The IDL Group.

University Degree Business and Administrative studies

IT311 ELECTRONIC COMMERCE

Semester 2 Course Work (2004)

ALISTAIR COURAGE

ECOMMERCE APPLICATION

Word Count: 4222

INTRODUCTION

The IDL Group was established in 1993 to provide advisory, applied research, training and project management services to international development agencies and partner institutions throughout the world. IDL is a private sector international development consultancy and has considerable experience in the areas of policy and institutional reform, sector reform, decentralised service delivery, sustainable livelihoods, research management, organisational change management, programme and project cycle management, and the design and implementation of training.

The group works for the major bilateral and multilateral aid agencies and their government partners, as well as NGOs, research institutes, universities and private sector clients. Their main competitors are Oxford Policy Management, HTS Development, ITDG, and academic institutions such as the Universities of Sussex and Bradford.

Through consultation with the Programme Support Officer and the Design, Marketing and Communications Manager it has been established that serious benefits could be gained from the implementation of a B2E solution within the operation to secure project work from their clients.

The Problem

The IDL group regularly bid for work as advertised on the Department for International Development website. This requires submitting an expression of interest in a particular piece of work and then later submitting a tender. When bidding for work the company is required to produce evidence of a particular skill or experience that they have in line with the project they are attempting to secure. The current system requires the support staff and other members of the team to search through over 300 project files that are stored either as hard copies in the office or as files on the company’s hard drives. The Managing Director and other members of the team have recognised that this is very costly in worker hours and is inefficient in a process which needs to be well-organized and accurate when trying to select and acquire the right project over their competitors. Previously, the IDL group did not regularly bid for work as they would often have heard of work by word of mouth or through friends and colleagues. However recent changes in the market now require the submission of more expressions of interests and tenders to bid for work. The IDL group needs to be able to respond to this change with greater efficiency in submitting bids and expressions of interest on a more regular basis.

The Proposed Solution

In order to improve this situation a database solution should be implemented that allows employees working on the bid for contracts to access all previous project work through a search facility. The search facility would permit personnel to type in, for example, ‘social development’ and then all projects conducted by the company in this area would be displayed providing immediate retrieval of evidence and examples to offer to the client in support of the bid. The system in mind for this project is FileMaker Server 7; the database would be located on the group’s Intranet, accessible to all consultants and administration staff and would serve to dramatically reduce costs by diminishing the time required to ‘trawl’ through the hundreds of project files manually. Benefits would also be gained through a more professional, efficient approach to the bid process helping to secure the right type of project over the company’s competitors.

This project will be aiming to introduce FileMaker Server 7 and highlight some of the alternative solutions for comparability, explore its implementation into theIDLgroup including hardware/software requirements, show how its use will reduce company costs, and to highlight any issues that could arise from its operation (security, privacy, usability, legal issues etc.).

BACKGROUND RESEARCH

It is important when considering a business solution of any kind, ecommerce or otherwise, to understand the theory that drives the development of such solutions. With this knowledge an organisation may be empowered with the best approach to realising maximum benefit from, what is most often, a costly investment.

Right back to when the first IT systems were developed as back office systems being used in an effort to improve productivity, up to today where the uses of IT are fundamental to business operation and the options are complex and wide-ranging, there have been studies conducted and theories developed – so much so that it can be hard to research information that is specific to one particular area but, somewhat ironically, with the use of the right IT system, it is possible to refine the search to yield some useful results.

Often some of the most useful finds come from within a report that does not necessarily appear, at first glance, to be concerned with the particular area of interest. A study by Elizabeth Daniel and Hugh Wilson (2002) entitled ‘Adoption intentions and benefits realised: a study of e-commerce in UK SMEs’ offered-up some very useful analysis particular to the area this report is seeking to cover – Business to Employee solutions. The study itself was not focused on this specific area but nonetheless uncovered some valuable data.

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Figure 1. Plot of adoption intentions and benefits realised

Figure 1 (above) taken from the study illustrates how well a company performs within a particular area in an ecommerce context compared to how much importance they place upon that area. Activities above the linear trend line can be considered as “over-performing”, that is performing better than required for the perceived level of importance.

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Figure 1. Plot of adoption intentions and benefits realised

Elizabeth Daniel and Hugh Wilson revealed through their research that the area where firms believed that they were realising greatest benefit from ecommerce was in improved knowledge sharing among staff; SMEs are Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, a category which theIDLgroup fits into, making the findings of the study all the more relevant. It was shown that despite the smaller size of the firms within the study, these firms believed that they had realised significant benefits from such applications. Good news in the context of this report as the ecommerce solution proposed specifically seeks to address the issue of poor access to company information in the form of knowledge, skills and experience already gained from project work previously conducted.

The findings of the study suggest “that this activity may be relatively simpler for firms to achieve benefits from than other ecommerce activities. It can therefore provide the opportunity for “a quick win”, a factor that has been positively associated with the adoption of IS in business (Wilson et al., 2002). Firms should therefore consider the development of such internal communication systems, such as e-mail and intranets, as starting point for their e-commerce developments.”

The same study states: “It should be noted when considering the benefits arising from e-commerce that few companies, even large companies, have yet developed effective measures for their e-commerce developments … It would therefore seem that firms at present are likely to be judging the benefits arising from their e-commerce developments highly subjectively”.

Figure 2

Figure 2, above (taken from Business Information Systems, Dave Chaffey 2003) shows the relationship between Intranets, Extranets and the Internet; it is useful to help understand which parties have access to information that is held in the various systems of a business and also touches on a point that will be brought in as an area to consider for further development later on – Extranets.

In opposition to earlier comments concerning the finding of useful information, it is also true that a study which one might believe, from its title, will offer a wealth of information specific to the desired field of research actually offers very little at all. A study produced by two professors and two doctoral students at the National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan (see bibliography and references) entitled ‘Measuring satisfaction with business-to-employee systems’ turned out to approach the subject from an angle that proved of little use in the context of this report; it did however highlight one or two useful points that can be easily transferred:

“3.5. Interface

Consumers preferred fast, uncluttered, and easy-to-navigate sites (Eighmey & McCord, 1998; Smith, 2001). These characteristics are similar to pleasurable shopping experiences which will enhance overall satisfaction. Information quality, response time and system accessibility are considered important variables for measuring information system success (Delone & McLean, 1992; Lin & Lu, 2000; Seddon, 1997). Moreover, ease of use has been used as a criterion to evaluate Websites (Smith, 2001).

“3.6. Accuracy

Accuracy is one of the five factors in Doll and Torkzadeh’s (1988) EUCS. Business- to-employee systems, like other information systems, must be accurate to satisfy users. Error-prone systems create dissatisfied users and turn them away.”

So how can these points be transferred? Well, although they are looking specifically at consumer services available to staff on a company intranet, the rules apply just as well to any interface that a person might have to use. Therefore it can be read that our users will want a fast, uncluttered and easy to navigate database that is accurate and not error-prone to make their experience efficient, pleasurable and to avoid deterring them from taking advantage of its benefits.

An article taken from the Computer Weekly website () highlights the bottom-line for all businesses looking to stay ahead of the game: “To keep pace with e-business, organisations need to build intelligent integration into their IT infrastructure … the method of achieving this integration has changed. The focus has switched from being application-centric to taking into account the wider needs of the business - a trend that Butler Group has described as "intelligent integration". In practical terms, this new approach includes more flexible and automated links to legacy applications, and the creation of a broader integration framework that supports business-to-business (B2B), business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-employee (B2E) interactions”.

FILEMAKER SERVER 7 AND ITS ALTERNATIVES

FILEMAKER SERVER 7

The following information is taken directly from the Vendor’s website; it is the most efficient way of introducing the product and highlighting its main features:

FileMaker Server 7 is high-performance server software that efficiently manages shared database solutions.

With ease-of-use breakthroughs in sharing and administration as well as advanced security features, FileMaker Server 7 gives you easy-to-use, yet powerful features that allow you to:

Share databases with 2 to 250 users
Improve the performance of peer-to-peer database sharing
Host massive amounts of data
Administer databases locally or remotely
Protect your data with additional security features

Share databases with 2 to 250 users

When you're ready to share your FileMaker Pro 7 information, FileMaker Server 7 is ready to go—whether you're a two-person small business or a large corporate workgroup.

Allow 2 to 250 users to simultaneously connect to a hosted database.
Support large workgroups, of more than 250 users, if simultaneous usage of databases is not required because idle users can be disconnected automatically.
Use in a mixed-platform environment by allowing access to shared files through either Windows or Mac OS versions of FileMaker Pro 7.

Improve the performance of peer-to-peer database sharing

FileMaker Server 7 software makes databases run faster by increasing the performance of operations and taking advantage of server hardware and software components.

NEW! Perform searches and calculations on the server instead of the client.
NEW! Leverage high-performance hard disk storage systems and multi-CPU servers.
NEW! Take advantage of large amounts of RAM using sophisticated caching.

Host massive amounts of data

Database storage capacity has been dramatically increased allowing you to store massive amounts of FileMaker data on your network.

Host up to 125 database files with FileMaker Server 7.
NEW! Each database can store up to 8 terabytes of information—4,000 times the old limit.
NEW! Host thousands of tables with FileMaker Server 7.
NEW! Add additional servers as your needs grow for expanded capacity.

Administer databases locally or remotely

FileMaker Server 7 includes flexible administration features that make it easy to configure and maintain your databases whether you're in the office or on-the-go.

NEW! Optionally perform maintenance on live databases, including live backups while the file is in use.
NEW! Automate unattended, scheduled backups.
Configure and maintain servers remotely using FileMaker Server Administration software.
NEW! Audit remote administration through a new Event Log entry that identifies Administrators and their activities.
Ensure clients have the most current plug-ins using the Auto Update feature.
Record plug-in downloads in the Event log.
NEW! Change server settings without restarting the server.

Protect your data with additional security features

In addition to the new, advanced security system included in FileMaker Pro 7, FileMaker Server 7 provides additional protection.

NEW! Reduce the overhead of managing user accounts and passwords using external authentication through industry standards provided by Active Directory or Open Directory.
Filter the display of hosted database names based on the users' privileges to protect sensitive information.
Enhance the security of FileMaker information that is transferred between hosted databases and desktop clients with SSL encryption.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

The following table outlines the Software and Hardware requirements for the implementation of FileMaker Server 7 (taken from the Vendor’s website):

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HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?

FileMaker Server 7 is one complete boxed package consisting of one CD-ROM and a user manual and has a Recommended Retail Price (RRP) of £650. The package is available to previous customers as an upgrade for £325.

WHAT ARE THE ALTERNATIVES?

Having spent a long time searching the Internet for alternatives to the FileMaker Server 7 solution I have discovered that this is no easy task. The searches that I have conducted have used a multitude of so called ‘pc magazine’ websites and many different search engines such as Google and Best Search Engine. There are obviously many different types of database server software – IBM, Oracle, Microsoft and SyBase are some of the leading names – but many of these are aimed at the higher end of the market and have price tags to match. It has been difficult to track down decent examples that can be classed along with FileMaker Server 7. I have decided the easiest way for me to present what information I have unearthed is through this simple table:

The table shows the two main competitors that I have found and as you can see, they are somewhat more expensive. In addition to an increased price, particularly with the Microsoft solution, one article I found described SQL Server as “a complex piece of software that needs a minor expert to configure”.

Although there are other solutions, from the research before starting this report and the continued research during it, I have decided that FileMaker Server 7, with all its new features, the more than reasonable price tag and the numerous good reviews, is still the best solution for theIDLgroup.

"For the SMB customer, it would be more affordable and easier to implement," said Ray Boggs, an analyst at IDC.

HOW THIS SOLUTION WILL REDUCE COSTS

It is fairly straightforward to show how FileMaker Server 7 will reduce costs for theIDLgroup; through my talks with the Programme Support Officer, Miss. Lydia Baker (Msc), I have been able to conclude some simple workings.

Lydia informed me that the current system requires about one working day to search through the files, pull-out any that seem appropriate and then write-up a short summary/description of each. The staff required for this includes one Consultant and at least one member of the Support/Admin staff.

The Consultants can earn in the region of £600 per day for the business working on other tasks and so obviously this forms the most significant part of the cost. In addition, Lydia feels Admin staff costs could be anywhere up to £100 per day. So that’s a total of £700 for one project search scenario!!!

With the elimination of search time and writing-up descriptions (descriptions would be stored with the documents) the evidence could be ready for submission within one or two hours. I have produced these workings to identify the precise cost saving:

Normal Working Day: 8 hours

Current cost of compiling submission: £700 per day/submission (£87.50 per hour)

Based on 2 hours under new system: £175 per submission

Saving per submission: £525

I have also discussed with Lydia how often a project search is undertaken; she has informed me that this occurs around once every two weeks, the following workings are to represent the potential saving over a three year period:

Based on average of 48 working weeks per year: 24 submissions per year

Over three years: 72 submissions

Savings calculated: 72 x £525 = £37,800

Obviously we need to take into account the cost of the product and the cost of setting it up. Lydia has consulted with Gavin Sadler at the group, who has been looking into this project himself, and Gavin feels that it would take him around one Month to complete the set-up. The following final workings illustrate the total net savings over the three years:

Product Cost: £650

Gavin Sadler’s Salary: £19,500

Monthly Wage: £19,500 ÷ 12 = £1625 (one off set-up cost)

Maintenance Cost (approx. one week per year by Gavin): £1625 ÷ 4 = £406 (nearest £)

Maintenance over three years: £406 x 3 = £1218

Total purchase, set-up and maintenance cost: £650 + £1625 + £1218 = £3493

Total Net Savings over three years: £37,800 - £3,493 =

£34,307

ISSUES ARISING FROM IMPLEMENTATION

SECURITY

“The responsibility for ensuring the security of organisational information systems is one that cannot be taken too lightly. In addition to ensuring that the organisation has uninterrupted access to its information resources, managers must also deal with the threat of outsiders attempting to gain access to those same resources.

“The most common threats faced by organisational information systems can be placed into the following categories:

Accidents
Natural disasters
Sabotage (industrial and individual)
Vandalism
Theft
Unauthorised use (hacking)
Computer viruses”

(Business Information Systems, Dave Chaffey 2003)

theIDLgroup currently has firewall and anti-virus software in operation which is regularly updated through a subscription service to keep them protected against the newest threats of hacking and viruses.

A complete backup of the database would be used as a recovery option to protect against total failure and the other security issues, such as user error, sabotage etc., can be addressed with the features offered by the product itself:

“Protect your data with the new advanced security system

Secure your database using Account Names and Passwords.

Assign custom privileges for each user, specifying what they can view and edit, down to the field level.

Limit what users and groups see and do by restricting access to specific areas of FileMaker.

More easily specify users’ privileges for viewing or editing layouts, value lists and scripts, menu items, and more.

Specify which users or groups of users can edit, create, delete, and view specific information.

Security levels that are set up on the desktop also apply when the database is shared with other FileMaker users or over the web.” ()

PRIVACY

Privacy is more concerned with data transmission; that is interception by an unauthorised party. Issues with privacy are most commonly addressed with the use of encryption so that the data cannot easily be viewed by anyone other than the intended recipient(s).

This is less of an issue for theIDLgroup in the context of this report as the information concerned is not transmitted externally; submissions are made in hard-copy, portfolio format.

USABILITY

FileMaker Server 7 has been specifically designed with usability in mind. This latest version has been said to be the most user-friendly yet:

“FileMaker's biggest strength is probably that it isn't just about handling data, but about the ease of creating a user interface and a visual layout of the data; actually creating an application rather than just manipulating a bunch of data. I think that's still FileMaker's biggest asset, as it provides a visual computing environment consistent with the ideology of the Mac.

“In terms of interface enhancements, one of the best is that FileMaker now supports multiple windows and found sets. This means that data can now be displayed as a form and a list view at the same time.”

(taken from MacWorld UK Review, by Martin Gittins)

IDL’s staff are all of a very IT competent disposition and would most likely be able to utilise the product without any issue; should a training need arise, however, then training for the product does exist. The FileMaker website for the UK offers links to list of certified FileMaker trainers, although this would obviously affect the overall cost of implementation.

LEGAL ISSUES

In terms of legal issues affecting any organisation constructing a database system such as FileMaker Server 7 there are three main areas of legislation to be aware of:

Data Protection Act (1984, 1998)
Computer Misuse Act (1990)

The Data Protection Act most specifically pertains to information relating to individuals, including the obtaining, holding, use or disclosure of such information. Organisations have to be aware of the law under this act when storing any personal information relating to individuals but it is less significant in the context of this report as the information stored will be concerned with project work done by the company and is likely to contain little data relating to individuals personally.

The Computer Misuse Act is concerned with the protection of computer systems, rather than the data they hold, against unauthorised access or modification. The law under this act will demonstrate the company’s rights in the event of a breach of security such as those identified in the section above.

The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act is perhaps the most significant within the context of this report as it is concerned with safeguarding the company’s intellectual property rights against competitors and others who might wish to profit from their research and investment. The measures against the event of this happening have been outlined in ‘Security’ above but knowledge of the law helps to highlight the company’s position and rights.

RISK AND COUNTER ARGUMENTS

There is always a risk when undertaking any project that it will not bring about benefits significant enough to justify and outweigh the time and financial investment that was hoped for. It is for this reason that research, analysis, planning and careful consideration are vital ingredients to help ensure the success of the activity.

The only identifiable risk in this case is that the implementation is not successful and the time and money spent is lost. In financial terms this loss would equate to £3493 as identified in the section ‘How This Solution Will Reduce Costs’ above. So what would be the counter argument? It would seem the alternative is to continue using the current system which is costing £700 a time, that’s four times as much as the new system would cost. This effectively means that the financial loss would only equate to the savings gained by less than seven submissions under the new system and it is my opinion that this translates to a risk worth taking.

CONCLUSIONS

I believe that I have identified within this report, through the background research and research into the systems and products available, that this undertaking is highly likely to be the easiest way for the company to realise gains through an ecommerce implementation. This statement is backed-up by the studies included in the background research, one of which clearly states “this activity may be relatively simpler for firms to achieve benefits from than other ecommerce activities”.

A strongly suitable package has been identified and demonstrated against research into some of the alternatives available and a cost/savings analysis has illustrated the potential for significant financial gains from this project.

The importance of awareness relating to ecommerce from an organisational perspective has been highlighted and the key issues that arise from any electronic commerce undertaking have been shown, discussed and concluded within the context of the case.

THOUGHT FOR FUTURE DEVELOPMENT

EXTRANETS

One thought that occurred to me that has the potential for future development of the system is the use of an Extranet. Extranets are a link to the company’s systems available to a limited group of external parties; in this case my thought was that IDL’s major clients could have access to the FileMaker system allowing them to peruse what work the group had done perhaps leading to the clients selecting them for work rather than the other way around.

The Extranet idea does bring in further issues relating to cost, security, privacy and so on but is perhaps worth considering. The FileMaker Server 7 package would need to be upgraded to FileMaker Server 7 Advanced which offers advanced Web publishing and connectivity options.

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES

ONLINE DOCUMENTS:

Measuring satisfaction with business-to-employee systems:
Adoption intentions and benefits realised: a study of e-commerce in UK SMEs:
Turning Information into an Advantage:
Total Cost of Adoption: A framework for evaluating content management solutions:
Integrated E-Business Applications:
FileMaker boosts workgroup database:
FileMaker News:
Choosing a Database Server:

WIBSITES:

EDUCATIONAL TEXTS:

Paul Bocij, Dave Chaffey, Andrew Greasley and Simon Hickie (2003). Business Information Systems. Second Edition. Pearson Education Limited.

Page 186

Dr Charles Chatterjee (2002). e-Commerce Law for Business Managers. First Edition. Financial World Publishing
David R. Canton and John E. Millar (2003). Legal Land Mines in E-Commerce. First Edition. McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

APPENDICES

Extracts of the study have been included in the appendices to this report as Appendix A and the sections felt to be of most significance have been highlighted for ease of reference.

Reviews of the product

Document Details

Word Count

4646
Page Count

16
Level
University Degree
Subject

Business and Administrative studies