Chapter 18
Building EC Applications and
Infrastructure
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 2
Learning Objectives
1,Discuss the major steps in developing an EC application.
2,Describe the major EC applications and list their major
functionalities.
3,List the major EC application development options along
with their benefits and limitations.
4,Discuss various EC application outsourcing options
including the use of an application service provider
(ASP) and utility computing.
5,Discuss the major EC software packages and EC
application suites.
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 3
Learning Objectives
6,Describe various methods for connecting an EC
application to back-end systems and databases.
7,Discuss the value and technical foundation of Web
Services in EC applications.
8,Understand service-oriented architecture (SOA) and its
relationship to EC.
9,Describe the criteria used in selecting an outsourcing
vendor and package.
10,Understand the value and uses of EC application log
files.
11,Discuss the importance of usage analysis and site
management.
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 4
The Landscape and Framework of EC
Applications Development
Step 1,Identifying,Justifying,and Planning EC
Systems
Step 2,Creating an EC Architecture
EC architecture
A plan for organizing the underlying infrastructure and
applications of a site
Step 3,Selecting a Development Option
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 5
The Landscape and Framework of EC
Applications Development
Step 4,Installing,Testing,Connecting,and Deploying
EC Applications
Unit testing
Testing application software modules one at a time
Integration testing
Testing the combination of application modules acting in concert
Usability testing
Testing the quality of the user’s experience when interacting
with a Web site
Acceptance testing
Determining whether a Web site meets the original business
objectives and vision
Step 5,Operations,Maintenance,and Updating
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 6
The Landscape and Framework of EC
Applications Development
Managing the Development Process
– For medium-to-large applications,a project team is
usually created to manage the process and the
vendors
– Collaboration with business partners is also critical
– Projects can be managed with project management
software,Appropriate management also includes
periodic evaluations of system performance
– Implementing an EC project may require restructuring
of one or more business processes
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 7
The Major EC Applications and Their
Functionalities
B2C Storefronts
– Product presentation function
– Order entry function
– Electronic payment function
– Order fulfillment function
– Customer service function
– Product support function
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 8
The Major EC Applications and Their
Functionalities
Supplier Sell-Side B2B Sites
– Personalized catalogs and Web pages for all major
buyers
– A B2B payment gate
– Electronic contract negotiation features
– Product configuration by customers
– Affiliate program capabilities
– Business alerts (e.g.,to special sales,to news)
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 9
The Major EC Applications and Their
Functionalities
E-Procurement
– Aggregating Catalogs
– Reverse Auctions and Tendering Systems
– Forward Auctions
– Exchanges
– Portals
– Other EC Systems
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 10
Development for EC Applications
In-House Development,Insourcing
Insourcing
In-house development of applications
– Development Options
Build from scratch
Build from components
Enterprise application integration
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 11
Development for EC Applications
Buy the Applications
– This option is also known as a turnkey approach,It
involves buying a commercial package,installing it,
and starting it up
– When selecting a particular package,the package
should not only satisfy current needs,it must also be
flexible enough to handle future ones; otherwise the
package may quickly become obsolete
– It is sometimes necessary to acquire multiple
packages
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 12
Development for EC Applications
Leasing
– Lease the application from an outsourcer and then
install it on the company’s premises
– Lease the application from an application service
provider (ASP) that hosts the application at its data
center
– A variation of the preceding option is to use utility
computing,described later in this chapter,which is
described in detail later on in this chapter
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 13
Development for EC Applications
Outsourcing and Application Service Providers
(ASP)
– Outsourcing
Application Service Provider (ASP)
A company that provides business applications
to users for a small monthly fee
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 14
Development for EC Applications
Utility Computing
Unlimited computing power and storage capacity
that can be used and reallocated for any
application—and billed on a pay-per-use basis
– Policy-based service-level-management tools
– Policy-based resource-management tools
– Virtualization tools
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 15
Exhibit 18.4 The Five Elements of a Successful
Utility-Computing Value Proposition
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 16
Development for EC Applications
Other Development Options
– Join an e-marketplace
– Join an auction or reverse auction third-party site
– Joint ventures
– Join a consortium
– Hybrid approach
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 17
Criteria for Selecting a
Development Approach
Flexibility
Information requirements
User friendliness
Hardware and software resources
Installation
Maintenance services
Vendor quality and track record
Estimating costs
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 18
Criteria for Selecting a
Development Approach
Personnel
Technological evolution
Scaling
Scalability
How big a system can grow in various dimensions
to provide more service; measured by total
number of users,number of simultaneous users,
or transaction volume
Sizing
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 19
Criteria for Selecting a
Development Approach
Performance
Latency
The time required to complete an operation such as
downloading a Web page.
Throughput
The number of operations completed in a given period
of time; indicates the number of users that a system
can handle
Reliability
Security
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 20
Third-Party Providers of EC Software
and Suites
Functional Software Packages
Electronic catalog
The virtual-world equivalent of a traditional product
catalog; contains product descriptions and photos,
along with information about various promotions,
discounts,payment methods,and methods of
delivery.
Merchant server software
Software for selling over the Internet that enables
companies to establish selling sites relatively easily
and inexpensively
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 21
Exhibit 18.5 Merchant Server Architecture
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 22
Third-Party Providers of EC Software
and Suites
EC Suites
– Microsoft’s Commerce Server
– IBM’s WebSphere Commerce Suite
– Oracle’s EC Products
– Other EC Suites
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 23
Exhibit 18.6 Major Components of an EC Suite
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 24
Connecting to Databases and Other
Enterprise Systems
Connecting to Databases
Multitiered application architecture
EC architecture consisting of four tiers,Web
browsers,Web servers,application servers,and
database servers
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 25
Exhibit 18.7 Example of Multitiered Application
Architecture Connected to Database
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 26
Connecting to Databases and Other
Enterprise Systems
Integrating EC Applications and Back-End
Systems
Enterprise application integration (EAI)
Class of software that integrates large systems
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 27
Connecting to Databases and Other
Enterprise Systems
Middleware
– Hiding distribution (i.e,the fact that an application is
usually made up of many interconnected parts running in
distributed locations)
– Hiding the heterogeneity of the various hardware
components,operating systems,and communication
protocols
– Providing uniform,standard,high-level interfaces to the
application developers and integrators,so that applications
can be easily composed,reused,ported,and made to
interoperate
– Supplying a set of common services to perform various
general purpose functions,to avoid duplicating efforts and
to facilitate collaboration between applications
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 28
Rise of Web Services,SML,and
Service-Oriented Architecture
The Need for Integration
– Platform-specific objects
– Dynamic environment
– Security barriers
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 29
Rise of Web Services,SML,and
Service-Oriented Architecture
The Roles of XML and Web Services
Web service
A software system identified by a URI (uniform
resource indicator),whose public interfaces and
bindings are defined and described using XML
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 30
Rise of Web Services,SML,and
Service-Oriented Architecture
Web Services
Web Services are self-contained,self-describing
business and consumer modular applications,
delivered over the Internet,that users can select and
combine through almost any device,ranging from
personal computers to mobile phones
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 31
Rise of Web Services,SML,and
Service-Oriented Architecture
Key Technologies in Web Services
Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP)
Protocol or message framework for exchanging XML
data across the Internet
Web Services Description Language (WSDL)
An XML document that defines the programmatic
interface— operations,methods,and parameters—for
Web Services
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 32
Rise of Web Services,SML,and
Service-Oriented Architecture
Key Technologies in Web Services
universal description,discovery,and integration
(UDDI)
An XML framework for businesses to publish and find
Web Services online
security protocol
A communications protocol that encrypts and
decrypts a message for online transmission; security
protocols generally provide authentication
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 33
Exhibit 18.8 Key Components of Web Services
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 34
Rise of Web Services,SML,and
Service-Oriented Architecture
Web Services Platforms
– Microsoft,NET
– IBM WebSphere
– J2EE Architecture
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 35
Rise of Web Services,SML,and
Service-Oriented Architecture
The Notion of Web Services as Components
– Web Services enable the Web to become a platform
for applying business services as components in IT
applications
– Web Services offer a fresh approach to integration
– Business processes that are comprised of Web
Services are much easier to adapt to changing
customer needs and business climates than are
―home-grown‖ or purchased applications
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 36
Rise of Web Services,SML,and
Service-Oriented Architecture
A Web Services Example
– Consider an airline Web site that provides consumers
with the opportunity to purchase tickets online
The airline recognizes that customers also might want to
rent a car and reserve a hotel as part of their travel plans
The consumer would like the convenience of logging onto
only one system rather than three,saving time and effort
Also,the same consumer would like to input personal
information only once
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 37
Rise of Web Services,SML,and
Service-Oriented Architecture
Web Services Entering the Mainstream
– Google’s Web Services API (application programming
interface) enables programmers and application
developers to issue SOAP-based search requests to
Google’s index of more than 3 billion Web pages and
to receive results as XML data
– Amazon.com also offers an extensive set of Web
Services that can be used by its ―Associates‖ and
other product sellers and vendors
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 38
Rise of Web Services,SML,and
Service-Oriented Architecture
Advantages and Hurdles in Implementing Web
Services
Over the years,a number of programming initiatives
have attempted to solve the problem of
interoperability (i.e.,getting software and applications
from different vendors running on different hardware
and operating systems to communicate with one
another in a transparent fashion),
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 39
Rise of Web Services,SML,and
Service-Oriented Architecture
Advantages of Web Services
– Rely on universal,open,text-based standards that
greatly simplify the problems posed by interoperability
and that lower the IT costs
– Enable software running on different platforms to
communicate,reducing the cost and headaches of
multiple platforms
– Promote modular programming,which enables reuse
by multiple organizations
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 40
Rise of Web Services,SML,and
Service-Oriented Architecture
Advantages of Web Services
– Are easy and inexpensive to implement because they
operate on the existing Internet infrastructure,They
also offer a way to maintain and integrate legacy IT
systems at a lower cost than typical EAI efforts
– Web Services can be implemented incrementally
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 41
Rise of Web Services,SML,and
Service-Oriented Architecture
Barriers to Adoption of Web Services
– The standards underlying Web Services are still being
defined,thus interoperability is not automatic
– Web Services standards are not well-defined is
security
– Although Web Services rely on XML as the
mechanism for encoding data,higher-level standards
are still required,especially in B2B applications
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 42
Rise of Web Services,SML,and
Service-Oriented Architecture
Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA)
An application architecture in which executable
components,such as Web Services,can be
invoked and executed by client programs based
on business rules
– Transport
– Description
– Discovery
– Registration
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 43
Exhibit 18.9 The Three Conceptual Roles and
Operations of a Service-Oriented Architecture
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 44
Vendor and Software Selection
Step 1,Identify Potential Vendors
Step 2,Determine the Evaluation Criteria
Request for proposal (RFP)
Notice sent to potential vendors inviting them to
submit a proposal describing their software package
and how it would meet the company’s needs.
Step 3,Evaluate Vendors and Packages
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 45
Vendor and Software Selection
Step 4,Choose the Vendor and Package
Step 5,Negotiate a Contract
Step 6,Establish a Service Level Agreement
Service level agreement (SLA)
A formal agreement regarding the division of work
between a company and a vendor.
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 46
Usage Analysis and Site Management
Log Files
Access log
A record kept by a Web server that shows when a user
accesses the server; kept in a common log file format,each line
of this text file details an individual access
– Pageviews by time slot
– Pageviews by customers’ log-in status
– Pageviews by referrers
– Pageviews by visitor’s hardware platform,operating system,
browser,and/or browser version
– Pageviews by visitor’s host
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 47
Usage Analysis and Site Management
E-Commerce Management Tools
– Several vendors offer suites of products or individual
packages that can assist with the management
process
– Other EC management tools include site version
control tools,combined utilities/tools,server
management and optimization tools,and
authoring/publishing/deployment tools that include
significant site management or testing capabilities
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 48
Managerial Issues
1,What is our business perspective?
2,Do we have a systematic development plan?
3,Insource or outsource?
4,How should Web Services be deployed?
5,How should we choose a vendor/software?
6,Have we analyzed the data?
7,Should users be involved?
8,How should we manage development risks?
9,How shall we plan for service-oriented architecture
10,(SOA)?
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 49
Summary
1,The major steps in developing an EC application.
2,The major EC applications and their major functionalities.
3,The major EC application development options along
with their benefits and limitations.
4,EC application outsourcing options.
5,The major components of software packages and EC
application suites.
6,Methods for connecting an EC application to backend
systems and databases.
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 50
Summary
7,The rise of Web Services and XML.
8,Understand service-oriented architecture and its
relationship to EC.
9,Criteria used in selecting an outsourcing vendor
and package.
10.The value and uses of EC application log files.
11.The importance of usage analysis and site
management.
Building EC Applications and
Infrastructure
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 2
Learning Objectives
1,Discuss the major steps in developing an EC application.
2,Describe the major EC applications and list their major
functionalities.
3,List the major EC application development options along
with their benefits and limitations.
4,Discuss various EC application outsourcing options
including the use of an application service provider
(ASP) and utility computing.
5,Discuss the major EC software packages and EC
application suites.
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 3
Learning Objectives
6,Describe various methods for connecting an EC
application to back-end systems and databases.
7,Discuss the value and technical foundation of Web
Services in EC applications.
8,Understand service-oriented architecture (SOA) and its
relationship to EC.
9,Describe the criteria used in selecting an outsourcing
vendor and package.
10,Understand the value and uses of EC application log
files.
11,Discuss the importance of usage analysis and site
management.
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 4
The Landscape and Framework of EC
Applications Development
Step 1,Identifying,Justifying,and Planning EC
Systems
Step 2,Creating an EC Architecture
EC architecture
A plan for organizing the underlying infrastructure and
applications of a site
Step 3,Selecting a Development Option
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 5
The Landscape and Framework of EC
Applications Development
Step 4,Installing,Testing,Connecting,and Deploying
EC Applications
Unit testing
Testing application software modules one at a time
Integration testing
Testing the combination of application modules acting in concert
Usability testing
Testing the quality of the user’s experience when interacting
with a Web site
Acceptance testing
Determining whether a Web site meets the original business
objectives and vision
Step 5,Operations,Maintenance,and Updating
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 6
The Landscape and Framework of EC
Applications Development
Managing the Development Process
– For medium-to-large applications,a project team is
usually created to manage the process and the
vendors
– Collaboration with business partners is also critical
– Projects can be managed with project management
software,Appropriate management also includes
periodic evaluations of system performance
– Implementing an EC project may require restructuring
of one or more business processes
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 7
The Major EC Applications and Their
Functionalities
B2C Storefronts
– Product presentation function
– Order entry function
– Electronic payment function
– Order fulfillment function
– Customer service function
– Product support function
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 8
The Major EC Applications and Their
Functionalities
Supplier Sell-Side B2B Sites
– Personalized catalogs and Web pages for all major
buyers
– A B2B payment gate
– Electronic contract negotiation features
– Product configuration by customers
– Affiliate program capabilities
– Business alerts (e.g.,to special sales,to news)
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 9
The Major EC Applications and Their
Functionalities
E-Procurement
– Aggregating Catalogs
– Reverse Auctions and Tendering Systems
– Forward Auctions
– Exchanges
– Portals
– Other EC Systems
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 10
Development for EC Applications
In-House Development,Insourcing
Insourcing
In-house development of applications
– Development Options
Build from scratch
Build from components
Enterprise application integration
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 11
Development for EC Applications
Buy the Applications
– This option is also known as a turnkey approach,It
involves buying a commercial package,installing it,
and starting it up
– When selecting a particular package,the package
should not only satisfy current needs,it must also be
flexible enough to handle future ones; otherwise the
package may quickly become obsolete
– It is sometimes necessary to acquire multiple
packages
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 12
Development for EC Applications
Leasing
– Lease the application from an outsourcer and then
install it on the company’s premises
– Lease the application from an application service
provider (ASP) that hosts the application at its data
center
– A variation of the preceding option is to use utility
computing,described later in this chapter,which is
described in detail later on in this chapter
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 13
Development for EC Applications
Outsourcing and Application Service Providers
(ASP)
– Outsourcing
Application Service Provider (ASP)
A company that provides business applications
to users for a small monthly fee
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 14
Development for EC Applications
Utility Computing
Unlimited computing power and storage capacity
that can be used and reallocated for any
application—and billed on a pay-per-use basis
– Policy-based service-level-management tools
– Policy-based resource-management tools
– Virtualization tools
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 15
Exhibit 18.4 The Five Elements of a Successful
Utility-Computing Value Proposition
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 16
Development for EC Applications
Other Development Options
– Join an e-marketplace
– Join an auction or reverse auction third-party site
– Joint ventures
– Join a consortium
– Hybrid approach
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 17
Criteria for Selecting a
Development Approach
Flexibility
Information requirements
User friendliness
Hardware and software resources
Installation
Maintenance services
Vendor quality and track record
Estimating costs
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 18
Criteria for Selecting a
Development Approach
Personnel
Technological evolution
Scaling
Scalability
How big a system can grow in various dimensions
to provide more service; measured by total
number of users,number of simultaneous users,
or transaction volume
Sizing
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 19
Criteria for Selecting a
Development Approach
Performance
Latency
The time required to complete an operation such as
downloading a Web page.
Throughput
The number of operations completed in a given period
of time; indicates the number of users that a system
can handle
Reliability
Security
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 20
Third-Party Providers of EC Software
and Suites
Functional Software Packages
Electronic catalog
The virtual-world equivalent of a traditional product
catalog; contains product descriptions and photos,
along with information about various promotions,
discounts,payment methods,and methods of
delivery.
Merchant server software
Software for selling over the Internet that enables
companies to establish selling sites relatively easily
and inexpensively
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 21
Exhibit 18.5 Merchant Server Architecture
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 22
Third-Party Providers of EC Software
and Suites
EC Suites
– Microsoft’s Commerce Server
– IBM’s WebSphere Commerce Suite
– Oracle’s EC Products
– Other EC Suites
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 23
Exhibit 18.6 Major Components of an EC Suite
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 24
Connecting to Databases and Other
Enterprise Systems
Connecting to Databases
Multitiered application architecture
EC architecture consisting of four tiers,Web
browsers,Web servers,application servers,and
database servers
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 25
Exhibit 18.7 Example of Multitiered Application
Architecture Connected to Database
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 26
Connecting to Databases and Other
Enterprise Systems
Integrating EC Applications and Back-End
Systems
Enterprise application integration (EAI)
Class of software that integrates large systems
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 27
Connecting to Databases and Other
Enterprise Systems
Middleware
– Hiding distribution (i.e,the fact that an application is
usually made up of many interconnected parts running in
distributed locations)
– Hiding the heterogeneity of the various hardware
components,operating systems,and communication
protocols
– Providing uniform,standard,high-level interfaces to the
application developers and integrators,so that applications
can be easily composed,reused,ported,and made to
interoperate
– Supplying a set of common services to perform various
general purpose functions,to avoid duplicating efforts and
to facilitate collaboration between applications
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 28
Rise of Web Services,SML,and
Service-Oriented Architecture
The Need for Integration
– Platform-specific objects
– Dynamic environment
– Security barriers
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 29
Rise of Web Services,SML,and
Service-Oriented Architecture
The Roles of XML and Web Services
Web service
A software system identified by a URI (uniform
resource indicator),whose public interfaces and
bindings are defined and described using XML
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 30
Rise of Web Services,SML,and
Service-Oriented Architecture
Web Services
Web Services are self-contained,self-describing
business and consumer modular applications,
delivered over the Internet,that users can select and
combine through almost any device,ranging from
personal computers to mobile phones
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 31
Rise of Web Services,SML,and
Service-Oriented Architecture
Key Technologies in Web Services
Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP)
Protocol or message framework for exchanging XML
data across the Internet
Web Services Description Language (WSDL)
An XML document that defines the programmatic
interface— operations,methods,and parameters—for
Web Services
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 32
Rise of Web Services,SML,and
Service-Oriented Architecture
Key Technologies in Web Services
universal description,discovery,and integration
(UDDI)
An XML framework for businesses to publish and find
Web Services online
security protocol
A communications protocol that encrypts and
decrypts a message for online transmission; security
protocols generally provide authentication
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 33
Exhibit 18.8 Key Components of Web Services
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 34
Rise of Web Services,SML,and
Service-Oriented Architecture
Web Services Platforms
– Microsoft,NET
– IBM WebSphere
– J2EE Architecture
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 35
Rise of Web Services,SML,and
Service-Oriented Architecture
The Notion of Web Services as Components
– Web Services enable the Web to become a platform
for applying business services as components in IT
applications
– Web Services offer a fresh approach to integration
– Business processes that are comprised of Web
Services are much easier to adapt to changing
customer needs and business climates than are
―home-grown‖ or purchased applications
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 36
Rise of Web Services,SML,and
Service-Oriented Architecture
A Web Services Example
– Consider an airline Web site that provides consumers
with the opportunity to purchase tickets online
The airline recognizes that customers also might want to
rent a car and reserve a hotel as part of their travel plans
The consumer would like the convenience of logging onto
only one system rather than three,saving time and effort
Also,the same consumer would like to input personal
information only once
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 37
Rise of Web Services,SML,and
Service-Oriented Architecture
Web Services Entering the Mainstream
– Google’s Web Services API (application programming
interface) enables programmers and application
developers to issue SOAP-based search requests to
Google’s index of more than 3 billion Web pages and
to receive results as XML data
– Amazon.com also offers an extensive set of Web
Services that can be used by its ―Associates‖ and
other product sellers and vendors
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 38
Rise of Web Services,SML,and
Service-Oriented Architecture
Advantages and Hurdles in Implementing Web
Services
Over the years,a number of programming initiatives
have attempted to solve the problem of
interoperability (i.e.,getting software and applications
from different vendors running on different hardware
and operating systems to communicate with one
another in a transparent fashion),
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 39
Rise of Web Services,SML,and
Service-Oriented Architecture
Advantages of Web Services
– Rely on universal,open,text-based standards that
greatly simplify the problems posed by interoperability
and that lower the IT costs
– Enable software running on different platforms to
communicate,reducing the cost and headaches of
multiple platforms
– Promote modular programming,which enables reuse
by multiple organizations
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 40
Rise of Web Services,SML,and
Service-Oriented Architecture
Advantages of Web Services
– Are easy and inexpensive to implement because they
operate on the existing Internet infrastructure,They
also offer a way to maintain and integrate legacy IT
systems at a lower cost than typical EAI efforts
– Web Services can be implemented incrementally
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 41
Rise of Web Services,SML,and
Service-Oriented Architecture
Barriers to Adoption of Web Services
– The standards underlying Web Services are still being
defined,thus interoperability is not automatic
– Web Services standards are not well-defined is
security
– Although Web Services rely on XML as the
mechanism for encoding data,higher-level standards
are still required,especially in B2B applications
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 42
Rise of Web Services,SML,and
Service-Oriented Architecture
Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA)
An application architecture in which executable
components,such as Web Services,can be
invoked and executed by client programs based
on business rules
– Transport
– Description
– Discovery
– Registration
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 43
Exhibit 18.9 The Three Conceptual Roles and
Operations of a Service-Oriented Architecture
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 44
Vendor and Software Selection
Step 1,Identify Potential Vendors
Step 2,Determine the Evaluation Criteria
Request for proposal (RFP)
Notice sent to potential vendors inviting them to
submit a proposal describing their software package
and how it would meet the company’s needs.
Step 3,Evaluate Vendors and Packages
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 45
Vendor and Software Selection
Step 4,Choose the Vendor and Package
Step 5,Negotiate a Contract
Step 6,Establish a Service Level Agreement
Service level agreement (SLA)
A formal agreement regarding the division of work
between a company and a vendor.
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 46
Usage Analysis and Site Management
Log Files
Access log
A record kept by a Web server that shows when a user
accesses the server; kept in a common log file format,each line
of this text file details an individual access
– Pageviews by time slot
– Pageviews by customers’ log-in status
– Pageviews by referrers
– Pageviews by visitor’s hardware platform,operating system,
browser,and/or browser version
– Pageviews by visitor’s host
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 47
Usage Analysis and Site Management
E-Commerce Management Tools
– Several vendors offer suites of products or individual
packages that can assist with the management
process
– Other EC management tools include site version
control tools,combined utilities/tools,server
management and optimization tools,and
authoring/publishing/deployment tools that include
significant site management or testing capabilities
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 48
Managerial Issues
1,What is our business perspective?
2,Do we have a systematic development plan?
3,Insource or outsource?
4,How should Web Services be deployed?
5,How should we choose a vendor/software?
6,Have we analyzed the data?
7,Should users be involved?
8,How should we manage development risks?
9,How shall we plan for service-oriented architecture
10,(SOA)?
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 49
Summary
1,The major steps in developing an EC application.
2,The major EC applications and their major functionalities.
3,The major EC application development options along
with their benefits and limitations.
4,EC application outsourcing options.
5,The major components of software packages and EC
application suites.
6,Methods for connecting an EC application to backend
systems and databases.
Electronic Commerce Prentice Hall? 2006 50
Summary
7,The rise of Web Services and XML.
8,Understand service-oriented architecture and its
relationship to EC.
9,Criteria used in selecting an outsourcing vendor
and package.
10.The value and uses of EC application log files.
11.The importance of usage analysis and site
management.
