working.
3. Parallel Adoption: In this process the keeps its previous systems working parallelly with the
new ERP system. It is the least risky approach as it gives a chance to the org to revert back to the
previous mode of operations if something goes wrong with ERP. This approach makes it easier
for the users to adjust to it but this approach comes with its own lacunas. There is a risk of
entering data twice in both the systems, the org needs to pay for keeping both the systems
running, more staff required, etc.
4. Vanilla Implementation: Vanilla ERP may be defined as the implementation of standard
software modules for core business processes, usually combined with customization for
competitive differentiation. The aim is to provide breadth of integration and depth of
functionality across multi-functional and often multi-national organizations. It is a business
solution software that empowers your people to be more productive and enables your
systems to adapt as you grow, while delivering the insight you need to respond quickly in an
ever-changing world.

By:
Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
A global/international information system refers to an information system which has been
developed for use and implementation from a global point of view of a global. A global
information system (GIS) is an information system which tries to deliver the multitude of
measurable information across the world within a defined context.
Outsourcing is a business activity wherein routine information systems activities are done by an
external party outside the organization. Offshore outsourcing is a process where the business
transfers the responsibility of doing jobs not integral to the core business of the org to third party
elements hired from countries with lower labor costs.
Offshoring also refers to the process wherein products and services are procured from different
countries. For example: - American Express has been offshoring their back-office processing
services in India since 1994. GE Capital opened its GE Capital International Services (GECIS) in
India in 1997. Given the abundance of skilled professionals at offshore sites as well as pressure
on executives to drive down costs, it is very likely that this trend will continue and even increase
for some time, despite negative public reaction.
Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)
Definition: The software development life cycle (SDLC) is a well-defined framework outlining
the activities to be performed at each level/step in the software development process. It is a
structure followed by a team given the responsibility of developing it within the organization. It
consists of a plan action explaining the way in which the software can be developed, replaces
and can be maintained. The life cycle lists out a method for how to upgrade the quality of a
software.
Seven Stages Of SDLC
1. Planning: The primary phase of the cycle deals with defining the scope of the problem and
finding the solution for it. The mgt formulates goals and devises an action plan by analyzing the
business requirements taking into consideration some other imp factors like cost, feasibility,
benefits, etc.
2. System Analysis: In this step the analysis of the system takes place wherein the mgt finds out
the needs of the end users and verify whether the planned software is efficient enough to make
the ends meet.

By:
Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
3. Designing the System: In this phase the org clearly lists out the technicalities, resources and
features that will satiate the functional requirements of the proposed software.
4. Development of Software: This phase marks the end of the developing of plan and analysis
of need. It marks the commencement of the development of the actual product as envisaged after
the first three steps.
5. Integration and Testing: This phase involves the integration of the system into the
organization and checking by various testing methods where the proposed design of the software
matches with the goals listed out during the planning phase.
6. Implementation: It is the process where the software developed is finally implemented in the
organization and switch takes place from the previous set of operation software to the newly
designed software.
7. Maintenance: The last phase signifies the software being used by the end users and the users
giving feedback for further upgradations, fine tuning and maintenance of the software.
Methodologies Of SDLC
1. Waterfall Model: The Waterfall Model is a series of steps taken in a sequential order. It is a
model in which progress can be seen as trickling steadily downwards through the phases of
software implementation similar to how water drops down steadily in a waterfall. This implies
that any stage in the development process commences only if the preceding phase is dealt with.
The waterfall approach does not define the procedure to go back to the previous phase to make
changes in requirement. This approach is one of the earliest approaches in SDLC.
2. V-Shaped Model: In the V-model the different stages of the cycle take place in a sequential
manner i.e., in a V-shape. The V-Model is a corollary of the waterfall model. The only striking
difference between the two models is that the V-Model has an associated testing stage with each
development phase. Similar to the Waterfall model the next stage can only begin after the
completion of the previous stage. This model is also known by the name of verification and
validation model. The software requirements and technologies and tools are well identified.
3. Prototyping: Under this methodology, the design team's major aim is to develop a primitive
model of the new system, software, or application. The prototype will be limited in terms of
functionality but it is developed for the sole purpose of making the external clients aware of what
to expect. Then feedback can be gathered from the customers regarding the upgradations and
what all to be included to give actual shape to the prototype by developing it into a software.

By:
Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
This type of approach is helpful for the companies which are newbies in the industry. But now
this method of software development is becoming a hit among the companies as it allows them to
get a grasp of what the customer needs are at a very early stage of development.
4. Iterative Model: The iterative model kicks off with the knowledge of only the minimum
software requirements. On the basis of these the development team creates a primitive and a
cheap version of the software. Further down the line, when additional requirements are identified
further iterations of the software are developed and built. At each development repetition,
alterations are made in the design of software and new functionalities are added. Each iteration
undergoes all the phases SDLC cycle.
5. Spiral Model: It is the combination of elements of both waterfall design and iterative model.
It gives a high importance to management of risks. It calls for a sequential release of the product
along with refinements in each iteration.
It has four phases:
• Identification wherein information pertaining to the business requirement is gathered. It also
involves getting a grasp of the needs of the consumers
• Design wherein the idea of the software is given shape.
• Construction wherein the actual software is developed at each iteration with upgradations as
and when demanded.
• Evaluation and risk analysis wherein the risks pertaining tot technical feasibility, overhead
costs, etc. are analyzed and after the release of the product at the first iteration, the consumer
gives back the feedback.
6. Agile Model: This method is the exact opposite of the waterfall approach. Instead of treating
requirements of the software, design of the software, and testing as major sequential steps, and
agile model assumes them to be ongoing and continuous processes which require involvement
and supervisions of developers, mgt and clients. The entire work is broken down into sub parts
called ‘sprints’ in which team responsible for the function cater to the major needs of the
customers and evaluate the software on the go. This model is suitable for small org particularly
startups where speed and flexibility are crucial.
7. Lean Model: The agile and lean approaches are closely intertwined, as the major emphasis
lies on delivery speed and continuous upgradations under both models. But the lean model also
considers developing feasible practices with least consequences crucial and wastage of resources

By:
Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
and effort are considered the biggest risks. This approach is suitable for org which have a strict
schedule of hardware needs other procurement requirements.
IT Trends Mobile Digital Platform
These are the hardware components of the mobile phones such as snapdragon, intel which
powers these devices to stay digitally connected with digital software. These platforms have
emerged as a potent force and are giving tough competition to personal computers as a business
system. It provides the users an access to informative applications
Advantages
1. Greater Reach: Since the emergence of these as the new option, a person has access to every
product being sold out in the world. It has considerably destructured the international and
geographical barriers.
2. Easy Marketing: The product developers now have the power to tap any market and thus
don’t have to face the trouble of market saturation due to the opening up of the markets for them.
Marketing has also become easier as posting a marketing campaign on the web in one location
can be seen by millions across the world.
3. Cost-Effective: The new age mobile digital platform provides all the services like e-
commerce, social networking, etc. at our fingertips and is a one stop solution for all these
services. Thus, by procuring a single mobile a person gets access to everything thus making it
cost effective,
4. Maintenance: It does not require the development team to go through hefty maintenance
procedures, instead just a single update of an app across all platforms cuts down the workload.
5. Uniformity: Using mobile digital platforms ensures that the overall presentation of the app
remains homogenous as the same codes are used for the development.
Disadvantages
1. Security Issues: With everything being available on the web the threat of security always
haunts the users. Many a times we have come across cases where hackers have stolen data of
various corporations like HDFC Bank, Air India, etc.
2. Viruses and Bugs: The viruses remain a threat to the efficiency of these mobile digital
platforms. Viruses have the ability to wipe out the data stored in the software of the mobile
digital platforms. The bugs can stall the proceeding and operation of the application.

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Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
3. Permissions: The multitude of permissions that an application asks for cab be cumbersome.
People also refrain from giving permission to the apps to access storage and call logs, etc.
4. Training Needs: The org will have to provide in depth training to its employees to efficiently
operate mobile digital platforms.
CONSUMERISATION OF IT (SAME FOR BYOD)
Consumerization of IT is the process wherein the users of technology begin to adopt consumer
technology in their personal lives, which then gets adopted for utilization in working, and
eventually leads org to adopt these technologies. Some of the real-life examples of this
phenomenon are Gmail, WhatsApp, Telegram, etc.
Reasons for Consumerization
1. BYOD: The bring your own device trend has emerged in the past decade wherein employees
tend to be more inclined towards working on their own tech devices rather than working on the
ones provided by the org. The employees find it easy as these are the devices that they have been
working on and can customize it as per the need of the hour.
2. Slow Upgradation of Business Tech.: Innovation in business tech continues to be moving at
a slow pace with only 1 to 2 upgradations in 5- 10 years. On the other hand, consumer tech
continues to get updates by using innovation.
3. Convenience: Users enjoy a hassle free and easy experience across devices using cloud
platforms like Gmail, Amazon Prime Video, MS Word etc. A person can stop a work on one
device and can resume it on another device. Conventional business tech does not provide such
ease and flexibly.
Challenges
1. Untimely Support: If a person uses his own device or software for working then it becomes
difficult for IT department to assist him/her if he faces a hurdle as the IT dept will first have to
gain knowledge regarding the system he is using thus hindering the process of spontaneous
support.
2. Incompatibility: Many a times in an organization employees face the problem of system
compatibility. For example, the windows operating system and IOS are incompatible thus
creating problems of integration.
3. Security Risks: When employees connect their personal devices with the system software of
the business it can result into probable source of malware.

By:
Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
Advantages
1. Reduced costs for hardware- as employees use their own devices then co can save on the need
of procuring devices.
2. Flexibility – employees know how to work properly on their device thus can make
customization as and when required. 3. Productivity – employees have good grasp of their own
network thus specialization.
4. Employee satisfaction
5. Cost reduction on training
6. Connected workforce by using cloud systems like GMAIL, etc.
VIRTUALIZATION
Virtualization is a computer technology that stimulates the functioning of the hardware to
develop software-based tech services like apps, networks, servers, etc. By developing a virtual
version of a hardware, virtualization allows an org to increase the efficiency of its hardware
resources. The process by using a software divides hardware components into multiple virtual
computers knows as Virtual Machines (VM). Each of the VMs function due to their own
operating systems and is viewed as an independent server, although it is working on just a part of
the actual computer hardware.
Advantages
• It allows the org to use a limited number of hardware components to be easily fabricate and
channelize them to multiple processes which need them.
• Upgraded security can be achieved by employing virtualization. This is due to the fact that each
VM has its own operating system and thus work independently.
• It enables org to establish a virtual hosting environment.
• Reduces workload for the employees as the system has the ability to upgrade itself
automatically
• As virtualization software and hardware are provided by third party members, the org can
predict the costs.
Disadvantages
• Specialized experts required
• Security risk

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Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
• Time taking although time is saved in the implementation process, but it consumes time as
certain additional steps are required to be taken to achieve the desired result.
• It requires a multitude of links to perform a similar task. The breakdown of even a single link
can haul the working and operations.
INFONOMICS
Infonomics is a management concept used in organization that values data sets and information
as an asset for the company similar to the other assets like human capital, financial assets,
physical assets, etc. In a broader sense, infonomics helps the organization to attribute value to the
information gathered by a company by classifying it as an asset.
Four major features of the study are: -
1. Subjective: The way in which each user of the information assigns value to the data set varies
from person to person thus making it a subjective topic.
2. Valuation: The way in which an individual values info depends on the asset it has been
associated to and how well it can be put into use. Thus the value assigned to the info will keep on
changing as per the need of the hour thus rendering valuations challenging.
3. Less Knowledge: In this business world still not many people are acquainted with the
principle of infonomics and don’t consider it to be vital.
4. Current Scenario: Currently there is no plan to integrate infonomics fully into the the
business world but some of this info have been inculcated as intangible assets such as patents,
copyrights, etc.
QUANTUM COMPUTING
It is an area of computer technology which emphasizes on developing technology based on the
principle of quantum theory. It majorly focusses on how to use the study of quantum physics to
improve the working of computer systems.
It has the potential to help in fields such as healthcare, finance, aviation, AI, etc. Companies
using it are: - Google, IBM, Airbus, HP, etc.
quantum computers are the ones that are entrusted with the task of solving complex problems. It
has many other functions as well like sharing data securely, in the field of healthcare like
invention of new drugs, fighting cancer, etc. In the field of aviation, it can help in improving the
efficiency of radars thus making identification of flying objects like aircrafts and missiles faster.
Real life examples: - https://www.investopedia.com/terms/q/quantum-computing.asp

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Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
CLOUD COMPUTING
It is an area of computer technology that uses a system or a network of remote servers set over
the internet to access, manage, store and process information rather than using a local server. It
helps users to get access to their data files on any device as their information is stored on a
network of remote servers.
Benefits of cloud computing
1. Flexibility: It provides the users the flexibility to work as per their convenience on any device
may it be a smartphone or a laptop. It gives them the discretion in using the tools which suits
them the most.
2. Improved Efficiency: The work never stops in this case as employees can gain access to data
sets by simply logging in on hardware device. This prevents productivity from deteriorating. The
loss of data also gets reduced as the fallouts in hardware devices doesn’t affect the data files.
3. Secure: Cloud computers are way more secure than local servers as local servers face the
problem of loss of data due to natural calamity because in their case if the hardware gets
damaged the data gets erased. But this is not the case with cloud computing. Even if the
employees have the
4. Mobility: This a corollary of the second point. Employees can handle the work demands even
when on leave as they can have access to the data files on any hardware. Even in the times of the
pandemic, with people being locked in their homes, cloud computing emerged as the savior by
helping the work from being affected as employees still had access to the company’s data files.
5. Updates: In Cloud computing the software gets updated automatically at regular intervals thus
enabling the org to rub their shoulders with the new tech developments in the industry.
6. Cost Saving: The cost of maintenance and regulating the IT department are reduced when an
org implements cloud computing. This is because the cost for upgradation goes down as there is
no need of improving the software and hardware, the company is not required to devote an entire
department to its maintenance thus cutting down the variable costs if the company.
GREEN COMPUTING
Green computing is an environmentally sustainable and more responsible utilisation of computer
resources and components. The main idea of this type of computing is to use the computer
resources efficiently and make optimum use of these resources till they are completely
exhausted. This will not reduce costs for the company but will also reduce emissions. With the

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Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
problem of climate change knocking at our doors company have started to consider this option as
the most viable solution which would not only help to strengthen the fight against the climate
change but will also help the company to boost its goodwill and reputation.
Benefits: -
1. Reduce emissions
2. Higher goodwill
3. Optimum utilization resources will lead to less wastage thus reduced costs.
4. Energy conservation as apart from computer systems that consume a lot of energy other
electrical appliances which help the systems to work also use a lot of energy. If optimum
utilization then not much energy consumption.
5. Encourages recycling of hardware components of the system.
6. Companies which practice green computing refrain from using toxic elements such as
elements like lead and mercury in the production of hardware components, thus reducing the use
of toxic chemicals.
SEMANTIC SEARCH
Semantic search is a data retrieval process put in use by modern search engines so as to produce
and recommend the most probable search results. Its major focus lies in the meaning of the
search queries instead of the words used in the query which is the traditional method. The search
reflects the personal interests of the person who has made the search.
SOCIAL SEARCH
Social search is a type of web searching that utilizes the social activities of the user who is
making the search. Social search makes use of the posts that the users have created, tagged
activities, etc. The aim behind social search is that instead of computer-generated algorithms
influencing the results for search topics, networks based on human oriented results would be
more accurate and helpful for the user.
VISUAL SEARCH Examples form google
SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (SEO)
It is a set of practices which is framed to improve the structuring and presentation of web pages
in the search results of the users. The optimization of search engines involves a comprehensive
effort by an org where the org has to devote different dept for the work. Departments such as
content creation, designing and marketing are required to be involved. The development of SEO

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Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
requires efficient business analysis as well such as drawing comparisons between the SEO of the
competitors and the one being developed by itself.
The Six phases of SEO
1. Research: This phase includes making researches on the current requirements of the business,
analyzing the search engines of the competitors, analyzing the current scenario of the
organization and finding the necessary resources for SEO.
2. Planning: This phase includes planning out the whole optimization by devising strategies that
would help the company to develop the envisaged search engine.
3. Implementation: The decisions taken in the previous two steps are implemented in the real
business scenario on the organization website.
4. Monitoring: The departments have to monitor the amount of traffic that they are attracting
and other functions like analyzing the search engine ranking, web spiders, and other statistics are
assessed and reports are made.
5. Assessment: This stage signifies the controlling process wherein the org checks whether the
assumptions made during the planning process stand true in the current scenario and if any
changes are to be made are recommended to the concerned departments.
6. Maintenance: This is a phase where both major and minor problems which arise during the
functioning of the search engine are taken care of and alterations are made. WEB 2.0 It can be
defined as the second step of development of the internet services which is majorly characterized
as the emergence of social media and a shift from static information pages to user generated and
curated content.
Advantages
• Availability any time anywhere
• Ease of sharing data
• Easy to comprehend and use
• Provides the chance for real time discussion with the newest addition to this list being
clubhouse.
• Enlarges knowledge quotient by giving access to information regarding a plethora of topics.
• SEO and social media marketing

Disadvantages

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Sanskar A.
• Information overload and can be sometimes cumbersome to handle such multitude of data.
• Duping and hacking
• Viruses, fake IDs
• Addiction
• Trolling
WEB 3.0
Web 3.0 is the third generation of internet-based services or the third stage in the development of
the internet wherein websites and apps will give more importance on using machine-oriented
understanding. The main aim is to develop more connected and open to all websites.
Advantages
• Data connecting which spans over a larger reach.
• Sharing of knowledge is easier.
• More adequate and exact search results.
• Better marketing due to wider reach
• Effective communication
• Efficient searching
Disadvantages
• Less developed gadgets will become obsolete in using web 3.0
• Privacy policies
• Easy to retrieve data of people
• Technology will take time to be developed and acquainted
• People will spend more time on web
• Job loss due to automation

By:
Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
IPV6
The full form of IPV6 is Internet Protocol Version 6. It is a network layered algorithm that helps
users to communicate to pass packets of information over the internet network. Every device that
is linked with the internet has a unique IP address attached to it.
Advantages
1. Efficient Routing: In this process the magnitude of the routing table gets reduced
considerably and in addition to this fragmentation and channelizing of data is done using source
device rather than making use of a router. Thus, making the routing process efficient.
2. Enlarged Capacity: This system provides more address space in comparison to the IPV4
address. The size of the network and hosts get doubled.
3. Security: The system provides better security as compared to its previous versions. It consists
of Authentication Headers (AH) which has got authentication and security systems already
inbuilt.
4. No Subnetting: It eliminates the peril of subnetting by making use of automatic configuration.

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5. Mobility: It provides the benefit uninterrupted connections when devices are transported from
one location to another. Thus, without any need of renumbering all components of the net are
relocated to a new router.
Disadvantages
1. System issues: the enabling of the IPV6 is contingent on the type of the system. If the
enabling is made manually then the IP address needs to be typed. In addition to this the users are
required to remember the IP address.
2. Communication: The users find it difficult to communicate between IPV6 and IPV4.
3. Assigning: - For the assignment of IP address to the devices being used by the users, a local
management system is required. This process is quite complicated as the procedure has to be
carried out manually.
4. Upgradation: Many of the devices required for the efficient use of IPV6 are not designed for
this system. Even if the devices get upgraded at regular intervals, this procedure is costly as it
requires the experience experts to make the conversion fruitful.
5. Cost: It takes a huge sum to be paid to the experts for the conversion from IPV4 to IPV6. NFC
Termed as near field communications, it is a technology system which helps in carrying out
wireless intercommunication which are usually short-ranged between electronic devices like
mobile phones and many more for purposes such as making online payments, etc.
Advantages
1. Used in multiple fields of business such as banking, travel tickets, ecommerce, etc.
2. Convenient as it helps both consumers and sellers.
3. More added security like makes use of PINS, instant fraud alert, notifies regarding prospective
theft.
4. No unique software required; no manual settings are required to be made.
5. Does not require pairing for efficient working of system like Bluetooth.
Disadvantages: -
• Only transactions which are made in the short range of 10 to 20 cm can work.
• Costly for procurement and implementation
• Complex procedures as it is a bit technical and not easy for anyone.
• Not everyone has access to internet services thus can’t be used by them.
• The power consumption is more compared to other options.

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Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
NETIQUETTES
Etiquettes for responsible netizen

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Sanskar A.
INFODEMICS
A multitude of information being available about a specific topic of study which are mostly
unreliable and spread like wildfire on the internet and this can lead to confusion and thus making
user inefficient in making decisions.
Misinformation Prevention: https://www.mediatechdemocracy.com/latest/250-recommendations-
on-how-to-stop-infodemics
DATA PRIVACY

Data privacy, sometimes also referred to as information privacy, is an area of data protection that
concerns the proper handling of sensitive data including, notably, personal data but also other
confidential data, such as certain financial data and intellectual property data, to meet regulatory
requirements as well as protecting the confidentiality and immutability of the data.

Roughly speaking, data protection spans three broad categories, namely, traditional data
protection (such as backup and restore copies), data security, and data privacy as shown in the
Figure below. Ensuring the privacy of sensitive and personal data can be considered an outcome

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of best practice in data protection and security with the overall goal of achieving the continual
availability and immutability of critical business data.

Extra: ERP SAP FICO MODULE

SAP FICO is the Finance and Cost controlling module in SAP ERP, where FI stands for
Financial Accounting, and CO stands for Controlling. SAP FICO module is very robust and
covers almost all business processes encountered in various industries. It is one of the very
important and widely implemented modules in SAP. This FREE SAP FICO training is designed
for beginners as well as for intermediate learners. This SAP FICO basics for beginner’s tutorial
will help you learn SAP FI module and SAP CO module.

By:
Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
Unit 3. Business Data Processing (Using MS EXCEL)

MS Excel

Microsoft Excel is an electronic spreadsheet application that enables users to store, organize,
calculate and manipulate the data with formulas using a spreadsheet system broken up by rows
and columns. It also provides the flexibility to use an external database to do analysis, make
reports, etc. thus saving lots of time.

Spreadsheets

Spreadsheet can be compared to a paper ledger sheet. It consists of rows and columns and their
intersection called cells. OR a computer program that represents information in a two-
dimensional grid of data, along with formulas that relate the data.

Workbook

A workbook is a file that contains one or more worksheets to help you organize data. You can
create a new workbook from a blank workbook or a template.

Cell Reference/ Cell address

A cell reference refers to a cell or a range of cells on a worksheet and can be used in a formula so
that Microsoft Office Excel can find the values or data that you want that formula to calculate.

In one or several formulas, you can use a cell reference to refer to:

▪ Data from one or more contiguous cells on the worksheet.

▪ Data contained in different areas of a worksheet.
▪ Data on other worksheets in the same workbook.

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Aniket Vishwakarma
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Primary Menus

Clipboard

The Clipboard is a holding place on your computer where you can temporarily store data (text,
pictures, and so on). When you copy something, your selection is held on the Clipboard, where it
remains until you copy something else or shut down your computer. This means that you can
paste the same data multiple times and in different applications. The Clipboard holds only the
last selection that you copied.

The Office Clipboard allows you to copy up to 24 items from Office documents or other
programs and paste them into another Office document. For example, you can copy text from an
email message, data from a workbook or datasheet, and a graphic from a presentation, and then
paste them all into a document. By using the Office Clipboard, you can arrange the copied items
the way that you want in the document.

You’re not limited to only pasting the last item you copied or cut when you use
the Clipboard task pane. The Clipboard task pane holds many of the last images and text you
copied or cut.

Font

The font is the style and/or size of your text and characters. Changing the font of your numbers
and text in an Excel worksheet can help your document to look more appealing and, at times,
make it easier for the reader to digest the information. And, if you find yourself using the same
fonts and font sizes again and again, you can change Excel's default font that is applied to all
new workbooks. You can change the font and font size for a selected cell or for a range of cells
in a worksheet.

Alignment

With MS Excel, cell alignment is how your text or numbers are positioned in the cell. You can
align vertically, meaning towards the top, the middle or the bottom. And you can also align
horizontally, meaning to the left, the center or to the right. Excel actually has its own defaults for
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alignment. For example, text, such as titles and labels, automatically align horizontally to the
left, and numbers, however, are automatically aligned to the right. All data is vertically aligned
to the bottom. MS Excel has created short-cut icons to quickly and easily change the alignment.
By aligning text or numbers, you improve the appearance of your spreadsheet and often make it
easier to read and understand.

Number

You can use number formats to change the appearance of numbers, including dates and times,
without changing the actual number. The number format does not affect the cell value that Excel
uses to perform calculations. The actual value is displayed in the formula bar. In Excel, you can
format numbers in cells for things like currency, percentages, decimals, dates, phone numbers, or
social security numbers.

Styles

A style is a group of commands that change the appearance of the cells in your worksheet. A
style lets you apply a name to a combination of formatting attributes and are workbook specific.
You can use styles to help your worksheets and workbooks contain consistent formatting.

Cells

In Microsoft Excel, a cell is a rectangular box that occurs at the intersection of a vertical column
and a horizontal row in a worksheet. Vertical columns are numbered with alphabetic values such
as A, B, C. Horizontal rows are numbered with numeric values such as 1, 2, 3. Each cell has its
own set of coordinates or position in the worksheet such as A1, A2, or M16. In the example
above, we are positioned on cell A1 which is the intersection of column A and row 1.

A cell can only store 1 piece of data at a time. You can store data in a cell such as a formula, text
value, numeric value, or date value.

There are many things that you can do with cells in Excel such as changing the font format,
number format, background, alignment, and conditional formatting. Here is a list of topics that
explain how to use cells in Excel.

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Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
Editing

The Edit menu is a menu-type graphical control element found in most computer programs that
handle files, texts or images. It is often the second menu in the menu bar, next to the file menu.

Pivot Tables

A pivot table is a tool that allows for quick summarization and analysis of large data and lets you
see comparisons, patterns, and trends in your data. It automatically performs a sort, count, total
or average of the data stored in the spreadsheet and displays result in another spreadsheet. It
saves a lot of time. Allows to link external data sources to our Excel.

Illustrations

The "Illustrations" button contains a dropdown menu that includes the option to add images. the
"Illustrations" button shows as a dropdown when Excel is sized to a smaller window. If you
expand the working Excel window, "Illustrations" is shown as a category of options in the
"Insert" tab.

Charts

Charts help you visualize your data in a way that creates maximum impact on your audience. A
chart is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by
symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can
represent tabular numeric data, functions or some kinds of quality structure and provides
different info.

Sparklines

A sparkline is a tiny chart in a worksheet cell that provides a visual representation of data. Use
sparklines to show trends in a series of values, such as seasonal increases or decreases, economic
cycles, or to highlight maximum and minimum values. Position a sparkline near its data for
greatest impact. Using sparklines with its data clarifies it and creates a greater impact on the
viewer. It also makes data look better by adding sparklines and making your data more friendly.
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Aniket Vishwakarma
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Slicer

Slicers provide buttons that you can click to filter tables, or pivot tables. In addition to quick
filtering, slicers also indicate the current filtering state, which makes it easy to understand what
exactly is currently displayed. Many a time a user can comprise multiple slicers to multiple
tables and getting awesome reports done. It also makes the table visually better. The user can
even customize the filter according to his needs.

Proofing

This tool allows the users to edit the documents in more than 50 languages. Auto Correct Option
is used for correcting typos and spelling mistakes automatically. Auto correction is set up by
avoidance with a list of typical misspelling, and symbols, but we can identify the list that Auto
correct uses. To access spell check, go to Review tab and select Spelling in the Proofing group.
This option is used to find out words with similar meanings in Microsoft Excel. To use this
function, go to Review Tab, click on Thesaurus in the Proofing group. We can use the Thesaurus
for find out the fit word for a sentence in Microsoft Excel.

Language
You can use the Office language options to add a language, to choose the UI display language,
and to set the authoring and proofing language. If Proofing available appears next to the
language name, you can obtain a language pack with proofing tools for your language.
If Proofing not available is next to the language name, then proofing tools are not available for
that language. If Proofing installed appears next to the language name, you're all set.

Comments

Excel comments are used to add a note or explain a formula in a cell. Excel provides users with
the flexibility of editing, deleting, and showing or hiding comments on an Excel worksheet.
Users can also resize and move the Excel comment box. You can add comments to cells. When a
cell has a comment, an indicator appears in the corner of the cell. When you hover your cursor
over the cell, the comment appears.

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Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
Changes

If you work with an Excel file that needs to be updated or reviewed by other people, the option to
track changes can come in handy. You can also use it when you're updating a file and need to
keep a track of all the changes you do yourself. This can be helpful when you revisit it sometime
later.

Macros Data Menu

A macro is an automated input sequence that imitates keystrokes or mouse actions. A macro is
typically used to replace a repetitive series of keyboard and mouse actions and used often in
spreadsheets and word processing applications like MS Excel and MS Word.

Converting Text to Columns

Many times, like when we extract numbers out of string, they be text by property. You can’t do
any number operations on them. Then we get the need of converting that text to number. So, to
convert any text to number we can take various approaches depending on the situation. Two
approaches: 1. Use VALUE function to convert text into number; 2. Use Excel notification to
convert text into number.

Removing Duplicates

Remove Duplicates in excel is used for removing the duplicate cells of one or multiple columns.
This is very easy to implement. To remove duplicates from any column, first select the column/s
from where we need to remove duplicate values, then from the Data menu tab, select Remove
Duplicate under data tools. We will get the window for the same, where we can select and
unselect the columns from where we want to remove duplicate values.

There are three methods of finding and removing duplicate data:

1. Using Conditional Formatting followed by the Filter feature of Excel.

2. Using the Remove Duplicate feature in Excel.
3. Using the COUNTIF function.
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Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
Data Validation

Data validation is a feature in MS Excel used to control what a user can enter in a cell of an excel
sheet. Like, restrict entries in a sheet, such as a date range or whole numbers only. We can even
create dropdowns as well, which saves un-necessary space and shows the values in a single cell.
Also, we can create a customized message which will appear user insert any incorrect value or an
incorrect format.

Consolidation

Consolidate in Excel is used to combine the data of more than 2 workbooks which is available in
the Data menu tab under the Data tools section with the name Consolidate. For this, we must
have the same type of data in different workbooks. Although different data sets will also work,
there will not be proper alignment in consolidated data. Choose any mathematical function which
we want to execute at last. Then select all the data using references from all the workbooks and
click on OK. This will combine the selected tables with the execution of the chosen
mathematical function at the end.

Grouping and Ungrouping

Grouping in Excel is used when we have properly structured data and with the header’s names
mentioned in the column. There, grouping allows users to club rows or columns of any number
together so that we can hide or, in proper words, subset the data under the selected columns and
rows. To access Group in Excel, go to the Data menu tab and select the Group option. Then
select the row or column which we want to select. Suppose if we select 5 rows in a sequence,
then we will be able to plus sign, which is used to expand or collapse the selected rows.

What-If Analysis

What-If Analysis is the process of changing the values in cells to see how those changes will
affect the outcome of formulas on the worksheet. Three kinds of What-If Analysis tools come
with Excel: Scenarios, Goal Seek, and Data Tables. Scenarios and Data tables take sets of input
values and determine possible results.

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Aniket Vishwakarma
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Data Table

A data table is a range of cells in which you can change values in some of the cells and come up
with different answers to a problem. A good example of a data table employs the PMT function
with different loan amounts and interest rates to calculate the affordable amount on a home
mortgage loan. Experimenting with different values to observe the corresponding variation in
results is a common task in data analysis.

Goal Seek

The Goal Seek Excel function is a method of solving for a desired output by changing an
assumption that drives it. The function essentially uses a trial-and-error approach to back-solving
the problem by plugging in guesses until it arrives at the answer. Goal seeking software will only
work if you already know the output value (or the result) but want to determine one input value

Scenario Manager

Scenario Manager in Excel is used to compare data side by side and also swap multiple sets of
data within a worksheet. In simple words when you have multiple variables and you want to see
their effect on the final result, and also want to estimate between two or more desired budgets
you can use Scenario Manager. It publishes a summary of the analysis which is easy to
understand. It can be used in the stadium to calculate the no. of the audience with respect to the
inputs such as prices, etc.

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Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
Applications of MS EXCEL
UNIT – 3: -
Pivot Table: -

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By:
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Filters: -

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By:
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By:
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Charts: -

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By:
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By:
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USE OF MACROS: -
https://www.wikihow.com/Use-Macros-in-Excel

GOAL SEEK: -

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Sanskar A.
By:
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SCENARIO MANAGER: -

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By:
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By:
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By:
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By:
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By:
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By:
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By:
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DATA TABLE: -
https://www.educba.com/data-table-in-excel/

CONDITIONAL FORMATTING: -

https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/how-to-use-conditional-formatting-in-excel/

UNIT – 4

FINANCIAL FUNCTIONS: -
https://www.wallstreetmojo.com/financial-functions-in-excel/

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Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
LOGICAL FUNCTIONS: -
https://www.howtogeek.com/401998/how-to-use-logical-functions-in-excel-if-and-
or-xor-not/

DATE & TIME FUNCTIONS: -

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LOOKUP FUNCTIONS: -
https://www.educba.com/lookup-in-excel/

REFERENCE FUNCTIONS: -
https://www.educba.com/cell-references-in-excel/

By:
Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
Unit 4. Business Data Processing (Using MS Excel)

Financial Functions

Depreciation (DB, DDB, VDB)

The Excel DB function returns the depreciation of an asset for a specified period using the fixed-
declining balance method. The calculation is based on initial asset cost, salvage value, the
number of periods over which the asset is depreciated and, optionally, the number of months in
the first year. {=DB (cost, salvage, life, period[month])}

The Excel DDB function returns the depreciation of an asset for a given period using the double-
declining balance method or another method you specify by changing the factor argument.
{(=DDB (cost, salvage, life, period [factor]))}

The Excel VDB function returns the depreciation of an asset for given period, using the double-
declining balance method or another method specified by changing the factor argument.

{(=VDB (cost, salvage, life, starting period, end period, [factor] [switch])}

Simple Interest (PMT, NPER, INTRATE)

Simple interest is the total amount of interest charged by the Lender to the Borrower based upon
the principle amount taken, tenure and rate of interest charged.

The NPER function is categorized under Excel financial functions. The function helps calculate
the number of periods that are required to pay off a loan or reach an investment goal through
regular periodic payments and at a fixed interest rate.

{=NPER(rate/12, pmt, -pv)}

The Excel PMT function is a financial function that returns the periodic payment for a loan. You
can use the PMT function to figure out payments for a loan, given the loan amount, number of
periods, and interest rate.

{=PMT (rate12, nper, -pv)}

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Aniket Vishwakarma
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The INTRATE Function is categorized under Excel financial functions. It will calculate the
interest rate for a fully invested security

{=INTRATE (settlement, maturity, investment, redemption, [basis])}

Rate

{=RATE (Period, monthly payment, -pv)*12}

Present Value, Net Present Value, Future Value (PV, NPV, FV)

Present value (PV) is the current value of a future sum of money or stream of cash flow given a
specified rate of return. Meanwhile, net present value (NPV) is the difference between the
present value of cash inflows and the present value of cash outflows over a period of time.
Future value (FV) is the value of a current asset at a future date based on an assumed rate of
growth.

{=PV (rate, pmt, [f,v], [type])}

{=NPV (rate, value1, value2, ….)}

{=FV (rate, nper, pmt, [pv], [type])}

Internal Rate of Return (IRR, MIRR)

IRR is the discount amount for investment that corresponds between the initial capital outlay and
the present value of predicted cash flows. MIRR is the price in the investment plan that equalizes
the latest value of the cash inflow to the first cash outflow.

{=IRR (values, [guess])}

{=MIRR (values, finance_rate, reinvest_rate)}

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Logical Functions

AND

And function gives True when both the arguments are true, else it will give False. For e.g., 150
in A5 is the input and the formula is =AND (A5<100, A5>14), it will give False.

OR

Or function gives True when any of the true arguments are true and false when both the
arguments are false. For e.g., 999 is the input in A6 and the formula is =OR (A6>100, A6<1000),
it will give True.

NOT

Not function gives False when the argument is True and True when the arguments are False. For
e.g., 50 is the input in A7 and the formula is =NOT (A7=100), it will give True.

IF

If is a conditional function which gives a value when the condition is true and another value
when the condition is false. For e.g., =if(75>100,1,2) will give 2 as the output.

TRUE

A TRUE function is a logical function which returns the value TRUE. In excel, while calculating
or applying any condition, we want that output to return a true value. In these scenarios, we use a
TRUE function which is the built-in function in Excel. It is a very useful function when you want
to return the output as TRUE based on a condition. A TRUE function is the same as a Boolean
value TRUE. It’s also called a conditional function.

For e.g., =true() will give TRUE.

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Text Functions

UPPER, LOWER, LEFT, RIGHT, TRIM, T, TEXT, LEN, DOLLAR, EXACT

Formula =A41&"&"&TEXT(B41,"dd/mm/yy")

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Sanskar A.
Statistical Functions

Mean, Median, Mode, Standard Deviation, Skewness, Correlation

Regression

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Sanskar A.
Date & Time Functions

DATE, DATEVALUE, DAY, DAYS36, NOW, TIME, TIMEVALUE, WORKDAY,

WEEKDAY

By:
Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
Unit 5. E-Commerce Framework

ELECTRONIC COMMERCE

The term electronic commerce (ecommerce) refers to a business model that allows companies
and individuals to buy and sell goods and services over the Internet. Ecommerce operates in four
major market segments and can be conducted over computers, tablets, smartphones, and other
smart devices. Nearly every imaginable product and service is available through ecommerce
transactions, including books, music, plane tickets, and financial services such as stock investing
and online banking. As such, it is considered a very disruptive technology.

Advantages

E-commerce offers consumers the following advantages:

Convenience: E-commerce can occur 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Increased selection: Many stores offer a wider array of products online than they carry in their
brick-and-mortar counterparts. And many stores that solely exist online may offer consumers
exclusive inventory that is unavailable elsewhere.

Drawbacks:

Limited customer service: If you shop online for a computer, you cannot simply ask an
employee to demonstrate a particular model's features in person. And although some websites let
you chat online with a staff member; this is not a typical practice.

Lack of instant gratification: When you buy an item online, you must wait for it to be shipped
to your home or office. However, e-tailers like Amazon make the waiting game a little bit less
painful by offering same-day delivery as a premium option for select products.

Inability to touch products: Online images do not necessarily convey the whole story about an
item, and so e-commerce purchases can be unsatisfying when the products received do not match
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consumer expectations. Case in point: an item of clothing may be made from shoddier fabric
than its online image indicates.

MOBILE COMMERCE

Mobile commerce or M-commerce refers to the business platform where you can buy and sell
products and services with the help of your smartphones (wireless handheld devices). With the
advances in technology, smartphones and tablets are equipped with various new features, and
shopping software applications are among the most popular features of them all. The M-
commerce applications that use mobile shopping functionality allow customers to view and
purchase products from their mobile devices. On the other hand, mobile banking allows you to
make financial transactions using handheld devices, such as smartphones. This type of M-
commerce transaction is carried out over a secure network, and the banks provide dedicated apps
for these transfers.

Advantages

• One of the most significant advantages of mobile commerce is retaining the customer
with increased accessibility. According to one survey done in 2017, M-commerce is
accountable for 34.5% of sales in all E-commerce. You can open an M-commerce app on
your mobile phone whenever you want and browse through different products.
• It is easier to compare the different prices of products on the same platform. Customer
reviews have never been accessible before. At the same time, you can purchase products
straight from your mobile phone while you are on a commute or in your bed.
• Other benefits of m-commerce include a wide variety of product options and services for
the customers. Also, the whole process becomes automated when you are trying to sell
products on an M-commerce platform.
• Likewise, mobile commerce gives a sense of safety to newcomers. As a result, customers
are likely to come back again after making their first purchase. M-commerce has made
online purchases more accessible to people living in rural areas where laptops and
desktops are not common in sight.

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Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
 • M-commerce gives sellers a better way to measure their stats, finding out the best and
worst products. Not only this, but you can also find out the products which interest the
particular customers, and you can start remarketing campaigns and send them notification
for special offers to increase your sales.
• If you have purchased products via an M-commerce store, you know they provide several
payment options to make purchases easier for you. You can go with EMI, credit, debit, E-
wallets, and cash on delivery payment methods.

Disadvantages

• When it comes to making an M-commerce platform from scratch, you end up investing a
lot of money in the development process. The app development is not something you can
do overnight. It takes both time, money, and research.
• Besides, one needs to have a smartphone if they want to purchase products using an M-
commerce platform. If you don’t have a smartphone, you can’t download the applications
in the first place.
• Keeping data safe and preventing data leaks is one of the main concerns of the M-
commerce platforms. Even multi-billionaire companies like Amazon are putting lots of
effort into making their M-commerce platform safe for transactions.

SOCIAL COMMERCE

By definition, social commerce or social selling is a strategic method to sell and buy products
directly from social media platforms. No longer social media is a place to advertise, but retail
and marketing models today include social media as a tool in the discovery process to increase
their click-through rates and also boost sales. In short, social commerce allows users to not
depend on eCommerce sites, but they can directly buy from social media apps. In theory, the
longer you make the checkout process, the higher are the chances that you would lose the
engagement and buyers would abandon your platform. Not leaving the platform and directly,

By:
Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
buying over social media helps you keep the engagement high and reduces the chances of
bounce rates. Social commerce sites – FB, Insta, Snapchat, etc.

Benefits

• Consistent Audience Growth: With billions of users using social media platforms to
interact with brands, celebrities, influencers, and people in general, social media
platforms offer you a segregated audience where you can put your products out and
leverage that opportunity to earn profit through sales.
• Authenticity: There are so many brands around the world, and when you are not a
known brand people do not trust you easily. Having a social media presence, and
interacting with people regularly give you an opportunity to make people trust you.
People search a brand on multiple platforms where they can see if an online store is
fraudulent or authentic.
• Retention: Retention of people becomes easier through social media as it provides you a
space where you are in constant touch with your buyers. You interact with them regularly
through posts, stories, customer stories and so much more. There is a range of content
and material that can drive people to trust you, and you can retain them for a very long
time.
• Analysis of Business Metrics: social media is not just about interactions, it is getting
into serious business by offering you in-depth analytics on everything that is happening
over your social commerce store. These tangible data points allow you to improve your
marketing strategy.

By:
Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
LOCAL COMMERCE

CONSERVATIONAL COMMERCE

Conversational commerce refers to the transactions that take place through digital conversations
consumers have with brands on messaging apps like web chat, Apple Business Chat, text
messaging, and even Facebook Messenger. The interactions that take place are powered
primarily by chatbots that process consumer messages and offer relevant responses.
Conversational commerce takes on many forms and can take place across a multitude of
channels. Here are a few examples of conversational commerce in real life: -

• Consumers shopping and completing transactions within a messaging conversation.

• Brands helping consumers shop by find a store location or online promotions and deals.
• Customer experience agents Interacting with a customer to reschedule an appointment or
a delivery.

Consumer expectations of speed and convenience have birthed new innovations that are opening
up a seamless communication between brands and customers. Gone are the days where
customers were satisfied with dialing an 800 number or having to write an email to get help.
Whether it’s a chatbot on Messenger, someone managing direct messages on Twitter, or taking
orders via text message, consumers will choose brands that go that extra mile to make their
experience personalized and efficient. Needless to say, businesses are investing to make that
happen.

By:
Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
Consider these statistics by Gartner:

• At least 60% of companies will use artificial intelligence to support digital commerce.
• 30% of digital commerce revenue growth will be attributable to artificial intelligence
technologies, such as those that power conversational commerce.
• 5% of all digital commerce transactions will come from a bot, such as those that power
conversational commerce.

All of the major trends in commerce over the past couple of decades have been in moving to
where customers are. Rather than forcing customers to come to you, you go to where they are.
The next generation of that is conversational commerce.

B2C

The term business-to-consumer (B2C) refers to the process of selling products and services
directly between a business and consumers who are the end-users of its products or services.
Most companies that sell directly to consumers can be referred to as B2C companies. B2C
traditionally referred to mall shopping, eating out at restaurants, pay-per-view movies, and
infomercials. However, the rise of the internet created a whole new B2C business channel in the
form of e-commerce or selling goods and services over the internet.

Types of B2C Models

• Direct sellers: This is the most common model in which people buy goods from online
retailers. These may include manufactures or small businesses or simply online versions
of department stores that sell products from different manufacturers.
• Online intermediaries: These are liaisons or go-betweens who don't actually own
products or services that put buyers and sellers together. Sites like Expedia, Trivago, and
Etsy fall into this category.
• Advertising-based B2C: This model uses free content to get visitors to a website. Those
visitors, in turn, come across digital or online ads. Large volumes of web traffic are used
to sell advertising, which sells goods and services. One example is media sites like the
Huffington Post, a high-traffic site that mixes advertising with its native content.
By:
Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
 • Community-based: Sites like Meta (formerly Facebook), which build online
communities based on shared interests, help marketers and advertisers promote their
products directly to consumers. Websites typically target ads based on users'
demographics and geographical location.
• Fee-based: Direct-to-consumer sites like Netflix charge a fee so consumers can access
their content. The site may also offer free but limited content while charging for most of
it. The New York Times and other large newspapers often use a fee-based B2C business
model.

Advantage

• You can reach a huge audience worldwide.

• It is easy to convert visitors into customers.
• You can readily set up the online store using top eCommerce platforms like Shopify and
Magento.
• Small and mid-size businesses can grow quickly through this model.

Disadvantage

• A lot of struggles to survive and thrive in a cut-throat race.

• Website needs to be capable of handling multiple orders at once.
• Low value of orders keeps the margin lower than B2B website.
• It is difficult to get repetitive customers and need to invest more in online marketing.

B2B

Business-to-business (B2B), also called B-to-B, is a form of transaction between businesses,

such as one involving a manufacturer and wholesaler, or a wholesaler and a retailer. Business-to-
business refers to business that is conducted between companies, rather than between a company
and individual consumer. Business-to-business transactions are common in a typical supply
chain, as companies purchase components and products such as other raw materials for use in the
manufacturing processes. Finished products can then be sold to individuals via business-to-
consumer transactions. In the context of communication, business-to-business refers to methods
by which employees from different companies can connect with one another, such as through
By:
Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
social media. This type of communication between the employees of two or more companies is
called B2B communication.

Advantages

• Reduction in cost and time: Self-service is a norm in the B2B eCommerce domain.
With the growing popularity of B2B eCommerce across the world, it is apparent that your
B2B buyer will prefer to search and buy products online by themselves rather than
standing in a queue to be responded by the salespersons. Your customers find it
convenient to access and purchase products as per their requirements, and you can cut
down costs on overheads and workforce significantly.
• Increase sales opportunities: A B2B website can readily bring new customers to your
business. What’s more fascinating is the fact that B2B buyers get younger over time with
the advent of start-ups. The newer audience is tech-savvy and spends more time on
surfing to find the right B2B partner. They can take decisions quickly, and if your
business is present online, chances are high that they will remain loyal to your firm for a
long time.
• Database advantage: We live in a data-driven age. These days, every business relies
heavily on data irrespective of a B2B or B2C model. Now, the online B2B website can
fetch useful data for you to make crucial decisions. Almost all B2B eCommerce stores
are connected with a CMS, which means that you can remain updated on purchases and
other information of customers on the move.
• Rapid Payment: In B2B business, on-time payment plays a vital role in streamlining
business operations. Though merchants offer a debit facility for a month, they want to
make the payment process as fast as possible. Here, online payment methods can help
them out.

Disadvantages:

• Complexity for Customers: Though B2B eCommerce has opened the doors of sales
opportunities, many merchants still prefer to sit on the fence. It makes the eCommerce
By:
Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
 B2B customer’s journey way more complicated than B2C business and offline B2B
business.B2B products need customized quotes and multiple configurations in a fairly
visible manner. It helps the customers to make informed decisions. If the merchants fail
to implement it, customers may find it inconvenient.
• High Competition: Well, this fact gives rise to fierce competition. You need to apply all
techniques to deal with increasing competition and thrive your business online
optimization and digital marketing for your business website can be some useful options
to target customers. It can help you get a higher ranking for your Ecommerce 2 website
on Google SERPs.
• Absence of Timely Services: An eCommerce B2B website can give your customers the
freedom of discovery, choice, and the like. But you just cannot skip the presence of sales
representatives. If your website lacks the customer service section, people may not return
to your website. You need to arrange for providing timely customer support to facilitate
your customers to make a decision in favor of your products.s

PRIVATE INDUSTRIAL NETWORK

As the name suggests, private industrial networks are web-enabled networks that coordinate
transactions between specific companies — in all aspects and all divisions: suppliers,
distributors, retail, procurement, delivery and so on. Such systems are also called collaborative,
as they facilitate efficiencies throughout the network. Many large companies (Wal-Mart, Coca-
Cola, Nike, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Microsoft, Cisco Systems, Dell and General Electric) operate
private industrial networks, which indeed form the largest part of B2B ecommerce today.

NET MARKETPLACE

A B2B marketplace is a type of eCommerce platform that brings together B2B sellers and buyers
and enables them to do business in one place online. Just like its B2C counterpart, businesses sell
their products (usually in bulk with B2B) and other value-added services, but on a B2B
marketplace, the sellers are brands, manufacturers, suppliers, and wholesalers, and the customers
are other businesses. These transactions are processed online by the marketplace operator.
Depending on the different natures of B2B selling, a B2B marketplace can also be called other
By:
Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
names, including a B2B trading platform, B2B procurement or sourcing website, B2B portal,
multi-vendor marketplace, B2B catalogue and directory, and more.

C2C

Customer to customer (C2C) is a business model whereby customers can trade with each other,
typically in an online environment. Two implementations of C2C markets are auctions and
classified advertisements. C2C marketing has soared in popularity with the arrival of the Internet
and companies such as eBay, Etsy, and Craigslist.

C2C represents a market environment where one customer purchases goods from another
customer using a third-party business or platform to facilitate the transaction. C2C companies are
a type of business model that emerged with e-commerce technology and the sharing economy.
Customers benefit from the competition for products and often find items that are difficult to
locate elsewhere. Also, margins can be higher than traditional pricing methods for sellers
because there are minimal costs due to the absence of retailers or wholesalers. C2C sites are
convenient because there is no need to visit a brick-and-mortar store. Sellers list their products
online, and the buyers come to them.
By:
Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
Advantages

• Cost Reduction: Sellers can post their goods over the internet cheaply compared to the
high rent space in a store. The lower expenses lead to smaller, yet profitable customer
base. Being in a community of similar interest where buyers and sellers come together
leading to more chances of goods and services being sold.
• Higher Profitability: Another benefit is that many small businesses can obtain a higher
profitability over a C2C compared to a physical store because of the reduction of
overhead costs when conducting an e-business.
• Selling personal items: Probably the most positive benefit is the consumer-to-consumer
sites are most effective in selling personal items. Examples of personal items are
handmade gifts, personal artwork, clothing design, and collectables.
• Increased Customer Base: However, with a C2C eCommerce marketplace “stall,” the
probability of getting visits and transactions is much higher, as visitors go to that
platform to look for the specific products and services offered there. In addition, the
online aspect of the C2C eCommerce marketplace means that your products and services
are accessible to a worldwide audience, thus increasing the number of chances for
conversion.
• Credibility: Oftentimes, sellers who choose to sell their products or services on a C2C
platform do not yet have the credibility of a well-known seller or the ability to sustain
their own eCommerce platform. Therefore, utilizing space on an existing C2C
eCommerce platform will lift the burden of creating and sustaining their own platform,
and provide credibility for the seller under the “umbrella” of the C2C platform
(depending on the platform’s policies and ability for background checks).

Disadvantages

• Reliability: One of the main factors is it is not always the safest and most reliable place
to conduct business. Sometimes buyers and sellers are not accommodating to each other
when transactional information is needed. In these cases, a proof of purchase can solve
liability issues and prevent costly lawsuits for a consumer and small businesses.

By:
Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
 • Competition: Being in a marketplace where many sellers are providing a similar product
or service can be daunting for some sellers or business owners, especially when they
must compete with products and services of lower price, better reviews, or higher quality.
• Payment Issues: Being in a marketplace where many sellers are providing a similar
product or service can be daunting for some sellers or business owners, especially when
they must compete with products and services of lower price, better reviews, or higher
quality.
• Platform Fees: Some platform providers might charge sellers (and occasionally buyers)
for the use of the platform, on a standard, reoccurring fee, or a profit percentage basis.

BUSINESS MODELS

E – TAILER

Electronic retailing (E-tailing) is the sale of goods and services through the internet. E-tailing can
include business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) sales of products and
services. E-tailing requires companies to tailor their business models to capture internet sales,
which can include building out distribution channels such as warehouses, internet webpages, and
product shipping centers. Notably, strong distribution channels are critical to electronic retailing
as these are the avenues that move the product to the customer.

Types of E-Tailing: B2B and B2C

Advantages

• Less Investment: compared to traditional offline retailing, e-tailing doesn’t require

businesses to spend a lot of money for business showrooms, outlets, shops, and renting
commercial areas – just to make them more visible to the public. With e-tailing, all the
business promotions happen online. Hence, you will be able to operate your business
using your online shop in order to advertise, promote, and process purchases and other
transactions with your customers. In addition, it also has significantly lower operating
costs compared to having a physical store.
• More Convenient: The World Wide Web offers easier and more convenient business
transactions compared to offline retailing. This allows business to provide more

By:
Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
 complete information on their website compared to the information in the brochures that
are being handed out by sales representatives. Furthermore, the sales process is only
done with a few clicks, starting from the inquiry stage to the closing of the deal – which
is obviously a much faster and convenient process.
• Increased Interaction: With this type of interaction – e-tailers can personally connect
with their consumers and consumers can give their appropriate feedbacks accordingly,
making it an excellent customer tool. And with the numerous media available for your
customers, such as social networks, videos and emails, the customer is also given
multiple options on how to communicate with the company. With this interaction,
businesses can effectively assess in more ways how they can improve their services or
products, which in the end, will certainly guarantee a much higher rate of satisfied
customer.
• Provides Promotional Platforms: A physical store is only restricted to its area of
visibility and accessibility, meaning it can only operate at best – if your shop can be seen
and can be accessed by the public – either at the store, the beach or the mall, as the case
may be. Websites, on the other hand, can be accessed to almost all areas where the
internet is available, allowing businesses to reach a wider market.
• Easier Locating for Customer: With multiple available search engines, customers may
have an easier time in locating your business and its branches (if you have a physical
store). In here, all that they have to do is type in the product that you are selling, any
related services, or company name – and the different locations of your business that are
conveniently close will appear.

Demerits

• Technical Infrastructure: The issues of accessibility of web page and lack of internet
services in an area can haul up the sales of a e-tailer in an area as the customers won’t be
able to locate the web pages.
• Pre-Requisites: Before starting an online retailing project, the person starting the project
needs to have a good level of knowledge and expertise on the part of technology and
making efficient use of the technology to begin operations.

By:
Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
 • Lack of Personal Touch: The lack of face-to-face interactions with the customers,
persuading and handling the customer’s problems is a great barrier for effective
understanding of consumer’s problem.
• Competition: There is a huge amount of competition that is faced by e-tailers as the
internet has broken all the boundaries and stiff competition is faced from others from all
over the world.
• Logistics Management: Intrinsic and extrinsic challenges increase the problems in e-
tailing logistics. Examples being COD increases the operation cycle, managing high rates
of returns from customers, poor logistic management in rural areas, etc.

MARKET CREATOR

The Market Maker provides a platform that makes it very easy for subject matter experts to
create, publish, market, and sell online educational content. That content is usually some mix of
video, audio, and PowerPoint – basically tools that leverage what most SMEs do when
presenting at conferences or seminars. More sophisticated platforms also include tools for
attaching assessments, evaluations, and social interactions.

By:
Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
CONTENT PROVIDER

Content providers are generally perceived to be Web sites that supply different types of online
information—including news, entertainment, traffic reports, and job listings—that is regularly
updated. The first content providers were entities such as America Online (AOL), which
provided content to users for a subscription fee. More recently, however, many providers offer
some or all of their information services free of charge. Unlike e-commerce sites, whose user
traffic ideally generates sales, content providers tend to derive revenue from sources such as
banner ads and other forms of advertising and syndication. Some content providers purchase and
aggregate industry-specific information from sources such as Lexis-Nexis. Many news content
providers, such as Dow Jones, Hoover's, and Lexis-Nexis, also furnish archival content for users.

By:
Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
COMMUNITY/ CONTENT PROVIDER

Provide online meeting place where people with similar interest can communicate and find
useful information. People can transact, share interests, photos and videos.

PORTAL

Portal business models provide entry to content or services on the Internet. Search engines are
portal business models that include many kinds of content and services. They are profitable for

By:
Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
advertisers because they draw a large amount of user traffic. Many offer the user ways to
customize their interface making the portal even more alluring. “The main goal of a portal is to
give each user a personalized and integrated view of corporate information and applications,”
reports Information Management website. Successful portal sites offer much more than just
simple content, they offer many other services including email, chat, highly customizable sorting
and searching, and endless ways for personalizing your content. The user's personal information
and choices can then be used to direct targeted and more successful advertising.

SERVICE PROVIDERS

REVENUE MODELS

ADVERTISING REVENUE MODEL

In the advertising revenue model, businesses encourage advertisers to subsidize free users of
their services. For example, the revenue that Google receives from advertisers enables Google
users to make unlimited searches for free. The more the free users, the more advertisers are
willing to pay to access these users.

The advertisement-based revenue model is valid both for online and offline businesses. It’s often
used by websites/applications/marketplaces or any other web resource that attracts huge amounts

By:
Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
of traffic. Revenue is generated by selling ad space. This is one of the most standard methods of
gaining revenue.

The pros: Having a high-traffic resource allows you to monetize the ad space nearly instantly.
Often, there is a high demand on advertising space, especially with organic traffic and platforms
with the target audience.

The cons: Running advertising campaigns to gain web visibility on social networks is a standard
marketing activity with targeting instruments more precise than ever. However, advertisements
are everywhere, so you might think twice whether you want to distract a user by placing an ad in
your app – even if it is a secondary revenue stream.

Examples: YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Forbes, Google.

SALES REVENUE MODEL

This is the most commonly followed eCommerce business model where wholesalers and retailers
sell their product over the internet intending to reach out to a larger target audience. Also, more
importantly, this model brings inconvenience for the customer as well as save them time. And
the hassle to walk up to their physical store. There is an extra cost. The prices are often
competitive in comparison to the actual store price. The business following the online sales
model often comes with marketplaces as common entry points that allow them to deal with
various product vendors allowing them to grow the marketplace and therefore earn more. In
certain cases, the sales are directly injected into the business where the profit is shared with none.
Based on the size of the business and the point of sales traffic, certain functionalities of the
business are transferred to third party vendors, generally done for the logistics and supply chain.

The sales revenue model states that you make money by selling goods and services to
consumers, online and in person. Therefore, any business that directly sells products and services
uses this model. Direct sales revolve around inbound marketing and is good for handling
multiple buyers and influencers in big-ticket markets.

Example: - Clothing stores that only sell their products in a storefront or business-specific retail
website use the sales revenue model as they sell directly to consumers with no third-party
involvement.
By:
Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
SUBSCRIPTION REVENUE MODEL

The subscription revenue model generates revenue by charging customers a recurring fee that is
processed at regular intervals. Subscription revenue is built on establishing long-term
relationships with customers who will pay regularly for access to the product or service, also
called recurring revenue. What makes subscription revenue so powerful is how growth
compounds over time. Instead of remaining flat month to month, revenue accumulates with each
new subscriber. As long as companies acquire new subscribers faster than they lose them,
revenue grows exponentially. Customers become more valuable the longer they use your product
or service. Companies that focus on keeping their customers will save on acquisition costs, since
retention is cheaper than acquisition. The consistent nature of recurring revenue is what makes
the subscription revenue so popular, even with businesses you wouldn’t expect. Companies have
launched subscription models for all kinds of products and services. While almost every business
could shoehorn their business model to fit the subscription business model, it’s best suited to a
few different kinds of companies.

The service offerings of these companies generally include music, videos, TV channels,
magazines, special services, etc. which is offered to the subscribers for a price to watch/listen or
get the latest edition. Now, let me guide you through some examples of basic subscription
business models.

Premium membership: Many social media and business platforms like Xing, LinkedIn, stay
friends, etc. offers subscriptions to avail of additional services that get the subscribers to access
to daily updates, newsletters, short notices, etc. These information and quick updates are
delivered to them directly to their account.

Internet service providers: We all are familiar with the monthly and annual subscription of
internet service providers or rather a broadband connection enabling the subscribers to enjoy
unlimited internet service.

By:
Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
FREEMIUM REVENUE MODEL

The freemium model is often described as a subscription revenue model, but in fact it’s an
acquisition model, not a revenue model. Freemium involves giving users free access to an app
and then selling subscriptions for a premium tier that includes more features.

Freemium is a business model in which you offer a basic plan, product or service, with few
resources, completely free, for users to know about it. At the same time, you offer another more
complete plan, more advanced service or additional features in exchange for a fee – the premium
option. The freemium business model is often identified as the “business model of the Internet.”
That is because, on the worldwide web, it is common to use the strategy of offering something
for free, with a small customer acquisition cost, but potential sales growth in the long run. The
goal is to attract consumers, create a customer base to convince further part of that base that you
have a more compelling value proposition than the free one, whose advanced features are worth
the investment. It is important to note, however, that freemium is not the same thing as a
business model that offers a free sample or free trial. The freemium model does not stop offering
the free option. It just differentiates the added value between that and the premium version.
Examples: - LinkedIn, Skype, etc.

PROS: One of the facilities of the freemium model is marketing. This is because offering a
product or service for free is always a very effective way to attract customers, and, besides, this
strategy works very well on the internet, where the acquisition cost is very low. Finally, even if
free users do not pay, the chance that they will spread the news to their acquaintances is great,
providing wide word of mouth. The other positive point is network effects. Within this concept,
the more people use a particular product or service, the more valuable it becomes. A social
network, for example, will never be a network if there are no people to connect with. And
offering something free is one of the simplest ways to build an audience and, thus, foster the
network effect.

CONS: One of the difficulties with the freemium model is that you need to get a lot of free users
– a real lot of them, we’re talking about millions. Because, maybe, about only 1% will buy the
premium offer (the industry benchmark is 5% – but that’s really hard to achieve). That is, if your
By:
Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
product or service is aimed at a specific niche, it is better to go straight to the premium business
model. Another point to focus your attention on is that the value of your service needs to increase
over time for your audience. There is no point in acquiring new customers if you are unable to
retain them. And in general, people only buy the premium option after a period of use. It is also
essential that you keep your cost structure lean. Because the freemium model takes a long time to
be profitable, therefore, your revenue per user must be much higher than your cost per user.

TRANSACTION FEE MODEL

The eCommerce business following the transaction fee revenue model charges a fee to a seller
for every transaction made through them. They are the payment companies that provides the
payment gateway service to other eCommerce business platforms. Generally, the profit is
derived through enabling or executing transactions. The operator provides a platform for the
eCommerce marketplace through which the transaction can be completed. Now, the necessary
steps include registering of the vendor and the operator so that the identities are kept intact that
may later be required for a business. The model has proximity to the affiliate market but is
somewhat different. To explain it in a better way, let’s take the example of PayPal. The company
charges a transaction fee to the sellers of the product once the transaction is completed.
Similarly, e-Trade gains a transaction fee whenever a stock transaction is made with a customer.
The amount to be paid to the operator is either decided upon based on a percentage or a fixed
amount with the vendor. Amazon is another example of a transaction fee revenue business
model.

AFFILIATE REVENUE MODEL

The affiliate model is similar to the commission model. The difference is that a business receives
its commission from a seller, rather than a customer. The affiliate model is a contract between a
supplier of a product/service and a promoter. A promoter can be another business/media
resource/blogger that recommends a supplier’s product. The income will come as a percentage
from sales or registrations done via referral link. An affiliate marketing is a well-known way of
inviting as well as driving quality leads into their business. The process basically works as a link
that is hyperlinked to the affiliate and is archived on a host platform that gets regular traffic. Any
user who clicks to the affiliate link is redirected to their website where the product or service is

By:
Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
cataloged. The affiliate or the merchant thus pays an agreed commission to the host operator
who’s carrying the link for every traffic driven. Amazon and affilinet are well-known examples
that let you affiliate your product links and drive traffic. For each lead driven to your website,
you need to pay a certain percentage to Amazon or affilinet as their commission. Interestingly,
this brings a win-win situation for both the merchant, who sells his product and the affiliate who
advertised or marketed their product. Such an eCommerce business model utilizes different
variations such as pay-per-click, banner exchange and also, revenue sharing programs that aim at
driving the audience from one platform to another.

Pros: Just like advertisement, once you have a huge traffic resource, you might apply for an
affiliate program to earn money. This will bring you income without any investments because
you will basically generate traffic and leads for the affiliate program provider.

Cons: Unfortunately, the percentage of affiliate programs promised to the promoter is quite low.
Sometimes it fluctuates between 1-2 percent and requires a high volume of sales generated
through your links.

ELECTRONIC DATA INTERCHANGE

EDI, which stands for electronic data interchange, is the intercompany communication of
business documents in a standard format. The simple definition of EDI is a standard electronic
format that replaces paper-based documents such as purchase orders or invoices. By automating
paper-based transactions, organizations can save time and eliminate costly errors caused by
manual processing. In EDI transactions, information moves directly from a computer application
in one organization to a computer application in another. EDI standards define the location and
order of information in a document format. With this automated capability, data can be shared
rapidly instead of over the hours, days or weeks required when using paper documents or other
methods. Today, industries use EDI integration to share a range of document types — from
purchase orders to invoices to requests for quotations to loan applications and more. In most
instances, these organizations are trading partners that exchange goods and services frequently as
part of their supply chains and business-to-business (B2B) networks.

By:
Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
Benefits

• EDI technology saves time and money through automation of a process previously
manually executed with paper documents.
• EDI solutions improve efficiency and productivity because more business documents are
shared and processed in less time with greater accuracy.
• EDI data transfer reduces errors (PDF, 669 KB) through rigid standardization, which
helps to ensure information and data are correctly formatted before they enter business
processes or applications.
• EDI integration improves traceability and reporting because electronic documents can be
integrated with a range of IT systems to support data collection, visibility and analysis.
• EDI automation supports positive customer experiences by enabling efficient transaction
execution and prompt, reliable product and service delivery.

Disadvantages

• Too many standards: There are too many standard bodies developing standard
documents formats for EDI. For example, one company may be following the x12
standard format, while its trading partner follows EDIFACT standard format.
• Changing standards: Each year, most standards bodies revisions to the standards. This
poses a problem for EDI users. One organization may be using one version of the
standard while its trading partners might still be using older versions.
• EDI is too expensive: EDI is expensive and requires a heavy investment to launch and
maintain the technology. Small companies might find it difficult to invest in EDI because
of the expenses to be incurred in implementing and maintaining it.
• EDI limits your trading partners: Some large companies tend to stop doing business
with companies who don’t comply with EDI. For example, Walmart is doing business
with only those companies that use EDI. The result of this is a limited group of people
you can do business with.
• Rigid requirements: EDI needs highly structured protocols, previously established
arrangement, unique proprietary bilateral information exchanges.
By:
Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
INTERNET PROTOCOLS

https://mapmyedi.com/knowledge-base/edi-protocol/s

Unit 6. E-Commerce Applications

ELECTRONIC MARKETING

E-Marketing (Electronic Marketing), also known as Internet Marketing, Web Marketing, Digital
Marketing, or Online Marketing, is marketing done through the internet on online channels. E-
marketing is the process of marketing a product or service offering using the Internet to reach the
target audience on smartphones, devices, social media etc. E-marketing not only includes
marketing on the Internet, but also includes marketing done via e-mail and wireless media. It
uses a range of technologies to help connect businesses to their customers. Like many other
media channels, e-marketing is also a part of integrated marketing communications (IMC),
which helps a brand grow across different channels. E-marketing has become a pivotal tactic in
the marketing strategy adopted by companies using several digital media channels.

Advantages

• Much better return on investment from than that of traditional marketing as it helps
increasing sales revenue.
• E-marketing means reduced marketing campaign cost as the marketing is done through
the internet.
• Fast result of the campaign as it helps to target the right customers.
• Easy monitoring through the web tracking capabilities helps make e-marketing highly
efficient.
• Using e-marketing, viral content can be made, which helps in viral marketing.

BEHAVORIAL TARGETTING

By:
Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
Behavioral targeting is a marketing method that uses web user information to strengthen
advertising campaigns. The technique involves gathering data from a variety of sources about the
potential customer’s online browsing and shopping behaviors. This information helps create ads
that are relevant to that specific user’s habits and interests, which the publisher can then display
in that visitor’s web browser. The primary purpose of this technique is to deliver advertising
messages to the behavioral target markets that have shown the most interest in them.

Benefits

• Increase in User Engagement: Behavioral tracking grants publishers’ access to

consumers who display habits of engaging with specific marketing material. With one-
click ads, consumers can be redirected to online storefronts and gain intel on the
company in a matter of seconds.
• Higher Number of Ad Click-Throughs: A personalized ad that captures the viewer’s
likes and needs is a much more useful tool in helping consumers move down the
purchasing pipeline than a generic banner ad without relevant appeal. Upon initial
exposure to a highly-desired product, an interested viewer is much more likely to seek
more information and continue to check out than they are with brands that fail to align
with their previous browsing and purchasing behaviors.
• Improved Conversion Rates: Advertisements that reach a behavioral target market have
higher appeal to those who view them, increasing the chances that users will proceed to
request more information or complete a purchase. With the techniques of behavioral
targeting, companies can see an increase in sales and repeat customers, enjoying higher
profits overall.
• Reminders and Alerts for New Products: By continually seeing ads for products, they
find attractive, viewers can keep up with new releases and stay informed about brands
they enjoy. Additionally, if a user was distracted from completing an online purchase, a
personalized ad about the company may remind and motivate them to go back and
finalize the transaction.
• Higher Efficiency in the Online Shopping Process: When ads for products that interest
them are prominent in their web browser, consumers can click through to access online

By:
Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
 storefronts quickly, often being automatically redirected to the page about the particular
product highlighted in the ad.

Process: -

1. Collect Cookies: When users visit new websites or create an account, for example, a
cookie is placed on their computer, stored either temporarily on a local memory drive
from which it is deleted after the browser is closed or more permanently on the device’s
hard drive.
2. Create a User Profile: As cookies are collected and stored over time through new page
visits, ad clicks, time spent on particular content and other data, behavioral patterns can
form related to shopping and search habits.
3. Designate Consumer Groups: Using the patterns and profiles created, companies can
separate users into different target market groups. Once these distinctions are made,
websites that focus on behavioral targeting will be aware of the purchasing trends,
interests, likes and dislikes of the members of these individual audience segments.
4. Share Relevant Information with Viewers: At this point, instead of receiving random
ads, consumers will only view custom content and personalized ad material that draws
from past behaviors when they reconnect to the network or website. For this process to be
successful, it requires a powerful data gathering tool and a successful means of
implementing it.

NATIVE TARGETTING

Native advertising is a type of advertising that matches the platform’s form and function upon
which it appears. In many cases, it functions like an advertorial and manifests as a video, article,
or editorial. The word “native” refers to the content’s coherence with the other media that appear
on the platform. These ads reduce a consumers’ ad recognition by blending the ad into the native
content of the platform, using somewhat ambiguous language such as “sponsored” or “branded”
content. They can be difficult to identify due to their ambiguous nature properly.

Benefits

By:
Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
 • It easily aligns with your marketing funnel: You, as the advertiser, have the ability to
craft top-of-funnel content that educates your audience about your brand, or you can
create bottom-of-funnel content. This type of content drives users to the point of
conversion, leading them to landing pages that offer an app install, a purchase of a
service or good, or a free consultation. An example of an upper funnel ad is a video-based
advertisement, which could be used to educate users about the special features of
whatever product you’re selling to then lead them down the conversion path. A lower-
funnel advertisement could look like you using native product ads that encourage users to
buy your product.
• It’s non-disruptive: Native ads are designed to fit into whatever platform or site they’re
on, which can encourage users to engage with the content rather than glancing over
content they know is a more intrusive advertisement.
• Reach the audience segments you want: Use native ads to target the audience you want
to help drive brand awareness and increase sales. Build the ideal audience from a range of
target facets, including criteria such as demographics, geography, media channels and
customer intent. Targeted campaigns allow advertisers to introduce customers to content
that fits in with the organic user experience and interests. Essentially, this means reaching
the right audience, at the right time, with the right content.

VISITOR TRACKING

Companies use website visitor tracking to understand in detail how visitors interact with their
site. Teams use visitors’ information to adjust the website content and structure to eliminate
needless steps and nudge more visitors to purchase, sign up, and return.

Web visitor tracking gives teams a detailed understanding of their users’ needs, behaviors, and
frustrations so the team can create a more satisfying and useful website experience. A news site,
for example, can see which articles visitors enjoy and promote popular posts. An e-commerce
site can learn which pages in their checkout process frustrate customers and eliminate
unnecessary fields, and a SaaS team can learn whether search ads or social media ads produce
higher quality leads. Nearly every company with a website can use its visitor data to make more
informed product, marketing, and customer support decisions, and to nudge its users to find more
value. Common goals for website user tracking include:
By:
Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
 • Encouraging more purchases or signups
• Attracting more visitors
• Earning more ad clicks
• Producing more leads
• Eliminating barriers to buying

Teams with analytics can track users in aggregate with reports known as user flows, which show
the stream of page views users typically follow. Flows suggest whether visitors are having a
pleasant or unpleasant experience.

WEBSITE PERSONALISATION

Simply put, personalization is the use of data, customer information and technology to create
tailored customer experiences. Personalization is also referred to as one-to-one marketing. In a
world where consumers are overwhelmed by the amount of marketing and content that is being
thrown at them, website personalization allows you the opportunity to stand out and keep your
visitors coming back. It allows you to provide the most targeted, relevant content to every
individual that visits your site. Businesses can better capitalize on opportunities for sales by
increasing conversions, removing barriers and objections and increasing website engagement.

Benefits

1. Stronger Lead Nurturing: Lead nurturing, while a major aspect of leveraging content
marketing, is often one of the most underutilized website personalization opportunities
most brands have, and also the biggest challenge they face. HubSpot research uncovered
that as much as 65% of brands struggle to generate leads. And to boot, website
personalization that supports lead nurturing requires far less technology and heavy lifting
to implement than most think.
2. Shorter Sales Cycles: Driving sales online can be a slog, but personalization can make it
less so. According to Accenture, 75% of consumers would buy from retailers that
recognize them by name and recommended products or services based on previous
purchases.
3. Increased Customer Loyalty: Customer loyalty is developed by consistently delivering
positive brand experiences. Today, with tons of option and competitive markets, the need
By:
Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
 to leverage personalization is a must. In a survey conducted by Salesforce, 84% of
customers stated that being treated like a person, not a number, is very crucial to winning
their wallet share, proof that creating positive experiences can lead to more revenue.
4. Better Conversation: It’s no secret the landing, home and product pages are low-
hanging fruits for highly personalized buyer experiences. When designed effectively,
these key website pages can help brands deliver better conversions, especially with
personalization being such a major drawcard. But to drive higher conversions, brands will
need to be smarter about the way they present their solutions, and how accessible they are
to consumers.
5. Insights: Running effective personalization campaigns can’t happen without deep
insights into data, the relationship between it and your buyer personas, and their behavior.
Today, there are many tools available that can be used to aggregate data from various
sources to tell clearer stories about how your visitors interact with your website, brand,
and ultimately make decisions to purchase your solutions.

DIMENSIONS OF E-COMMERCE SECURITY

By:
Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
NEED FOR SECURITY

By:
Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
E – COMMERCE THREATS: -

By:
Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
By:
Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
Insider Threat

An insider threat is a threat to an organization that comes from negligent or malicious insiders,
such as employees, former employees, contractors, third-party vendors, or business partners, who
have inside information about cybersecurity practices, sensitive data, and computer systems. The
By:
Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
threat may involve fraud, theft of confidential or commercially valuable information, theft of
intellectual property and trade secrets, sabotage of security measures, or misconfiguration that
leads to data leaks.

There are many different types of insider threat that are security risks:

• Non-responders: A small percentage of people are non-responders to security awareness

training. While they may not intend to behave negligently, they're among the riskiest
members since their behaviors fit consistent patterns. For example, individuals with a
strong history of falling for phishing are likely to be phished again.
• Inadvertent insiders: Negligence is the most common and expensive form of insider
threat. This group generally exhibits secure behavior and complies with information
security policies, but cause security incidents due to isolated errors. For example, a
common insider threat incident is the storage of intellectual property on insecure personal
devices.
• Insider collusion: Insider collaboration with malicious external threat actors is a rare, but
significant threat due to the increasing frequency that cybercriminals attempt to recruit
employees via the dark web. A study by Community Emergency Response Team (CERT)
found that insider-outsider collusion accounted for 16.75% of insider-caused security
incidents.
• Persistent malicious insiders: This type of insider threat most commonly attempts data
exfiltration or other malicious acts like installing malware for financial gain. A Gartner
study on criminal insider threats found that 62 percent of insiders with malicious intent
are people seeking a supplemental income.
• Disgruntled employees: Disgruntled employees may commit deliberate sabotage of
security tools, data security controls, or commit intellectual property theft. These types of
employees may be detectable with behavior analytics as they can follow specific
behavioral patterns. For example, they may start looking at sensitive data sources when
they give their notice or have been fired before having access removed.
• Moles: An imposter who is technically an outsider but has managed to gain insider
access. This is someone from outside the organization who poses as an employee or
partner.
By:
Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
Phishing and Identity Threats

The definition of a phishing threat is any attempt to fraudulently solicit personal information
from an individual or organization, or any attempt to deliver malicious software (malware), by
posing as a trustworthy organization or entity. Threats are most commonly delivered by email, as
in the online banking example given below, but they can also manifest as advertisements on
genuine websites that have had security vulnerabilities exploited.

Phishing Threats to Operations: Regardless of whether an employee is doing their online

banking or research for a work project, if they access a fake phishing website from their work
computer, and download executable malware, the organization´s entire network could be
infected. Depending on the nature of the malware, data could be compromised, stolen or
encrypted into a format that makes it unusable until a ransom is paid.

Phishing Threats to Data: Phishing threats to data apply whether an employee is responding to
a phishing email about their bank account or to any account that requires a login and password –
not just e-commerce websites, but also personal email and social media accounts. The
consequences of a successful phishing attack on an organization may take years to become
apparent, which is why phishing threats to data should be taken seriously and measures
implemented to manage the threats.

Spear Phishing Threats: Spear phishing threats are often more successful than random phishing
threats due to the victim(s) being specifically targeted by the cybercriminal. The attacker finds
personal details of their victim (such as appear on social media profiles) and creates a convincing
phishing email that appears realistic because of its content. The massive data breaches at Target,
Anthem and Sony Pictures have all been attributed to successful spear phishing attacks.

Ransomware: The delivery of ransomware via email is one of the most serious of all current
phishing threats. Ransomware is the easiest form of malware to monetize and there has been a
noticeable increase in ransomware attacks on mobile devices (up 1,300% in 2017) and on cloud-
based applications which get shared with internal and external users (44% of cloud malware
types make up the most common delivery vehicles for ransomware).

By:
Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
SAFETY MEASURES:

By:
Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.
By:
Aniket Vishwakarma
Sanskar A.