E-Commerce Engineering

E-commerce is the all-encompassing term used to describe business conducted electronically, especially over the internet. E-commerce engineering is a necessary force for companies who want to pioneer this new frontier. Benefits to companies who e-commerce include increased profits; reduced labor, inventory and communication expenses; and greater availability and faster access to information.

Pitfalls to e-commerce engineering include higher technology and technologically competent staffing costs. E-commerce engineering is a booming field as demand grows for faster, more secure internet technology. Faster computers and internet connections have paved the way for e-commerce development. As internet usage grows around the world, known as globalization, mass markets are a boon for e-commerce advancement.

E-commerce engineering is guided by rules such as Moore's Law. Intel founder Gordon Moore postulated in the 1960s chip processing power would double every 18 months while the cost of the chip would remained unchanged. This has largely remained true, as the need for faster technology drives e-commerce engineering.

Metcalf's Law is another important aspect of e-commerce engineering. It states "the usefulness of a network is equal to the square of the number of users on the network." In other words, more people on a network means exponential growth of the utility of that network. As millions of people log on to the internet everyday, the internet truly earns its nickname "Information Superhighway," and e-commerce engineering thrives.

Security is vital to e-commerce technology. There are many security tools available to deflect hackers and other types of fraud. A secure socket layer, or SSL, encrypts information sent over the internet in a transaction so only the sending and receiving parties are able to decode and use the information. Certificates provide encryption to files that verify the authenticity of the user. SSL's combined with certificates make a secure transaction, and are vital to e-commerce engineering.

E-commerce advancement also relies on data-mining. Businesses choose to store information about their customers on databases. Businesses can ask the customer to register their information online, or a company can procure the information when opening a new account with a customer or by simply buying the information from another company's database. This information is invaluable to a company; it is analyzed by e-commerce technology to present information about customers that will allow a company to make better business decisions in the future. Called decision support software, these data-mining applications are expensive, but vital to e-commerce development.

Essential to e-commerce engineering is the understanding technology changes very rapidly. New technology can be very expensive, so it is important for business owners to make shrewd decisions about what new technology to buy and who to hire to implement the technology. Often the desire to buy the newest, best technology overrules logic; and the new software may end up costing more than it is worth to the company. E-commerce engineering is changing the way the world does business everyday.


Sources:
Smith, Rob; Mark Thompson, and Mark Speaker. The Complete Idiot's Guide to e-Commerce. Indianapolis, IN: Que. 2000.

Shim, Jae K., Anique A. Qureshi, Joel G. Siegel, and Roberta M. Siegel. The International Handbook of Electric Commerce. Chicago, IL. The Glenlake Publishing Company, LTD: 2000.

Rosen, Anita. The e-commerce Question and Answer Book. New York. Amacom: 2000.