Slide 3.

Chapter 3
Managing digital business
infrastructure

David Chaffey, E-Business & E-Commerce Management, 5th Edition, © Marketing Insights Limited 2012
Slide 3.2

Learning Outcomes

• Outline the hardware and software

technologies used to build an e-business
infrastructure within an organization and with
its partners

• Outline the hardware and software

requirements necessary to enable employee
access to the Internet and hosting of e-
commerce services.

David Chaffey, E-Business & E-Commerce Management, 5th Edition, © Marketing Insights Limited 2012
Slide 3.3

Management Issues

• What are the practical risks to the

organization of failure to manage e-commerce
infrastructure adequately?

• How should staff access to the Internet

be managed?

• How should we evaluate the relevance of web

services and open source software?

David Chaffey, E-Business & E-Commerce Management, 5th Edition, © Marketing Insights Limited 2012
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Why the Jargon?

• Why do business managers need to know

about the jargon and technology?

David Chaffey, E-Business & E-Commerce Management, 5th Edition, © Marketing Insights Limited 2012
Slide 3.5

Activity 3.1
Infrastructure Risk Assessment
• Make a list of the potential problems for
customers of an online retailer
• You should consider problems faced by users
of e-business applications who are both
internal and external to the organization
• Base your answer on problems you have
experienced on a website that can be related
to network, hardware and software failures or
problems with data quality.

David Chaffey, E-Business & E-Commerce Management, 5th Edition, © Marketing Insights Limited 2012
Slide 3.6

Typical Problems

• Website communications too slow

• Website not available

• Bugs on site through pages being unavailable

or information typed in forms not being
executed

• Ordered products not delivered on time

David Chaffey, E-Business & E-Commerce Management, 5th Edition, © Marketing Insights Limited 2012
Slide 3.7

Typical Problems (Continued)

• E-mails not replied to

• Customers’ privacy or trust is broken through

security problems such as credit cards being
stolen or addresses sold to other companies.

David Chaffey, E-Business & E-Commerce Management, 5th Edition, © Marketing Insights Limited 2012
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Table 3.1 Key management issues of e-business infrastructure

David Chaffey, E-Business & E-Commerce Management, 5th Edition, © Marketing Insights Limited 2012
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Table 3.1 Key management issues of e-business infrastructure (Continued)

David Chaffey, E-Business & E-Commerce Management, 5th Edition, © Marketing Insights Limited 2012
Slide 3.10

Digital Business Technology Platforms

• Desktop, laptop, and notebook platforms

• Mobile phone and tablet platforms

• Other hardwares
– Gaming platforms
– Indoor and outdoor kiosk-type apps
– Interactive signage

David Chaffey, E-Business & E-Commerce Management, 5th Edition, © Marketing Insights Limited 2012
Slide 3.11

Figure 3.1 A five-layer model of e-business infrastructure

David Chaffey, E-Business & E-Commerce Management, 5th Edition, © Marketing Insights Limited 2012
Slide 3.12

Activity
Internet Infrastructure Components
• Write down all the different types of hardware
and software involved from when a user types
in a web address such as www.google.com to
the website being loaded.

David Chaffey, E-Business & E-Commerce Management, 5th Edition, © Marketing Insights Limited 2012
Slide 3.13

Physical and network infrastructure components of the Internet (Levels IV

Figure 3.2
and III in Figure 3.1)
David Chaffey, E-Business & E-Commerce Management, 5th Edition, © Marketing Insights Limited 2012
Slide 3.14

Management issues in creating a new

digital service

• Domain name selection

• Selection of hosting services

• Selection of SaaS (Software as a Service)

David Chaffey, E-Business & E-Commerce Management, 5th Edition, © Marketing Insights Limited 2012
Slide 3.15

Domain name selection

• Domain name: the address of the web server

• http://www.domain-name.extension/filename.html

• Extensions:
• generic top-level domain
- .com
- .org
- .mobi
- .net
• country-code top-level domain
- .co.uk
- .tr, .de, .fr, .it
- .edu.tr, ac.uk
- org.tr
David Chaffey, E-Business & E-Commerce Management, 5th Edition, © Marketing Insights Limited 2012
Slide 3.16

Issues related to domain name

• URL – Uniform Resource Locators

- A web address used to locate a web page on a
web server

- URL strategy

- URL components

• Domain name registration

• Selecting hosting providers

David Chaffey, E-Business & E-Commerce Management, 5th Edition, © Marketing Insights Limited 2012
Slide 3.17

Managing digital business applications

infrastructure

(a) Fragmented applications infrastructure, (b) integrated applications

Figure 3.17
infrastructure
Source: Adapted from Hasselbring (2000)

David Chaffey, E-Business & E-Commerce Management, 5th Edition, © Marketing Insights Limited 2012
Slide 3.18

Managing digital business applications

infrastructure (con’t)

(a) Fragmented applications infrastructure, (b) integrated applications

Figure 3.17
infrastructure (Continued)
Source: Adapted from Hasselbring (2000)
David Chaffey, E-Business & E-Commerce Management, 5th Edition, © Marketing Insights Limited 2012
Slide 3.19

Managing digital business applications

infrastructure (con’t)

Figure 3.18 Differing use of applications at levels of management within companies

David Chaffey, E-Business & E-Commerce Management, 5th Edition, © Marketing Insights Limited 2012
Slide 3.20
Managing digital business applications
infrastructure (con’t)

Figure 3.19 Elements of e-business infrastructure that require management

David Chaffey, E-Business & E-Commerce Management, 5th Edition, © Marketing Insights Limited 2012
Slide 3.21

Web Services and SaaS

• Benefits of web services

- Lower initial cost & lower maintenance cost
- Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
- Ready to use
- High adoption
- Convenience of upgrade
- Integration

• Challenges of deploying Saas

- Dependence on a third party to deliver services

David Chaffey, E-Business & E-Commerce Management, 5th Edition, © Marketing Insights Limited 2012
Slide 3.22

Managing IT resources
• Cloud Computing

• Virtualisation

Technicalities
• Service-oriented architecture (SOA)

David Chaffey, E-Business & E-Commerce Management, 5th Edition, © Marketing Insights Limited 2012
Slide 3.23

Managing service quality

• Issues in ISP and hosting

• Speed of acceess

• Availability

• Service level agreements

• Security

David Chaffey, E-Business & E-Commerce Management, 5th Edition, © Marketing Insights Limited 2012
Slide 3.24

Managing internal digital communications

Intranet applications

– Benefits of using it

– Issues to be considered

Extranet applications

– Benefits of using it

– Issues to be considered

Encouraging use of intranets and extranets

David Chaffey, E-Business & E-Commerce Management, 5th Edition, © Marketing Insights Limited 2012
Slide 3.25

Activity 3.3
Overcoming limited use of intranets and
extranets in a B2B company
• A B2B company has found that after an initial
surge of interest in its intranet and extranet,
usage has declined dramatically. The
e-business manager wants to achieve these
aims:
• Increase usage
• Produce more dynamic content
• Encouraging more clients to order (extranet).
• What would you suggest?

David Chaffey, E-Business & E-Commerce Management, 5th Edition, © Marketing Insights Limited 2012
Slide 3.26

Suggested Answers

• Identify benefits
• Involve staff with development
• Find system sponsors, owners and advocates
• Train on benefits
• Keep content fresh, relevant and where
possible, fun
• Use e-mail to encourage usage

David Chaffey, E-Business & E-Commerce Management, 5th Edition, © Marketing Insights Limited 2012
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Internet-based supplementaries

• IPTV

• Voice over IP (VoIP)

• Widgets

David Chaffey, E-Business & E-Commerce Management, 5th Edition, © Marketing Insights Limited 2012
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Web presentation and data exchange standards

• XML

• Semantic web standards

• Microformats

David Chaffey, E-Business & E-Commerce Management, 5th Edition, © Marketing Insights Limited 2012