Advancements in E-Business Applications

E-business applications have revolutionized the landscape of modern enterprise operations, fostering seamless communication, efficient collaboration, and streamlined commerce processes. These applications encompass a range of functionalities aimed at enhancing productivity, connectivity, and security within organizations.

Enterprise communication and collaboration applications serve as the backbone of teamwork and coordination within business teams and workgroups. Utilizing the Internet, intranets, and extranets, employees and external consultants engage in electronic communication channels, including email and video conferencing. The objective is to leverage information technology for optimizing productivity and creativity, ultimately leading to more efficient business processes.

Electronic commerce applications play a pivotal role in facilitating transactions across digital platforms. From business-to-business to business-to-consumer interactions, e-commerce websites serve as hubs for buying, selling, and exchanging information. Extranets extend access to inventory databases for larger clients, enhancing the scope of business operations.

However, the adoption of e-business applications necessitates addressing various security concerns. Communication, system, and application security are paramount to safeguarding sensitive information and ensuring the integrity of transactions. Continual advancements in security protocols and technologies are crucial in mitigating potential risks.

Over recent years, significant strides have been made in enhancing the quality and reliability of electronic commerce applications. Major suppliers have invested in robust web infrastructures, offering user-friendly interfaces and reliable services that instill trust among customers. This evolution underscores the importance of maintaining high standards in e-business operations to meet the dynamic demands of the digital marketplace.

Moreover, internal business applications serve to streamline internal processes and operations within organizations. By providing access to critical business information for employees, partners, and customers, these applications drive traffic to e-business infrastructures while imposing stringent security and reliability standards.

For instance, employees may utilize intranet enterprise portals to access benefits information stored within human resource department servers. This exemplifies how e-business applications empower stakeholders with seamless access to vital resources, thereby enhancing operational efficiency and fostering a culture of collaboration.
Advancements in E-Business Applications

Nano-robot

Nanotechnology can best be defined as a description of activities at the level of atoms and molecules that have applications in the real world. A nano meter is a billionth of a meter, that is, about 1/80,000 of the diameter of a human hair, or 10 times the diameter of a hydrogen atom.

Nanotechnology refers to the science and engineering activities at the level of atoms and molecules.

Nano-robots are the robots that are simply known as those controllable machines at the nano meter or molecular scale, composed of nano-components. Nanorobots would constitute any “smart” structure capable of actuation, sensing, signaling, information processing, intelligence, manipulation and swarm behavior at nano scale.

More specifically, nano robotics refer to the still largely hypothetical nanotechnology engineering discipline of designing and building nano robots. Nanorobots are designed to perform a specific task with precision at nanoscale dimensions.

Assembly and realization of nano-robots depend on the principles of molecular nanotechnology and mechanosynthetic chemistry. Nanorobots are programmable assemblies of nanometer scale components constructed by manipulating macro/micro devices or by self-assembly on pre-programmed templates or scaffolds.

Nanorobots have chemical sensors which detect the target molecules. As a response they would emit a power signal proportional to the detected amount. This signal would arrive to a programmed microprocessor which controls the direction and velocity of the nanorobot.

Nanorobots need energy to carry out different manipulations such as propulsion, force, actuation, communication or any other activity in the biological system at nano-scale. This energy can be generated by natural (biological) or artificial (chemical) entities known as molecular motors, which when perform at nano-scale are known as Nanomachines.

Nanorobotics provides novel techniques for exploring the biodomain by manipulation and characterization of nanoscale objects such as cellular membranes, DNA and other biomolecules. Nano tools, sensors and actuators can provide measurements and/or movements that are calculated in nanometers, gigahertz, piconewtons, femtograms, etc., and are promising for molecular machines and bio- and nanorobotics applications.
Nano-robot

Chatbots

Artificial Intelligence (AI) increasingly integrates human daily lives with the creation and analysis of intelligent software and hardware, called intelligent agents.

A chatbot is a typical example of an AI system and one of the most elementary and widespread examples of intelligent Human-Computer Interaction. Developments in AI enhance the abilities of chatbots to mimic human agents in conversation.

A chatbot is an artificial intelligence program and a Human– computer Interaction (HCI) model. It responds like a smart entity when conversed with through text or voice and understands one or more human languages by Natural Language Processing (NLP).

This technology started in the 1960’s; the aim was to see if chatbot systems could fool users that they were real humans.

The purpose of a chatbot system is to simulate a human conversation; the chatbot architecture integrates a language model and computational algorithms to emulate informal chat communication between a human user and a computer using natural language.

Chatbots can mimic human conversation and entertain users but they are not built only for this. They are useful in applications such as education, information retrieval, business, and e-commerce. They became so popular because there are many advantages of chatbots for users and developers too.

In business, chatbots have become so common because they reduce service costs and can handle many customers simultaneously. Chatbots are more friendly and attractive to users than, for example, the static content search in frequently asked questions (FAQs) lists.

Chatbots may serve a number of purposes, such as customer service, social and emotional support, information, entertainment, and tiesthe user to other people or machines.

Chatbots

Data warehouse

The term "Data Warehouse" was first coined by Bill Inmon in 1990. According to Inmon, a data warehouse is a subject-oriented, integrated, time-variant, and non-volatile collection of data. This data helps analysts to take informed decisions in an organization.

A data warehousing is defined as a technique for collecting and managing data from varied sources to provide meaningful business insights. It is a blend of technologies and components which aids the strategic use of data.

A data warehouse is a database, which is kept separate from the organization's operational database. It possesses consolidated historical data, which helps the organization to analyze its business. However, the data warehouse is not a product but an environment. It is an architectural construct of an information system which provides users with current and historical decision support information which is difficult to access or present in the traditional operational data store.

The data warehouse (DW) acts as a central repository of information originating from one or more data sources. Data flows from transactional systems and other relational databases to the data warehouse and generally consist of structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data. This data is loaded, processed and consumed on a regular basis.

The main features of data warehousing can be summarized as follows:
*Easy access to nonskilled computer users.
*Data integration based on a model of the enterprise.
*Flexible querying capabilities to take advantage of the information assets.
*Synthesis, to enable targeted and effective analysis.
*Multidimensional representation to give the user an intuitive and handy view of information.
*Correctness, completeness, and freshness of information.

There are the three types of data warehouse applications.
*Information Processing – A data warehouse allows to process the data stored in it. The data can be processed by means of querying, basic statistical analysis, reporting using crosstabs, tables, charts, or graphs.
*Analytical Processing – A data warehouse supports analytical processing of the information stored in it. The data can be analyzed by means of basic OLAP (online analytical processing) operations, including slice-and-dice, drill down, drill up, and pivoting.
*Data Mining - Data mining supports knowledge discovery by finding hidden patterns and associations, constructing analytical models, performing classification and prediction. These mining results can be presented using visualization tools.

Data warehouse technologies are successfully used:
• Trade Sales and claims analyses, shipment and inventory control, customer care and public relations
• Craftsmanship Production cost control, supplier and order support
• Financial services Risk analysis and credit cards, fraud detection
• Transport industry Vehicle management
• Telecommunication services Call flow analysis and customer profile analysis
• Health care service Patient admission and discharge analysis and bookkeeping in accounts departments
Data warehouse

E-commerce applications

E-commerce is fundamentally transforming every business - corporations, universities, NGOs, media and government. The emergence of electronic and mobile commerce creates numerous business opportunities and applications.

Electronic commerce, defined as the buying and selling of goods and services and the transfer of funds through digital communications includes a wide variety of applications, such as auctions, banking, marketplaces and exchanges, recruiting and retailing.

There are three types of distinguished e-commerce applications i.e. consumer-to-business application, business-to-business application and intra-organizational application.

New technological development such as web services, web processes and semantics have allowed the creation of a new breed of e-commerce applications which can orchestrate cross organizational and distributed services.

One of the examples of e-commerce applications, home shopping, is already in wide used and has generated substantial revenues for many companies ruining e-mails or e-store.

These stores/malls enable a customer to enter on-line stores look at products, try on computerized clothes, see a reflection in the digital mirror and purchase with overnight delivery against credit card billing.
E-commerce applications

Event Notification

Alerting Services or Event Notification Services inform their users about changes that have occurred at information objects. These changes are called events.

Most E-commerce applications are event-driven systems that respond to a multitude of events – from new customer’s first website access, to payment and delivery process, and to innumerable customer relationship and supply chain management activities.

Event notification software works with workflow management software to monitor all e-commerce processes and record all relevant events, including unexpected changes or problem situation.

It lets the user generate e-mail notifications and/or custom scripts in response to an alarm being generated.

Event notification is enabled by creating event notifications rules, which specify the criteria for when an event notification should take place and the actions associated with the event notifications.

The goal of an event notification service system is to distribute information to interested parties in a scalable and efficient way.

It involves a set of event producers and a set of consumers; provides a delivery mechanism so that events generated at producers can flow to consumers whose need the events.

That is why event notification processes play an important role in E-commerce systems, since customers, suppliers, employees, and other stakeholders must be notified of all events that might affect their status in a transaction.

Event Notification service can carry out a selection process to determine which of the published notification is of interest to which if its clients, routing and delivering notifications only to those clients that are interested.
Event Notification

Application specific software

Application programs are generally mass marketed and so the user will have a choice to make.

Application software can be classified into general purpose applications programs and application specific categories.

Program designed of perform specific jobs, such as calculating and executing a company’s payroll, are collectively called application-specific software. This type of software is written to perform specific tasks such as order entry, payroll, stock control, or hospitals appointments.

The software may be designed specifically for one particular company and written for them using a programming language or software such as database management system.

It requires much less time to program and because the programs are debugged by the manufacturer, usually requires much less time in the field to commission.

Programs for specific application can be built into chips and conversely embedded in appliances can be designed to be reprogrammed rather than replaced.

Application-specific software for science and engineering plays major role in the research and development programs of industry and the design of efficient production processes for high quality products.
Application specific software

What is application service provider?

An application service provider is a business that offers multiple customer access to business applications over the network while charging rental or subscription-based fees for services used.

In general, application service provider provides the service and possesses the characteristics of a typical IT organization.

The basic value functions of application service provider is that they rent out technology rather than sell it, get revenues from the sale, and deliver it online, either over the internet or via other private or dedicated networks.

In this sense application service provider hosts the application for its customers on their behalf. In addition, it manages the applications as well as upgrades them whenever new releases become available from the application vendors.

Technically, an application service provider provides browser-based access to it applications over the internet to the employees of its customers. Whenever an employee needs to use an application, the employee invokes a URL, signs on and us the application.

The application service provider business model is service and subscription based. It provides act as service bureaus by renting software to corporations.

The clients of an application service provider pay a fee, depending on the type of application and number of user, to use the application over a wide area network.

It is also possible for the use to rent applications from different application service providers depending on the application needs and the application service provider fees.

The types of software they furnish range from voice messaging, database and payroll processing to e-commerce and customer relationship management for managing Web and voice-based traffic to call centers.
What is application service provider?

E-Business Application

Enterprise communications and collaboration application support communication, coordination, and collaboration among the members of business teams and workgroups.

For example, employees and external consultants on a project team may use the Internet, intranets, and extranets to support electronic mail, and videoconferencing.

The goal of enterprise collaboration systems is to use information technology to enhance the productivity and creativity of teams and workgroups in the modern enterprise.

It will results in more efficient business process.

Electronic commerce applications support the buying and selling of products, services, and information over the Internet and extranets.

Many business uses E-commerce websites for business-to-business and business-to-consumer sales and support, use extranets so large customers can excess the company’s inventory databases.

The applications involve a number of security issues, such as communications security, system security and application security, that have to be solved.

The quality of electronic commerce applications has been constantly improved over the last few years. Especially the major suppliers run web sites that are of noticeable usefulness and are reliable enough to assure the customer’s trust.

Internal business applications of an E-business enterprise support a company‘s internal business processes and operations.

It provide business partners and customers access to business information, creating more traffic for the e-business infrastructure and introducing more stringent security, reliability and availability requirements.

For example, employees may use an intranet enterprise information portal to excess benefits information on a human resource department server.
E-Business Application