One Picture, One Pilot, One Airline Company: New Stream of Flyers; JetBlue Makes Name

If you are in the LA areas, for sure you will want to fly JetBlue. The company is getting a new stream of customers thanks to the successful landing of a loaded aircraft after a tire malfunction. The company's plane was on everybody's tv all over the world. A new brand is born. It's anchored into the hearts of most people.

Jennifer Lopez's New Collection: Zip Back Pocket Jeans, Brazilian Jumpsuit, Cropped Jeans and More

Jennifer Lopez made her US fans salivate for her new line of clothing. She opened a specialized, sophisticated, upscale boutique in Russia. She kept her arrangement this way until she decides to open a boutique in Chicago. Otherwise, if anybody wanted to wear the great, beautiful designs that bear her name, they would have to go to shopjlo.com. Here's a sample of the signer-actress turned designer's collection. My girlfriends and I went nuts over some of these pants. Now guess who is laughing all the way to the bank? Jennifer designed for the sophisticated young woman. If her backside was the butt of most jokes, now look at where she is in her life. She is married to a new man and progressing quite well. (sources: shopjlo.com)

Best Wishes: Wish List Shopping

Visit Wish List Shopping to get gifts ideas!

My Husband's True Wishes: iPod Nano and The Grand Empire Railroad

The Neiman Christmas Book Catalog has arrived. It's full with gadgets that any guys will fall in love with. Please count my husband and son in. Ever since we returned from our trip to the mountains of Santa Cruz, all they have been talking about are trains, miniature trains for sure. So I have been looking around for a good company that makes toy trains for my son. My husband was on his own. He had to find his own trains. While I found countless train toys for my son, he found Roll Models which manufactures trains for order. He is even planning on visiting the plant since it's located in Fresno, California, in the Central Valley. When he found out that the company has a model that appears in The Neiman Christmas book catalog, he had to have it too. Lo and behold, Roll Models only made 5 trains. It's a limited edition. Roll Models has been in the business of manufacturing miniature trains designed for children and adults to ride on. The company makes railroad sets that run on tracks.

The Grand Empire Railroad costs a whopping $200,000. For the true train enthusiasts, that is nothing. The Neiman Marcus model is propane powered, but locomotives also run on electric, diesel and steam and gasoline.

My husband and son's dreams may come true some day. They'll be pleased to have their own trains in the back yard. Let's say in the front yard.

What do we know about RMI Railworks?

Sources: Find more info at www.rmiraiworks.com or neimanmarcus.com

The company is well-known in the industry. It has installed its fun replicas all over the country according to neimanmarcus.com.

The Grand Empire package includes a steam style 2-6-2 locomotive with internal combustion engine that runs on odor-free propane, two high-side riding gondolas with three cushioned seats, a banquet car with insulated food and beverage compartment.

Features of Electronic Catalogs or e-Catalogs

Answer: Taking a look at Bloomsburgcarpet.com allows us to think about the benefits of online catalogs. Gone, long gone are the days when Bloomsburgcarpet had to send paper catalogs of its prized carpet product lines to customers all over the country.

By investing in the e-catalog infrastructures, the company has been able to reach some key niche markets around the world. The critical mass of buyers or shoppers is solved with the e-catalog. According to J.C. Max, Inc, companies that build online catalogs can expand their market, save on printing and distribution costs while keeping their customer base satisfied. They are able to reach specialized market niches more easily than is possible with printed catalogs.

By publishing their catalogs on the World Wide Web, the merchandise will be accessible to the international marketplace or marketspace. They can quickly gain competitive advantage. These sellers/manufacturers can engage in direct marketing and direct sales. The online catalogs can supplement their existing direct mail markets. The sellers who put their catalogs on the Web can reach new groups of buyers, customers at a relatively low cost. Furthermore, J.C. Max, Inc estimates that these companies can minimize costs for catalog printing and updates. New audiences can be reached without additional printing costs.

The cost of updates to an electronic catalog is low and changes can be made as often as needed. The owners of the e-catalogs can make frequent updates which would impossible due to high costs for print catalogs. Customers end up being more satisfied. They can transmit orders to the sellers without waiting on the phone or for the mail to be delivered. Through the electronic catalogs, products are available for sale 24 hours a day or close to 365 days a year. Customers from around the world can start ordering.

All the above benefits or advantages come true in the case of Bloomsburgcarpet.com. They have solved the problems of sending print catalogs to customers all over the country. A visit to its Web site puts you face to face with a flash animation of great-looking carpets. Then you can decide to see a few carpet samples. To allow customers to do so, Bloomsburgcarpet.com invested in a powerful search engine. Customers will be encouraged to follow or establish some search parameters in terms of carpet color, carpet line and carpet weave. Then, once you click on Go, you will find a list of samples with the preceding parameters. What I found to be interesting is Bloomsburgcarpet’s AIDA and attention to details. If you want to find a list of sales representatives in your area, state or county, all you need to do is to click on the map. Then a list of all reps pops up. You can start your shopping right on the site and decide to physically interact with the carpets by visiting the stores closest to you. This way, the company costs in relation to print catalogs are eliminated.

It makes sense that the B2B or B2C EC would want to include e-catalogs. Online catalogs can be dynamic and customized. They are integrated with shopping carts, order taking, and payment systems. E-catalogs can be classified according to these dimensions
1. The dynamics of the information presentation 2. The degree of customization 3. The integration with business processes.

My Husband Wants the iPod Nano, Randy Moss's Jerseys

NakedBody, ClothedBody Apparel: Top NFL Jerseys

Case Study: E Letters of Credit and Purchasing Cards for Global Access

Case Study: How would a furniture company pay its online office-supply vendor? What about the supplier of wood? Also, the company exports products to several countries using an online ordering system. How should overseas buyers pay?


I would advise the furniture company to pay with e-check which is the electronic version or representation of a paper check. E-checks contain the same information as a paper check. It can be used wherever paper checks are used, and are based on the same legal framework. They work essentially the same way a paper check works, but in pure electronic form, with fewer manual steps. They are faster, cheaper, and they can be more secure. As a small to mid-size business, the furniture company can use them to pay its online office supply vendors.

The same goes for the supplier of wood. He can get paid with e-checks. In B2B e-commerce and e-government purchases, where the dollar values are likely to be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, obviously more secure procedures are required. The U.S. treasury department is testing in pilot projects some e-check standards. This comes to show that e-checks are getting the attention of the higher officials of the U.S. government. Since the company exports products to several countries using an online ordering system, it could also invest in purchasing cards. They are special-purpose payment cards issued to a company’s employees to be used solely for purchasing nonstrategic materials and services up to a pre-set dollar unit. In this case, the furniture firm will benefit from productivity gains, bill consolidation. The buyers and suppliers will benefit from payment reconciliation, expedited payments, management reports and control.

Purchasing cards are used by most state governments and by many public universities. Purchasing cards are used within countries; for global trade, one can use other payment instruments. Letter of credit or Electronic letters of credit can be used for overseas buyers. The electronic letters of credit are a written agreement by a bank to pay the seller, on account of the buyer, a sum of money upon presentation of certain documents. The furniture company can sure take advantage of these quick and guaranteed payment instruments.

Electronic Commerce or e-Business: Security Measures such as Authentication in Large Companies and SMEs

In order to continue to flourish, EC will need to use education, policies and procedures, training and various types of technology to defend against cyber attacks. And with the widespread availability of free intrusion tools, scripts and the overall interconnectivity on the Internet allowing anyone with minimal computer experience to mount a DoS attack, we can say that EC e-tailers, private and government security firms will have a hard time staying ahead of those attacks. We must note that there are two types of attacks. They can be non-technical and technical attacks. The non-technical attacks come in the form of social engineering. In the non-technical attacks, perpetrators use chicanery and other forms of persuasion to trick people into revealing sensitive information or performing actions that can be used to compromise the security of a network. In the technical attacks, software and system knowledge are used to take over the victim’s computer system.

EC must realize that there are a lot of security risks out there. It was in 2000 when a young Canadian teenager launched his denial-of-service (DoS) attack on some stellar companies as Amazon.com, Buy.com, CNN.com, eBay, E*Trade, Yahoo, ZDNet and many other well-known Web sites were inundated with some many Internet requests that legitimate traffic was virtually halted. (Kabay and Walsh 2000). The same month, the Canadian youngster with a codename of “Mafiaboy” was caught. He subsequently pled guilty to committing the 2000 attacks (King, Lee & Wiehland p. 470).

Hackers are after control and access. They want to exploit others’ innocence. They want to get credit for the disruption of EC which in itself is a felony. In the past they used to go almost undetected. These days, with some major companies and universities collaborating on finding new ways to protect the nation’s infrastructures, there may be some hope. National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC) and Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) are working hard to try to protect the nation’s infrastructures, monitor incidence of cyber attacks, analyze vulnerabilities, and provide guidance on protecting against attacks from individual hackers, foreign governments, businesses as in industrial espionage, pirated computer software and other crimes.

Unfortunately, I expect the situation to get worse. As more and more buyers are using their credit cards online, hackers know about the honeynet. They are attracted by the honeypots. They want to disguise their ruse and gimmicks to be able to take a share of the EC’s profits. No wonder that we have seen the wild growth of antivirus companies such as Network Associates (McAfee products) and Symantec’s Norton products. Malicious codes or malware are spreading fears among computer users and EC businesses. There is a whole group of malicious codes known as viruses, worms, macro viruses and macro worms, and Trojan horses. Security becomes very crucial.

According to a survey conducted by Information Security Magazine (Briney and Prince 2002), the security practice of various organizations is very minimal. From small organizations with 10 to 100 computers, medium organizations (100 to 1,000 computers, large organizations (1,000 to 10,000 computers and very large organizations (more than 10,000 computers), IT security is still trying to gain a foothold in the day-to-day activities that impact the organization.

In the end, some of the things that EC sites can do to mitigate such attacks are the implementation of security management. Security must be everybody’s business. They can have a security risk management in place to determine the likelihood of various security attacks. Most importantly, they can use the following: Authentication system, access control mechanism, passive tokens, active tokens, biometric systems, fingerprint scanning, Iris scanning, voice scanning, and keystroke monitoring.


The security attacks range from non-technical to technical attacks, social engineering threats to DoS or DDoS attacks. With the widespread availability of free intrusion tools and scripts and the overall interconnectivity on the Internet, virtually anyone with minimal computer experience can mount a DoS attack. Unfortunately, a successful DoS attack can literally threaten the survival of an EC site, especially SMEs.

Discuss the importance of Web services to B2B integration

In order for B2B companies to interact with each other easily and effectively, they must be able to connect their servers, applications, and databases. For this to happen, standard protocols and data representation schemes are needed. EDI is one such standard, but it has several limitations and is not structured for the Internet. We all know that the web is based on the standard communication protocols of TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) and HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol). Furthermore, web pages are written in the universally recognized standard notation of HTML. This standard environment is useful only for displaying static visual Web pages. To further extend the functionality of EC sites, once can use JavaScript and other Java and ActiveX programs. These tools allow for human interaction, but they still do not address the need to interconnect back-end database systems and applications.

According to Venu Vasudevan who wrote a primer on Web services,
“Web services are a new breed of Web application. They are self-contained, self-describing, modular applications that can be published, located, and invoked across the Web. Web services perform functions, which can be anything from simple requests to complicated business processes...Once a Web service is deployed, other applications (and other Web services) can discover and invoke the deployed service.
IBM's web services tutorial goes on to say that the notion of a web service would have been too inefficient to be interesting a few years ago. But the trends like cheaper bandwidth and storage, more dynamic content, the pervasiveness and diversity of computing devices with different access platforms make the need for a glue more important, while at the same time making the costs (bandwidth and storage) less objectionable” (webservices.xml.com).

King, D. et al. said that Web services is a general-purpose architecture that enables distributed applications to be assembled from a web of software services in the same way that web sites are assembled from a web of HTML pages. It is one of the most talked-about topics in e-commerce and IT. The major technologies behind Web services include XML, SOAP, UDDI, and WDSL. Using these standards, Web services allow different applications from different organizations to communicate data without custom coding. Because all communication is in XML, Web services are not tied to any one operating system or programming language. Based on the preceding statements, Web services are viewed as building blocks for distributed systems.
There’s no doubt that Web services will play a major role in facilitating B2B because they make it easier to meet business customers and channel partners’ demands.

The Role of Intermediaries in B2B

Intermediaries conduct private auctions for a seller, either form the intermediary’s or the seller’s site. Or, a company may choose to conduct auctions in a public marketplace, using a third-party hosting company (e.g., eBay, which has a special “business exchange” for small companies).

Intermediaries usually prefer to use third-party hosting company for conducting auctions because of the benefits they receive. They don’t have to worry about resources such as hardware, bandwith, engineering resources, or IT personnel. They don’t have to worry about hiring costs or opportunity costs associated with the redeployment of corporate resources. Another benefit is that B2B auctions also offer fast “time-to-market”.

An intermediary is involved in various aspects of the auction preparation. The intermediary sets up the auction to show the branding or company name of the merchant rather than the intermediary’s name. The intermediary does the work of controlling data on Web traffic, page views, and member registrations. He also sets all the auction parameters (transaction fee structure, user interface, and reports); and integrating the information flow and logistics.

When a company wants to dispose of unwanted assets without advertising to the public that it is doing so, and intermediary-conducted public auction would be the logical choice. If an intermediary does the auction, they don’t have to provide answers regarding the quality of the product. If a manufacturer is selling off products, buyers get suspicious of the quality of the items.

The intermediary also takes care of the billing and collection efforts. Intermediaries calculate merchant specific-shipping weights and charge customers for shipping of auctioned items. All credit card data are encrypted for secure transmission and storage, and all billing information can be easily downloaded by the merchant company for integration with existing systems.

Distinguish sell-side e-marketplaces from buy-side e-marketplaces.

Sell-side B2B EC is the online direct sale by one seller (a manufacturer or an intermediary) to many buyers. The major technology used is electronic catalogs, which allow for efficient customization, configuration, and purchase by customers. What’s new in this model is the arrival of forward auctions which are becoming more and more popular. As for buy-side marketplaces, we can say that more and more companies are moving toward e-procurement to expedite purchasing, save on item and administrative costs, and gain better control over the purchasing process. Major procurement methods are reverse auctions (bidding system); buying from storefronts and from catalogs; negotiation; buying from an intermediary that aggregates sellers’ catalogs; internal marketplaces and group purchasing; desktop purchasing; buying in industrial malls; and bartering. E-procurement offers the opportunity to achieve real cost and time savings. Since the buy-side marketplace buyers engage in reverse auctions, they can lower their costs, both product costs and the time and cost of the tendering process. Governments and huge organizations do a lot of e-procurement.

UCE: Talking about Unsollicited Ads or SPAM: The Problems with Online Advertisement

Talking about unsolicited electronic ads leads to consider the epidemic of e-mail spamming and pop-ups. Such ads are not only an invasion of privacy, but they are also aggravating. The flood of unsolicited ads clogs the networks of ISPs, sometimes to the point of paralysis, and may prevent legitimate messages from getting through. UCE or unsolicited e-mail involves using e-mail to send unwanted ads or correspondence.

The dirt, the bad things about spamming is that according to Cauce, Coalition Against Unsolicited E-mail, 80 percent of spammers are just trying to get people’s financial information: credit cards and bank information. The pornography industry is another major source of spamming. The spammers are motivated by the lack of postage stamps. Advantages for the spammers can be interpreted as low entry level in comparison to high payoffs. Despite their nuisance, there’s not much one can do limit their ads. Investing in expensive software can help bring some solutions for some time. Many spam messages get sent undeterred through unregulated Asian companies. Different methods are used to collect e-mail addresses. Spammers scour Web sites and chat rooms for addresses and they send e-mails to common names at mail servers, hoping to find a match. They also use computer programs that randomly generate thousands of addresses. These days, web surfers have to deal with pop-ups. Their use is exploding. Shoppers are mad as hell.

Personally, I think spamming legislation should consider putting up a stop to this type of Wild West. A similar do-not-call list has been proposed to stop unwanted phone calls from spammers and individuals. To enforce it, a group of tech savvy individuals will take it upon themselves to solve monitor and transactions.

The Growth of Internet Advertising: Videoclips, Animation, click-through, Clickstream etc.

“Banners are popular in Internet advertising because by clicking on them users are transferred to an advertiser’s site, and frequently directly to the shopping page of that site. Banner ads are important because of the ability to customize some of them to the targeted individual surfer or market segment of surfers.

Many observers say that banners are sometimes thrown onto their face. For example, customers are forced to see banner ads while waiting for a page to load or before they can get the free information. Banners usually include attention-grabbing multimedia such as sound, playful graphics and videoclips. Also, because of their popularity, users tend to not pay attention to them any longer. The click ration of banners is declining at the same time. That’s why the University of Michigan found that the average click ratio, which was 3 percent in the mid-1990s, to be less than 1 percent today. The university also added that it is declining with time (Doyle et al. 1997; Meskaukas 2001).

In view of these drawbacks, it’s crucial to know where to place the banners. According to a study of Web ads conducted by the University of Michigan showed that ads placed in the lower-right hand corner of the screen, next to the scrollbar, generate 228 percent higher click-through than ads at the top of the page (Doyle et al. 1997). The same study found that ads placed one-third of the way down the page and centered increased click-through 77 percent over ads at the top of the page, where ads are frequently positioned. (King, Lee, Wiehland, p. 187.)

We must also say that banner ads can be analyzed and measured. They can be personalized and customized. Towards the end of the Internet bust, most online businesses relied only on selling ad space. Since then, things have changed. Banner advertising enhanced with video clips, music, animation and catchy graphics will continue to play an important role. Other types of banners will help out. Keyword banners appear when a predetermined word is queried from a search engine. And Random banners appear randomly. Static banners are always on the web page. Pop banners, in the form of pop up ads and pop under ads, continue to use datamining to serve customers’ needs or bother them based on personal information collected through their profile” (Discussion group 2005)

Compare the advantages and disadvantages of distributing digitizable products electronically versus physically.

Products that can be transformed to digital format and delivered over the Internet are called digital products. Each delivery method has advantages and disadvantages for both sellers and buyers. Customers, for example, may prefer the formats available through physical distribution. They perceive value in holding a physical CD ROM or music CD as opposed to a download file. In addition, the related packaging of a physical product may be significant. Current technology makes a standard music CD more versatile for use in cars and portable devices than a downloaded MP3 file. Customers may have to wait days for physical products to be delivered.

Let’s take a look at some goods whose distribution can be digitized. Software, music, or news stories may be distributed in a physical form as well as a digitized form. A consumer may purchase a shrink-wrapped CD-ROM containing software (along with the owner’s manual and a warranty card) or they may pay for the software at a Web site and immediately download it onto their computer. This may be done through File Transfer Protocol or FTP, a fast way to download large files. For sellers, the costs associated with the manufacture, storage, and distribution of physical products (DVDs, CD-ROMs, paper magazines, etc.) can be enormous. Another advantage is that a producer of digital content can bypass the traditional retail channel, thereby reducing overall costs and capturing greater profits. Nobody knows for sure whether digital delivery replaces or enhances traditional delivery methods for various types of digital content.

Characteristics of Group Purchasing

Characteristics of Group Purchasing.

This question refers to group purchasing which is defined as “quantity purchasing that enables groups of purchasers to obtain a discount price on the products purchased” (King, D. Electronic Commerce 2004, p. 15). This is about how EC has spawned the concept of demand aggregation, wherein a third party finds individuals or small to medium enterprises or SMEs, aggregates their orders to get a large quantity, and then negotiates (or conducts a tender) for the best deal.

Large companies usually have such great deals because they often large quantities. They command lower prices. According to the textbook, a few Web sites sprang up in the first part of the Internet Economy to bring together small businesses with common purchasing needs and enable them to get the same discounts and customer privileges as corporate customers. They are aggregators known as Letsbuyit.com, shop2gether.com and Buyerzone.com. Group purchasing represents the B2B buy-side marketplaces (one buyer from many sellers). Companies such as buyerzone.com take advantage of the opportunities offered by the Internet to create economies of scale for small businesses. Writing for Nashville Business Journal, Jeremy Heidt said the following about Shop2gether.com, “The San Jose, Calif.-based business-to-business Internet company is aiming to create economies of scale for small businesses around the world by combining their purchasing power to get volume discounts usually only available to large corporations.”

I tried hard to find letsbuyit.com and shop2gether.com. After entering the Web site into the URL, I got to what appears to be a front page with some information about the “Unique E-Commerce Partnership Opportunity” the business represents. The info can be interpreted as a promotional pitch to recruit any potential franchise partners. LetsBuyIt.com invites surfers to request more details. LetsBuyIt.com claims to have successfully served shoppers in the UK, Germany and Sweden since 1998. The company has plans to expand throughout Europe. Since there was no note of temporary take down for maintenance, I can safely state that it may be a pure brick and mortar company that is trying to have an online presence. Furthermore, Shop2gether.com does not exist either.

According to a February 11, 200 print edition of Nashville Business Journal, “Shop2Gether needs to reach a ‘critical mass’ of one million buyers in 2000 to meet its business model’s projections of success” (bizjournals.com online edition). At the time of this printout, the site had less than 50,000 buyers and more than 200 vendors or suppliers. We all know about the Internet bust that year. If it survived, I was unable to locate it on the Internet. So there is not much to compare Buyerzone to.

I prefer Buyerzone.com because it’s easy to navigate, user-friendly and meets real marketspace needs. It’s a true B2B company. “Since 1992, BuyerZone has helped hundreds of thousands of buyers successfully purchase products and services for their businesses” (BuyerZone.com, accessed on 9-23-05). All potential buyers have to do is to complete an online Request-for-Quote form for the product or service they wish to purchase for their business. Then, the buyers’ information gets verified and matched to the appropriate sellers by BuyerZone.com technology and personnel. Matched leads are e-mailed to buyers as soon as a quote is posted. Customer Service Care is also provided. Some of the biggest names in B2B, B2C, B2E are among BuyerZone’s clients: eBay, Coldwell Banker Properties, A.G. Edwards & Sons, Inch, Agilent Technologies, AOL Time Warner, AT&T, Bank of America, Boeing company, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cargill, Capital One Bank, CNET Networks, Inc, Eastman Kodak, Exxon Mobil, Federal Aviation Administration, Kaiser Permanente, General Dynamics, Honda, Hitachi, Honeywell, ING Barings, Johnson & Johnson, Kmart, Oracle, Mattel, Maybelline, Microsoft, Motorola, NASA, Olympus, Procter & Gamble, Raytheon, General Electrics, Merck, Polaroid, Geico, Fujitsu, Real Networks, Siebel Corporation, Samsung, Sallie Mae, The City of Philadelphia, The United Nations, the State of Michigan, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Army, U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Department of Justice, U.S Federal, U.S. Department of Treasury, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Stanford University, Sycamore Ventures, Sara Lee Corporation, Sandia National Laboratories, American Express, Highland Financial, Johns Hopkins University, Merill Lynch, and various prominent national universities.

EC Payment Instruments: E-Checks and Electronic Letters of Credit

Case Study:

How would a furniture company pay its online office-supply vendor? What about the supplier of wood? Also, the company exports products to several countries using an online ordering system. How should overseas buyers pay?

Answer:


I would advise the furniture company to pay with e-check which is the electronic version or representation of a paper check. E-checks contain the same information as a paper check. It can be used wherever paper checks are used, and are based on the same legal framework. They work essentially the same way a paper check works, but in pure electronic form, with fewer manual steps. They are faster, cheaper, and they can be more secure. As a small to mid-size business, the furniture company can use them to pay its online office supply vendors. The same goes for the supplier of wood. He can get paid with e-checks. In B2B e-commerce and e-government purchases, where the dollar values are likely to be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, obviously more secure procedures are required. The U.S. treasury department is testing in pilot projects some e-check standards. This comes to show that e-checks are getting the attention of the higher officials of the U.S. government.

Since the company exports products to several countries using an online ordering system, it could also invest in purchasing cards. They are speciall-purpose payment cards issued to a company’s employees to be used solely for purchasing nonstrategic materials and services up to a pre-set dollar unit. In this case, the furniture firm will benefit from productivity gains, bill consolidation. The buyers and suppliers will benefit from payment reconciliation, expedited payments, management reports and control. Purchasing cards are used by most state governments and by many public universities. Purchasing cards are used within countries; for global trade, one can use other payment instruments. Letter of credit or Electronic letters of credit can be used for overseas buyers. The electronic letters of credit are a written agreement by a bank to pay the seller, on account of the buyer, a sum of money upon presentation of certain documents. The furniture company can sure take advantage of these quick and guaranteed payment instruments.

Current Electronic Commerce or EC Environment: CRM and Security Are Everybody's Business

In order to continue to flourish, EC will need to use education, policies and procedures, training and various types of technology to defend against cyber attacks. And with the widespread availability of free intrusion tools, scripts and the overall interconnectivity on the Internet allowing anyone with minimal computer experience to mount a DoS attack, we can say that EC e-tailers, private and government security firms will have a hard time staying ahead of those attacks. We must note that there are two types of attacks. They can be non-technical and technical attacks. The non-technical attacks come in the form of social engineering. In the non-technical attacks, perpetrators use chicanery and other forms of persuasion to trick people into revealing sensitive information or performing actions that can be used to compromise the security of a network. In the technical attacks, software and system knowledge are used to take over the victim’s computer system.

EC must realize that there are a lot of security risks out there. It was in 2000 when a young Canadian teenager launched his denial-of-service (DoS) attack on some stellar companies as Amazon.com, Buy.com, CNN.com, eBay, E*Trade, Yahoo, ZDNet and many other well-known Web sites were inundated with some many Internet requests that legitimate traffic was virtually halted. (Kabay and Walsh 2000). The same month, the Canadian youngster with a codename of “Mafiaboy” was caught. He subsequently pled guilty to committing the 2000 attacks (King, Lee & Wiehland p. 470).

Hackers are after control and access. They want to exploit others’ innocence. They want to get credit for the disruption of EC which in itself is a felony. In the past they used to go almost undetected. These days, with some major companies and universities collaborating on finding new ways to protect the nation’s infrastructures, there may be some hope. National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC) and Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) are working hard to try to protect the nation’s infrastructures, monitor incidence of cyber attacks, analyze vulnerabilities, and provide guidance on protecting against attacks from individual hackers, foreign governments, businesses as in industrial espionage, pirated computer software and other crimes.

Unfortunately, I expect the situation to get worse. As more and more buyers are using their credit cards online, hackers know about the honeynet. They are attracted by the honeypots. They want to disguise their ruse and gimmicks to be able to take a share of the EC’s profits. No wonder that we have seen the wild growth of antivirus companies such as Network Associates (McAfee products) and Symantec’s Norton products. Malicious codes or malware are spreading fears among computer users and EC businesses. There is a whole group of malicious codes known as viruses, worms, macro viruses and macro worms, and Trojan horses. Security becomes very crucial.

According to a survey conducted by Information Security Magazine (Briney and Prince 2002), the security practice of various organizations is very minimal. From small organizations with 10 to 100 computers, medium organizations (100 to 1,000 computers, large organizations (1,000 to 10,000 computers and very large organizations (more than 10,000 computers), IT security is still trying to gain a foothold in the day-to-day activities that impact the organization.

In the end, some of the things that EC sites can do to mitigate such attacks are the implementation of security management. Security must be everybody’s business. They can have a security risk management in place to determine the likelihood of various security attacks. Most importantly, they can use the following: Authentication system, access control mechanism, passive tokens, active tokens, biometric systems, fingerprint scanning, Iris scanning, voice scanning, and keystroke monitoring.

Dresses You'll Most Likely See in New York, Chicago, Houston, Austin, and South Beach Boutiques

Web Advertising vs. Internet Advertising

Web advertising vs. TV advertising:

First, let’s take a look at the status of the advertising industry.
There is no doubt that the web competes with other advertising channels such as TV and newspapers. Advertisers and business owners recognize the power of online advertising. So far, TV advertising represents 36 percent of all advertising. Newspapers represent about 35 percent. Magazines take 14 percent of the advertising industry. Internet advertisement is a small percentage of the $120 billion-a-year advertising industry (about 4 percent in 2002) (Boswell 2002). What is clear is that Internet advertising is growing rapidly. No wonder that business owners take notice. Companies advertise on the Internet for several reasons. More and more television viewers are migrating to the Internet. Forrester Research found that over three-quarters of PC users are giving up some television time to spend more time on their computers (Legmanilla 2003). A November 2001 study conducted at UCLA confirms this trade-off. According to an Arbitron Internet Information and Edison Media Research survey (McDonal 2001), people between the ages of 12 and 24 clearly prefer the Internet (47 percent to TV (26 percent), and one-third of all Internet users would give up t heir televisions before giving up the Internet access. This gap will grow in the future, especially with the new technology coming to cell phones that offer Internet access (King, D. et al. 2004).

Business owners favor Internet advertising because they like interactivity. They know the potential viewers will want to interactive and rich media. An ad in a print publication or on TV will not offer statistics tracking the number of people who actually saw the ad or even opened the page featuring an ad. Print ads cannot be rotated based on the number of times someone opens the page, and ad number two appears the next time. Print or TV ads cannot be filtered only to female readers who earn over $50,000, own a home and work in a hospital or university. Of the people who look at the ad, the advertiser cannot even record the time consumers spent looking at it. In the case of the TV ads, the only piece of hard data available for traditional advertising is the estimated viewing audience of the TV program. Everything else is guesswork. However, the world of online advertising offers much more information and feedback. Special tracking and ad management programs offered for ads on portals, online magazines, and almost every type of Web site in existence enable advertisers to do all the things mentioned here and more. In a study conducted by Meeker (1997), the length of time it took for each ad media to reach 50 million was examined. Meeker found that it took radio 38 years, television 13 years, and cable TV 10 years to reach 50 million users. It took only about 5 years for the Internet to reach 50 million viewers. According to these statistics, the Internet is by far the fastest growing medium of communication. It makes sense that the advertisers are interested in a such a medium with such potential reach, both locally and globally.

Now, there are other reasons why Web advertising is superior to TV advertising. They are: a). Cost (Online ads are sometimes cheaper than those in other media. In addition, ads can be updated at any time with minimal cost. b). Richness of format (web ads can effectively use the convergence of text, audio, graphics, and animation. In addition, games, entertainment, and promotions can easily be combined in online advertisements; Personalization (web ads can be interactive and targeted to specific interest groups and/or individuals); Timeliness (Internet ads can be fresh and up-to-the-minute); Participation (The Web is a participatory tool. Many people can communicate with each other in the context of an online community); Location-basis (Using wireless tech, web advertising can be location based; Internet ads can be sent to consumers whenever they are at a specific place (maybe at a stop light, near a restaurant, near the beach for hotels, etc.); Digital branding (consumers are willing to pay premiums for brands they trust).

What eMadisonAvenue is all About: Women as Natural Peer-to-peer Marketers

eMadisonAvenue and NewYorkNewYorkBiz are part of the Allpromdresses Shopping Network. We are a woman-oriented peer-to-peer network that is striving to define the role and contribution of women to American businesses. There is no question about this: women shop. We like shopping. We work hard, we play hard. No, we shop hard too!

For the first time, women are helping to define their role in the shopping industry. EMadison is the marketing branch of the network. Its goals are to help women and those who are sympathetic to minority-owned businesses to advertise their talent, products and services. We, women, have a superb opportunity with EC. We also have a rare opportunity to help define the second phase of the Internet Economy or New Economy. By choosing to advertise with us, you'll make a difference in your own bottomline. You will benefit from the power of women's solidarity and support system. For us, peer to peer or viral marketing is not something new. When we find out about a good product, we inform our girlfriends. We want them to find out about it. The only difference here is that this is now online. Welcome to the world of eMadisonAvenue, the world of NewYorkNewYorkbiz!