The Final

Throughout this journey of writing journals about eCommerce, I have come to the realization that eCommerce is not just a few topics you learn in class, and then forget sometime thereafter. eCommerce is truly universal, and despite whether we like it or even realize it, we are constantly using eCommerce and tech platforms to make our lives easier, and more enjoyable. Just recently, I was shopping online for some Christmas presents, and noticed myself asking what kind of firewalls or security measures PayPal had on it's servers. Then I began thinking about how PayPal would recover in that type of disaster, and whether they had a DRP (disaster recovery plan), and if so, how extensive was it, and how much of their brand equity would they lose if everyone's credit card information and identities were hacked. I understand that when I find and purchase a very unknown song on iTunes or Beatport, that has not once played on the radio, I have the Long Tail to thank. I have also learned copious amounts about the main types of softwares to be purchased in a company (COTS vs OSS) and the benefits and challenges to be faced by both. I have learned about the Cloud, and how the software can be integrated in most functions of the business, including CRM. Lastly, I have learned about the hardware behind the interface, and what goes on behind the scenes with encryption and IP Addresses and the information that gets sent between a server, a user, and the network.

Yet, although I have learned a great deal of topics and definitions, I have also developed and utilized soft skills in INSY440. I had the opportunity to be paired with 4 MBA grad-level students for a project of our choice, Butler Boots. I learned a lot from one student in particular, who had worked for Amazon just this past summer. He explained to me the different functionalities he would use to analyze platforms to suggest one to a company. This peaked my interest, as it was more of a consulting role, and proved to be more enjoyable. His analysis and thought process/breakdown was something I truly wanted to learn from, and proved to be very beneficial. Whilst I traded in some of my harder skills (PPT, Writing, real life experiences as an employee at an IT Consulting firm, and undergrad information technology course info), the lessons I learned were very enjoyable!

With all these thoughts running through my mind, I realize that through this class not only had I become wiser as an internet user and online shopper, but wiser as a student as well.

Perceived Security for the Cloud

Cloud Computing:

1. "the practice of using a network of remote servers hosted on the Internet to store, manage, and process data, rather than a local server or a personal computer"

   - Google 

   
   

This software as a service is being used by many companies around the globe to help run their businesses. Companies such as Salesforce, Oracle, SAP, and even Apple and Google are putting out software that is easily accessible by everyone and anyone so long as you have the internet and (more times than not) an identity. Optimistically, as the cloud computing trend continues to rise, the perceived connotation that cloud is not secure is slowly being transformed.

Once upon a time (not too long ago) you would not have seen any company consider moving all their confidential files and client/consumer information to a "cloud". Through the internet, people believe anything and everything is accessible. Now, while this may be true, so is the fact that software exists to prevent such security breaches from happening. So the question is, is your information REALLY secure?
The answer is both yes, and no.

There are multiple measures one can take to ensure that their system is secure such as encryption, password changes, firewalls, and other security systems to prevent such issues from arising. However, one must be particularly vigilant when it comes to such sensitive information. One security breach could be categories as a disaster, and ultimately be a detriment to a brand. Yet, while it seems like the cloud imposes risk, it is true that the cloud is truly useful. Using the cloud at work is beneficial because it allows employees to work from where ever and whenever they want. For example, my work often allows me to work from home so long as I have my computer and good internet access. I am able to access Salesforce and Sharepoint through the internet and work from just about anywhere. This really makes employees happy, because they do not have to take the day off or hire a babysitter if, for example, their child has a pedagogical day. I have personally enjoyed using the cloud, for more than just work purposes. Systems such as the iCloud, Dropbox and GoogleDrive have enabled me to go about my daily activities with ease!

Is Social Media Marketing valuable?

With the rise of Web 2.0, and social media becoming an important online medium for marketers, the real question is whether marketing through social media is truly effective or not?

According to Hubspot, 92% of marketers in 2014 claimed that social media helped increase their online presence and traffic on their website. According to Forbes , the benefits of using social media can be broken down into 10 points.

1) Increased brand recognition
2) Increased brand loyalty
3) Customer opportunities to convert
4) High conversion rates
5) High brand authority through credibility
6) Increased inbound traffic
7) Decreased Marketing Costs
8) Increased SEO
9) Richer customer experiences
10) Improved customer insights

While the effects of social media on business may be hard to quantify, services such as Klout and Radian6 can help with such. Nonetheless, it is easy to say that it does make managing customers easier. Firstly, by using social media, a company can directly approach consumers with complaints, especially through hubs such as Twitter and Facebook. A prime example of this could be when United was blamed for breaking a musicians guitar. There was an outcry from the consumers for United not stepping up and taking responsibility for their wrong doings. Many consumers tweeted about this problem, and United representatives were able to address each complaint individually. By responding to problems immediately, it made most consumers more at ease.

Furthermore, consumers view Facebook and Twitter as social media platforms, and less like marketing campaigns. This could be valuable to a company, as consumers may view information posted on these websites as valuable and credible information, as supposed to a marketing stunt.

Marketing online is relatively cheap with respect to billboards and print ads. By using social media as a marketing platform, consumers may be able to see what a company has to offer that they did not know of before.

Lastly, knowing what your consumer wants and being able to deliver quickly truly makes a brand amiable by its customers. The more consumers see the follows, shares, or likes of a certain marketing campaign the more they will be willing to look at it, and find it credible.

In all, it is easy to say that social media is an effective tool for marketers. This is; however, only if the marketer knows how to use all the tools efficiently and effectively to capture the market.

SECURITY BREACH

In the world of software, it is always important to keep yourself secure. When looking for new software for company use, companies have a variety of options they can choose from: Cloud, COTS, In-House, and OSS to name a few. Historically, there is a perceived notion that cloud and open source software is not secure. Companies have often opted to purchase Custom off the Shelf software, or have built it in-house. Yet, as the trends are increasingly moving towards the cloud and open source software, companies are investing more and more in it. The notion that these softwares are not as secure is false. The owner and CEO of SubGraph, an open source security company, came in to talk to students about his company and exactly what he does. SubGraph enables open source software to be secure of hackers through cryptography. 

What are Cryptography? 

They are algorithms that allow for software to be secure of public breaches. It is directly related to data security, integrity and authenticity through encryption. 

Why is it so important? 

Hackers are constantly trying to get information from databases both actively and continuously. What cryptography does is it allows for the data to be kept safe by building up proxy's for hackers to try and breach. In a lot of companies, security is extremely important because (as I'm sure you know), there is a lot of personal and confidential information stored on the system. This type of information could be anything between credit card information to budget sheets and signed agreements, client information as well as employee information. 

Why do hackers target you? 

It is uncertain why they may target you as an individual or a company. You may have something that they want, or your system is simple to hack. It is simply important to watch out for sketchy emails and pop up ads that make you sign into accounts. If you are aware of such information it will make it a lot easier to stay out of trouble! 

In the Cloud

Anywhere, anytime.

This is what the cloud promises its user. But what exactly does it mean?
Cloud computing is a server or system that is fully established online. Users can access their information from the server literally on-demand. As of late, cloud computing has become increasingly important, not only for the individual user, but for corporations as well. On an individual level, cloud computing can be seen for GoogleDocs, where an individual can have all of his or her documents and files stored through this one server. However, on a larger scale, we can see systems such as Salesforce, SAP, Citrix, Lightspeed, amongst others who propose similar solutions, but in a different manner.

Let's take a look at Salesforce for a minute (since I have first-hand experience with this system). Salesforce is used for companies to track many things within the institution. In my experiences, I have used Salesforce to track client information, input my weekly hours into the system, run reports, and communicate with my co-workers. In terms of tracking client information, we can track information from both an internal level (budgets for their projects and hours inputted), to external (client personal information such as, email, phone numbers, etc). This is extremely beneficial because as users, we are able to see the progression of the client & keep all the data on them in one space. Further, weekly hours can be be categorized into specific segments (billable, non-billable, and by project). Through this, we can see that the maintenance of worker hours is made automatic and simple. Finally, a user can run reports from topics such as marketing, to clients and even worker hours.

However, what I have mentioned here is not the most important aspect of a cloud based server. As employers are slowly permitting their employees to work from home, this cloud based system (since it is accessible through the internet) allows for users to do just that!

Business Disasters

When conducting a business (especially in eCommerce), the main platform for the business is all digitized and electronic. Nonetheless, there are 2 main ways in which a company that uses IT can run into issues. These 2 main concepts are (1) incurring physical disasters which would damage the physical business, and (2) when there is a problem with the system you are using to operate your business. Employees must always think: "What this building was destroyed, where would we set up next?" or "What if my computer got hacked, and all confidential information was leaked, what would be the next step?". These two questions encompass two of the main points. Nonetheless, the topic of natural disasters is an umbrella for a number of physical issues such as:natural disasters, war, fire, power outage, etc. On the other hand, however, more technical disasters include: Hacking, equipment failure, application failure, and customers. Prime examples for a physical disaster could include tornado's in Texas, which demolish everything in it's path. Often employees will have to think about where they will decide to set up a new office. A great example of a technical disaster was when Xbox was hacked, and all of their customers credit card information was leaked. The employees were immediately thinking about what they could do to resolve the problem - this is what we would call a disaster recovery plan (DRP). Whilst it is important to understand what to do in dire situations such as the ones above, it is just as important to be prepared for any possible disaster that comes your way. Therefore, Business Continuity Plans (BCP) are important to keep business going at a normalized rate without a hitch. Employees take certain measures such as anti-virus software and firewalls to prevent such issues from arising.

In any given company, there is a mix of both of these plans. However, often times it can become expensive, thus a company may choose which software they will want to make a plan. For example, a company living in the New Orleans, where the possibility of hurricanes is quite high, they may be more inclined to pay money to have a good BRP. Or tech companies that have a lot of their consumers confidential information. The company would lose a large share of their reputation and brand equity if an event such as the one mentioned happened.

The table on the right suggests that the business continuity must come before disaster risk. This is because without the core competencies to initially run a business and keep in productive, the business would not survive, let alone exist. Further yet, the disaster recovery plan is on the bottom, because these types of disasters are sometimes unavoidable, but happen rarely. Further, if you focus more on ensuring that nothing actually happens to your business (preventative measures), then your business will have less problems, consumers would be made happy as there are no problems with the business, and lastly because you will have better and stronger business.

eCommerce Trends and the Long-Tail

As technology improves, the trends in eCommerce increase as well. Not only is it becoming better for the company, but for the consumer as well. The use of Big Data is helping with the customer's experience with eCommerce. Website's are picking up trends that the consumer is making in order to serve his or her needs better. Now, this is mutually beneficial for the client and the company. The company can benefit, as they are no longer a brick-and-motor company with unlimited shelf space. Take Amazon for example, they have a vast variety of products for sale, with unlimited shelf space. This allows for them to not only capture the "Hit's" market for popular products, but it allows them to squirrel the long tail as well.

Now what is the long-tail?

The long tail consists of products that may be less popular, but have a large audience and demand. For example, when Record Label companies sign an artist, they market this artist as a "Hit" artist. Their music plays multiple times a day on the radio, and companies that sell albums such as HMV have to selectively choose which CD's they want to sell on their shelves. Now, what happens to all the indie music or the music that is not a "Hit". There is still a demand for this type of music. iTunes, Beatport, and other music eCommerce websites allows for consumers to buy individual tracks (as supposed to a whole CD), and there is an unlimited amount of music genres and artists because they are not limited by shelf space.

So this Long-Tail, allows for Amazon to capture 100% of the market, as supposed to brick-and-motor companies with limited shelf space. They can only put a certain amount of products on their shelves, and therefore must be selective with the products they choose to sell. Amazon is now using Big Data to recommend products to their customers that are in the long-tail (that might not be as popular as the "hit" products). In the end, both the consumer and the company are happy.