Tuesday, January 28, 2020

SWOT Analysis of E-Commerce Opportunity

SWOT Analysis of E-Commerce Opportunity Description and Market Potential Description Introduction: Describe what an e-commerce opportunity is. Cite sources. The current system was developed as part of an internal intranet define terms clearly with sources. This allows staff to set up alerts based on requests by existing clients or through new clients brought in by sales. This process could be automated into a website that allowed clients to review, purchase and setup their own alerts for their company without the need for manual processes by internal employees. This model favours a higher volume of sales at a lower cost with the potential to access new B2B what is this? sales outside of the current high value business clients. The single unit of sales for the site is an alert. A single alert covers: A number of twitter users to follow, these can be defined and grouped by the user for management convenience. A key area of the product will be pre-defined groups maintained by social360 that identify the influential journalists, bloggers and social media commentators from specific business sectors and geographical areas. Limitations are imposed on the user for numbers of â€Å"influencers†not yet defined per alert or group depending on the package selected and price The keywords the customer wants to follow. This requires an easy to understand process that defines the words to match or exclude and the logic that joins them together, either AND or OR. The people that the user sets up to alert, these can be managed as groups that can be shared across alerts or as individuals. Process requiring that the intended recipient is invited and accepts the receipt of alerts and can manage their subscription to alerts is required to avoid the sending of unsolicited email. SWOT Analysis (what are you analysing – Social 360? You have not yet identified your product or service for your proposed e-commerce activity – state your service idea clearly at the beginning – paragraph 2) Strengths Already tested as a concept. Good feedback from clients using the existing service. Few competitors offering similar services. Low running costs. No stock or inventory, a digital product. Weaknesses Reliant on suppliers of data services, rapidly changing marketplace. Requires proprietary software which could increase development time. Opportunities Potentially large market unlimited by import/export taxes. Possibility of licensing to agencies in the future. Good expansion possibilities, creation of new products/services. Application can be localised for international sales. Threats Competitors offer limited services for free, need to focus on our differences. Services require high-availability service interruption must be avoided. Time to market is key in fast moving sector. Cost reduction devalues product for high value clients. PESTEL Analysis Political Changes in State and European law could affect service providers and their ability to provide the basic services required for the product. Economic Scalability of costs what is this? from suppliers needs to be assessed. Internal limits on staffing requirements and costs. Social Modern social landscape online provides potential customers interested in marketing, brand analysis and monitoring. Trends towards greater public sharing of data and opinions. New Public Relations in corporations moving from print media towards social media. Technological Fast moving changes in licensing of data from social media platforms could disrupt data suppliers Reliability of product is key, technology must be selected to provide continuity in services as missed content is unlikely to be tolerated. Use of freely available APIs provided by social media platforms should be exploited to improve informational content behind core services. Environmental Low general environmental impact. Data centres are the most significant use of energy, possibility of researching most efficient providers. Legal Must adhere to the data protection act concerning customer information Must be aware of requirements outlined in the e-commerce regulations act of 2002 Must be aware Suppliers terms and conditions Strategy/Vision The primary e-commerce strategy is to exploit new markets that are not currently reachable through traditional sales methods. Designing a system that is configurable through a public facing website removes the need for company employees to configure and administer alerts. When combined with a package selection process and payment system this creates a product with a sales process that removes a significant portion of the cost. Reducing the cost and improving the scalability of a virtual package selling allows for smaller businesses in a larger marketplace to to become targets for the product. Another significant factor is being able to pay minimal costs to translate and localise the interface into regional versions that can reach markets that would traditionally need sales staff who potentially need to speak the language and reside within the timezone. Objectives Vision Create a product of value to anyone marketing a brand or product or requiring social media tracking of a subject relating to their organisation. Provide a satisfying and intuitive user experience throughout all aspects of the site. Achieve levels of reliability befitting of a service for use in times of organisational crisis and for sending critical information. Produce alerts of social media content matching the clients needs delivered in a timely and reliable way to the organisational members that need it. Maintain the privacy and security of users of the site. Goals Primary initial objective is to produce a working and testable â€Å"beta† version of the site within 4 months this entails: Research market potential of the product, assess competitors offerings. 1 week. Analysis of the current system used internally to identify its strengths and weaknesses, proposing areas for improvement specifically in usability. 1 week Research and planning; research available technology that can be used, specifically frameworks to assist with development and APIs relating to suppliers of data, email and payment services. 2 weeks Development of site to alpha version, unit, integration and component interface testing. 2 months System testing and deployment, acceptance testing. 1 month Market Research Applicable primary market research is based around feedback from existing clients using a similar product that fulfils the same function. Formulated questions and their responses can become part of account managers normal communication with clients communications departments. This allows for the gathering of data from questionnaire style responses conducted in a telephone interview style without the need to mail drop the client with what could possibly be off-putting marketing material. For existing clients the specifications for current alert configurations contain valuable data about the market. Clients can be separated into sectors showing their usage of the system based on the keywords, trends and influential people that they choose to follow. The marketing usage for these clients will allow for more targeted advertising to different business types. Possible selling points include: Brand management. Tracking social media conversation surrounding a brand or product. Product Launch. Analysing conversation on social media follow a product launch. Consumer Dissent. Providing data to help formulate response to criticism or protest. Political/Legislative. Tracking a core political issue or legislation change that affects the market place. Secondary research includes the use of publicly sourced data to understand the use of social media in the marketing and public relations departments of potential clients. This is a rapidly changing environment in marketing as companies realise the potential for using social media for marketing purposes and the need to monitor outlets that have influence. Social media marketing budgets will double over the next 5 years (Pam Dyer, 2013) From 2010 to 2012 the percentage of Americans following any brand on a social network increased from 16% to 33%. An increase of 106%. (Van Den Beld, B, 2012) Competitor analysis The closest competitor providing service of this nature is Yatterbox. Yatterbox provide a real time alert service limited by numbers of keywords and following fixed lists of influential accounts. SWOT analysis of yatterbox from the point of view of our product: Strengths Well maintained lists of influential social media commenters. Existing user base, current market leader. Good coverage of social media platforms. Graphical analysis of data history Weaknesses No provision for self maintained lists of influential sources. Limited number of search terms allowed on basic accounts. No real time alerts on basic accounts. Our Opportunities Provide greater control over lists of sources Allow user maintained lists Provide unlimited keyword search terms. Compete on price, offer limited free subscription to build user base. Offer real time and scheduled alerts Our Threats Not the first to market Comparison is inevitable, must compete on their strengths and highlight our own unique selling points. Competing on price doesnt allow us to set our own pricing. Yatterbox Pricing (Yatterbox, accessed 16 May 2014) 3.2 Systems Evaluation Service Providers A significant part of the product relies on services provided by third parties as a reliable platform for key functionality. The e-commerce part of the site also requires payment services to complete transactions. Data There are 2 main players in providing data streams from social media platforms who have licenses to provide social media data from a number of online platforms. Initially the main platform of concern is Twitter as this has been identified as the man driver of news within social media. Datasift and Gnip both provide APIs to allow for connection to streams of content based on rules to filter data. For our purposes we only require data from users accounts that are requested by users of our product. Streams can also be filtered by keywords but we intend to provide the setup for this within our own users accounts allowing them to decide what subjects are important to them. Main concerns affecting the choice are the ease of integration of the product, quality of documentation, reliability of the stream and cost. It may not be possible to completely asses these factors without trialling the services of both providers. Email The reliable delivery of email alerts is a critical factor in provision of the service. Usage of standard SMTP services within standard email accounts is unlikely to meet the requirements of sending large volumes of email due to concerns over spamming and unsolicited email. There are a number of services that are designed to provide a high volume email delivery platform. These also generally give better logging and information about delivery statuses and failures which we can transfer to the user to allow them to manage the recipients of their alerts. Providers include: Sendgrid Amazon SES Socketlabs Mailjet The relative advantages and disadvantages of each would have to be assessed using demo services and investigating the APIs in applicability to our own needs. At a first look Sengrid appears to be a good fit with clear documentation with examples of integration in a number of platforms, favourable independent reviews and a competitive pricing plan. Registrar/DNS services The main reason for the registrar is the registration of the required domain name for the website, but other concerns include the ability to manage DNS Explain meaning . This requires that the registrar used provides good online services for the administration of DNS records. Hosting For this type of project shared hosting (where servers are shared by a number of customers) is unlikely to provide the level of control and reliability required. Some of the processes we intend to setup on the server, such as the stream connections and management of email queues and processing, require a level of access that is generally limited or non-existent on shared servers. This leaves Cloud Computing service or Dedicated Servers as possible platforms for the services. For this project there are a number of unknowns that mean the usage of cloud computing is undesirable. Bandwidth, disk and memory usage and SQL storage costs are difficult to predict and can be expensive on cloud platforms. These are easier to assess as a known cost quantity on a dedicated system where it is possible to buy services with unlimited bandwidth and hardware more than capable of hosting the site for a reasonable length of time into its launch. The downside is reliability of a single point of failure in the hardware but this can be addresses by mirroring important services across colocated servers and using load balancing to route requests. SSL Certificate Most Service Providers who sell Secure Socket Layer certificates have a number of options ranging from basic encryption certificates that just offer the encryption required to secure data in transit to those offering users greater confidence through vetting processes to ensure the organisation using the certificate is who they say they are. The certificates offered are usually 1 one of four of 4 types: Simple SSL security, offering encryption services identified by the use of https protocol prefix in the browser address bar and the browser â€Å"padlock† symbol. Domain Validation SSL, same as the simple with added checks for the validity of the domain. Users can click on â€Å"Site Seal† icons to check the validity of the domain with the certificate issuer. Organisational Validation SSL, same checks as the domain with extra vetting process for more information on the organisation when clicking the â€Å"site seal† icon. Extended Validation SSL, the most stringent checks are carried out by the certificate issuing authority to validate legal, physical and operational existence of the organisation and that this information matches official records. This results in the browser displaying a highlighted green validation bar in the the address area with details of the verified company. (GlabalSign Ltd, accessed 19 May 2014) Whilst not all forms of payment integration described below strictly require the use of an SSL certificate any transfer of user information is best encrypted in this way and is essential if when hosting localised checkout pages. The use of encryption coupled with verification checks that can be performed by the user increases their confidence in the site, however I am unable to find any study or clear statistical evidence that there is an increase in user confidence or sales conversion rate through using Extended Valuation SSL over the simpler forms. Payment Gateway Considerations for payment gateways include: Charges imposed and how they scale with volume Applicability of the integration. Quality of the API and documentation Security Some payment gateways are linked to a merchant bank account and provide the possibility for a more seamless checkout experience with a greater level of customisation and control over the checkout experience. Sagepay, a popular UK payment provider has 4 possible levels of integration a serves as a good example of possible solutions: Form integration. No customer data is stored on site, entire checkout process handled by Sagepay. Simple and quick to integrate, shortest development time. No on-site security issues from storing customer data. Limited customisation, no control over checkout steps Limited opportunity for customer data recording. Server Integration. Customer transaction details can be stored locally, card details and payment pages handled by Sagepay. Card transactions simplified by sagepay. Advantages in storing customer transaction information, improve user experience on site. Limited customisation, no control over checkout steps. Increased security issues by handling customer data. Server inframe integration. Similar to the server integration but allows greater control through embedding the sagepay card payment step into and iframe in the checkout process. Card details handled by sagepay. Store customer transaction information locally. Full checkout customisation, only the card details step handled by sagepay. Greater opportunities for customer interaction during checkout. (help, chat, feedback etc) Increased development time, checkout steps need to be created and tested. Increased security issues through handling customer data. Direct integration. All aspects of the payment process are handled on site including customer card information, greatest level of control over the checkout and completely seamless as it only communicates with sagepay at the point of transaction processing from the local server. Greater control over customer checkout, data handling and checkout flow. No front-end considerations for integration, user experience entirely customisable. Longest development time, requires greatest consideration of implications. Greatest security risk. Requires PCI DSS certification (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) (Sagepay, accessed 15 May 2014) Other payment solutions do not require merchant accounts and can not be seamlessly integrated into the checkout flow. Systems such as PayPal offer solutions for easy integration that will always require that the user leaves the payment issuing site to go through the payment process (although PayPal does offer merchant account solutions as well), transaction reporting can be provided through call back systems such as PayPal Instant Payment Notification. There are advantages in using PayPal as it has a very large user base. This user base has become accustomed to the convenience of faster checkouts as there billing data and preferences are already stored and do not require re-entry during the checkout procedure helping to increase sales conversions for new customers. (PayPal, accessed 15 May 2014) Project Management/Version Control As with any software development version control is essential to manage the codebase. There are currently 2 main considerations for version control that are both open sourced and have online services to provide remote repositories for code. Git is a widely used Version Control System and can be hosted on github.com Mecurial provides similar functionality and can be hosted by bitbucket.org Other services go further than just version control by providing project management tools that fit in with software design methodologies such as Agile. These include: Assembla Basecamp

Monday, January 20, 2020

Saving The World :: essays research papers

Is it too late to save the world? Probably not! Perhaps the real question should be if society will actually do something about it or not. Perhaps the world leaders are more interested in money than the welfare of the environment. Money makes the world go round, this could be true from an economical point of view but from the environmental aspect money is being fed into the wrong areas and screeching the world to a halt. The world should be putting plans into action at this stage in the earths rescue. Instead scientists are still trying to ‘understand’ what is going on. This is just taking up more and more time, leaving the earth to rot as they do their ‘research.’ There are many different ways that we as the earths population are destroying the environment. For example, the tall cooling towers used by industries. They do not remove pollutants but simply push them higher into the atmosphere, in this way they reduce their concentration at that particular area. The pollutants may then travel over large distances and produce negative effects in areas far away from the original site. This is only one example of how we are destroying the environment. Power stations are another source. These power stations make use of the cooling towers mentioned earlier, they also emit poisonous gasses such as some nitrogen oxides and probably more dangerous, greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). What are the consequences of this pollution? We have all heard about the hole in the ozone layer, global warming or even the famous armageggon. These are more drastic examples, why not look at some cases that have already happened. For instance acid rain is a regular occurrence all around the world.

Saturday, January 11, 2020

Macbeth †The Central Themes of the Play Essay

The central themes of the play are highlighted by the sinister statement made by the witches at the very beginning of the play, â€Å"Fair is foul, and foul is fair: Hover through the fog and filthy air.† The whole tone for the play is set as it is a drama about contradictory forces and ideas: light and darkness; good and evil; holy and unholy; loyalty and disloyalty; trust and mistrust; what is natural and unnatural; honesty and deception. The witches mention of Macbeth is significant because he is immediately associated with evil. Duncan decides to appoint Macbeth as the next Thane of Cawdor as the previous one was a traitor, he says, † No more that Thane of Cawdor shall deceive Our bosom interest. Go pronounce his present death, And with his former title greet Macbeth.† This is ironic as Macbeth has inherited the title of a traitor and the title leads to Duncans killing and ultimately Macbeths downfall. This is also a link to the fair is foul statement as Macbeth seems fair, noble and a good servant for the king but in the end he kills Duncan and is evil. Macbeth has the capacity to kill for both good and evil. Duncan realises that he can’t judge people by their appearances and that they can be deceptive, † There’s no art To find the minds construction in the face:† This is ironic as he about to make the same mistake with the next Thane of Cawdor, the fact that people can be deceptive is reflected by ‘fair is foul’ as people aren’t always what they seem. When Macbeth realises that one of the witches’ prophesies has come true Banquo says, † What! Can the devil speak true?† This is saying that the witches are the devil and evil but they have spoken the truth which is not expected, this mixes good and evil referring back to ‘fair is foul’ and one of the themes this statement explores. Macbeth is also immediately liked with evil as he echoes the witches, † So foul and fair a day I have not seen.† The witches have established their deliberate evil and their powerful presence in the play, Macbeth has become their victim, we can see this where he says † Upon the blasted heath you stop our way With such prophetic greeting? Speak, I charge you.† This shows that Macbeth is drawn into what they are saying and also indicates the witches power over him as they just vanish. Macbeths echo links him with the themes that these words explore, he uses ironic lines such as, â€Å"Win us with honest trifles, to betray’s In deepest consequence.† Macbeth is now liked with the themes such as honesty, betrayal and loyalty all explored by the ‘fair is foul, and foul is fair’ statement, Macbeth is gradually being drawn more and more towards evil by his own weaknesses. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth share a very close relationship which is based around trust and honesty. Macbeth is ambitious and Lady Macbeth is trying to help him achieve his ambition, † All that impedes thee from the golden round, Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem To have thee crown’d withal.† This is ironic as although the wealth and power seems very attractive to them once they get it the trust, honesty and closeness they had is lost, this once links back to the ‘fair is foul’ theme. Lady Macbeth also tells Macbeth to be deceitful and disguise the truth, † Look at the time, bear welcome in your eye, Your hand, your toungue: look like the innocent flower But be the serpent under’t.† This shows that Macbeth looks innocent and fair but inside he is evil and foul. Duncan ironically praises Macbeths castle as pleasant and welcoming, † This castle hath a pleasant seat; the air Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself Unto our gentle senses.† This shows that ‘fair is foul’ as the castle looks pleasant from the outside but is evil within and is where Duncan is to be murdered. Duncan also praises Lady Macbeth as the noble, welcoming hostess; she is deceptive and puts on the false face of goodness to Duncan when really she is planning his murder, she says, † Your majesty loads our house: for those of old, and the late dignities heap’d up to them,† Macbeths ambition overpowers his conscience and morality with the help of Lady Macbeth and he commits the murder. Once they find out that Duncan has been murdered Macbeth again plays innocent and is not genuine, for example, † You are, and do not know’t: The spring, the head, the fountain of your blood Is stopp’d; the very source of it is stopp’d.† Macbeth conceals what he knows and pretends to be horrified by the murder in contrast to Macduff who is genuine, Macbeths language is over elaborate. The theme of natural and unnatural is created throughout the play, for example when the Old Man says, † T is unnatural, Even like the deed that’s done. On Tuesday last, A falcon, towering in her pride of place, Was by a mousing owl hawked at, and killed.† This means that nature has changed and become strange and unnatural and reflects the murder and unnaturalness of Duncans death. Macbeth holds a Banquet at which Banquo is supposed to be present but Macbeth has murdered him, this shows that ‘fair is foul’ as everything seems normal but it is not and the ghost of Banquo turns up to haunt Macbeth. When Macbeth goes to visit the witches again they are cunning and employ equivocation, juggling with words to disguise the truth and lull Macbeth into a false sense of security. This is shown where they say, † The power of man, for none of woman born Shall harm Macbeth.† This is making Macbeth feel safe without them lying as Macduff was cut from his mother when she was dead, the witches are deceiving him showing that ‘foul is fair’. When Macduff goes to ask Malcom to raise an army to fight Macbeth and bring order back to Scotland Malcom accuses himself of being evil and foul. He is cautious to make sure Macduff is not trying to leur him back to Macbeth, he says, † To make me hunger more, that I should forge Quarrels unjust against the good and loyal, Destroying them for wealth.† Malcom is appearing foul but is fair in contrast to Macbeth, Malcom believes in Maduffs integrity and decided to help him. Malcom also says, † The night is long that never find the day.† This means that every black, evil night comes to a good day, ‘foul is fair’. The contrasts become moral contrasts and Macbeth has lost everything, eventually goodness overpowers evil.

Friday, January 3, 2020

Essay about The Nature of War Clausewitz - 1374 Words

Clausewitz defines war as an â€Å"act of force to compel our enemy to do our will.† The nature of war is enduring yet the character of war changes over time. Current US strategic guidance is advancing the point of view that since the character of war has changed to focus on irregular wars then the US military should prepare for a future of irregular wars. This shift in focus forgets that the nature of war is enduring and in order to be successful, we must prepare for all types of conflict. This paper will define the types of conflict and the likelihood of each followed by a discussion of US strategic guidance and ending with an analysis of the training resources and force structure requirements needed to achieve success for all types of†¦show more content†¦The US strategic guidance places an emphasis on focusing on irregular warfare threats but does not dismiss the possibility of conventional threats. The National Security Strategy states: â€Å"We are strengthening our military to ensure that it can prevail in today’s wars; to prevent and deter threats against the United States, its interests, and our allies and partners; and prepare to defend the United States in a wide range of contingencies against state and nonstate actors. We will continue to rebalance our military capabilities to excel at counterterrorism, counterinsurgency, stability operations, and meeting increasingly sophisticated security threats, while ensuring our force is ready to address the full range of military operations.† The 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review is in line with the National Security Strategy when it states, U.S. ground forces will remain capable of full-spectrum operations, with continued focus on capabilities to conduct effective and sustained counterinsurgency, stability, and counterterrorist operations alone and in concert with partners. Irregular threats are therefore the focus of US strategic guidance and are in line with global trends for the most likely type of military action. Even though the focus of US strategic guidance isShow MoreRelatedClausewitz On Nature And Character Of War1486 Words   |  6 PagesClausewitz on Nature and Character of War There are no universal theories to explain the true nature and character of war, and any war theories are not a fact or absolute truth. All strategic principles are dynamic and contextual, so â€Å"every age had its own kind of war, its own limiting conditions, and its own peculiar preconceptions.† The battlefield environment of the 21st century will be the volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous, and nature of war will be completely different because ofRead MoreCarl Von Clausewitz s The Fundamental Nature Of War1065 Words   |  5 Pages Carl von Clausewitz articulated a number of observations and principles describing the fundamental nature of war. 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