Group+1

Group 1 NTENDE DAVID 10/DICT/DAY/007 RUSONGOZA DAVID 10/DICT/DAY/006 BUREGEYA ISAAC 10/DICT/DAY/003

(Group 1: See formative comments for your work in the discussion tab above)
Tell the rest of your colleagues that I will be unusually late for today's class. However, I have asked the systems administrator to give you access to the Internet, so you can continue working on your group and individual tasks. I have full access to Internet and I can be monitoring what each of us is doing, to be able to give you appropriate advise. Will get to you very soon). David - Facilitator.20.Oct.2011)

A brief guideline to using this wiki page for designing and e-commerce website

 * Click on the __**edit**__ button above to put your own content on this page.
 * To change your wiki's colors or theme, click on **Manage Wiki** and **Look and Feel**.
 * Use the formatting pallet above to bold, italicize, underline, change font style, color, alignment, size etc, bullet, number, hyper link, insert any multimedia page, files, videos, embedded files, etc.
 * Remember to save your work.

=Citing sources and references, explain what you think is the definite definition of the term 'E-commerce'=

In its simplest form e-commerce is the buying and selling of products and services by businesses and consumers over the internet. People use the term e-commerce to describe encrypted payments on the internet. Sometimes these transactions include the real time transfer of funds from the buyer to seller and sometimes this is handled manually through an eft –pos terminal once a secure order is received by the merchant. Internet sales are increasing rapidly as consumers take advantage of lower prices offer by wholesalers retailing their products. This trend is set to strengthen as websites address consumer security and privacy concerns.

__**ADVANTAGES/BENEFITS OF E-COMMERCE**__
 * Reduced costs by reducing labour, reduced paperwork, reduced errors in keying in data. Reduce post costs. (Transport and fuel costs)
 * Reduced time. Shorter lead times for payments and return on investment in advertising, faster delivery of products.
 * Flexilibity with efficiency. The ability to handle complex situations, product ranges and customer profiles without situation becoming unmanageable.
 * Improve relationships with trading partners. Improved communication between trading partners leads to enhanced long term relationships.
 * Lock in customers. The closer you are to your customer and the more you work with them to change from normal business practices to best practice e-commerce the harder it is for competitor to upset your customer relationship.
 * New markets.The internet has the potential to expand your business into wider geographical locations.
 * Advertising ones products over the web is made easier without incurring very high costs if you are to advertise in a local newspaper foreinstance.

==What do you think is the major difference between E-commerce and E-business?== E -business and e-commerce are terms that are sometimes used interchangeably, and sometimes they're used to differentiate one vendor's product from another. But the terms are different, and that difference matters to today's companies. In both cases, the e stands for "electronic networks" and describes the application of electronic network technology - including Internet and electronic data interchange (EDI) - to improve and change business processes. E-commerce covers outward-facing processes that touch customers, suppliers and external partners, including sales, marketing, order taking, delivery, customer service, purchasing of raw materials and supplies for production and procurement of indirect operating-expense items, such as office supplies. It involves new business models and the potential to gain new revenue or lose some existing revenue to new competitors. It's ambitious but relatively easy to implement because it involves only three types of integration: vertical integration of front-end Web site applications to existing transaction systems; cross-business integration of a company with Web sites of customers, suppliers or intermediaries such as Web-based marketplaces; and integration of technology with modestly redesigned processes for order handling, purchasing or customer service. E-business includes e-commerce but also covers internal processes such as production, inventory management, product development, risk management, finance, knowledge management and human resources. E-business strategy is more complex, more focused on internal processes, and aimed at cost savings and improvements in efficiency, productivity and cost savings. An e-business strategy is also more difficult to execute, with four directions of integration: vertically, between Web front- and back-end systems; laterally, between a company and its customers, business partners, suppliers or intermediaries; horizontally, among e-commerce, enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), knowledge management and supply-chain management systems; and downward through the enterprise, for integration of new technologies with radically redesigned business processes. But e-business has a higher payoff in the form of more efficient processes, lower costs and potentially greater profits. E-commerce and e-business both address these processes, as well as a technology infrastructure of databases, application servers, security tools, systems management and legacy systems. And both involve the creation of new value chains between a company and its customers and suppliers, as well as within the company itself. All companies should have an e-commerce strategy. (Governments should have an e-public service strategy.) Electronic networks in general and the Internet in particular are too important for firms to ignore if they want to interact with customers, suppliers or distribution partners. But some companies need to move beyond e-commerce and form e-business strategies - especially large companies that already have links

==With reference to any e-commerce tool of your choice, (e.g quick response codes) explain how you think it could be effectively used to enhance transactions.== Is a type of matrix bar code first designed for the automotive industry. More recently the system has been popular outside the industry due to its fast readability and comparatively large storage capacity. The code consists of black modules arranged in a square pattern. On white background. The information encoded can be made up of any kind of data(for example binary, alphanumeric)

__INDIVIDUAL COURSE WORK__

**Task 1**

Insert the following link < [|__www.__][|__**mobile**__][|__-__][|__**barcodes**__][|__.com__]> in your mobile phone's browser. Install the relevant barcode reading software depending on the model of your phone.

Generate any bar or matrix tags (using __[]__ ) that you will place on any product of your choice. Embed relevant marketing details (This could be a link to a product's website, phone number, details about the product, text, link to video, audio description of the product...).

Design a mobile e-commerce website which advertises any business product of your choice (Consider all the qualities of a good e-commerce website as presented in class). Explain the marketing details here. Embed the qr code you have designed, any multimedia files, pictures etc about you product here.