Business Intelligence Tools

The solution to the problem of a poor analytical environment in a company with multiple data source, different report writers and lack of analytical tools can be implemented a data warehouse with modern business intelligence software as a front end for the users. The classic data warehouse and business intelligence architecture relies on a repository of quality, integrated data at its core.

Business intelligence can improve corporate performance in any information-intensive industry. Companies can enhance customer and supplier relationship, imp rive the profitability of products and service, create worthwhile new offerings, better manage risk, and pare expenses dramatically, among many other gains.

With modern ETL (extraction, transformation, and loading) tools and most databases vendors now supporting open standards protocols it is finally becoming feasible for companies to implement data-warehouses that can be updated and maintained with relative case.

ETL is the process of pulling data out of sources systems and organizing it in a central data warehouse. The result is a common data, repository, which provides decision makers with endless possibilities for investigating (data mining) and analyzing variances, trends and exceptions. ETL tools greatly improved the overall process of creating a data warehouse.

Because a modern business intelligence solution feeds off a frequently updated data-warehouse that includes detailed information it becomes much more than just a tool for executives (like the old executive information systems, but it can become a tool for any person within the organization or related to it who needs easy and fast access to summarized and detailed information from across the company’s databases. ETL tools remain a major mechanism for creating physical stores of historical data for business intelligence.
Business Intelligence Tools

Web Payment Process

Web payments are quite involved, flowing through a complex network of financial institutions and processes.

The technology has simplified the process, and the proper card credit authorization package provides the gateway for this process.

Most E-commerce systems on the Web involving businesses and consumers (B2C or business to consumer) depend on credit card payment processes.

But many B2B (business to business) E-commerce systems rely on more complex payment processes based on the use of purchase orders. In automatic checking house (ACH) processing directly via the internet instead of paying by paper check promises to speed online payments between businesses.

However both types of E-commerce typically use an electronic shopping cart process, which enables customer to select products from website catalog displays and put them temporarily in a virtual shopping basket for later checkout and processing. The shipping cart functionality not only allows users to add items to their virtual cart but it must follow the user as he trolls the virtual aisles of the store, always just a click away for the user to modify his order.

The payment process is transparent to user of the site, who perceives that they are paying at it. The process appears seamless when a payment is made on-line, in reality a mediating service provider ‘intercept’ payments from users, processes them and charges accounts of the owner of the site when the authorization and transaction are completed.
Web Payment Process 

Navigation process

Hyperspace provided by a hypermedia/hypertext-based resource is generally composed of numerous pages.

Navigation process guides user goes through a serial, multi-step process to complete some complex task.

A process step indicator (navigation bar) is often used to provide an overview to users about where they are and what they need to go through to finish the process.

The navigation process involves making a sequence of the pages, which is called navigation path.

The movement between the various pages is often driven by a local goal called navigation goal to search for the page that fulfills it.

There are three categories of navigation:
Structural navigation: connects one page to another based on the hierarchy of the site; on any page the user expect to be able to move to the page about it and pages below it.

Associate navigation: connects pages with similar topics and content, regardless of their location in the site; links tend to cross structural boundaries.

Utility navigation: Connect pages and features that keep people use the site itself; these may lie outside the main hierarchy of the site, and their only relationship to one another is their function.

In some browsers, users can also navigate through the web by typing only a domain name because the browsers will automatically expand it into a URL that may identified a website.

As websites have grown more complex, discovering the site has often to be followed by a second navigation process to find relevant information or pages within the site.

Many navigation tools provide explicit information, such as a site map, site index, tabs, or hierarchical menu, which also serve this function.
Navigation process

A Personalization and Profiling System

Personalization requires some information about the user’s preferences, needs, goals, and expectations. 

Once a person has gained access to an E-Commerce site, profiling processes can occur that gather data on a person and the website behavior and choices. Profiling enables discovery of interest, person characteristics and preferences.

A specific user profile defines a set of data that is linked to one and only one user and characterizes a content/application domain environment associated with this specific user.

User profiles are developed using profiling tools such as user registration, cookies files, website behavior tracking software, and user feedback.

These profiles are then used to recognize a person as an individual user and provide and provide the person with a personalized view of the contents of the site, as well as product recommendations and personalized Web advertising as part of a one-to-one marketing strategy.

Profiles need to be set-up and maintained in order to offer personalized services and devices.

Profiling processes are also used to help authenticate a person identity for account management and payment purposes, and to gather data for customer relationship management and marketing planning, and website management.
A Personalization and Profiling System