Transactional E-commerce Site

The transactional site is a website that is popular for those who like to shop online. It is a website with an electronic storefront for a brick-and-mortar retailer or a catalog business. Besides that, it is also a manufacturer showroom for those who wish to sell their products to the public directly. This type of website has provided various types of services for them to compete in the markets such as allow the customers to search for, order, and pay for the products online. Some of these websites even offer the after-sales service to the customers. Among these sites, Amazon.com is the most famous and successful transactional site in the world.

In Malaysia, there are various types of local transactional e-commerce sites that are available to the public. The lelong.com.my is a local transactional e-commerce site that we would like to introduce this week. The lelong.com.my is a website that starts to operate at the end of 1998 and it is a website that provides online shopping and online auction services to all Malaysians. The mission of this website is “Serving the community and bringing a high standard of quality into homes and businesses by providing an avenue for on-line trading at a low cost”. The reasons for the success of lelong.com.my is the website will accept any types of products to sell or bid online whether there are used or new items. Moreover, their track record for selling items is extremely good with approximately 70% of all items posted for auction on the site are sold.

There are more and more local e-commerce transactional sites that can be found in the Internet. This is due to the increasing number of computer users, as well as wider coverage of broadband access and people are more willing to stay at home instead of going out shopping. This type of website is convenient and easy to use for the public. So, there will be increasing profitability and opportunities for these online transactional websites in future.

http://www.lelong.com.my/Auc/help/details.asp?productid=121

http://www.export.gov/sellingonline/typesofsites.asp

E-learning in Malaysian Universities: Its Pros and Cons from Students' Perspectives

E-learning, or electronic learning is a process that uses digital tools and electronic media like the Internet, CD-ROMs, Software Programs, video conferences and many more which the contents and instructions of the syllabus are transferred digitally. E-learning has been introduced in Malaysia since 1996, by our former Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir, in align with the launching of the Multimedia Super Corridor and the Vision 2020. Now, almost all universities in Malaysia has implemented e-learning besides the formal, usual way of lectures and tutorials. Students can learn and grab their knowledge online, without even attending the classes. Lecturers and students interact with each other online, and the students can get their assignments done online.

What is so different of e-learning from the traditional learning process?

Traditional learning is merely going through books, papers, reading and writing but e-learning makes these processes more interesting by having a more attractive learning website and a 3-D based presentation. With these, I believe that learning is no more a boring task for most of the students.

University students found out that e-learning has a lot of benefits compared to traditional learning.

1. E-learning promotes Individualization—students can learn in their own pace and do not need to worry that they cannot follow up with the whole class. This cannot be done when lectures are carried on in lecture halls. In traditional lectures, the lecturers will need to complete the syllabus within the given time frame and this will be a disadvantage for students who are slower than others.

2. E-learning also helps to save costs—the learning process can be done online, thus help to save money on transport, accommodation fees. Students can just learn at home and stay at home. All they need is to have an Internet service. Besides, they can save time from traveling to the university too.

3. Improved access and flexibility—E-learning is available anytime, anywhere as long as internet services are available. Information can be transferred faster and accessible 24/7. Students will not need to worry on getting their notes late from their lecturers. All they need is to download the notes from the source provided.

4. Improved control and standardization—Besides flexibility, students and lecturers can have better control and standardization on the information shared. All the information will be shared online and the related students and lecturers are able to access it immediately. Students will not need to worry that they will get different information from others.

5. Encourage communication and collaboration—Learning online also improve students’ communicating skills. This will help students who tend to be passive or shy to voice out in class to participate actively in the virtual learning space. They can share their ideas for discussion online rather than keep quiet in class.

6. Demonstrate concepts that are difficult to convey in other medium—Sometimes, an idea can be conveyed more effectively using E-learning instead of using verbal explanations. For example, mind-maps or drawings are more effective to be presented online.

However, there are also certain drawbacks from e-Learning. When the internet connection is slow, students will be unable to download the notes they need immediately. Broadband or internet services are still unavailable in all areas today especially the rural areas. Students who cannot afford to have internet services will have no opportunity to enjoy e-Learning. The transfer of data may also be exposed to potential harms like viruses or hackers. Besides, students’ abilities to interact with people face-to-face will be discouraged.

Those students who are introvert may be more passive when they are facing with people if they rely too much on learning themselves, individually without mixing with other people. Besides, students need to be highly self-disciplined when learning by themselves online.

Although there are disadvantages from e-Learning, it is still a need in the booming electronic advancement today. If this e-Learning is carried out systematically, it is always an effective and efficient study medium. Students should utilize its benefits in order to achieve a more effective result from learning online. I believe our university is still developing and improving its e-learning facilities which will gradually be an essential part for our future education.

References:
1. Wong, D., (2006) Fulltime Students' and Working Adults' Perceptions of E-Learning in Malaysia, Asian Journal of Distance Education, Retrieved 20 June 2009 from http://www.AsianJDE.org

2. Puteh, M.,(2007) E-learning In Malaysian Public Universities:Case Studies of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Retrieved 20 June 2009 from eprints.utm.my/4505/

Corporate Blogging- A New Marketing Communication Tool for Companies

A corporate Blog is a blog that is published by an organization to achieve their goals and objectives. It is a new marketing communication tool for companies. All browsers such as Firefox and Internet Explorer 7 allow readers to view their posts easily without actually visiting the blog. There are many different types of corporate blogs which can be classified into external or internal blogs. External blog allows employees, teams, spokespersons of the organization to share their opinion in corporate blogs. When a company launches a new product, the company will introduce their new product in the external blog. In short, external blog is a publicly available weblog whereas internal blog only allows the organization employees to view its contents. Employees can access the internal blog through the company's intranet. Internet blog is normally used in meetings and allow employees located at different locations to communicate.

Example of various types of corporate blogging

1. Company Blog

Top 5 company blogs

=Google

=Adobe

=Flickr

=Facebook

=Yahoo!Search

2. CEO Blog

Example

=Jonathan Schwartz's Blog

=Randy Tinseth's Blog

3. Industry Blog

Example

=Miller Brewing's Brew Blog


4. Department or product Blog

Example

=Google-Product Blogs

=Microsoft Community Blogs


5. Customer service Blog

Example

=My response to Steve Rubel

=ComcastCaves' response to Arrington and other Comcast users on Twitter


Advantages of corporate blogging

Employers or top managers can communicate or contact with their customers, suppliers, investors and employees directly and easily. It is easier to set up a company blog because it is user-friendly for employer and employees to understand the ways to use and update the corporate blog. Moreover, employees can share their opinion and ideas freely in the blog so that the employers will know what are their employees thinking and their job satisfaction. Thus, it enables companies to achieve their goals quickly. Also, it enables other people to give feedback to the company or leader’s progress and the company and leader can seek for improvement from there. As a result, companies will generate big benefits from it. For example, if the corporate blog has a positive effect and feedback, the company's reputation will increase. This will create a good image for the company. Lastly, employers can spread information quickly in the event of emergency. So, employees, customers, suppliers can know the new information or urgent information quickly.

Disadvantages of corporate blogging

Although corporate blogging has a lot of benefits, there are some disadvantages of corporate blogging. First, corporate blogging is time-consuming for companies to maintain. It needs to take several times and energy to keep new information updated regularly. If companies use too much of time in maintaining their blog, it may lead to increased costs rather than benefits. In addition, corporate blogs require good written communication skills to produce a good post. However, some employees do not have such skills to post. Also, there are many cases of workers being fired because of the opinion they wrote on the blog. This is because employees can freely give feedback on the blog; which is a high probability that the employees will be fired if the employers are unhappy with what they wrote. Lastly, everyone can give feedback or comment on corporate blog, so many stakeholders and employees do not view corporate blogging as a credible source. They may trust more on the announcement given in meetings.

Review (Legal) : Rules on Internet Cafe Soon

Teenagers love to spend their time at the internet café or cybercafés after school or sometimes until midnight. This issue has become a potential problem in Malaysia. Internet café or cybercafé is a place where one can use a computer with internet access by paying a fee per hour or minute or pay unmetered access with a pass for a day or month.

According to the Deputy Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Hamzah Zainuddin, there will be some new guidelines to be enforced soon on internet and cyber cafes in order to control these businesses. Among the new guidelines are all cyber café had to closed by midnight daily and they must be located at least 200 meters away from secondary and primary schools. Besides this, it requires teenagers or children aged 12 and below should go to the cyber cafe accompanied by their parents or guardians and they are only allowed to stay until 10.00 pm.

Hamzah also further explain that cyber cafes were also banned from other co-business activities including having games, gambling, pornography, music, and publications with negative elements. Cigarettes and alcohol also cannot be sold or consumed in the cyber café because it is not good for health.

Furthermore, the cyber cafés are only allowed to operate from the ground floor of the premises and are banned from using tinted glasses in their premises. On the other hand, there must be a book log to record the entry and departure time of the patrons.

With the implementation of the new cyber rules, teenagers will not be able to linger at the cyber cafes freely anymore. The students can concentrate more on their studies and parents can keep an eye on their children so that they will not be influenced by negative elements available from the internet. Potential criminals like gangsterism can be reduced if the time spent on the cyber cafe among teenagers can be reduced. In our opinion, these new rules should be carried out as soon as possible with proper enforcement by the Government and cooperation from the public. With this, the problems arised from cyber cafes can be reduced and solved in the long term.

References
-http://www.china.org.cn/English/BAT/48865.html
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyber_cafe
-http://ecommerze.blogspot.com/search/label/Legal

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

In those days, when you or your parents want to pay bills, pay income taxes, apply for something from the government, you will say it is troublesome. Why will you say so? You need to queue, purchase the form, waited for some time, in terms of hours or days or months to get things done. But today, things have changed. We do not need to travel and waste our time and energy for doing these tasks anymore. Thanks to E-Government that has been implemented since the late 1990s.

Electronic government or e-government is referred to the use of information and communication technologies that provides and improves government services, transactions and interactions with citizens, businesses and other arms of the government. It is implemented since the initiation of Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) by the government of Malaysia. E-government is one of the flagship applications from the MSC project. The objectives are to jump start and accelerate the growth of MSC, enhance national competitiveness to creation of high value jobs and export growth, to help reduce digital divide and to make MSC a regional hub and bed. The implementation of e-government services would bring benefits to public administration and the Malaysian community.

These are the e-government main projects:
1. Generic Office Environment (GOE) - The objective is to introduce a fully integrated, distributed and scalable office environment that leverages use of multimedia technology.
2. Electronic Procurement (ep) - The aims is to re-engineer, automate, and transform current procurement system.
3. Human Resource Management Information System (HRMIS) - It provides a single interface for government employees to perform human resource function effectively and efficiently.
4. Project Monitoring System (PMS) - It is designed to provide a mechanism for monitoring the implementation of government project.
5. Electronic Labor Exchange (ELX) - It improves the mobilization of human resources.
6. E-syariah – It is implemented to focus the improvment of quality or services in syariah courts.
7. Electronic Services Delivery (e Services) – It allows citizens of Malaysia to engage in transactions with government and utilities payments such as telephone and electricity bills.

The current applications of e-government in Malaysia are
-E-Filling
-Renew Driving License online
-E-Judiciary
-E-Perolehan.
-E-Dafter

However, there are some barriers which could affect Malaysia’s government to implement these policies. First are Legislative and Regulatory Barriers. In order for e-government services to gain widespread acceptance, there must have the same standing as the equivalent paper processes and ensuring the privacy and security before advancing the online e-government services. So, it faces confusion over what exactly should be enplaced for good governance of the e-government services.

Besides this, there will also be budgetary framework problem because some government departments does not recognize ICT expenditure as a potential future investment. It is an important issue that government must realize the potential benefits of adopting e-government services to finance government services and shared infrastructure. The budgetary regulations should facilitate coordinated bids for new funds and the pooling of funds. Furthermore, technology changes also are one of the problems. Since technology moves rapidly, it is very difficult to anticipate the future impact in details.

The e-government citizen’s adoption strategies can be increased on its awareness through TV and radio advertisements and organizing workshops at shopping mails. On the other hand, citizens should be encouraged to show higher levels of satisfaction with the online service provided by the government. If the citizens felt unsatisfied with the services, they can give any suggestions and comments to the e-government websites. Moreover, providing the website with multiple language versions is also a helpful tool for implementing e-Government. For example, if some users lack of English language abilities, they can choose alternative languages like Chinese or Malay language to use the e-government services. Besides this, e-government also provides consultation services on how to use these services and the procedures needed to access the e-government services.

References
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-government
http://www.intanbk.intan.my/psimr/articles/Article1%20-%20Full.pdf
http://publications.ksu.edu.sa/Conferences/eGovernment%20Conference/E19.pdf
http://ecommerze.blogspot.com/search/label/e-Government

Applications of Prepaid Cash Cards

Pre-paid cash cards are getting more and more popular nowadays in aligned with the development of e-commerce. With the use of prepaid cash cards, we do not need to bring along too much cash with us, which is an extra security factor that lowers our risks for being robbed in a certain extent. The prepaid cards are quite convenient for use and it is acceptable worldwide. Even students in UTAR now use the debit card to pay for their fees. There are a few prepaid cash cards which are applicable in our daily life, such as debit cards, prepaid mobile phone cards, kiosk cash cards and many others.

‘Prepaid’ means pay in advance, which can be further explained as paying a certain amount of money earlier and the money can be deducted from the card when it is in use.

The most widely used prepaid cash card is the debit cards. These debit cards are normally issued by banks or the debit card companies. Debit cards have money preloaded in the cards and the consumers can use these cards to purchase goods or services either in shopping malls or through online transactions. For example, when consumers are buying goods in shopping malls, they just need to swipe their cards using the card scanner and the money will be transferred straight away to the seller. As for online business or Internet Banking, consumers will need to key in their debit card number and other details in order for the transaction to take place. However, some of the consumers are still concerned with the security of the confidential details when the online transactions take place. This is because the confidential information has the potential to be hacked by hackers.

Another type of common cash card is the mobile prepaid cards. This type of card is to enable consumers to contact with their family and friends when they use the mobile phone services. All we need to do is to purchase the mobile phone cards from the communications services centers and reload it with our mobile ‘SIM’ card. Then, we can use it straight away.

To increase the efficiency of public transport service, Malaysia has introduced the ‘Touch n Go’ prepaid cash card. This card also works the similar way as other prepaid cash cards mentioned above. With this card, consumers will not need to queue for tolls or buying tickets for public transport. It is quicker and more convenient for transport users. This is also applicable in many other countries like Singapore where they use the similar ‘EzLink’ card.

Besides, certain kiosk companies in the United States also use the prepaid kiosk cards to pay for kiosks or fuel. With the use of the kiosk card, consumers can have their self-service on loading fuel. For cyber gamers, the prepaid cards are used to purchase cyber game equipments online. This is also the main attraction for the cyber gamers now. When they need to play games online, they will need to purchase the prepaid game card in order to play the online games with their friends.

Prepaid cash cards are indeed a very convenient and useful item for our daily transactions. With this prepaid card, we can have an immediate transaction and we do not need to worry when we have insufficient cash. Prepaid cash cards also help to plan our finances and avoid us to over-spend. However, one must be much disciplined because some of the consumers may tend to over-spend by swiping their cards uncontrollably. In terms of security, most of the consumers today still prefer the credit cards, which are the cards that are used by charging the consumers with a certain amount of interest after transactions are taken place. This is because debit cards will directly transfer the consumers’ money from the bank to the sellers and this could be risky when the card is lost or fallen into the hands of the robbers. The robbers can use the cards for transactions if the transfer of money is not terminated immediately.

Links:

http://coloradoindependent.com/25154/prepaid-%E2%80%98cash-cards%E2%80%99-a-pricey-way-to-swipe

http://kioskmarketplace.com/article.php?id=16002

http://prepaidcreditcardapplication.info/

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2008/07/prepaid-card-allows-consumers-to.html

Mobile Payment Systems in Malaysia: Its Potentials and Consumers’ Adoption Strategies

Mobile payment is a type of payment that enables consumers to use their mobile phones to pay for the services and digital or hard goods that are consumed by them. It means using a mobile device to conduct a payment transaction in which money or funds are transferred from a payer to a receiver via an intermediary, or directly without an intermediary. There are four primary models for the mobile payments that are available in the market. There are Premium SMS based transactional payments, Direct Mobile Billing, Mobile web payments (WAP) and Contactless NFC (Near Field Communication). Furthermore, this system is widely used in Europe and Asia countries.

Steps in Mobile Payment Systems:

1) Consumers who choose to pay their bills via Mobile Money for the goods and services rendered from participating merchants.

2)Consumer gives his/her mobile number via phone, fax and email to the merchant.

3) Merchant can bill the consumer via IVR, Mobile Money website or SMS.

4) Consumer authorizes the payment by replying the SMS with the Bill Reference Number and customer's 6-digit Security Pins to the merchants.

5) After mobile money received the bank's confirmation, then they will send a payment notification to the merchant as well as the customer.

Mobile payment systems has a significant potential in Malaysia. This is due to the expectation of such system to reach more than $600 billion globally by 2013 from the combined market for all types of mobile payments. Moreover, the mobile payment market for goods and services is expected to exceed $300 billion globally by 2013 which has not included the contactless NFC transactions and money transfers. So, there will be a potential to generate huge profits to the local firms if the system is widely applied in Malaysia.

Besides that, the mobile payment system is not commonly used in Malaysia. So, the market for such system is still at the developing stage and the competition is weak at this point of time. The increasing numbers of mobile phone users is another potential for the mobile payment systems to be widely use in Malaysia.

The first consumers’ adoption strategy that the company carries out to encourage the use of mobile payment systems is to provide incentives for the consumers such as fulfill their needs, make the system to be convenient and easy to use, keep the system in low costs and ensure the system with perceived security. Second, the company co-operates with their competitors in the market. The cooperation can operate within industry (telco-telco) or cross industry (telco-bank). Third, the technology required for mobile payment systems is basically available. In such markets, the existing technology is good enough for the system and the company should improve upcoming technologies for its reliability, speed, costs and security. Next, the companies must ensure that they are complying with (regional) legislation even though there is not yet of any regulation or legal certainty for governing this field.

The use of mobile payment systems in the world is keep increasing in these few years due to the increasing number of mobile phone users. This system is more convenient and easier to use compared with the traditional payment methods. Compared to the advancements in other countries, Malaysia is still in its starting point. We believe that in future, this mobile payment strategy will become more popular as we have mobile phones that enable us to connect to the internet anytime we want. So, this system has a bright future in Malaysia.

Links:

http://www.neowave.com.my/mobilemoney_howitworks.asp

Review on E-tailing: Dell Incorporation Turns to Retail Stores

Dell Incorporation is a worldwide technology corporation which primarily develops, manufactures, sells, and supports personal computers and other computer-related products. The company has become the largest seller of PCs and servers since the company starts to grow during the 1980s and 1990s. The company is currently selling personal computers, servers, data storage devices, network switches, software, and computer peripherals around the world by using a direct-sales model via the Internet and the telephone-network

In 1996, Dell Incorporation began to sell computers to the public through its web site. It is the first company to sell computer online. However, Dell Incorporation opened the first full store, 3,000-square-foot (280 m2) NorthPark Center in Dallas, Texas in 2006. This is because the management of Dell Incorporation attempts to expand the company businesses and cultivate a closer relationship the consumers.

But, the main reason is that Dell Incorporation is confronting with the critical competitions from Apple, Hewlett-Packard (HP), Sun Microsystems, Gateway, Lenovo, Sony, Acer, Toshiba and Asus. So, Dell Incorporation attempts to strengthen their brick-and-mortar presence worldwide with especially in US and Europe. In the year end of 2007, Dell opened its first retail store in Malaysia and it is located at the Mid Valley Megamall's IT World section.

Inside the retail store, there will be various types of products to display and the consumers need not go online to browse or order for the Dell products. This will give the consumers a chance to touch the products on their own and need not wait for few months to receive the products which are ordered via the company’s web site.

Although selling online is a competitive advantage for a company’s business, customers today still prefer to have physical existence of the products when selecting or in the process of purchasing. This is because some of them would like to take a look at the product they need before deciding to buy the product or choose for alternatives. Therefore, in order to be successful in the virtual market space as well as expanding business in the traditional selling world, companies should be able to manage both sides of the markets cost-effectively and efficiently so that they can enjoy more benefits from both methods. However, if the retail stores are not carefully managed, the companies might lose their loyal customers as well.

Electronic Currency

Electronic currency is also known as e-money, electronic cash, digital money, digital cash or digital currency. It refers to the money or scrip which is exchanged electronically. This involves the use of computer networks, internet and digital stored value. Examples of Electronic Currency include Electronic Funds Transfer, direct deposit and others.

Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) provides electronic payments and collections. It is a system of transferring money from one bank account directly to another without any check payment made. Direct Deposit is one of the most widely used methods by employers because it is safe, secure, efficient, and less expensive as compared to used paper check payments. The payroll is deposited straight into an employee’s bank account. EFT can be used for both credit transfers such as payroll payment, and debit transfers like mortgage payments.

Electronic Currency Trading system (ECTS)


ECTS is an electronic currency trading investment platform that offers its clients an efficient way to trade foreign currencies against the strength and weakness of the US dollar. It has a remarkable trading session since January 1, 2008. The current market conditions with the fluctuating US dollar have created volatile trading conditions that are an advantage to ECTS. There has never been a better opportunity to take the best currency trading system in the US today. There are six major currencies of ECTS trading in the world which are Euro, Yen, Australian Dollar, Canadian Dollar, Swiss Franc and British Pound. It attempts to capture longer term moves, and it is not a day- trading system. All currencies are traded on the regulated markets of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. All the exchange fees are done in public.

There are several companies with e-micropayment products such as Bit Pass (bitpass.com), Pay stone (paystone.com), Pay Loadz (payloadz.com) andPeppercoin (peppercoin.com).



Bitpass was one of the online payment systems for digital content and services. The co-founder was Kurt Huang in November, 2005. Besides, it also partnered with major technology and financial services companies such as Microsoft, PayPal, the Royal Bank of Scotland and First Data.

Bit Pass system works similarly to a pre-paid telephone card as like you sign up for the service and put money into your account using a credit card or PayPal, which gives you credit towards the purchase of content.

Bitpass announced that they are shutting down due to "circumstances beyond control," on January 19, 2007. The CEO, Matthew Graves wrote an e-mail to customers and operations were officially closed on January 26, 2007

Links:

http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2003/06/02/electronic-currency-using-sim-access-profile
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_currency
http://www.electroniccurrencytradingsystem.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitPass