Electronic Business Models and Security

Electronic business (EB) has been growing, and growing over the past decade. Advancements in computers and mobile devices have all contributed to the growing electronic business industry. IBM and their marketing team in the year 1998 started their own EB and were ready to invest 1 Billion dollars in their business. Ultimately EB's became a success, however, IBM did not trademark the term (1). IBM did not need to trademark the name or formally announce it as the dot-com boom took care of that aspect. 

Within EB's, there are two main branches. One model is the "Revenue Model" and the other is the E-commerce model. The Revenue Model according to Wikipedia is, "...The implementation of any of the other revenue models online" (2). The website also states that the Revenue Model, "...identifies which revenue source to pursue, what value to offer, how to price the value, and who pays for the value" (3). This model is important because it helps companies maximise their earnings from their products/services. 

E-Commerce is a significant, and crucial part of EB's. Business News Daily states that E-Commerce is, "the purchase and sale of goods and/or services via electronic channels such as the Internet" (4). Popular E-Commerce retailers include Amazon, eBay, and more. These online retailers are popular mainly because of their prices and convenience. Since eBay and Amazon are exclusively online, they can keep prices low because a brick and mortar store does not have to be maintained to sell items. Per Forrester (a technology and market research company) e-commerce spending is projected to double and reach over 2 billion by the year 2019. The planned expenditures are incredible estimates where only 20 years ago most people did not have internet access. 

While e-commerce is great and offers a lot to consumers, there are potential security concerns. The primary concerns of shopping online are safety and privacy. Customers enter personal information to websites such as their names, address, and most importantly their credit card numbers. Who knows where our personal data is actually going, and what it is being used for. With more frequent cyber attacks, retired Navy Admiral Michael Mullen believes, "The single biggest existential threat that's out there, is cyber" (5). As the use of e-commerce increases, the security of the internet and these websites must increase as well. Criminals should not even have a chance of getting our most important data. Companies should not have the right to use and manipulate our data in the most unethical ways. These security concerns could be solved with stronger network firewalls, transparent company policies, and proactive online policing of the internet. Consumers can also be safe and secure on the internet if they make smart choices, and visit reputable websites. 

In conclusion, Electronic Business is great. It opens the doors to so many opportunities, and business ventures. One thing that has to be in the back of our heads, however, is security. This industry will only continue to grow.

Sources

1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_business

2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revenue_model#E-commerce_model

3) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_business

4) http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/4872-what-is-e-commerce.html

5)http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/michael_mullen.html

Spreadsheet Lab

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1i-ryfJo985YNqgs5AMSFfJRrF59l_0dINDUQvCfWfNQ/edit?usp=sharing

For this lab, I first set up my rows and collumns with the appropriate labels. I then filled in my products, and their cost. After filling in the products I added their cost, revenue, and profit. I used a formula to help calculate the profit by subtracting the revenue from cost. Then I created an inflation section, and set it at 1.03. Another column was created for cost with inflation, and profit with inflation. Cost with inflation was calculated by using an absolute reference formula locking the inflation rate with a "$" and multiplying the cost by the inflation rate. Additionally the profit with inflation was created by subtracting cost with inflation with revenue. 

To make the spreadsheet visually appealing, I centered all data labels, added borders, and a chart to highlight the difference between the cost with and without inflation. 

Networking: Cellular and Home

In 2016, we are all connected to the internet one way or another. We all have pieces of technology that connect to the internet. What many don’t know are the differences in mobile and home based internets. Our smartphones, for example, are connected to the mobile internet through cell towers. Our laptops, desktops, etc is connected through the traditional Internet.

Typical mobile types of the internet include 3G, 4G, and Long-term Evolution (LTE). These types of technologies connect through waves and establish a connection with the nearest cell tower. The smartphone emits different frequencies that are picked up and connects the mobile device to the internet. Common cellular network providers range from AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint, and others. These companies own parts of a cell tower that smartphones and other mobile devices connect to. The positives of cellular connections are there on the go connectivity with relatively fast data speeds. The drawbacks of cell connections are that the servers can be overwhelmed with users decreasing data speeds and increasing ping times, and the connection is not in every place of the United States. As the years go by, and new evolutions of wireless technology come out, the connections become much more reliable. Wikipedia writes that the next generation (5G) should be out in 2020 with faster speeds, better coverage, and lower latency compared to 4G LTE (1).

At home, and in businesses, connecting to the internet is different. More hardware devices are involved in land based internet. Typically you have a central piece of equipment such as a laptop that connects via WiFi to your router. The router is not the end point. The wireless router connects via a modem that communicates with the main servers. A residential service provider such as Verizon Fios uses a newer technology called fiber optic communication compared to cable internet companies using copper coaxial cables. Fiber optic communication according to Wikipedia is, “a method of transmitting information from one place to another by sending pulses of light through an optical fiber. The light forms an electromagnetic carrier wave that is modulated to carry information.” (2). Using fiber optics from Verizon compared to cable’s coaxial provides a faster, more reliable connection. Comparing both fiber and cable to cellular data is an interesting topic. You can do more with a traditional connection such as setting up an intranet, workgroups, advanced file sharing, and more. The residential internet setup also provides a much more stable connection compared to cellular because the connection is hard wired, and you can use as much data as you want. Cons to a tradition internet connection are that it is stationary, and you can only use the internet in the location that you are subscribed.

1.       https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5G

2.       https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiber-optic_communication

3.       http://fios.verizon.com/fios-cable.html

Database

In my personal and professional experience, I use a government construction database called Mitchell Humphrey. Their mission statement is, “Mitchell Humphrey takes great pride in being a “solution provider” and not just a “software vendor” (1). This database is used by borough construction departments to keep track of crucial information. For my job, it is my primary responsibly to maintain this database, keep it working smoothly, and keeping data current. Types of data stored include but is not limited to the following: homeowner information, contractor information, job types, violations, construction costs, revenue, and much more data. This database is a software tool installed on computers which gathers stored data from hard drives located on the main server. Databases such as this are important because according to Dr. Robert Latek, databases are important because it is, “efficient manipulation of large data sets” (2). The Mitchell Humphry database takes gigabytes of information daily and stores it on the server, and is capable of making the recall of that data, later on, a painless process. Without the database, it is quite likely the data would get disorganized, and lost. There is an interesting approach to a database I found, “…The relational database, a tabular database in which data is defined so that it can be reorganized and accessed in some different ways” (3). I wasn’t too familiar with these types of databases and was quite interested when I came across them. Mitchell Humphrey is much like a tabular database with its construction related data.

Answers toQuestions

1. What specific challenges does your database system implementation have?
There are a few challenges that Mitchell Humphrey’s implementation has in 2016. First off, it is become rather dated quickly. The most current operating system our database can run on is Windows 7. While Windows 7 is not bad, companies and governments might start to migrate to Windows 10 and Mitchell Humphrey does not have any data or support for Windows 10 yet.

2. In what ways does it provide competitive advantage for the organization using it?
There is a competitive advantage of using Mitchell Humphrey at my job. For starters, it has been a reliable database and software tool for us since 1995. With so much data, time, and knowledge invested in this database, it helps provide an edge when it comes time to input and recall data.

3. What improvements would you suggest?
My main suggestion for the database is to update it. Mitchell Humphrey has been a proven database for my job since the 90’s, and it is time to expand the capabilities. Moving from hard disk servers to the cloud would be a nice way to update the storing of data. I would also suggest the UI be updated because it does look like a 1990’s interface. Along with updating the UI, I would suggest that compatibility of the database be expanded to Windows 8.1 and Windows 10.

 Links
1) http://www.mitchellhumphrey.com/services/
2) http://jura.wi.mit.edu/bio/education/bioinfo-mini/db4bio/lecture1.pdf
3) http://searchsqlserver.techtarget.com/definition/database