TERM PAPER ON ITAB

TOPIC:
“ HOW COMPUTERS CHANGE
IN SALES PROCESS”

PRESENTED BY GROUP 8:
PRIYANKA SINGH (09236)
RAMYA C (09237)
RAMYA K (09238)
RICHA RAGHUVANSHI (09239)
SAMARPITA BHATTACHARYA (09240)
ABSTRACT
This paper describes the different aspects of sales process, which are carried online via internet.
We have analyzed the different types of sales process like e-auction, e-shopping, e-business, e-
banking, and e-trading. It inspected what is e-auction? How e-auction works?, its benefits, and
certain rules which are useful for accessing e-auction and also included security protocol. This
paper also defines e-shopping, how we can access e-shopping and its convenience. This paper
also scrutinized carefully about e-business, e-business explosion and e-business process
automation etc. We have also critically examined e-banking, which is one of the major part of
sales process and analyzed how it helps in paying bills, buying of entrance examination forms,
and registrations.

OBJECTIVE
The Internet is a HUMONGOUS network of computers, with millions of computers linked
together, spanning the globe. A network is a link between two or more computers. The links
connecting the computers may be phone lines, fiber optic cables, microwaves, cable TV or
satellite. Linked computers can exchange information, share storage space (memory) and share
printers. Objective of this study includes the following:

1. Studied different types of sales process which are carried through internet.
2. How these sales processes works, what are their security protocols, and how to access
these different types of sales processes.
3. Analyzed the benefits and convenience of each sales process.
4. This paper helped us to study different types of sales process and their area of
preferences.

INTRODUCTION
The Internet is a standardized, global system of interconnected computer networks that connects
millions of people. The system uses the Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP) standard rules for data
representation, signaling, authentication, and error detection. It is a network of networks that
consists of millions of private and public, academic, business, and government networks of local
to global scope that are linked by copper wires, fiber-optic cables, wireless connections, and
other technologies. The Internet carries a vast array of information resources and services, most
notably the inter-linked hypertext documents of the World Wide Web (WWW) and the
infrastructure to support electronic mail, in addition to popular services such as video on
demand, online shopping, online gaming, exchange of information from one-to-many or many-
to-many by online chat, online social networking, online publishing, file transfer, file sharing and
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) or teleconferencing, telepresence person-to-person
communication via voice and video.

Use of internet for buying, selling, and trading is big business. The internet has changed the
traditional business landscape. Sales process through internet can make a sale in a matter of
seconds; where the customer chooses what product or services they wise to buy. Internet sales
processes are of different types, such as e-auction, e-business, e-banking, e-trading, etc…
Internet has captured the imagination of modern population. Internet sales process will be the
new revolution and it will become a huge industry in the coming future.

The Internet, sometimes called simply "the Net," is a worldwide system of computer networks - a
network of networks in which users at any one computer can, if they have permission, get
information from any other computer (and sometimes talk directly to users at other computers).
It was conceived by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) of the U.S. government in
1969 and was first known as the ARPANET. The original aim was to create a network that
would allow users of a research computer at one university to be able to "talk to" research
computers at other universities. A side benefit of ARPANet's design was that, because messages
could be routed or rerouted in more than one direction, the network could continue to function
even if parts of it were destroyed in the event of a military attack or other disaster. Internet is
used in many ways nowadays, in which it is also nowadays widely used for sales process.

E-AUCTION
For several types of sales where the price is neither set nor arrived at by negotiation, but is
discovered through the process of competitive and open bidding. The two major types of auction
are:

(1) Forward auction in which several buyers bid for one seller's goods.

(2) Reverse auction in which several sellers bid for one buyer's order. An auction is complete
(and a binding contract is created) when a bid is accepted by the seller or the buyer (as the case
may be). The internet age has transformed auction into a truly open process in which thousands
of goods (from books to ships) and services (from air travel to legal advice) may be offered for
bidding by anyone from anywhere and at any time on websites such as eBay.com. Internet
auctions are an important aspect of electronic commerce.

Auctions are common in markets where the goods sold are valuable (like art) or when their
prices can't be easily determined. The process of an auction aims to find a fair price for the
goods by identifying buyers who need them the most. Such auctions are called forward auctions.
In forward auctions buyers compete with each other by placing bids for the goods to be sold.
At metaljunction, we pioneered the concept of e-Auctions for steel by moving the entire process
of auctions to the Internet. With state-of-art technology and unique services to support buyers
and sellers in the decision making, financing and logistics stages we make sure that our auction
tools help enterprises realize their sales and procurement goals with considerable cost savings.

HOW E-AUCTION WORKS?

E-Auction is a part of the strategic sourcing process. It is a procurement tool using web-based
software that allows suppliers to bid online for a contract for the supply of goods or services. It
is sometimes called a ‘reverse auction’ because bids are reduced and not increased as in a
traditional auction. The objective is typically to
Arrive at the lowest total cost as distinct from the lowest price. E-Auction replaces the
conventional methods of requesting sealed paper tenders, however, it must be emphasised that
success depends on at least the same market knowledge and sourcing skills as the paper-based
process it replaces. Just as in the traditional process:
• A pool of suppliers is selected.
• A Request for Quote (RFQ) is sent out to the suppliers.
• The quotes are evaluated using criteria such as price, prior performance, ability to meet the
specifications and delivery considerations.
• Based on the above the suppliers are short-listed and invited to participate in
the e-Auction event.

Typically, more time is invested up-front in achieving a very tight Request for Quote (RFQ)
specification than in a traditional sealed bid process, but this saves time that would otherwise be
spent on post-bid negotiations and clarifications.
After the bidders (suppliers) are selected copies of the confirmed specification,
commercial conditions and bid rules are distributed. The buying organization arranges for
suppliers to be trained prior to the event.

At the appointed time of the event suppliers log on to a website where bids can be
made at any time during the event. The identities of the bidders are usually masked, however,
suppliers are provided with a ranking in relation to other suppliers. Typically, events will run for
an hour with extensions occurring if a bid is made in the last few minutes.

The e-Auction Service Provider and the e-Auction software are the basis of any e-Auction. The
technology and systems support required include:
• An online bidding system;
• E-Auction upload tools;
• Back ups;
• Security systems; and
• Reporting tools.

These components are usually provided by the Service Provider with the necessary
staffing. This is the most basic level of support and will usually include a Service
Provider staff member being available remotely to monitor the event and to ensure that the
software is running properly.

In summary e-Auction should not be regarded as a technology only solution but as an online
sourcing tool that will help to drive best practice. An e-Auction is a bidding event that forms a
single part of the greater e-Procurement strategy that is used to drive acquisition cost to real
market prices. It is an online dynamic bidding process (a pricing war between suppliers that
compete for the business to supply products/services by successively bidding prices downward).
To secure the maximum returns from e-Auction, traditional skills such as bid evaluating,
specification writing and negotiating, need to be enhanced and extended through a programme of
global supply management, which usually entails working with a plethora of different suppliers
from around the world.

BENEFITS OF E-AUCTION

Important feature of an e-Auction is that the results gained are highly visible and bids are
comparable. E-Auctions can typically secure cost reductions in the order of 20 to 30 percent on
the first event for a particular commodity and 5 to 10 percent in subsequent events. Combined
with its quick implementation and relatively low entry cost e-Auction can provide a very rapid
return on investment.

The use of the e-Auction process provides benefits to both buyers and suppliers:
 Substantial cost savings (20-30%) through auction being online and instantaneous.
 An accelerated process reducing the sourcing cycle time;
 The ability to open up procurement to a wider market allowing suppliers to
  make bids without being restricted by geographic location;
 An efficient, open and transparent system and clear audit trail of transactions;
 Greater insight of buyers into the dynamics of the marketplace and an indication of the
true market price for goods and services;
 Anonymous online event creates a “level playing field” i.e. a fair and competitive market;
and
 Suppliers can, of course, use e-Auction to arrive at market prices for their own.
 Purchases of raw materials and components.
 E-Procurement, of which e-Auction is a subset, forms part of the Government’s Public
 Sector Reform.

RULES FOR ACCESSING E-AUCTION

• All bidding suppliers (bidders) have online remote access to the e-Auction event.
• The identity each bidder is unknown to other bidders.
• The purchasing company (purchaser) knows the identity of the bidders.
• During the e-Auction event the bidders are not privy to the actual dollar amount of the lowest
bid.
• Bidders are aware of their ranking in relation to other bidders i.e. 1st, 2nd, 3rd.
• In the case of a technology failure the bidder can continue participation via a proxy bidder,
usually the e-Auction Service Provider.
• Draft contracts are standardised and completed prior to the e-Auction event.
• The detailed specification for the product on Auction is confirmed by the suppliers and
purchaser prior to the event.
• At the end of the e-Auction event the lowest bidder wins the contract.
• The contract is legally binding at the lowest price and for the specifications already agreed
upon
• The purchaser is a passive viewer during the event.

SECURITY PROTOCOL DURING THE E-AUCTION

Attendance at the e-Auction event is by invitation only:

 No bidders are allowed in the e-Auction control room.
 No mobile phones or electronic recording devices are allowed in the control room.
 Attendees must be escorted if leaving the control room temporarily.
 Security is of utmost importance to protect the integrity of the e-Auction process.

E-SHOPPING

Along with computer hard and software, books and CDs, the buying of tickets has witnessed a
rapid adoption on the Internet (estimated at 29% of 1999 consumer ecommerce sales). This
success can largely be explained through comparisons with conventional practices of buying
such products. Buying tickets through automated telephone services is often cumbersome,
particularly if comparing various ticket prices is an option. Air travel and services offered by
companies such as e-Bookers allow consumers to compare various fares relatively easily. Much
of this is because the type of information required (from and to where you are travelling, time of
travel and prices) is straightforward. In addition, consumers do not need to see a picture of their
ticket and the only re-assurance required is that tickets will be delivered on time or available for
collection with minimum fuss. This example would suggest that e-commerce is popular for
consumers when dealing with products that are already established in the form of mail or phone
order. The success of tickets, software and CDs is also because these goods are easily delivered
to the consumer. However, these characteristics do not apply to many other products. For
example, food shopping through e-commerce should be attractive to the consumer because it a
form of ordinary consumption which is often seen as a chore. The major obstacle in the case of
food e-commerce can be found in terms of delivery. Foods that rapidly perish are problematic as
they must be delivered to homes where somebody is available to immediately place the food into
cold storage. In this way, delivery of fresh and frozen foods on any large scale requires
expensive cold storage vehicles, a workforce that can reliably deliver at a wide range of times
and with a high degree of co-ordination between supplier and consumer.

HOW TO ACCESS?

It is tempting to assume the total dominance of the PC in the e-commerce area, pre-supposing
that e-commerce will continue to be primarily a web-based activity, which will continue to grow
exponentially. However, amongst people with Internet access ¾ have not bought a product or
service of any kind online within the last twelve months and, of these most are men who are
traditionally associated with the more extra-ordinary purchases within households. Indeed,
according to MORI13 about half of workers find it difficult to keep up to date with IT
developments and are worried that they are falling behind in skills and knowledge. The
television has undoubtedly become a trusted piece of family technology (even if the
programming itself is disagreed with) and the object of both focused and unfocused interaction.
Fear of technology and issues of trust appear to be minimized by using e-commerce through the
household television. In a survey commissioned by Motorola14 it was found that over a quarter
of respondents claimed they would access the Internet more if it were delivered through the TV.
Through services such as those offered by Sky and Cable and Wireless the advent of interactive
digital television (iDTV) in the UK had begun to offer the potential, for the first time, to instantly
link the advertising and sale of products through one device. However, unlike use of the
Internet, e-commerce access via iDTV is, in the short to medium term at least, through “walled
gardens”. These gardens only offer access to a limited number of approved retailers who pay
well for their place in the virtual mall. The selection of retailers will also involve high street
brands recognised and trusted by users, but it also means that a limited number of retailers will
be represented and the consumers’ benefit, particularly in relation to greater choice, price and
information, may not be paramount. Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) phones are the latest
high publicity entrant into the e-commerce enabled domestic technology market. Mobile phones
have seen an explosive rate of adoption in the last few years as prices have come down and pay-
asyou-go schemes have been introduced. It is now estimated that about 45% of the UK adult
population has a mobile phone15 and, for the first time, social use of mobile phones exceed
business use (34% v. 28%).16 The role mobile phones have rapidly
come to play in people everyday social practices can be seem by responses the following
question:
Why do people value their mobiles?
 89%: peace of mind re: loved ones' safety
 68%: organising their social lives
 83%: own personal safety
 39%: to be more productive at work.

WAP phones are slow in comparison to PC Internet access, the graphics and amount of text that
can be displayed is limited, and online costs (especially compared to the free ISP model) are
expensive. Also, like the walled gardens of iDTV battle lines are already being drawn by WAP
phone providers in an attempt to not only attract customers but retain their buying power on their
own portals. More mundanely, what major advantage does a web-enabled mobile phone
currently offer the ordinary consumer (especially given the imminence of 3rd Generation
phones)? Would they really keypad in a log grocery list while on the move when it would
perhaps be easier just to pop into the shop on the way home or even call the shop beforehand?
Perhaps they will be more likely to quickly check their bank balance while sat on the bus into
work but although this is an undeniably lucrative market for commercial organisations, it is
somewhat outside of our remit here. Consumers, therefore, will be unlikely to browse for long
periods at a time and will possibly be unwilling to make complex purchases. In sum, it is
reasonable to suggest that if e-commerce is to be viewed as beneficial by a mass of consumers,
modes of access will need to be user-friendly. For many, computers, and their ‘work-place’
image, and the Internet are not particularly user friendly. iDTV and WAP phones are likely to be
more user-friendly and have already been accepted within everyday practices. However, they are
also limited by “walled gardens” which restrict the potential benefits of greater consumer choice
and reduced consumer prices.

CONVENIENCE

If one of the major benefits offered by e-commerce is its ‘convenience’ for shopping, then what
is on offer are motives surrounding the organisation of everyday time use. For example, having
bulk shopping delivered saves time rather than money. In other words e-commerce is
‘convenient’, it saves time and reduces the labour associated with various forms of shopping.
However, this assumption requires careful consideration in terms of what time related benefits e-
commerce actually offers. The Mail on Sunday suggested that women enjoy browsing
catalogues at a leisurely pace and claimed the majority of women that they spoke with would not
use ecommerce even though they regularly used catalogues to buy clothes. This was largely
because the enjoyment of buying clothes through catalogues was the comfort of browsing at
home, and being able to flick back and forth between a selection of items. Crucially, using e-
commerce, the experience of shopping is lost as the process becomes more like typing. Extra-
ordinary forms of consumption are not subject to the same temporal dimensions as are ordinary
and routine forms of consumption, making time saving and convenience a less important issue in
selecting mediums for consumption. One of our main scepticisms for future ecommerce
accumulation therefore centres around issues of timing in terms of both ‘delivery’ and the
processes of consumption that surround ‘tangible’ goods. If timing is so important and, which
requires the conscious planning, allocation, sequencing and above all co-ordination of activities,
then consumer e-commerce may act to generate senses of being harried. This is ironic given
‘convenience’, as a benefit of e-commerce, is appealing precisely because it promises solutions
to contemporary concerns regarding the ‘time squeeze’.

EXAMPLES FOR E-SHOPPING-(e-ticket as a railway service)

The step by step process for booking the railway ticket on INTERNET.

1. Open irctc.co.in in your web browser. For booking the ticket you must have registered
account on this website. Registration is completely free. Login by entering your user
name and password.
2. The “Plan my travel and Book tickets” page appears after you logged in.
3. Select your train from the list that appears on the screen. If the From/To station selected
by you are correctly in the route of the train then select e-Ticket option. The list of e-
ticket trains will be highlighted.
a. If you wish to know the route and the timings, click on Show Route.
b. If you want to know the availability of seats/berths, click on “Show Availability.”
c. To get the fare, click on “Get Fare” button. The fare appearing is for a single adult
Passenger excluding the service charges charged by IRCTC and by the Bank (Credit
Card/Direct Debit).
d. To book tickets, click on “Book Ticket” button
e. If you wish to select other train, click on “Select Other Train” button.
4. Ticket reservation page appears, now check whether the train name and the station names
displayed on the
top of the page are same as desired by you.
5. Enter the names of the Passengers, age, sex and berth preference for each Passenger. The
maximum length of
names should be restricted to 15 characters.
6. You have to give the serial number of photo identity card of any of the passengers while
booking the tickets. You must have to necessarily carry the same photo identity card as
given during the booking along with the Electronic Reservation Slip.
7. After clicking go button, the ticket details, availability of tickets at the particular time and
the fare, including the service charge, appear on the screen, along with the payment
option. Now click “Make Payment”.
8. After clicking the button “Make Payment”, a pop-up window will give the list of
payment options. Now choose
one of the modes of payment.
9. After successful payment and booking of accommodations, you will be shown the ticket
confirmation details along with a “Print Reservation Slip” Button”. On clicking the
button ERS is shown with an option to print.

E-BANKING

E-banking is defined as the automated delivery of new and traditional banking products and
services directly to customers through electronic, interactive communication channels. E-
banking includes the systems that enable financial institution customers, individuals or
businesses, to access accounts, transact business, or obtain information on financial products and
services through a public or private network, including the Internet.

FEATURES OF E-BANKING

Online banking solutions have many features and capabilities in common, but traditionally also
have some that are application specific. Personal financial management support, such as
importing data into personal accounting software. Some online banking platforms support
account aggregation to allow the customers to monitor all of their accounts in one place whether
they are with their main bank or with other institutions.

SECURITY

Protection through single password authentication, as is the case in most secure Internet
shopping sites, is not considered secure enough for personal online banking applications in some
countries. Basically there exist two different security methods for online banking:

1. The PIN/TAN system where the PIN represents a password, used for the login and TANs
representing one-time passwords to authenticate transactions.

2. Signature based online banking where all transactions are signed and encrypted digitally.
The Keys for the signature generation and encryption can be stored on smartcards or any
memory medium, depending on the concrete implementation.

E-BUSINESS
Electronic Business, commonly referred to as "eBusiness" or "e-Business", may be defined as
the utilization of information and communication technologies (ICT) in support of all the
activities of business. Commerce constitutes the exchange of products and services between
businesses, groups and individuals and hence can be seen as one of the essential activities of any
business. Hence, electronic commerce or e-Commerce focuses on the use of ICT to enable the
external activities and relationships of the business with individuals, groups and other businesses.

Electronic business methods enable companies to link their internal and external data processing
systems more efficiently and flexibly, to work more closely with suppliers and partners, and to
better satisfy the needs and expectations of their customers.

In practice, e-business is more than just e-commerce. While e-business refers to more strategic
focus with an emphasis on the functions that occur using electronic capabilities, e-commerce is a
subset of an overall e-business strategy. E-commerce seeks to add revenue streams using the
World Wide Web or the Internet to build and enhance relationships with clients and partners and
to improve efficiency using the Empty Vessel strategy.

E-business involves business processes spanning the entire value chain: electronic purchasing
and supply chain management, processing orders electronically, handling customer service, and
cooperating with business partners. Special technical standards for e-business facilitate the
exchange of data between companies. E-business software solutions allow the integration of
intra and inter firm business processes. E-business can be conducted using the Web, the Internet,
intranets, extranets, or some combination of these.

ADVANTAGES OF E-BUSINESS

 Enables a business to easily reach a greater number of customers than before.

 Flexibility and the ability to adapt to a changing environment.
 Added advantage of being able to track purchases and manage the purchasing efforts
efficiently.
 Helps in the buying and selling of product.
 Helps the organization to use electronic chat as a means of technical support and
customer support.
 Manages to maintain a central server or email list as a method of distributing information,
rather than having costly and time consuming individual ones.

E-BUSINESS EXPLOSION
According to Gartner Group Research, the e-business market is set to grow from US $433 billion
in 2000 to over US $8.5 trillion by 2005.

BUSINESS PROCESS AUTOMATION

Most businesses regard the Internet as an opportunity to expand their sales through traditional e-
commerce. Surprisingly, few are aware of the Internet's huge potential for reducing expenses.
Though the potential earnings from business-to-consumer e-commerce on the Internet are huge,
the potential savings from reduced expenses are as much as 700 percent greater.

Worldsites offers a wide range of strategies for implementing these savings. Worldsites Internet
Consultants will analyze the tasks carried out within an organization and will apply "Business
Process Automation" principles to enhance them. This allows these tasks to be carried out more
efficiently and less expensively thanks to the Internet.

E-TRADING

E-Trading is the buying and selling of securities, stocks & funds electronically.  This process
involves an extensive communication network and infrastructure for clearing transactions - but
the savings over the traditional stock brokers can be substantial.  It is estimated that 40% of
trades executed by individuals today are executed electronically, through electronic media to
create a virtual market. NASDAQ, set up in 1971, was the world's first electronic stock market,
though it originally operated as an electronic bulletin board, rather than offering straight through
processing (STP). NYSE Arca and Globex are other examples of electronic market.

There are, broadly, two types of trading in the financial markets:

 Business-to-business (B2B) trading, often conducted on exchanges, where large

investment banks and brokers trade directly with one another, transacting large amounts
of securities.
 Business-to-client (B2C) trading, where retail (e.g. individuals buying and selling
relatively small amounts of stocks and shares) and institutional clients (e.g. hedge funds,
fund managers or insurance companies, trading far larger amounts of securities) buy and
sell from brokers or "dealers", who act as middle-men between the clients and the B2B
markets.

TECHNOLOGY AND SYSTEMS

E-trading systems are typically proprietary software (e-trading platforms), running on COTS
hardware and operating systems, often using common underlying protocols, such as TCP/IP and
ASCII.

Exchanges typically develop their own systems (sometimes referred to as matching engines),
although sometimes an exchange will use another exchange's technology (e.g. e-cbot, the
Chicago Board of Trade's electronic trading platform, uses LIFFE's Connect system), and some
newer electronic exchanges use 3rd-party specialist software providers (e.g. the Budapest stock
exchange and the Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange use automated trading software
originally written and implemented by FMSC, an Australian technology company that was
acquired by Computershare, and whose intellectual property rights are now owned by OMX.

Exchanges and ECNs generally offer two methods of accessing their systems -

 an exchange-provided GUI, which the trader runs on his or her desktop and connects
directly to the exchange/ECN, and
 an API which allows dealers to plug their own in-house systems directly into the
exchange/ECN's.

From an infrastructure point of view, most exchanges will provide "gateways" which sit on a
companies' network, acting in a manner similar to a proxy, connecting back to the exchange's
central system.

ECNs will generally forego the gateway/proxy, and their GUI or the API will connect directly to
a central system, across a leased line.

CONCLUSION
In today’s world of globalization people do not have much time to go out for shopping or
transactions every now and then. People are opting for convenience for shopping like e-
shopping and e-business, which can save a lot of time. Now, people due to online sale process
can make bulk purchases without delay in no time. It brings people together as part of
globalization. Online sale process has brought the world together and has made it very small.

The private online sales business is becoming a popular trend in not only offering amazing
products to consumers but in helping branded companies alleviate excess inventories. It is a
win-win and there are compelling reasons to believe that growth will continue, as overall online
sales are projected to increase almost 200 percent between 2008 and 2012.

REFERENCES
1. www.ogc.gov.uk
2. www.mjunction.in
3. www.en.wikipedia.org
4. www.rediff.com