Ecomm blogger: July 2009

Review a local, transactional e-commerce site

Posted by KBRE Monday, July 13, 2009 comments (0)

My first visit to this website, it grabs my attention as its layout, color, pictures are attracting me. My flower florist.com is a website which sell flower and gifts. There is a variety of flowers designation for customers to choose accordingly to different occasion and festivals or for other purposes. I have a review on the features of this website, and i would like to share with you about the features.

Type of product

They will provide you a series of product which bring different meaning according to customer wants. For some special days such as anniversary, father's and mother's day, valentine's day and so on, they will help you to design the wrapping as it is meaningful to dedicate to you love one.

Catalog

This the catalog site, it provides the thumbnail photos which the small photo that can be enlarged by clicking on the photo. It also provides the product price below the product features.

However, it do not display a return policy in the page.

Download Speech

The download speech of the website is consider fast and the animation icon is not too much. Therefore it do not required a longer time to run the page.

Site design

"Simple and nice" can be used to describe in this website designation. As i love this concept a lot. In addition, Some of the features are created by flash player and make it more attracting.

Layout

The layout is smooth and tidy, the arrangement is follow sequent and in categories. So the users will easily get what they need and it is nice to view. There is one thing that i am very interesting which is the icon on the heading bar. It is aesthetic and easy be recognized , people will easily get the meaning from that icon.

Availability of search engine

Search engine can access a database of the Internet resources, search for specific information or keywords, and report the results. While search engine is available in this website and users search by keywords or by code.

Shopping cart

It is an order-processing technology that allows customers to accumulate items they wish to buy while they continue to shop. Shopping also available in this website where it shows as below.

Cash Out Features

This site provided information of payment option such as payment by credit card for Master Card and Visa, direct Bank-In, payment by mail (cheque, bank draft, money order) or third party fund transfer (Maybank2u.com).

Security

The company provides the buyer with information as to how the buyer's information is secured and how it will be used in the future. The information of protecting customers privacy is available in this website. Moreover, customers can access to their human contact by telephone and street address.

Navigation Bar

The navigation bar is on the top of the page and it has attached with some pictures with the bar to make it more interesting.

As a consequences, i have a nice journey to exploit this website and it had gained me more knowledge of transactional e-commerce site by study on it.

Prepared by Wong Chuan Chi

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E-Government in Malaysia: Its implementation so far and citizen's adoption strategies.

Posted by KBRE Saturday, July 11, 2009 comments (0)

Various countries including Malaysia are implementing electronic government which also known as 'e-government'. The initiation of e-government was initiated by the introduction of Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) in 1996. Using e-government, it will improve the accessibility and quality of interactions with citizens and businesses. Simultaneously, information flow and processed improved the quality of policy development and as well the coordination and enforcement.

7 main projects which is the core of E-government applications:

1. Generic Office Environment (GOE)

2. Electronic Procurement (eP)

3.Human Resource Management Information System (HRMIS)

4. Project Monitoring System (PMS)

5. Electronic Services Delivery (eServices)

6. Electronic Labor Exchange (ELX)

7. Electronic Labor Exchange (ELX)

Under these seven pilot projects, it is divided into three categories:

i) Government to Citizens
ii) Government to Businesses
iii) Government to Government

Government to Citizens (G2C)

1) Electronic Services Delivery (eServices)

Now everyone can conduct transactions without going through queuing, traffic jams or any bureaucratic hassles as they can conduct transactions at their own wish and convenience through various convenient channels such as eServices kiosk and Internet. Examples of e-services includes Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) and Telekom Nasional Berhad (TM).

2) Electronic Labor Exchange (ELX)

ELX is a one stop-centre for labor market information that supervised by Ministry of Human Resource (MORH) that enables employer and job seekers to communicate at the same platform with the objectives of:

Enabled an effective and integrated job matching process
Provide an effective center of labor market information and references
To improve mobilization of the nation's human resources and to ensure the manpower utilization is optimized.

3) E-Syariah

This is the seventh project under e-government. A case management system that integrates the processes related to management of cases for the Syariah Courts. And, the objectives are:

To improve the quality of services of Syariah Courts
To improve the effectiveness of JKSM (Jabatan Kehakiman Syariah Malaysia) in coordinating jurisdiction and supervising related agencies under its
To upload the splendors of Islam through the use of ICT (Information Communication Technology)

Government to Businesses (G2B)

1) E-procurement

E-procurement system enables suppliers to sell goods and services to the Government through Internet. Suppliers advertise their pricing, process orders and deliveries. The objectives includes:

Enables accountability and transparency
Creates more skilled and knowledgeable workforce
Equips the workforce with the latest technology at minimum cost

2) Generic Office Environment (GOE)

A fully customized web-based with powerful document and office management solution that enables users to effectively and efficiently manage their office environment with the objectives of:

Efficient preparation and storage documents
Fast search and retrieval of documents
Effective and productive collaboration and sharing of information
Secure and traceable access to documents

Government to Government (G2G)

1) Human Resource Management Information System (HRMIS)

HRMIS is integrated for the Malaysian Public Service , incorporating Global Best Practices in HR that allows Public service successfully deal with with the challenges of the K-Economy. The objectives are:

Effective Staffing and right-sizing of civil service
Improve paperless HRM capabilities
Open and flexible system
Automated human resource managerial and operational processes

2) Project Monitoring System (PMS)

Online system that monitors the entire lifecycle of national programs. The objectives includes:

To support and monitor entire lifecycle of Malaysia's 5-year development program
To have quality projects
To provide a platform for exchanging ideas and demonstrating best practices models in project implementation

Citizen's adoption strategies

Government should increase the awareness and gain as much attention as possible from the citizens for the services provided in e-government. A higher level of customer satisfaction will increase the rate of e-government adoption which moving the same way with the government. Satisfaction can obtained by providing a better protected privacy and confidentiality of the user's information.
Other than that, to retain a long-term users to use e-government frequently, service quality should be competitive with the other developed country in terms of speed, problem serving approach and ease of use of the website.

Lastly, e-government must be advertised through suitable medium such as radio or television. workshop can be held to create awareness on the existence of e-government as this services provides problem solving as they are all full-focus in providing the best services to its citizens.

More information:
1) http://www.intanbk.intan.my/psimr/articles/Article1%20-%20Full.pdf

2) http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTINFORMATIONANDCOMMUNICATIONANDTECHNOLOGIES/EXTEGOVERNMENT/0,,menuPK:702592~pagePK:149018~piPK:149093~theSitePK:702586,00.html

3) http://www.w3.org/2007/06/eGov-dc/papers/SecureEGovernmentPortals

Prepared by Wong Kai Lei.

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Corporate Blogging: A new marketing communication tool for companies.

Posted by KBRE Tuesday, July 7, 2009 comments (0)

Corporate blog is published and used by an organization to reach its organizational goals. The advantage of blogs is that posts and comments are easy to reach and follow due to centralized hosting and generally structured conversation threads.

Currently, corporate blogging is being used as a new marketing communication tool for companies. A corporate weblog is published and used by an organization to reach its organizational goals. Corporate blogs also giving established companies the ability to connect with their audience on a more personal level, build trust and collect valuable feedback that will help the company for the future use.

There are two types of blog which are internal blog and external blog.

Internal blog is normally accessed through company intranet and viewed by the employees within the organization. Using this way, it can help the employees to communicate with each others and share their experiences. Other than that, it also helps communication between different layers of management because every employees have their own freedom to discuss whatever topic together which they called it as a forum.

External Blog is a blog that can be viewed by public where people can live their comments or give their direct feedback through the blog. By using this external blog, companies can communicate with the clients, employees, the media, prospective employees and customers. Apart from that, corporate organization can conduct communication to public relations by posting press releases and updates about a new company products and services on the blog. By other means, corporate blogging has become a platform of direct communication between corporate organizations with outsiders which can build a better relationship with customer.

Although there are benefits, but there are still limitations of corporate blogging:

1) Negative comments
Companies are often sensitive to criticism. Negative comments from the outsiders can be offset or deleted by the company somewhat with a consistent and clear communication and moderation policy.

2) Neglect
When a blog had set up, companies should spend some time and incur cost to maintain and update their blogs regularly.

3) Misunderstanding the audience
The blog audience is not the same as the company's typical customer base, as blog readers are universally more tech-savvy, up-to-date on industry news, and more passionate about the company's products and the organization, and also likely to be highly critical of dishonesty and insincerity.

Therefore, companies that participate in blogging should manage their blogs well and effectively to bring benefits to the companies.

Additional information:
1) Corporate blogging guidelines
2) Corporate blogging policy

Prepared by Wong Kai Lei.

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Electronic currency

Posted by KBRE comments (0)

Electronic currency refers to money or script that is exchanged electronically in which it also can be known as e-money, electronic cash, digital cash or digital currency. Normally, it involves the use of computer networks , Internet and digital stored value systems.

Electronic or digital money is a system of debits and credits that used to exchange their values within another system either online or offline. Electronic money can use to refer to the provider itself. For example, private currency may use gold to provide extra security such as Gold currency and private organization such as US military use private currencies such as Eagle Cash.

Electronic currency, Perfect Money in particular is wide all over the world. This currency is easy in use in which it does not need any bills, checks or any other bank documents. How convenience is this electronic currency?

Internet users often choose to pay municipal services or buy something from Internet shops and pay through electronic currency. Adding, research shows many companies whose employees do not work in offices prefer electronic payment system. Thus, an employee does not need to go office every month to pay any bills.

Ways in using this system includes send money online through account to insert funds into e-currency and make purchases online, or pay any community services. These functions make one's life easier and more comfortable.

Another benefits of e-currency is the ability to store electronic money in the account at the same time percents which will cover all the inflation cost. In other meaning, if one keeps money in several currencies, the cost of inflation will disappear and without any actions, one can earn a good profit.

In conclusion, e-currency is a flexible tools. Money will be easier to lend to friends at the distance, to pay purchases on Internet or make any own businesses. In addition to that, the processing fee is much cheaper then the cost of processing traditional money, credit cards and checks!!

Additional information:
1) Benefits of e-currency trading
2) Latest business updates

Prepared by Wong Kai Lei.

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Restaurant Reservation Go Online

Posted by KBRE Monday, July 6, 2009 comments (0)

Review post: OpenTable.com-Online Restaurant Reservation

Just have a review on this post and just wonder that there is a such wonderful way in making us more convenient for reservation before out of the dinner. OpenTable is developed at 1999 and currently there are 7000 high-end restaurant around the world using this system and more than 10,000 customers throughout the United Stated, Canada, Mexico, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain and Japan.

We may have a discussion about the online reservation in Malaysia. Is there any familair online reservation that you know? Hotel online reservation for booking rooms and Airline ticket booking are most familiar online reservation. Airline ticket would be the shopping rush while there is a low fare promotion, those people will online booking one year before the flight date. Cinema online booking also be fond of many young people for booking their seat.

Now let us have an overview of OpenTable.com and get more understanding about what it is. OpenTable is the leading supplier of reservation, table management and guest management software for restaurants. There is a popular website for making restaurant reservations online, http://www.opentable.com/. Once this website developed, it really provides a fast and efficient way to find available tables that meet desired criteria for cuisine, price and location at a specific time. While it is free for any reservation and it save time in stead of making reservation by calling or step in shop. Moreover, the website is directly connected to the thousands of computerized resevation systems at OpenTable restaurants. This service has real benefit as it allow people to make reservation at anywhere anytime. If making by phone call, normally it required calling during business hour. It is also convenient for cancel the booking while just a one click-cancellation features.

With this kind of e-commerce business model, can it be implemented in Malaysia espeacially for high-end restaurants in Kuala Lumpur? From my perpsective, if this business model implement in Malaysia restaurant industry, it would be very successful as some other industries have already implemented e-tailing system and getting a good feedback. The dominant services is one of the way to improve customer services. Nomatter how, invest in this business model require a huge amount of investment as the installation of the software and maintenance fees have spend a huge amount of money in the system. There must the investors who are willing to invest in. If this model is successful to implement in Malaysia, i think it would get a great response among the public.

Sources from:

http://www.opentable.com/info/aboutus.aspx
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/18/business/18opentable.html?pagewanted=2&ei=5087%0A&amp;amp;amp;amp;em&en=da558114de0633ec&ex=1182312000
http://ecommerze.blogspot.com/search/label/e-Tailing

Prepared by Wong Chuan Chi

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Credit card debts: Causes and Prevention

Posted by KBRE Saturday, July 4, 2009 comments (0)

Credit card is a small plastic card issued to the holder by a bank or financial institution entitling its holder to buy goods and services based on the holder's promise to pay for these goods and services. It is working on a buy first pay later system, that's why it enables consumers to buy goods and services on a credit term with an interest rate as a charges to pay off later. It is true that everyone will at least have a credit cards in his or her wallet nowadays, especially for the youngsters and teenagers. Majority of us will choose to pay by credit cards during online shopping and online transaction. Credit cards can be a great tool but all too often we find we have spent more than we can manage to pay back. This is especially true when we have multiple credit cards and lose track of how much we owe on each of them. Nowadays, credit card debts are major cause of bankruptcies each year. It is because majority of the people are unable to pay back that they have spent to the company. Therefore, debt accumulates and increases via interest and penalties.

HOW DID CREDIT CARD DEBTS OCCUR ?

1) Unemployment
This can be considered as a main reason why everybody is under credit card debts pressure. Obviously, nowadays unemployment rate is quite high, especially for the fresh graduates. Recent research shows that 80%~ 90% of the fresh graduates are under unemployment. Most of them still need to spend though they are unable to secure a job, due to this reason , their alternative is to withdraw via credit cards rather than cash in hand. This may lead to a rise in debt when expenses are not cut down in line with the reduction in income.

2) Divorce
Fees that must spend for divorce such as attorney, division of assets between husband and wife, proceeds given to children are the way to cluster up huge debts by using credit card if it is the gap between the expenses and income. Moreover, it will lead to reduction in income because divorce may force some people to quit their job and to have a walk in other countries.

3) Poor financial management
Poor financial management is one of the best reasons that why so many families have accumulated many credit card debts. It is because people are unaware to conduct a monthly spending plan and do not keep track of monthly bills. They have never realized their spending on the items that are useless and do not have any value in their life. This bad habit can be seen in most of our lifestyle. Moreover they just keep on spending without any saving .Thus, it has lead to a rise in debts by over using credit cards.

4) Expensive medical expenses
Credit card will probably become one of the useful sources of funds to pay off the medical expenses if health insurance is not adequate to cover the medical bills when one of your family members suffers serious illness.

5) Gambling
Gambling has become part of entertainments in our life. It can be a fun if we are not so addictive to it, but once it becomes addictive, it is hard to stop. Thus, it will surely lead to a financial problem if borrowing money through credit card for gambling.

HOW TO ELIMINATE CREDIT CARD DEBTS ?

1) Making a budget
We can attempt to create clear budget and stick on it that includes monthly bills, food, clothes, entertainment and miscellaneous expenses will prevent from overspending and fall under deeper debt load. Furthermore, we can do a shopping list state down the things that we need to buy and compare to our budget to ensure that it does not over budget.

2) Self control and discipline
One of the best practices is to have a direct set up so that able to pay back the full amount each month and use in emergencies. Thus, self control and discipline are requested to keep these cards in wallet and would not overspend. Moreover, we must have an awareness of the credit card debts and starts to spend less in order to stay away from financial crisis.

3) Stop using credit cards
The credit card users need to stop using credit cards, unless it is an urgent situation. The smart card user only uses the card in place of cash, or to obtain a purchase they can afford. Once the user has reduced credit card debt, they can stop worrying about falling deeper into debt.

4) Use your own saving
In my opinion, this is the best way to get rid of credit card debts. Try to purchase goods or services that are affordable by using our own saving, that is cash in hand. This is the most secure and the best method as we does not need to bear a liability once our payment is cleared. Therefore, attempt to purchase our needs in term of cash if it is possible, you can see the changes as well.

Generally, there are many ways in reducing credit card debts. Though the key point is to start spending less and merely purchase items that does not goes against the finanacial boundaries and attempt to avoid from using credit cards as long as you can.

Phishing: Examples and its prevention method

Posted by KBRE Friday, July 3, 2009 comments (0)

Phishing refers to the act of tricking people into revealing sensitive or private information. It is an e-mail fraud method in which the phisher sends out legitimate-looking email in an attempt to gather personal and financial information from recipients. Basically, phishing come from those well-known and trustworthy website such as PayPal, eBay, Yahoo, MSN, BestBuy, and America Online so that recipients would not suspect the incoming sources. Phishing attacks generally target on bank information, username, social security numbers, and password information.

Let's have a look on some of the phishing example:

This is an example of a phishing scam targeting Washington Mutual Bank customers. This phish claims that Washington Mutual Bank is adopting new security measures which require confirming ATM card details. As with other phishing scams, the victim is directed to visit a fraudulent site and any information entered on that site is sent to the attacker.

This is a phishing mail from the Charter One bank. This phishing email also pretends to be working to preserve the safety and integrity of online banking. The email also includes the Charter One logo in an attempt to gain reliability and trusty from customers.

Here is another example of a phishing scam targeting SunTrust bank customers. The email warns that the account may be suspended if customers failed to comply with the instructions stated in the statement. The phishers uses the SunTrust logo again which they can simply copied from the real banking site.

PayPal and eBay were two of the earliest targets of phishing scams. This PayPal phishing scams tries to trick recipients by claiming that someone 'from a foreign IP address' attempted to login to your PayPal account, the mail urges recipients to confirm their account details through the link provided at the bottom of the ststement. Once the recipients click on the link provided, it will actually takes the recipient to another unrelated website.

This is another phishing email from eBay website. It urges the eBay member to login and verify the charges due to a billing error that have been conducted previously. In order to make it more reliable, attacker attaches the eBay logo with it.

How To PREVENT Phishing?

In this technology era, phishing can occurs in different manner at anytime and at anywhere. Although complete prevention is impossible, there are several ways to prevent form it.

1) NEVER EVER Click on the hyperlinks provided within the email

You should never ever click on the links that is provided if you are doubt of the email sources. You can do it in an alternative way by directly type in the URL in the Internet browser address bar or call the company on a verified contact number.

2) Always look for "https" and a padlock on a site that requests personal information

Information entered on an Internet Web Site can be intercepted by a third party. Thus, when submitting sensitive financial and personal information through Internet, look for the locked padlock on the Internet browser's status bar or the “https://” at the start of the URL in the address bar. Although there is no absolute guarantee of the site's security, by not doing so, the site is definitely unsecure.

3) Use Anti-phishing software

Phishing Blaster is an Anti-Phishing software that monitors the incoming emails and web pages that might be phishing. Phishing Blaster provides one-step access to the security features that keep your computer safe and blocks phishing scams as it is being updated regularly in order to be more effective. The advantage of this anti software is that it is able to recognize phishing emails pretending to come from eBay, PayPal, Amazon and hundreds of other financial institutions. It benefits consumer from being tricked.

4) Educate Yourself on Fraudulent Activity on the Internet

The best way to avoid from becoming a phishing scam victim is to use your best judgement. None of the financial institution with any sense will email and ask you to input all your sensitive and private information. In fact, most institutions are keep on reminding and informing customers that “We will NEVER ask you for your personal information through phone or email” as the information is private and confidential. So, be SMART whenever you received a phishing mail, definitely you will not be attacked.

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