Alfreton, Derbyshire-based NHS Supply Chain has extended its ten-year contract with iSOFT that was initially signed with NHS Logistics (the predecessor of NHS Supply Chain), for hosting NHS' e-commerce and logistics applications until 2010.
NHS Supply Chain is operated by DHL Logistics, on behalf of NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA), through a 10-year contract, to provide procurement and logistics services for more than 600 NHS trusts, hospitals and other healthcare organizations from six regional distribution centers.
Delivering end-to-end supply chain services, including procurement, logistics, e-commerce, and customer and supplier support, the organization aims at achieving over £1 billion ($1.98 billion) savings for NHS over ten years. The organization leverages expertise from the NHS Logistics Authority, NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency, DHL, for healthcare logistics, and procurement experience from Novation.
iSOFT will offer its fully hosted managed services, with applications operated in conjunction at a dual data centre, for disaster-tolerance. iB Solutions, a subsidiary of IBA Health, develops and supports the warehouse management and distribution applications for the organization, under a separate contract.
iSOFT has been a major supplier to NHS since the National Program for IT (NPfIT) was unveiled in 2002. Some of the recent contracts awarded by NHS include a £1 million contract in 2007 for the upgradation of laboratory information systems at nine NHS trusts in Wales; and a deal by NHS Connecting for Health in 2007, whereby iSOFT was appointed as national supplier of choice to provide clinical systems and services, meeting the national program for IT standards, for GPs across England.
Oxfordshire, UK-based iSOFT, a global leader in delivering advanced software applications for the healthcare sector, was acquired in October 2007 by IBA Health Group, the largest information technology company listed on the Australian Securities Exchange. iSOFT provides patient administration, clinical information and medical practice management and laboratory, radiology and pharmacy management products to more than 8,000 organizations in 27 countries
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Digital River Signs E-Commerce Agreement with Shure
We are in business to help our clients navigate and manage the complexities involved in running their e-commerce operations,” said Don Peterson, Digital River’s senior vice president of global client development. “Leading electronics manufacturers like Shure continue to rely on our global e-commerce expertise and comprehensive solution to create seamless online shopping experiences for their customers and help grow their businesses.”
To help Shure expand its online business for its growing personal listening and accessory product lines, Digital River is providing end-to-end e-commerce services. For the new store, Digital River is managing online store orders, physical product fulfillment, fraud prevention screening and 24X7 customer service. Digital River also will provide online marketing tools to help Shure implement marketing programs and online product promotions designed to convert traffic into sales and build customer loyalty.
“We selected Digital River as our e-commerce partner because of its global experience and demonstrated success working in online markets,” said Mark Karnes, executive director of global marketing. “The company’s scalable systems and e-marketing expertise and services not only met our technology requirements, but also will provide an important foundation for driving future growth for our business.”
To help Shure expand its online business for its growing personal listening and accessory product lines, Digital River is providing end-to-end e-commerce services. For the new store, Digital River is managing online store orders, physical product fulfillment, fraud prevention screening and 24X7 customer service. Digital River also will provide online marketing tools to help Shure implement marketing programs and online product promotions designed to convert traffic into sales and build customer loyalty.
“We selected Digital River as our e-commerce partner because of its global experience and demonstrated success working in online markets,” said Mark Karnes, executive director of global marketing. “The company’s scalable systems and e-marketing expertise and services not only met our technology requirements, but also will provide an important foundation for driving future growth for our business.”
Digital River Signs E-Commerce Agreement With Shure
Digital River, a provider of global e-commerce solutions, has signed an e-commerce agreement with Shure Incorporated, a manufacturer of microphones, earphones and audio electronics.
Digital River recently designed and launched a new online store located at its website to support the marketing and sales of Shure's consumer and professional audio equipment in the US.
To help Shure expand its online business for its growing personal listening and accessory product lines, Digital River is providing e-commerce services. For the new store, Digital River is managing online store orders, physical product fulfillment, fraud prevention screening and 24X7 customer service. Digital River also will provide online marketing tools to help Shure implement marketing programs and online product promotions designed to convert traffic into sales and build customer loyalty.
Don Peterson, Digital River's senior vice president of global client development, said: "Leading electronics manufacturers like Shure continue to rely on our global e-commerce expertise and comprehensive solution to create seamless online shopping experiences for their customers and help grow their businesses."
Digital River recently designed and launched a new online store located at its website to support the marketing and sales of Shure's consumer and professional audio equipment in the US.
To help Shure expand its online business for its growing personal listening and accessory product lines, Digital River is providing e-commerce services. For the new store, Digital River is managing online store orders, physical product fulfillment, fraud prevention screening and 24X7 customer service. Digital River also will provide online marketing tools to help Shure implement marketing programs and online product promotions designed to convert traffic into sales and build customer loyalty.
Don Peterson, Digital River's senior vice president of global client development, said: "Leading electronics manufacturers like Shure continue to rely on our global e-commerce expertise and comprehensive solution to create seamless online shopping experiences for their customers and help grow their businesses."
OS Commerce Watch: New Magento 1.1 Released
This is one in a series of columns on the open-source commerce (OSC) industry.
Those Magento boys and girls are at it again, kicking butt and taking names by releasing a brand-new, expanded 1.1 release of their already feature-rich open source e-commerce program. The company claims to already be the fastest growing e-commerce platform on the market – and not just open source e-commerce — with over 400,000 production downloads in only 16 weeks. This latest release will boost the world’s acceptance curve sharply with new features that will pique international interest.
The team's marketing messages, already good from the start, have become laser-focused and clearer than any open source e-commerce team I've seen. They have positioned themselves as the competitive solution for shops ranging from the mom-and-pop-type shop, through the medium-size shop selling up to $150 million per year, and their features make them ideal for an enterprise shop. The company is aiming this latest release squarely at world expansion.
This new release includes hundreds of bug fixes and performance improvements including SEO-related fixes, improvements in the Admin components, and also adds support for Canadian and European taxes. Expanded product options will win over the hearts of those who sell customized products, with custom product options, personalized products, and virtual or downloadable products. And an exciting new feature is a Web services API, which opens the door for Magento to be integrated with any application via a Web Services API.
Performance Issues Addressed
The company says one of the main goals for Magento 1.1 was to examine bottlenecks in the platform and improve performance. This new release addresses the key concerns of many 1.0 users, including many bug fixes and slow page-loading times. Changes have been made to the Admin so that data are loaded only when necessary, improving the responsiveness of the Admin significantly.
The company claims a 40-percent performance improvement. Some 1.1 alpha users reported performance improvements of 70 percent in their tests, while others complained that while the new version is much faster, it remains relatively slow. Many factors can influence the speed of the program, including server and caching settings, so if a store remains slow after upgrading, the store owner should seek out additional measures to improve the store's performance.
International Support Increased
Magento Version 1.0 was a US-centric product. Version 1.1 will see the expansion of Magento into many additional new countries where it was previously impossible to use the program due to tax law limitations. Complex laws in Europe and elsewhere for Value Added Taxation (VAT) formerly required programmers to extend the code. According to Varien's Chief Technology Officer, Yoav Kutner, the team has redesigned the tax module so it is more flexible for international use, as well as for changing taxation laws in the US. Already there are active user forums in nearly 50 languages. Translations of over 60 languages and dialects have been initiated by volunteers with varying degrees of completion, and 23 locales are 85 to 100 percent complete. As a result of these activities and changes, the number of version 1.1 product downloads should spike sharply with significant world-wide interest.
Those Magento boys and girls are at it again, kicking butt and taking names by releasing a brand-new, expanded 1.1 release of their already feature-rich open source e-commerce program. The company claims to already be the fastest growing e-commerce platform on the market – and not just open source e-commerce — with over 400,000 production downloads in only 16 weeks. This latest release will boost the world’s acceptance curve sharply with new features that will pique international interest.
The team's marketing messages, already good from the start, have become laser-focused and clearer than any open source e-commerce team I've seen. They have positioned themselves as the competitive solution for shops ranging from the mom-and-pop-type shop, through the medium-size shop selling up to $150 million per year, and their features make them ideal for an enterprise shop. The company is aiming this latest release squarely at world expansion.
This new release includes hundreds of bug fixes and performance improvements including SEO-related fixes, improvements in the Admin components, and also adds support for Canadian and European taxes. Expanded product options will win over the hearts of those who sell customized products, with custom product options, personalized products, and virtual or downloadable products. And an exciting new feature is a Web services API, which opens the door for Magento to be integrated with any application via a Web Services API.
Performance Issues Addressed
The company says one of the main goals for Magento 1.1 was to examine bottlenecks in the platform and improve performance. This new release addresses the key concerns of many 1.0 users, including many bug fixes and slow page-loading times. Changes have been made to the Admin so that data are loaded only when necessary, improving the responsiveness of the Admin significantly.
The company claims a 40-percent performance improvement. Some 1.1 alpha users reported performance improvements of 70 percent in their tests, while others complained that while the new version is much faster, it remains relatively slow. Many factors can influence the speed of the program, including server and caching settings, so if a store remains slow after upgrading, the store owner should seek out additional measures to improve the store's performance.
International Support Increased
Magento Version 1.0 was a US-centric product. Version 1.1 will see the expansion of Magento into many additional new countries where it was previously impossible to use the program due to tax law limitations. Complex laws in Europe and elsewhere for Value Added Taxation (VAT) formerly required programmers to extend the code. According to Varien's Chief Technology Officer, Yoav Kutner, the team has redesigned the tax module so it is more flexible for international use, as well as for changing taxation laws in the US. Already there are active user forums in nearly 50 languages. Translations of over 60 languages and dialects have been initiated by volunteers with varying degrees of completion, and 23 locales are 85 to 100 percent complete. As a result of these activities and changes, the number of version 1.1 product downloads should spike sharply with significant world-wide interest.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
First Hindi e-commerce site
Unveiling the new vertical, hindi-ezeego1.com, here, the chief operating officer of Ezeego1.com, Neelu Singh, said there was a huge market in north India that was comfortable with both English and Hindi, but preferred transacting their business in Hindi.
'The site has been designed specially for them,' Singh said. She cited herself as one of those who was comfortable with Hindi despite knowing English.
Singh said Hindi was the second most preferred language in India today. 'There are a very few multilingual and bi-lingual sites today. However, most of these sites offer content, but do not allow transaction,' Singh told reporters. According to her, a Hindi e-commerce site would inspire confidence among customers.
The entire booking process right up to the payment option on Ezeego's portal is in Hindi. And the target audience at the inception is the vast populace in the income group of Rs.300,000 to Rs.500,000 per annum in towns like Jaipur, Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Kanpur, Lucknow, Bhopal and Indore.
'The inspiration behind the Hindi portal was our call centre where most users requisition support services in Hindi. They would look for somehow who could explain ravel-related queries in Hindi. We realised that there was a huge market waiting to be tapped,' Singh said.
Studies by the government show that the number of internet users in India stood at 32 million in January 2008. The country has more than three million broadband connections and 40 percent of this market is in the tier II cities.
'The site has been designed specially for them,' Singh said. She cited herself as one of those who was comfortable with Hindi despite knowing English.
Singh said Hindi was the second most preferred language in India today. 'There are a very few multilingual and bi-lingual sites today. However, most of these sites offer content, but do not allow transaction,' Singh told reporters. According to her, a Hindi e-commerce site would inspire confidence among customers.
The entire booking process right up to the payment option on Ezeego's portal is in Hindi. And the target audience at the inception is the vast populace in the income group of Rs.300,000 to Rs.500,000 per annum in towns like Jaipur, Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Kanpur, Lucknow, Bhopal and Indore.
'The inspiration behind the Hindi portal was our call centre where most users requisition support services in Hindi. They would look for somehow who could explain ravel-related queries in Hindi. We realised that there was a huge market waiting to be tapped,' Singh said.
Studies by the government show that the number of internet users in India stood at 32 million in January 2008. The country has more than three million broadband connections and 40 percent of this market is in the tier II cities.
Sequim Chamber of Commerce audit finds red ink
An independent audit of the Sequim-Dungeness Valley Chamber of Commerce shows a net loss of $10,242 last year, plus a loss of $10,150 on the 2007 Irrigation Festival.
The chamber took in $214,116 in membership dues, and other income, including the city of Sequim's $44,000 for the chamber's operation of the Visitor Information Center at 1192 E. Washington St., and the city's $9,945 payment for "economic development" activities.
The chamber's operational expenses amounted to $224,358 last year.
That included $91,547 in payroll, and $17,573 in member services, according to the audit conducted by NFP Accounting of Bremerton.
The chamber's Irrigation Festival spending included $11,329 on the parade float, $4,817 on the festival queen and princesses, $12,674 on the logging show and $47,262 on "other Irrigation Festival expenses."
The costs of the May events totaled $110,671, while the income amounted to $100,521.
Chamber board president Bill Littlejohn did not, however, express dismay.
Instead he emphasized that his board is poised to hire a new executive director.
It could happen this week, Littlejohn said, when the board holds a special meeting to interview three finalists.
A selection could be made after the meeting on Thursday.
Step forward
The audit, expected to cost $6,000, is in one sense a step forward, Littlejohn said, that allows the chamber to move beyond recent trials.
The board ordered the audit after a group of angry business people, who named themselves the Concerned Chamber Committee, demanded it in February.
After the board fired executive director Lee Lawrence Jan. 18 — without supplying enough reasons to satisfy some chamber members — the CCC formed to call for greater accountability from the organization.
A months-long uncivil war between the CCC, led by Gil Simon of Sequim Village Glass, and the board led to the chamber membershipwide election of eight new board members in April.
Later, Littlejohn replaced interim board president Walt Schubert, who'd replaced Joe Borden, the president of the board that fired Lawrence.
When asked how the chamber might improve its financial health, Littlejohn said, "Hopefully we can increase our membership.
"There's things we can do . . . and I'm encouraged. I know we have a good board, a responsible board.
"We have a good staff," led by office administrator Jeri Smith and interim executive director Carolyn Cooper.
The current 12-member board is a blend of people from diverse professions: Borden, a retired military man who's chairman of the Irrigation Festival, real estate broker Ron Gilles, Olympic Music School director Deborah Rambo Sinn, Blue Whole Gallery artist Lizbeth Harper and attorney Ron Bell among them.
The chamber took in $214,116 in membership dues, and other income, including the city of Sequim's $44,000 for the chamber's operation of the Visitor Information Center at 1192 E. Washington St., and the city's $9,945 payment for "economic development" activities.
The chamber's operational expenses amounted to $224,358 last year.
That included $91,547 in payroll, and $17,573 in member services, according to the audit conducted by NFP Accounting of Bremerton.
The chamber's Irrigation Festival spending included $11,329 on the parade float, $4,817 on the festival queen and princesses, $12,674 on the logging show and $47,262 on "other Irrigation Festival expenses."
The costs of the May events totaled $110,671, while the income amounted to $100,521.
Chamber board president Bill Littlejohn did not, however, express dismay.
Instead he emphasized that his board is poised to hire a new executive director.
It could happen this week, Littlejohn said, when the board holds a special meeting to interview three finalists.
A selection could be made after the meeting on Thursday.
Step forward
The audit, expected to cost $6,000, is in one sense a step forward, Littlejohn said, that allows the chamber to move beyond recent trials.
The board ordered the audit after a group of angry business people, who named themselves the Concerned Chamber Committee, demanded it in February.
After the board fired executive director Lee Lawrence Jan. 18 — without supplying enough reasons to satisfy some chamber members — the CCC formed to call for greater accountability from the organization.
A months-long uncivil war between the CCC, led by Gil Simon of Sequim Village Glass, and the board led to the chamber membershipwide election of eight new board members in April.
Later, Littlejohn replaced interim board president Walt Schubert, who'd replaced Joe Borden, the president of the board that fired Lawrence.
When asked how the chamber might improve its financial health, Littlejohn said, "Hopefully we can increase our membership.
"There's things we can do . . . and I'm encouraged. I know we have a good board, a responsible board.
"We have a good staff," led by office administrator Jeri Smith and interim executive director Carolyn Cooper.
The current 12-member board is a blend of people from diverse professions: Borden, a retired military man who's chairman of the Irrigation Festival, real estate broker Ron Gilles, Olympic Music School director Deborah Rambo Sinn, Blue Whole Gallery artist Lizbeth Harper and attorney Ron Bell among them.
Ecommerce Packaging the Green Way: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle
Online auctions exemplify "the three Rs" of the green movement. Many sellers recycle or sell previously used goods, new owners reuse the old goods, and theoretically at least, consumption of new goods is reduced. But beyond the goods, there are also several ways to incorporate the green R verbs into the whole shipping package. And often, the greenest package choices are also economical ones.
Reduce
When it comes to the art of packaging, reducing materials is perhaps the most difficult of the R actions. Experience and clever thinking are often required to use less, rather than more, packaging material while still adequately protecting an item. However, generally, you can reduce packaging material by packing smarter, including using tape only where needed, using light weight filler and selecting the appropriately sized box for an item.
Reduce
When it comes to the art of packaging, reducing materials is perhaps the most difficult of the R actions. Experience and clever thinking are often required to use less, rather than more, packaging material while still adequately protecting an item. However, generally, you can reduce packaging material by packing smarter, including using tape only where needed, using light weight filler and selecting the appropriately sized box for an item.
Korean E-commerce Website Boosts Ethernet Routing and Security With Juniper Networks
Juniper Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ:JNPR), the leader in high-performance networking, today announced that Seoul-based Gmarket, one of the world’s largest consumer e-commerce websites, is paving the way to scale Web-based transactions with Juniper Networks MX960 Ethernet Services Routers. The MX-series routers boost Gmarket’s network capacity and manageability by consolidating multiple gigabit Ethernet switching solutions into an easily-managed topology that leverages innovative JUNOS software, Juniper’s single-source code network operating system. The MX960’s Access Control List (ACL) capabilities also fortify Gmarket’s network security.
In addition, Gmarket deployed Juniper Integrated Security Gateways (ISG) – purpose-built, high-performance firewall and VPN gateway – to secure against network threats.
This upgrade follows Gmarket’s previous deployment of Juniper’s NetScreen-5400 firewalls, designed to deliver best-in-class performance capabilities and configuration flexibility for large enterprise, carrier and data center networks. The NetScreen-5400 can scale to 30 Gbps of firewall and 15 Gbps of VPN throughput, and handles up to one million concurrent VPN user sessions to provide secure access to Gmarket’s Web servers, network applications and databases, which host highly sensitive e-commerce data.
“JUNOS was the key differentiating feature for our purchase decision,” said Kiseok Lee, group manager of Gmarket’s System Operation Group. “Its proven reliability, excellent CLI tools, and powerful filtering functionality enable us to provide more reliable and secure services to our customers. The cflow and port-mirroring functions offer real time traffic visibility and detailed analysis. Additionally, the MX-series seamlessly interoperates with our NetScreen and ISG firewalls.”
“We’re confident we selected the best platform to meet our current and future requirements,” added Lee. “While our initial assessment pointed to the MX480, with six interface card slots, we decided to go with MX960 routers – which provide up to 12 – to accommodate future expansion. The Juniper network infrastructure is already delivering superior network performance and return on investment. We are now considering future expansion with the new Juniper Networks EX-series Ethernet switches.”
The MX960 platform delivers up to 960 gigabits per second (Gbps) of switching and routing capacity, which enables more revenue per platform and provides the scale to help maximize Gmarket’s return on investment. Purpose-built for the most demanding network applications, the MX-series establishes a new industry standard for capacity, density, and performance.
Gmarket’s ISG 1000 and ISG 2000 gateways integrate best-in-class Deep Inspection firewall, VPN and DoS capabilities into a single platform. They enable secure, reliable connectivity, along with network and application-level protection, for critical, high-traffic network segments. The ISG series can be upgraded to support full Intrusion Detection and Prevention (IDP) capabilities to provide robust network and application layer protection against current and emerging threats.
“Network-based businesses such as Gmarket depend on highly scalable infrastructure that performs at a high level and without unnecessary complexity or overhead,” said Tim Kang, vice president of Korea for Juniper Networks. “The Korean market recognizes the unique value of the MX-series in delivering high-performance, innovative routing and ease of management.”
About JUNOS Software
JUNOS software is the trusted, secure network operating system driving Juniper Networks leadership in high-performance networking. It provides carrier-class continuous systems availability, automated network operations and the open innovation that businesses demand to quickly align the network with changing business requirements, while reducing complexity, cost and risk. This maximizes flexibility and efficiency to fuel competitive advantage.
In addition, Gmarket deployed Juniper Integrated Security Gateways (ISG) – purpose-built, high-performance firewall and VPN gateway – to secure against network threats.
This upgrade follows Gmarket’s previous deployment of Juniper’s NetScreen-5400 firewalls, designed to deliver best-in-class performance capabilities and configuration flexibility for large enterprise, carrier and data center networks. The NetScreen-5400 can scale to 30 Gbps of firewall and 15 Gbps of VPN throughput, and handles up to one million concurrent VPN user sessions to provide secure access to Gmarket’s Web servers, network applications and databases, which host highly sensitive e-commerce data.
“JUNOS was the key differentiating feature for our purchase decision,” said Kiseok Lee, group manager of Gmarket’s System Operation Group. “Its proven reliability, excellent CLI tools, and powerful filtering functionality enable us to provide more reliable and secure services to our customers. The cflow and port-mirroring functions offer real time traffic visibility and detailed analysis. Additionally, the MX-series seamlessly interoperates with our NetScreen and ISG firewalls.”
“We’re confident we selected the best platform to meet our current and future requirements,” added Lee. “While our initial assessment pointed to the MX480, with six interface card slots, we decided to go with MX960 routers – which provide up to 12 – to accommodate future expansion. The Juniper network infrastructure is already delivering superior network performance and return on investment. We are now considering future expansion with the new Juniper Networks EX-series Ethernet switches.”
The MX960 platform delivers up to 960 gigabits per second (Gbps) of switching and routing capacity, which enables more revenue per platform and provides the scale to help maximize Gmarket’s return on investment. Purpose-built for the most demanding network applications, the MX-series establishes a new industry standard for capacity, density, and performance.
Gmarket’s ISG 1000 and ISG 2000 gateways integrate best-in-class Deep Inspection firewall, VPN and DoS capabilities into a single platform. They enable secure, reliable connectivity, along with network and application-level protection, for critical, high-traffic network segments. The ISG series can be upgraded to support full Intrusion Detection and Prevention (IDP) capabilities to provide robust network and application layer protection against current and emerging threats.
“Network-based businesses such as Gmarket depend on highly scalable infrastructure that performs at a high level and without unnecessary complexity or overhead,” said Tim Kang, vice president of Korea for Juniper Networks. “The Korean market recognizes the unique value of the MX-series in delivering high-performance, innovative routing and ease of management.”
About JUNOS Software
JUNOS software is the trusted, secure network operating system driving Juniper Networks leadership in high-performance networking. It provides carrier-class continuous systems availability, automated network operations and the open innovation that businesses demand to quickly align the network with changing business requirements, while reducing complexity, cost and risk. This maximizes flexibility and efficiency to fuel competitive advantage.
Selling Online with Drupal e-Commerce
The first chapter serves as an introduction to Drupal and the e-Commerce module, and also explains how to download the two of them, as well as the additional module (Token) upon which the latter depends. The author explains the purpose of each area within Drupal's "Site configuration" section, and what changes the reader should make, if any. Also, he provides the background story for the sample e-commerce Web site that is built throughout the book — in this case, a dinosaur model shop. It should be noted that the diagram on page 6 does an effective job of explaining the basic idea of how a CMS works (better than the similar figures seen in other CMS books), and it is followed by an explanation of what e-commerce is. However, it is doubtful that any developer who purchased this book would need to be told what are CMSs and e-commerce.
In the second chapter, the author briefly reviews the steps for adding content and navigation to a Drupal-powered site, by adding pages and menus, respectively. Also, some additional modules are enabled, for creating a contact form and a blog, for the sample site. Up to this point in the book, readers will have become accustomed to the author explicitly guiding them through the steps necessary for creating the sample site. Thus it may come as a surprise to such readers when they see the second figure on page 40, showing the navigation menu, including new sections for dinosaurs and the museum, and a link to a contact page. The two new sections were briefly mentioned three pages earlier, but the steps for creating them were not; the steps for adding the contact page link were apparently not mentioned anywhere. However, any experienced Drupal developer should have no difficulty figuring out how to add these navigation menu items.
With the third chapter, the book shifts focus from Drupal basics to implementing an e-commerce site. Aspects of running an online business — such as site accessibility laws, legal issues, and privacy laws — are mentioned, though readers outside of the United Kingdom will most likely not be pleased by the UK-centricity of the material. Other topics covered include product types, groupings, details, photos, and advertising, as well as customer service.
In Chapter 4, readers learn about the e-Commerce product types and their corresponding modules, and how to add products to the store catalog — including specialized types of products, such as apparel, services, and bundled products ("parcels"). Chapter 5 briefly covers users, rules, permissions, settings, rules, registration, e-mail messages to users, users' pictures, taxonomy, requiring registration, customer management, user orders, contacting users, and adding your business's staff to your site. It also touches upon taxonomy and how to use it for controlling user access to content. But the author fails to explain why this is needed for the online store. Providing such a rationale up front is especially important when asking readers to work their way through potentially daunting subjects such as taxonomy, and implementing them in their own test sites, if they are following what the author is doing.
The sixth chapter begins with an unneeded review of the themes built into Drupal version 5.x, with even more space taken up describing three red-based color schemes. This is followed by a discussion of how to modify whichever of those themes is enabled, and, very briefly, how to create a new theme. In this chapter and many others, the author frequently reminds us that the hypothetical client, Doug of Doug's Dinos, is "really pleased" with the "great looking site." Readers can judge for themselves just how great is the site's design. Admittedly, in a book such as this that does not focus on Web design, a sample site can be quite basic. But the constant praise is unwarranted.
Allowing customer checkout and payment are critical to any e-commerce site, and those topics are explored in Chapter 7. The topic coverage is fairly complete, though occasionally the author does not make clear where in the Drupal administration section the reader will find the particular topic under discussion, e.g., the global anonymous purchase policy. Chapter 8 offers a lot of valuable information, including how to: add shopping cart and search elements to every page, automatically create user accounts, add images to product listings, offer discounts based on customer role, provide coupons, allow bulk purchasing, set up auction and donation products, and automatically adjust charge prices based on various conditions.
Chapter 9 delves into the particulars of calculating taxes and shipping costs, as well as accepting payments through various gateways, including PayPal, which is explored in detail. The only part that will be misleading to readers, is the claim that PayPal's IPN "pings" your server for each customer transaction. Actually, their server does not ping yours, but instead posts transaction data that you can use for updating your online database.
Chapter 10 presents a number of modules and techniques for making an e-commerce site more secure, and also covers domain name, Web hosting, and site maintenance issues. The security modules discussed are definitely worth considering. Some readers may be confused by the Backups section of cPanel mentioned by the author, since not all cPanel installations offer it.
The last two chapters of the book address invoicing, CRM, and marketing one's site. The discussions of search engine optimization, viral marketing, newsletters, etc., are quite cursory, and readers interested in those topics would fare better by consulting books, online articles, and other resources that are much more thorough. The chapter's topic that will probably be of most value to e-commerce developers, is the demonstration of how to significantly customize the layout of invoices, using CSS. The book's sole appendix explains how to install WampServer.
All the chapters conclude with brief summaries, which, without exception, are a waste of space — especially considering the brevity of most of the chapters. The old oratory principle of "tell them what you're going to tell them; tell them; tell them what you told them" may be terrific for speeches, but not for books. That is primarily because someone in an audience listening to a live speech does not have the luxury of looking into the past to hear a portion of the speech again, nor of looking into the future to anticipate what the speaker will say next. Readers of books, on the other hand, can of course jump backward and forward quickly to review or preview material, as needed.
The quality of the book's writing is noticeably weak, with countless awkward phrases and run-on sentences. Some are downright puzzling, e.g., "Thanks for your custom!" (page 125); did the author mean "order?" Throughout the book, one finds a remarkable underuse of commas, frequent mixing up of "that" and "which," misplacement of commas and parentheses, misuse of commas in place of semicolons and even periods (e.g., page 124), semicolons in place of colons, and missing hyphens from adjective phrases. Most noticeable — and at times laughable — is the excessive use of exclamation marks, reflecting a common misconception that they jazz up otherwise dull material. For example, page 49 contains three completely unnecessary exclamation marks, not counting the two contained within a customer testimonial. In addition, the book contains several errata, such as: "loose" (should read "lose"; pages 8 and 195), "leads customers" (should read "leads to customers"; page 57), "products" (should read "product's"; page 62), "customers' role" (should read "customers' roles"; page 88), "to mentioned" (should read "to mention"; page 131), "its does" (page 159), "If a more" (should read "If more"; page 202), "businesses" (should read "business's"; page 221), and many more.
In the second chapter, the author briefly reviews the steps for adding content and navigation to a Drupal-powered site, by adding pages and menus, respectively. Also, some additional modules are enabled, for creating a contact form and a blog, for the sample site. Up to this point in the book, readers will have become accustomed to the author explicitly guiding them through the steps necessary for creating the sample site. Thus it may come as a surprise to such readers when they see the second figure on page 40, showing the navigation menu, including new sections for dinosaurs and the museum, and a link to a contact page. The two new sections were briefly mentioned three pages earlier, but the steps for creating them were not; the steps for adding the contact page link were apparently not mentioned anywhere. However, any experienced Drupal developer should have no difficulty figuring out how to add these navigation menu items.
With the third chapter, the book shifts focus from Drupal basics to implementing an e-commerce site. Aspects of running an online business — such as site accessibility laws, legal issues, and privacy laws — are mentioned, though readers outside of the United Kingdom will most likely not be pleased by the UK-centricity of the material. Other topics covered include product types, groupings, details, photos, and advertising, as well as customer service.
In Chapter 4, readers learn about the e-Commerce product types and their corresponding modules, and how to add products to the store catalog — including specialized types of products, such as apparel, services, and bundled products ("parcels"). Chapter 5 briefly covers users, rules, permissions, settings, rules, registration, e-mail messages to users, users' pictures, taxonomy, requiring registration, customer management, user orders, contacting users, and adding your business's staff to your site. It also touches upon taxonomy and how to use it for controlling user access to content. But the author fails to explain why this is needed for the online store. Providing such a rationale up front is especially important when asking readers to work their way through potentially daunting subjects such as taxonomy, and implementing them in their own test sites, if they are following what the author is doing.
The sixth chapter begins with an unneeded review of the themes built into Drupal version 5.x, with even more space taken up describing three red-based color schemes. This is followed by a discussion of how to modify whichever of those themes is enabled, and, very briefly, how to create a new theme. In this chapter and many others, the author frequently reminds us that the hypothetical client, Doug of Doug's Dinos, is "really pleased" with the "great looking site." Readers can judge for themselves just how great is the site's design. Admittedly, in a book such as this that does not focus on Web design, a sample site can be quite basic. But the constant praise is unwarranted.
Allowing customer checkout and payment are critical to any e-commerce site, and those topics are explored in Chapter 7. The topic coverage is fairly complete, though occasionally the author does not make clear where in the Drupal administration section the reader will find the particular topic under discussion, e.g., the global anonymous purchase policy. Chapter 8 offers a lot of valuable information, including how to: add shopping cart and search elements to every page, automatically create user accounts, add images to product listings, offer discounts based on customer role, provide coupons, allow bulk purchasing, set up auction and donation products, and automatically adjust charge prices based on various conditions.
Chapter 9 delves into the particulars of calculating taxes and shipping costs, as well as accepting payments through various gateways, including PayPal, which is explored in detail. The only part that will be misleading to readers, is the claim that PayPal's IPN "pings" your server for each customer transaction. Actually, their server does not ping yours, but instead posts transaction data that you can use for updating your online database.
Chapter 10 presents a number of modules and techniques for making an e-commerce site more secure, and also covers domain name, Web hosting, and site maintenance issues. The security modules discussed are definitely worth considering. Some readers may be confused by the Backups section of cPanel mentioned by the author, since not all cPanel installations offer it.
The last two chapters of the book address invoicing, CRM, and marketing one's site. The discussions of search engine optimization, viral marketing, newsletters, etc., are quite cursory, and readers interested in those topics would fare better by consulting books, online articles, and other resources that are much more thorough. The chapter's topic that will probably be of most value to e-commerce developers, is the demonstration of how to significantly customize the layout of invoices, using CSS. The book's sole appendix explains how to install WampServer.
All the chapters conclude with brief summaries, which, without exception, are a waste of space — especially considering the brevity of most of the chapters. The old oratory principle of "tell them what you're going to tell them; tell them; tell them what you told them" may be terrific for speeches, but not for books. That is primarily because someone in an audience listening to a live speech does not have the luxury of looking into the past to hear a portion of the speech again, nor of looking into the future to anticipate what the speaker will say next. Readers of books, on the other hand, can of course jump backward and forward quickly to review or preview material, as needed.
The quality of the book's writing is noticeably weak, with countless awkward phrases and run-on sentences. Some are downright puzzling, e.g., "Thanks for your custom!" (page 125); did the author mean "order?" Throughout the book, one finds a remarkable underuse of commas, frequent mixing up of "that" and "which," misplacement of commas and parentheses, misuse of commas in place of semicolons and even periods (e.g., page 124), semicolons in place of colons, and missing hyphens from adjective phrases. Most noticeable — and at times laughable — is the excessive use of exclamation marks, reflecting a common misconception that they jazz up otherwise dull material. For example, page 49 contains three completely unnecessary exclamation marks, not counting the two contained within a customer testimonial. In addition, the book contains several errata, such as: "loose" (should read "lose"; pages 8 and 195), "leads customers" (should read "leads to customers"; page 57), "products" (should read "product's"; page 62), "customers' role" (should read "customers' roles"; page 88), "to mentioned" (should read "to mention"; page 131), "its does" (page 159), "If a more" (should read "If more"; page 202), "businesses" (should read "business's"; page 221), and many more.
Italy shows increase in e-commerce companies
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BuySAFE launches beta of e-commerce rating tool
The company launched a free desktop application on Tuesday called buySAFE Shopping Advisor that offers ratings on U.S.-based e-commerce sites.
The sites are rated based on whether they are using valid SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) encryption for data transmission, whether the sites are regularly inspected for security vulnerabilities, have a published privacy policy, and whether the merchant is bonded.
The integrated browser tool also offers a portal to 3,000 shopping sites where purchases are guaranteed with a bond of up to $25,000 and are protected with identity theft insurance for 30 days.
Arlington, Va.-based buySAFE partners with underwriters Liberty Mutual, Travelers, and ACE on these services.
The sites are rated based on whether they are using valid SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) encryption for data transmission, whether the sites are regularly inspected for security vulnerabilities, have a published privacy policy, and whether the merchant is bonded.
The integrated browser tool also offers a portal to 3,000 shopping sites where purchases are guaranteed with a bond of up to $25,000 and are protected with identity theft insurance for 30 days.
Arlington, Va.-based buySAFE partners with underwriters Liberty Mutual, Travelers, and ACE on these services.
Monday, July 21, 2008
Romanian e-commerce reports EUR 26 million in volume for H1 2008
Data indicates that in the first half of 2008, almost EUR 26 million changed hands using online payments by means of card transactions based on the 3D Secure system in Romania.
The figure constitutes a threefold increase from 2006, a year that ended with a total transferred sum of nearly EUR 9.5 million. The total e-commerce volume reached EUR 35 million in 2007. Estimates indicate that at the end of 2008 almost EUR 52 million will result from online payments via cards based on the 3D Secure technology.
Most transactions are generated by cards issued in the Romanian currency (RON), although their average value is the smallest. More specifically, the first half of 2008 registered nearly 220,384 transactions made in RON, with an average value per transaction of RON 158 (EUR 43.90). Nearly 75,500 transactions were generated by cards in EUR, with a considerably higher average value per transaction (EUR 208). The cards in USD have generated 3,081 transactions with an average value of USD 249 (EUR 160).
Of the EUR 26 million processed within the first half of 2008, nearly 16 EUR million were generated by cards issued in the euro currency. This indicates that most transactions made in euro are generated by cards from abroad. A research executed at Romanian airline BlueAir.ro indicates, the total number of transactions registered until 12.00 PM, only 8 percent were made by cards issued in RON. The remaining 92 percent were transactions made in euro, made by people from Italy, Spain and Cyprus. Statistics also indicate that the top e-commerce categories in Romania are: tourism services and booking tickets, mobile phone bills, IT & C products and electronics.
At present, there are 148 Romanian stores that have adopted the 3D Secure security system, up from 112 stores registered in 2007. The statistics were published by RomCard, the provider of services for card payment systems in Romania.
The figure constitutes a threefold increase from 2006, a year that ended with a total transferred sum of nearly EUR 9.5 million. The total e-commerce volume reached EUR 35 million in 2007. Estimates indicate that at the end of 2008 almost EUR 52 million will result from online payments via cards based on the 3D Secure technology.
Most transactions are generated by cards issued in the Romanian currency (RON), although their average value is the smallest. More specifically, the first half of 2008 registered nearly 220,384 transactions made in RON, with an average value per transaction of RON 158 (EUR 43.90). Nearly 75,500 transactions were generated by cards in EUR, with a considerably higher average value per transaction (EUR 208). The cards in USD have generated 3,081 transactions with an average value of USD 249 (EUR 160).
Of the EUR 26 million processed within the first half of 2008, nearly 16 EUR million were generated by cards issued in the euro currency. This indicates that most transactions made in euro are generated by cards from abroad. A research executed at Romanian airline BlueAir.ro indicates, the total number of transactions registered until 12.00 PM, only 8 percent were made by cards issued in RON. The remaining 92 percent were transactions made in euro, made by people from Italy, Spain and Cyprus. Statistics also indicate that the top e-commerce categories in Romania are: tourism services and booking tickets, mobile phone bills, IT & C products and electronics.
At present, there are 148 Romanian stores that have adopted the 3D Secure security system, up from 112 stores registered in 2007. The statistics were published by RomCard, the provider of services for card payment systems in Romania.
INTTRA Expands Senior Management Team
INTTRA, the leading e-commerce portal for the ocean freight industry, today announces that Valerie Rainey has joined the Company’s senior management team as Chief Financial Officer (CFO). Rainey brings forth significant experience in areas such as e-commerce, strategic alliances, operations and finance. As CFO, Rainey will be responsible for budgeting, forecasting, financial reporting, financial modeling and process improvements.
With an evolving global suite of e-commerce solutions for the ocean-shipping industry, INTTRA continues to grow and innovate its product line. Rainey’s appointment affirms the Company’s commitment to providing its customers with comprehensive technologies for simplifying collaboration and increasing supply chain visibility.
“In growing the INTTRA senior management team by recruiting from various industries, we are putting in place a leadership team that will continue developing our current growth strategy while also providing new perspectives that will influence INTTRA’s new direction,” said Ken Bloom, CEO of INTTRA. “We are thrilled to have Valerie on board and look forward to her contribution to INTTRA’s innovation and rapid growth moving forward.”
Prior to joining INTTRA, Rainey was director of finance at Pitney Bowes in its international mail services division where Rainey successfully integrated acquisitions, streamlined processes, instituted internal controls and Sarbanes-Oxley compliance testing. Prior to joining Pitney Bowes, Rainey was with the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) for twelve years and held several different positions in finance and operations, strategic alliances and the international arena. Rainey also has previous experience in public accounting with BDO Seidman and Ernst and Young.
“INTTRA’s growth over the past eight years can be attributed to its innovative product line, dedicated senior management team and strategic growth initiatives,” said Rainey. “I look forward to helping continue these trends by developing corporate strategies that will foster INTTRA’s growth for years to come.”
Rainey is a Certified Public Accountant and received a Bachelor of Science and a Masters in Business from Fordham University.
With an evolving global suite of e-commerce solutions for the ocean-shipping industry, INTTRA continues to grow and innovate its product line. Rainey’s appointment affirms the Company’s commitment to providing its customers with comprehensive technologies for simplifying collaboration and increasing supply chain visibility.
“In growing the INTTRA senior management team by recruiting from various industries, we are putting in place a leadership team that will continue developing our current growth strategy while also providing new perspectives that will influence INTTRA’s new direction,” said Ken Bloom, CEO of INTTRA. “We are thrilled to have Valerie on board and look forward to her contribution to INTTRA’s innovation and rapid growth moving forward.”
Prior to joining INTTRA, Rainey was director of finance at Pitney Bowes in its international mail services division where Rainey successfully integrated acquisitions, streamlined processes, instituted internal controls and Sarbanes-Oxley compliance testing. Prior to joining Pitney Bowes, Rainey was with the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) for twelve years and held several different positions in finance and operations, strategic alliances and the international arena. Rainey also has previous experience in public accounting with BDO Seidman and Ernst and Young.
“INTTRA’s growth over the past eight years can be attributed to its innovative product line, dedicated senior management team and strategic growth initiatives,” said Rainey. “I look forward to helping continue these trends by developing corporate strategies that will foster INTTRA’s growth for years to come.”
Rainey is a Certified Public Accountant and received a Bachelor of Science and a Masters in Business from Fordham University.
GSI Commerce Platform Used to Launch iRobot's European Direct-to-Consumer Business
GSI Commerce Inc. (Nasdaq: GSIC), a leading provider of e-commerce and multichannel solutions, announced today that iRobot (Nasdaq: IRBT) is utilizing GSI's e-commerce platform to power its direct-to-consumer business in Europe through online stores in the U.K. (www.iroboteurope.co.uk) and Germany (www.iroboteurope.de).
"We are pleased with the full-service GSI e-commerce platform," said John Elordi, interim general manager of the Home Robots division for iRobot Corp. "GSI has been a involved in iRobot's online business growth in the United States, and we expect our e-commerce partnership to continue to flourish as we look to build on new opportunities presented by our international direct-to-consumer business."
iRobot replaced its U.S. e-commerce operation with a GSI e-commerce solution in January 2006 when the Bedford, Mass.-based robotics manufacturer launched a completely re-designed U.S. e-commerce store (www.irobot.com). The multiyear international agreement provides iRobot with e-commerce technology, order processing, and integration to third-party fulfillment and customer care services.
"We're proud to provide the e-commerce platform and services that meet iRobot's needs as they expanded into the direct to consumer business internationally. As international e-commerce becomes more of a strategic priority for our partners, we are committed to helping them grow and expand the reach of their direct-to-consumer businesses," said Steven Davis, executive vice president, international, and president and managing director of GSI Commerce Solutions International, S.L. "There are complexities to international e-commerce that present challenges for brands and retailers. GSI's e-commerce platform supports major European currencies, payment systems and tax collection, which helps to ease our partners' expansion into international e-commerce."
About GSI Commerce
GSI Commerce(R) (www.gsicommerce.com) is a leading provider of services that enable e-commerce, multichannel retailing and interactive marketing for large, business-to-consumer (b2c) enterprises in the U.S. and internationally. We deliver customized e-commerce solutions through an e-commerce platform, which is comprised of technology, fulfillment and customer care. We offer each of the platform's components on a modular basis, or as part of an integrated, end-to-end solution. We also offer a full suite of interactive marketing services through two divisions, gsi interactive(SM) and e-Dialog Inc.
Forward-Looking Statements
This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements made in this release, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements. Actual results might differ materially from what is expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Additional information about potential factors that could affect GSI Commerce can be found in its most recent Form 10-K, Form 10-Q and other reports and statements filed by GSI Commerce with the SEC. GSI Commerce expressly disclaims any intent or obligation to update these forward-looking statements.
"We are pleased with the full-service GSI e-commerce platform," said John Elordi, interim general manager of the Home Robots division for iRobot Corp. "GSI has been a involved in iRobot's online business growth in the United States, and we expect our e-commerce partnership to continue to flourish as we look to build on new opportunities presented by our international direct-to-consumer business."
iRobot replaced its U.S. e-commerce operation with a GSI e-commerce solution in January 2006 when the Bedford, Mass.-based robotics manufacturer launched a completely re-designed U.S. e-commerce store (www.irobot.com). The multiyear international agreement provides iRobot with e-commerce technology, order processing, and integration to third-party fulfillment and customer care services.
"We're proud to provide the e-commerce platform and services that meet iRobot's needs as they expanded into the direct to consumer business internationally. As international e-commerce becomes more of a strategic priority for our partners, we are committed to helping them grow and expand the reach of their direct-to-consumer businesses," said Steven Davis, executive vice president, international, and president and managing director of GSI Commerce Solutions International, S.L. "There are complexities to international e-commerce that present challenges for brands and retailers. GSI's e-commerce platform supports major European currencies, payment systems and tax collection, which helps to ease our partners' expansion into international e-commerce."
About GSI Commerce
GSI Commerce(R) (www.gsicommerce.com) is a leading provider of services that enable e-commerce, multichannel retailing and interactive marketing for large, business-to-consumer (b2c) enterprises in the U.S. and internationally. We deliver customized e-commerce solutions through an e-commerce platform, which is comprised of technology, fulfillment and customer care. We offer each of the platform's components on a modular basis, or as part of an integrated, end-to-end solution. We also offer a full suite of interactive marketing services through two divisions, gsi interactive(SM) and e-Dialog Inc.
Forward-Looking Statements
This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements made in this release, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements. Actual results might differ materially from what is expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Additional information about potential factors that could affect GSI Commerce can be found in its most recent Form 10-K, Form 10-Q and other reports and statements filed by GSI Commerce with the SEC. GSI Commerce expressly disclaims any intent or obligation to update these forward-looking statements.
New Report Forecasts the Market Size of IT Consulting Service Over the Period 2007-2010
The need to rationalize IT expenditure, align IT with business objectives, meet regulatory requirements, choose the right solution and the rise of eCommerce and new technologies such as SOA and virtualization are driving the IT consulting service market.
Further, the total market is segmented into various geographic regions and verticals. The report also presents markets size for major countries in various regions. In addition, the report identifies major selling drivers for the IT consulting service for the major verticals.
This report can help IT vendors identify target geographies and verticals. Furthermore, the identified sales drivers can be used to penetrate the identified vertical or increase current share of the customers wallet.
TechNavio Insights is a set of reports based on TechNavio - a market intelligence platform for the IT industry. It builds on the intelligence available within TechNavio, and leverages on the custom research experience of the Technology Navigators. TechNavio is built on years of experience of the authors in deep dive custom research and consulting for over 30 Fortune 500 companies and numerous large and mid-sized companies.
Key Topics Covered:
Market Size & Forecast
Geographic Segmentation
IT Consulting Services Market in Americas
Americas - Market Size by Country
IT Consulting Services Market in APAC
APAC - Market Size by Country
IT Consulting Services Market in EMEA
EMEA - Market Size by Country
Vertical Segmentation
IT Consulting Services Market Size by Vertical
Sales Drivers by Verticals
Banking, Financial Services & Insurance
Manufacturing
Communications
Government
Retail
Further, the total market is segmented into various geographic regions and verticals. The report also presents markets size for major countries in various regions. In addition, the report identifies major selling drivers for the IT consulting service for the major verticals.
This report can help IT vendors identify target geographies and verticals. Furthermore, the identified sales drivers can be used to penetrate the identified vertical or increase current share of the customers wallet.
TechNavio Insights is a set of reports based on TechNavio - a market intelligence platform for the IT industry. It builds on the intelligence available within TechNavio, and leverages on the custom research experience of the Technology Navigators. TechNavio is built on years of experience of the authors in deep dive custom research and consulting for over 30 Fortune 500 companies and numerous large and mid-sized companies.
Key Topics Covered:
Market Size & Forecast
Geographic Segmentation
IT Consulting Services Market in Americas
Americas - Market Size by Country
IT Consulting Services Market in APAC
APAC - Market Size by Country
IT Consulting Services Market in EMEA
EMEA - Market Size by Country
Vertical Segmentation
IT Consulting Services Market Size by Vertical
Sales Drivers by Verticals
Banking, Financial Services & Insurance
Manufacturing
Communications
Government
Retail
Successories Chooses MarketLive as eCommerce Solution Partner
MarketLive, Inc., the leading global eCommerce software and service provider for retailers, today announced Successories, the leading source of motivational media, has selected MarketLive as the company's eCommerce solution. Together, the two companies will build a more robust eCommerce website that will allow Successories to better market its products and services, strengthen its brand, and improve the online experience for its customers.
"Our goal is to methodically shift Successories from a catalog-centric to a web-centric business allowing our company to grow, but with much lower-cost advertising costs," said John Carroll, President and Chief Operating Officer of Successories. "Clearly, our website is integral to making this happen. We selected MarketLive because they understand our business and have the experience required to help us reach our goal. They were also the best at understanding how to clearly convey the intangible, motivational nature of our products which is critical to differentiating Successories from the competition and building our brand."
As Successories' transition to a web-centric business progressed, more demands were placed on the existing website. "This year, it became clear we needed to search for a more robust and flexible platform to accomplish our goals for the site," added Carroll. After a thorough search and evaluation process, Successories selected MarketLive.
"Our goal is to methodically shift Successories from a catalog-centric to a web-centric business allowing our company to grow, but with much lower-cost advertising costs," said John Carroll, President and Chief Operating Officer of Successories. "Clearly, our website is integral to making this happen. We selected MarketLive because they understand our business and have the experience required to help us reach our goal. They were also the best at understanding how to clearly convey the intangible, motivational nature of our products which is critical to differentiating Successories from the competition and building our brand."
As Successories' transition to a web-centric business progressed, more demands were placed on the existing website. "This year, it became clear we needed to search for a more robust and flexible platform to accomplish our goals for the site," added Carroll. After a thorough search and evaluation process, Successories selected MarketLive.
Monday, March 17, 2008
How to Choose an Ecommerce Storefront for Your Business
Choosing an ecommerce storefront drastically affects your sales. Choose wisely and sales double, triple, or more. Choose poorly and you waste your time and money.
Selecting the right ecommerce storefront begins with determining which features you will need. Doing some research and finding out about the different features available will help you select the services designed to target your individual business needs.
If you already have an existing website that is drawing traffic, adding an easy-to-use shopping cart may be all that you need. Deciding whether or not you want the capability to add html code to your existing website or if you want to be able to restructure your product pages completely are questions you should ask yourself while doing your research. Figure out what additional services you may need. Some ecommerce services offer search engine optimization to increase your traffic, website design to give your online business a new look, email delivery for your client base, and inventory control to help you track your merchandise.
If you need a domain name, server, and client management system in addition to the ecommerce service, these features may not be offered by every service. Decide which features might benefit your company the most. Search for a company that offers everything you need.
How user-friendly the service is should be important to you. You may not want or have time to learn HTML in order to use the features you are paying for. Make sure you know how much of your time is required to set up your ecommerce storefront. Many ecommerce solutions are set up in a way that allows you to use the features even without knowledge of HTML.
These services also vary greatly in price. Setting a budget and sticking to it helps you sort out unnecessary features to select a product that you can live with easily. Another consideration is billing. Some companies will charge one flat fee where others you'll receive a monthly bill.
Studies have shown that customers prefer a speedy checkout. Choose software that allows you to customize the number of clicks needed to check out. You may want the capability to customize other aspects of your service, like providing a consultant or a translator to customize your website further.
One important aspect to consider when choosing an ecommerce storefront service is the shelf life of the software. You do not want your current software to become obsolete in six months. Select one that offers research and product updates on a regular basis to keep your features and software fresh.
Any reputable business offers a satisfaction guarantee. You should thoroughly research the cancellation and refund policies before signing up with an ecommerce storefront. Be wary of any company that does not extend a money-back guarantee.
Read through the customer testimonials available for review. Find out what your competitors have to say about the product. Look for any complaints filed with the online better business bureau.
Customer service is important when deciding on this storefront service. If the company is in a different time zone, check to see that they have adequate customer service representatives available to assist you during your regular business hours. Learn if the company has a service available to help walk you through the setup of your new website.
The company should offer training seminars, videos or troubleshooting guides to help get you through the setup of your new site. As new features become available, training materials should be released to help you learn about these new features.
Getting answers to these targeted issues is the first step toward finding an ecommerce storefront solution that is right for your business. Knowing what you need before you shop gives you the advantage of quickly narrowing down the choices to find the perfect solution.
Selecting the right ecommerce storefront begins with determining which features you will need. Doing some research and finding out about the different features available will help you select the services designed to target your individual business needs.
If you already have an existing website that is drawing traffic, adding an easy-to-use shopping cart may be all that you need. Deciding whether or not you want the capability to add html code to your existing website or if you want to be able to restructure your product pages completely are questions you should ask yourself while doing your research. Figure out what additional services you may need. Some ecommerce services offer search engine optimization to increase your traffic, website design to give your online business a new look, email delivery for your client base, and inventory control to help you track your merchandise.
If you need a domain name, server, and client management system in addition to the ecommerce service, these features may not be offered by every service. Decide which features might benefit your company the most. Search for a company that offers everything you need.
How user-friendly the service is should be important to you. You may not want or have time to learn HTML in order to use the features you are paying for. Make sure you know how much of your time is required to set up your ecommerce storefront. Many ecommerce solutions are set up in a way that allows you to use the features even without knowledge of HTML.
These services also vary greatly in price. Setting a budget and sticking to it helps you sort out unnecessary features to select a product that you can live with easily. Another consideration is billing. Some companies will charge one flat fee where others you'll receive a monthly bill.
Studies have shown that customers prefer a speedy checkout. Choose software that allows you to customize the number of clicks needed to check out. You may want the capability to customize other aspects of your service, like providing a consultant or a translator to customize your website further.
One important aspect to consider when choosing an ecommerce storefront service is the shelf life of the software. You do not want your current software to become obsolete in six months. Select one that offers research and product updates on a regular basis to keep your features and software fresh.
Any reputable business offers a satisfaction guarantee. You should thoroughly research the cancellation and refund policies before signing up with an ecommerce storefront. Be wary of any company that does not extend a money-back guarantee.
Read through the customer testimonials available for review. Find out what your competitors have to say about the product. Look for any complaints filed with the online better business bureau.
Customer service is important when deciding on this storefront service. If the company is in a different time zone, check to see that they have adequate customer service representatives available to assist you during your regular business hours. Learn if the company has a service available to help walk you through the setup of your new website.
The company should offer training seminars, videos or troubleshooting guides to help get you through the setup of your new site. As new features become available, training materials should be released to help you learn about these new features.
Getting answers to these targeted issues is the first step toward finding an ecommerce storefront solution that is right for your business. Knowing what you need before you shop gives you the advantage of quickly narrowing down the choices to find the perfect solution.
Saturday, March 15, 2008
E-commerce Hosting Solution
E-commerce is basically running an online business. To be more precise, buying/selling of goods/services over the internet denotes e commerce.
For trading goods online, you need a virtual online store or shop.
All the features of this shop will be more or less similar to a physical store with the only difference that is it is online.
A typical e-commerce website is also called as shopping cart site or online retail/wholesale store. Products are displayed on the screen, where users can select & put it in the shopping cart or basket. The program takes note of factors like number of products, quantity & price. The products are displayed from the inventory that is lying in the back-end.
Virtually, this is called a database. You also have option to search for a particular product or feature of a product from the database. Based on your inputs, the program fetches the product from the database & displays it to you. You can then drop it in your shopping cart. Once you are done with your shopping, you head for a check-out process, which basically allows you to enter credit card information for the price you are paying & gives you the details of shipping the product at your doorstep. This procedure is called a transaction. Usually, any e-commerce system contains all these features plus any other advanced features depending upon the requirement.
Building an e-commerce system is a complicated process; therefore it is not really advisable to build your own e-commerce system, especially if you are running a smaller business. The best solution is to find a hosting provider that offers a complete e-commerce hosting solution.
While looking for a provider who can offer e commerce web hosting services & solutions, you need to ensure many factors such as how this system handles orders, shipping, inventory, security, billing etc.
The above factors are just the basic few; depending upon your level of requirements, you will find anything from very simple to very complex features available from variety of hosting providers.
In a nutshell, to start an online store, you first need to have inventory of products that you intend to sell online. Then, you can approach any web company offering you a complete package of e-commerce hosting services & solutions, to develop & host your website. Once your e commerce site is ready, it is hosted on a dedicated/shared server sometimes fully managed where all the server administration tasks are handled by the hosting company.
For trading goods online, you need a virtual online store or shop.
All the features of this shop will be more or less similar to a physical store with the only difference that is it is online.
A typical e-commerce website is also called as shopping cart site or online retail/wholesale store. Products are displayed on the screen, where users can select & put it in the shopping cart or basket. The program takes note of factors like number of products, quantity & price. The products are displayed from the inventory that is lying in the back-end.
Virtually, this is called a database. You also have option to search for a particular product or feature of a product from the database. Based on your inputs, the program fetches the product from the database & displays it to you. You can then drop it in your shopping cart. Once you are done with your shopping, you head for a check-out process, which basically allows you to enter credit card information for the price you are paying & gives you the details of shipping the product at your doorstep. This procedure is called a transaction. Usually, any e-commerce system contains all these features plus any other advanced features depending upon the requirement.
Building an e-commerce system is a complicated process; therefore it is not really advisable to build your own e-commerce system, especially if you are running a smaller business. The best solution is to find a hosting provider that offers a complete e-commerce hosting solution.
While looking for a provider who can offer e commerce web hosting services & solutions, you need to ensure many factors such as how this system handles orders, shipping, inventory, security, billing etc.
The above factors are just the basic few; depending upon your level of requirements, you will find anything from very simple to very complex features available from variety of hosting providers.
In a nutshell, to start an online store, you first need to have inventory of products that you intend to sell online. Then, you can approach any web company offering you a complete package of e-commerce hosting services & solutions, to develop & host your website. Once your e commerce site is ready, it is hosted on a dedicated/shared server sometimes fully managed where all the server administration tasks are handled by the hosting company.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Ecommerce Threats & Solutions
eCommerce has forever revolutionized the way business is done. Retail has now a long way from the days of physical transactions that were time consuming and prone to errors.
However, eCommerce has unavoidably invited its share of trouble makers. As much as eCommerce simplifies transactions, it is occasionally plagued by serious concerns that jeopardize its security as a medium of exchanging money and information.
Major threats to present day eCommerce include
Breach of Security:
Money Thefts
eCommerce services are about transactions, and transactions are very largely driven by money. This attracts hackers, crackers and everyone with the knowledge of exploiting loopholes in a system. Once a kink in the armor is discovered, they feed the system(and users) with numerous bits of dubious information to extract confidential data(phishing). This is particularly dangerous as the data extracted may be that of credit card numbers, security passwords, transaction details etc.
Also, Payment gateways are vulnerable to interception by unethical users. Cleverly crafted strategies can sift a part or the entire amount being transferred from the user to the online vendor.
Identity thefts
Hackers often gain access to sensitive information like user accounts, user details, addresses, confidential personal information etc. It is a significant threat in view of the privileges one can avail with a false identity.
For instance, one can effortlessly login to an online shopping mart under a stolen identity and make purchases worth thousands of dollars. He/she can then have the order delivered to an address other than the one listed on the records. One can easily see how those orders could be received by the impostor without arousing suspicion. While the fraudsters gains, the original account holder continues to pay the price until the offender is nabbed.
Threats to the system
Viruses, worms, Trojans are very deceptive methods of stealing information. Unless a sound virus-protection strategy is used by the eCommere Solutions firm, these malicious agents can compromise the credibility of all eCommerce web solution services. Often planted by individuals for reasons known best to them alone, viruses breed within the systems and multiply at astonishing speeds. Unchecked, they can potentially cripple the entire system.
Solutions
There is but one solution to all issues that at times dent the security of eCommerce services. Strict vigil on malicious intruders.
Easier said than done? So is every preventive measure. However, with online transactions, progress in security has been overwhelming.
Authentication
Most notable are the advances in identification and elimination of non-genuine users. Ecommerce service designers now use multi-level identification protocols like security questions, encrypted passwords(Encryption), biometrics and others to confirm the identity of their customers. These steps have found wide favor all around due to their effectiveness in weeding out unwelcome access.
Intrusion Check
The issue of tackling viruses and their like has also seen rapid development with anti-virus vendors releasing strong anti-viruses. These are developed by expert programmers who are a notch above the hackers and crackers themselves.
Firewalls are another common way of implementing security measures. These programs restrict access to and from the system to pre-checked users/access points.
Educating Users
eCommerce is run primarily by users. Thus, eCommerce service providers have also turned to educating users about safe practices that make the entire operation trouble free. Recent issues like phishing have been tackled to a good extent by informing genuine users of the perils of publishing their confidential information to unauthorized information seekers.
However, eCommerce has unavoidably invited its share of trouble makers. As much as eCommerce simplifies transactions, it is occasionally plagued by serious concerns that jeopardize its security as a medium of exchanging money and information.
Major threats to present day eCommerce include
Breach of Security:
Money Thefts
eCommerce services are about transactions, and transactions are very largely driven by money. This attracts hackers, crackers and everyone with the knowledge of exploiting loopholes in a system. Once a kink in the armor is discovered, they feed the system(and users) with numerous bits of dubious information to extract confidential data(phishing). This is particularly dangerous as the data extracted may be that of credit card numbers, security passwords, transaction details etc.
Also, Payment gateways are vulnerable to interception by unethical users. Cleverly crafted strategies can sift a part or the entire amount being transferred from the user to the online vendor.
Identity thefts
Hackers often gain access to sensitive information like user accounts, user details, addresses, confidential personal information etc. It is a significant threat in view of the privileges one can avail with a false identity.
For instance, one can effortlessly login to an online shopping mart under a stolen identity and make purchases worth thousands of dollars. He/she can then have the order delivered to an address other than the one listed on the records. One can easily see how those orders could be received by the impostor without arousing suspicion. While the fraudsters gains, the original account holder continues to pay the price until the offender is nabbed.
Threats to the system
Viruses, worms, Trojans are very deceptive methods of stealing information. Unless a sound virus-protection strategy is used by the eCommere Solutions firm, these malicious agents can compromise the credibility of all eCommerce web solution services. Often planted by individuals for reasons known best to them alone, viruses breed within the systems and multiply at astonishing speeds. Unchecked, they can potentially cripple the entire system.
Solutions
There is but one solution to all issues that at times dent the security of eCommerce services. Strict vigil on malicious intruders.
Easier said than done? So is every preventive measure. However, with online transactions, progress in security has been overwhelming.
Authentication
Most notable are the advances in identification and elimination of non-genuine users. Ecommerce service designers now use multi-level identification protocols like security questions, encrypted passwords(Encryption), biometrics and others to confirm the identity of their customers. These steps have found wide favor all around due to their effectiveness in weeding out unwelcome access.
Intrusion Check
The issue of tackling viruses and their like has also seen rapid development with anti-virus vendors releasing strong anti-viruses. These are developed by expert programmers who are a notch above the hackers and crackers themselves.
Firewalls are another common way of implementing security measures. These programs restrict access to and from the system to pre-checked users/access points.
Educating Users
eCommerce is run primarily by users. Thus, eCommerce service providers have also turned to educating users about safe practices that make the entire operation trouble free. Recent issues like phishing have been tackled to a good extent by informing genuine users of the perils of publishing their confidential information to unauthorized information seekers.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Small Business E-Commerce
Are you prepared for a new way of doing business? Do you want some activity that will not take up most of your time, but will enable you to generate income? Do you want to earn more money while staying at the relative comfort of your own home? If your answer to these questions is a resounding YES, then settle down and let me explain to you the concept of small business e-commerce.
The concept of Electronic Commerce, or e-commerce has been around for many years now, ever since the inception of the World Wide Web. Basically, it is simply the process of buying and selling, even trading goods and commodities over the Internet. E-commerce has many advantages, the most well-known is the ability to do business without even leaving the comforts of your own home. So imagine the convenience of earning money while not having to go out and having control over your own time!
So why is this relevant to you? If you have read the entire article up to this point, I can assume that you are either a small business owner who is looking for ways to expand your client base or an individual who is interested in starting up a small business to earn money. Probably you are asking: what do I need to set up a small business online?
There are no concrete rules in e-commerce, but like any business, virtual or not, the following steps would be very helpful to us:
identify your customer base know the marketability of your products make sure that you have a steady supply of the products you are selling reach out to potential customers
For e-commerce, having a website for your business is very crucial. Your website is essentially your store front, and just like any good store, your website should be clean, appealing to look at, and easy to navigate. Imagine a dirty grocery store, with mismatched colors and maze-like shelves! You wouldn't want to buy products from such a store, would you? So the same goes for your e-commerce website.
The concept of Electronic Commerce, or e-commerce has been around for many years now, ever since the inception of the World Wide Web. Basically, it is simply the process of buying and selling, even trading goods and commodities over the Internet. E-commerce has many advantages, the most well-known is the ability to do business without even leaving the comforts of your own home. So imagine the convenience of earning money while not having to go out and having control over your own time!
So why is this relevant to you? If you have read the entire article up to this point, I can assume that you are either a small business owner who is looking for ways to expand your client base or an individual who is interested in starting up a small business to earn money. Probably you are asking: what do I need to set up a small business online?
There are no concrete rules in e-commerce, but like any business, virtual or not, the following steps would be very helpful to us:
identify your customer base know the marketability of your products make sure that you have a steady supply of the products you are selling reach out to potential customers
For e-commerce, having a website for your business is very crucial. Your website is essentially your store front, and just like any good store, your website should be clean, appealing to look at, and easy to navigate. Imagine a dirty grocery store, with mismatched colors and maze-like shelves! You wouldn't want to buy products from such a store, would you? So the same goes for your e-commerce website.
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