M Commerce Mis

HAMADARD INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT SCIENCES

Term Report

MOBILE COMMERCE Submitted to: Mr. M. Faisal Course: Management Information System Submitted by: M. Faisal Panawala GR # 2200649

Hamdard University, City Campus Karachi. April 12, 2007

Hamdard Institute of Management Sciences

TABLE OF CONTENTS

S/ NO.

DESCRIPTION

PAGE NO.

01.

INTRODUCTION

5

02.

IMPORTANCE OF E-COMMERCE

6

03.

LATEST TRENDS & COMSUMER REACTION

7

04.

HARDWARE

9

05.

SOFTWARE

10

06.

NETWORK

10

07.

ADVANTAGES

11

08.

DISADVANTAGES

11

09.

NETWORK TECHNOLOGIES

12

10.

LEGACY LIMITATIONS

15

11.

POTENTIAL RISK

15

M. Faisal Panawala GR # 2200649

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Hamdard Institute of Management Sciences

April 12, 2006 Mr. Muhammad Faisal Hamdard Institute of Management Sciences Hamdard University City Campus Karachi. Subject: LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL Dear Sir, With all due respect I am thankful to you for giving us a worth-while opportunity to have the new experience which is not only fruitful in my present but also will help me in future because of its practical nature and application. Enclosed find herewith a term report on M-commerce. This report is prepared on estimating “Importance, limitations & Potential risk of M-commerce”. In order to make this report reliable, authentic and near to the facts, I tried our level best to get as much information as I can.

Report is submitted for your kind perusal please.

Yours truly,

_________________________________________ M. Faisal Panawala GR # 2200649

M. Faisal Panawala GR # 2200649

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Hamdard Institute of Management Sciences

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First of all I am grateful to Almighty Allah, for his blessings that enabled me to understand and undertake the opportunity for completing this report with the right approach and sense of direction.

I wish to express my sincere thanks to Mr. Muhammad Faisal, the respected teacher for giving us an opportunity to work on a practical approach project and giving us the guidance to complete the same.

I would also like to thank all the friends, colleagues and concerned persons who helped me in the preparation of this report.

Special thanks go to all those who contributed in the formation of this report in order to make it they tried their level best and in collected as much information as they can.

M. Faisal Panawala GR # 2200649

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1. Introduction M-commerce is the market of buying and selling goods with wireless technology such as PDA’s and cellular phones primarily within

the

retail,

telecommunications

financial services industries.

and

Many phone

companies are enabling services for M-commerce applications and marketing their products to organizations who can utilize M commerce. Wireless technology has brought its benefits to M-Commerce and its challenges as well.

M-commerce can have easy portable access to the web with web-based applications, but very slow data transfer speeds. Keypads of phones are sometimes difficult to use especially when there is a need to enter text. Many companies use the one button approach to make transactions easy when the data is on file. With little graphics on the screen of most cell phones, buying this way requires prior knowledge of transaction needs and M-Commerce techniques. The use of mobile technology is primarily used for email and messaging as well as weather alerts and reminders.

Though ecommerce has grown as expected, M-Commerce has not taken off the same way for the use of goods and services. Wireless services are not everywhere and consumers often do not feel safe or happy buying with their phone. As technology increases this may change. As for now Consumer’s use M-commerce as a portable friend to communicate and to do transactions. When consumers feel secure, they buy. As the younger generation grows with wireless business models will further develop M-Commerce.

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Researchers see games as an avenue to attract more consumers as they become more efficient with their phones. An area of promise for M-Commerce is in the travel industry. A consumer stuck in traffic or suddenly aware of an unexpected urgent meeting has a need to pay for an airline/train ticket or secure a hotel room. This is possible with M-Commerce. Arranging business meetings or short conferences is a common use of mobile communicating in the business world. Buying stock over the phone is a convenience for some. Retail consumers still enjoy browsing at stores or through catalogs. Internet shoppers prefer wide-screens that can hold the graphics that mobile phones usually do not. Many consumers are not familiar enough with accessing their voice mail, let alone making major purchases with tiny keypads and sequence shopping. As technology becomes more common in the consumer’s lifestyle, business models will become more apparent for M-Commerce.

2. The Importance of E-Commerce in today’s economy E-commerce has become an essential part of our nation’s economic growth in the past years. With the emergence and

fall

dot.com

of

numerous

companies,

the

government can no longer consider

e-commerce

technological phase.

a

In June 1999, the Center for Research in Electronic

Commerce at University of Texas, Austin was the first to study, and recognize e-

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commerce as a separate entity (the internet economy) in the nation’s economy. The study determined that the Internet economy generated approximately $301 billion in revenues in 1998 and created over 1.2 million jobs. This is particularly note worthy since dotcom’s make up only 9.6 percent of all online businesses. (According to the report “Measuring the Internet Economy”.) Experts continue on to state that with the slowing of the “non-technical” economy, the “internet economy” will slow as well; however, not at the rate the “non-technical” economy will. Now comes the question as to why? Unlike the “non-technical” economy that mainly relies on domestic consumers, the “internet economy” has a larger number of elements involved, such as business-to-business transactions, business to consumer, and the international markets. Needless to say, without the “internet economy” the Untied States would not have enjoyed the economic boom that it has for ten years.

3. Latest Trends & Consumer reactions The latest trends of e-commerce include electronic bill pay, digital signatures, online banking just to name a few. Electronic bill pay is essentially paying your household bills over the internet. In most cases, it works like this. The consumer subscribes to an EBP provider, deposits funds (or you allow them access to your bank account) with them and as the consumer receives their bills in the mail, they in turn email them to their EBP provider with the date that they want the invoices paid. What can go wrong? Plenty Consumers have registered complaints with the Federal Trade Commission stating that the EBP providers were not paying their bills in time. Therefore, consumers were assessed late charges and damaging credit ratings.

M. Faisal Panawala GR # 2200649

This service has

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improved since it was first offered a few years ago. The security has increased and the government now keeps a closer eye on this type of business.

Digital signatures are the latest from the e-commerce world. This allows consumers to sign legal documents across the country without being physically there. This latest trend has really taken off in the housing market. Allowing prospective buyers to sign closing contracts with out taking time off is wonderful. Consumers love this idea. These contracts are legally binding and hold the same weight in court as if you were there in person. The major draw back to this type of service is identity theft. This has become an increasing problem through out the year. Consumers and businesses alike have yet to come up with a viable option to correct this problem.

The FTC suggestion was to only do

business with the businesses that consumers are familiar. However, this does not help emerging companies trying to enter the marketplace.

Online banking is the banking industry to compete with on another and with the electronic bill pay providers. Online banking allows consumers to check their balances, pay bills, purchase certificate of deposits and apply for loans all from the consumers’ home.

This is a wonderful service that the

banking industry has offered. The draw back for consumers is with servers crashing and hackers downloading your banking information.

Whereas, the banking industry has

taken extreme measures to ensure the consumers privacy no system is hacker proof. Consumers can protect themselves by not downloading their banking information at the same time (they need to do it at varying times) according to banking experts.

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From the advantages and the disadvantages, the economic weight to the latest trend e-commerce is no longer an emerging force. E-Commerce is a force that has a strong presence not only in the Untied States but internationally as well.

4. Hardware: Mobile computing device - be it, a notebook, handheld computer, pen computer, PDA, PalmOS compatible PDA, Symbian EPOC handheld device, Windows CE/Pocket PC device,

or a modern

smart phone with Wireless Internet connectivity A suitably-configured wire line or wireless WAN modem, wireless LAN adapter, or a flash card either as a distinctly separate accessory or embedded on the device - as is the trend now. A Web Server with wireless support, WAP gateway, a Communications Server and/or MCSS (Mobile communications server switch) or a wireless gateway embedded in wireless carrier's network - this server provides communications functionality to allow the handheld device to communicate with the Internet or Intranet infrastructure. An application or database server (the hardware piece) with application logic and business application database - tier 2 server Optionally, a large enterprise application server (tier3) in the form of a UNIX super server, IBM’s AS/400 server or IBM's OS/390 mainframe.

5. Software: Mobile client OS-type software that resides in the mobile device - it may be Windows98/2000/NT, PalmOS, Win CE (or Pocket PC), EPOC, a specialized OS like Blackberry, or a Web browser

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Mobile application user interface with application logic in a handheld PDA, smart phone, Palm or a Wintel notebook. In the Internet world, it is often under the control of a browser or micro browser. Wireless middleware that links multiple wireless networks to application servers. Data synchronization software that synchronizes data in the mobile device with the network server or the backend server Mobile Device management software like: XcelleNet's Afaria, Synchrologic Mobile suite or Mobile Automation's MA2000. Finally, the most useful software end user application like messaging, sales force automation, public query, data collection, etc.

6. Network A wireless network - this may be either a private network that police agencies and emergency health services use or a public shared network that is provided by network providers, such as Cingular (formerly Bell South Wireless Data), Verizon, Sprint PCS, Nextel, Bell Mobility (Canada) , Roger's AT&T (Canada),

Vodafone in Europe, BT in UK, NTT

DoCoMo (Japan), etc. While wireless network provides true mobility, you may utilize a wire line network for those mobile users who need occasion connection from hotels, motels or airport lounges of airline's regular patrons. Some of these airports are now offering wireless LAN connectivity to wire line backend networks.

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7. Advantages of M-commerce • Ubiquity: the end user device is mobile, that is the user can access applications in real time at any place. • Security: depending on specific end user device, the device offers a certain level of inherent security. For example SIM card employed in mobile stores confidential user information such as secret authentication key. • Localization: a network operator can localize registered users by using positioning systems, such as GPS, GSM or UMTS network technology. • Convenience: the size and weight of mobile device and their ubiquity and accessibility makes them an ideal tool for performing personal tasks. • Personalization: mobile devices are not usually shared between users. Mobile operator can offer personalized services to its users.

8. Disadvantages of M-commerce • Mobile devices offer limited capabilities such as limited display • The heterogeneity of devices, operation systems and network technologies is a challenge for a uniform end user platform. • Mobile devices are more prone to theft & destruction. • The communication over the air interface between mobile device and network introduces additional security threats.

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9. Network technologies of M-commerce GSM Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) is the current European standard for mobile communications. GSM handsets are popular and widespread, they have to be considered as the major device for mobile commerce at the moment. The data services provided are

• SMS (short message service) allows the exchange of 160 character short messages over the signaling channel.

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• WAP (wireless application protocol) permits access to internet content and applications formatted in WML (wireless markup language) • HSCSD (high speed circuit switched data) provides higher data rates by channel handling. • GPRS (general packet radio service) extends GSM with packet oriented services. GPRS can also be used as a bearer service for WAP & SMS.

UMTS Universal

Mobile

Telecommunication System) is the next generation (3G) mobile telecommunication system and a further development of GSM. In general, the security architecture of UMTS is carefully designed to fix the security weakness of GSM. Crucially, 3G/UMTS has been specified as an integrated solution for mobile voice and data with

wide

Universally

area

coverage.

standardized

via the Third Generation Partnership

Project

(www.3gpp.org) and using globally harmonized spectrum in paired and unpaired bands, 3G/UMTS in its initial phase offers theoretical bit rates of up to 384 kbps in high mobility situations, rising as high as 2 Mbps in stationary/nomadic user environments. Symmetry between uplink and downlink data rates when using paired (FDD) spectrum also means that 3G/UMTS is ideally suited for applications such as real-time video telephony - in contrast with other technologies

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such as ADSL where there is a pronounced asymmetry between uplink and downlink throughput rates.

WLAN The IEEE standard 802.11 specifies families of wireless local area networks (WLAN) which operate in the unlicensed 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz band.

Bluetooth Bluetooth is a wireless technology developed by the Bluetooth Special Interest group and is mainly aiming at ad hoc Pico nets and connections to peripheral devices. Bluetooth technology will probably often be used in the future to connect devices in the personal environment which makes it relevant for M-commerce.

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10. Legacy Limitations More

than

ever,

subscriber

demands

are

driving

innovation

in

telecommunications. Whether it’s a teenager downloading a ring tone to his cell phone, a businesswoman text messaging her assistant, or a remote employee retrieving email on his personal digital assistant (PDA), consumers and businesses are demanding mobility, “always-on” access, and ease of use at the user level-and more critically, at the device level. In short, consumers want more control over the selection and management of their services, including how and when they pay for them. Service providers must work to enhance user loyalty by providing relevant options that are continuously improved and enhanced as market demands and technologies evolve. These changes in the communications landscape have a profound effect on the billing environment and its business and operations support systems (BSS/OSS). Most existing BSS/OSS lacks the flexibility to quickly integrate new service offerings, effectively creating barriers between customers and the products they want to buy. These impediments can lead to inefficient product delivery which, in turn, leads to higher churn rates. Because of the limitations of legacy systems, service providers can, at best, only control the customer experience in a reactive manner and they lose the ability to adapt quickly and take advantage of new opportunities.

11. Potential Risks Consumer organizations are becoming increasingly concerned that the risks of mobile commerce have not been addressed adequately. In August 2005, the Trans Atlantic Consumer Dialogue issued a resolution outlining the following risks: 1. Unfair marketing and unfair business practices: Products and services may be misrepresented by vendors. Insufficient (or hard to read) details about the

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goods and the terms and conditions of sale may be provided. Spam may increase. And marketing may be targeted at children and other vulnerable consumers, who may not have the capacity or authority to make purchases 2. Lack of security of financial information: There are concerns about the security of consumers’ financial information. Information could be intercepted in transmission or obtained surreptiously 3. Unauthorized purchases: Unless there is a PIN or some other form of authentication required, it is easy to use someone else’s mobile without their consent 4. Problems obtaining redress: When things go wrong, it may be hard for consumers to prove the details of transactions, if the purchase details are not recorded (for example, on mobile phone bills) 5. Illegal activities: Mobile phones, like other forms of technology, can be misused if consumers access illegal content (such as child pornography); and 6. Privacy and discrimination: Vendors may collect information about what consumers buy and where they go, and use it for unauthorized purposes, including sharing it (without consent) with others. This may, for instance, lead to more intrusive marketing. The information collected could also be used to identify the most profitable consumers to offer them the best deals, leaving the less profitable consumers increasingly excluded from markets.

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