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Sections:
Introduction
eCommerce
Diagrams
Security
Database
Evaluation

Which website?
http://www.osianaflorist.co.uk/
Florist.
Has three branches- Benfleet, Wickford and Witham.


Introduction:
What is the purpose of the site and how successfully it meets the objective.
To sell flower arrangements for all occasions.
Good- wide variety. Lots of options.
Draws you in by advertising loyalty card on homepage- plants idea of saving money.


How is it structured?
Not structured well.
Separate pages for differnt events, but linked new page for weddings.
If you click the link on homepage to order online then you enter a whole new layout and it is hard to then navigate back to the original homepage.
Well presented though, good first impression with colours and images.
Simple pages, uncluttered.


The goods and/or services it offers:
Offers a range of flowers, but separate layouts can be confusing.
Easy to tell that the websites aim.
The product information provided:
Gives detailed information with a picture. Although image only shows one colour for each.
Types of transactions that can be made:
Can order online- details over phone, use credit card, or PayPal.

Step 1 Address
Step 2 Shipping Info
Step3 Review
Step 4 Payment
Step 5 Order Complete

What is the purpose of the site and how successfully it meets the objective.

What the purpose of the website?
What is its objective to sell goods or services?

Need to take a good look at the website to get a feel for it and the goods/services that it offers.
Imagine I am a customer and think what my first impressions would be. First impressions are very important- you can be put off in seconds if its not a good one.

What is its aim? What is it going to sell? How is it going to draw people in? etc

How is it structured?

The structure is also very important.
You need to become familiar with the layout quickly and be able to navigate easily.
No problems should occur on the website as it does not give a good message about the company.
Frames are often used to ensure that a customer does not get lost inside the depths of the website. Designers often keep the pages simple and uncluttered to make sure they are easy to the eye.

If each page follows a similar layout then it avoids confusion and gives the website its own style.

Search boxes are a necessity on a big website becausr they mean that people can find things quickly and easily without having to go through lots of menus and pages to find what they want.


The goods and/or services it offers:

It should be easy to see what type of goods or services a website offers.
A website selling tools for builders isn’t going to be pink with pictures of shoes.

It will appeal to the target audience- middle aged men. So it would be fairly plain with lots of images and easy to use.
What is the use if of the website if you can't even tell what it is selling?

The product information provided:

A website can use many techniques to provide info- multimedia- images, descriptions and videos.
It is important to provide as much info as possible so that the customer knows exactly what they are getting and is not disappointed with their purchase.
By law the information provide must be honest and not make false claims.
Clicking on the info often opens a more detailed description of enlarged image/video.
The idea is for a brief overview to be on show but more info available if someone is interested.

Types of transactions that can be made:

A transaction is where interaction takes place with a database management system.
I need to see how a shopper would interact with the website and the methods used to collect the data.
When shopping online the stock and customer database is very complicated. Transactions can be made be made as simply as clicking on an image of an item to see if there are any in stock.
However it may require a customer to fill in a form for data capture.
Usually the info required is:
Name, Address, Contact Number, and payment details, delivery/ shipping address.
Credit card details must be verified- needed to validate the card and name and address of the person paying the bill and the delivery/ shipping address.
This data is usually captured through a form where boxes are filled in or there are drop down menus where you have to choose from a few options.
Some websites also allow the customer to track orders and see if an item is in stock. On most websites you will register as a user by entering your details which will be stored in a database. Other transactions might include being able to edit you customer details.

The methods used to capture customer information:

Websites use many methods to capture customer information. Some of them are open and obvious- overt methods. With these methods the customer knows that the information is being taken.
In other cases the information is collected without the customer realising. This way of data capture is called a covert method as the participant is not aware they are contributing.
The amount of information that is collect in the is way is quite considerable. Some websites when taking credit card details will log the IP address of the computer making the transaction. Since IP addresses are allocated to a computer by the ISP they can easily be traced back to a particular computer. This helps reduce fraud.
Other methods of clooecting data involves a code on the website that leaves cookies on the users computer. The cookie contains a code that indentifies a computer when it returns to a website. When using cookies, a company can see how often you visit a website, how long you stay for and what you look at.
Codes on a webpage can also log statistics such as, which search engine reffered you to the website and the words you put into the search. His enables the company to see what methods bring people to a website. Thet can even tell which browser you are using and the computers operating system.

The technique used to engage, retain and entice customers:

With a website there is no sales person to persuade a customer to buy goods or for a customer to buld up a relationship with the vendor helping to ensure that the customer comes back. The website have to do this.
Therefore it needs to make sure it is well known, easily accessible. They should be encouraged to visit.
Special offer banners and the like are used to keep a customer looking on the site once they are on it. Everything needs to be really eye catching.
Advertising makes the website well known. Many shops put there stores web address on the plastic carrier bag. A well chosen URL is also very important- if the web address is

www. theshopname .co. uk
Or

www. theshopname.com
then people are likely to find it through trial and error.

When customers find the website it is very important that they become engaged in the pages as quickly as possible. The aim is to keep people on your website for as long as possible.
The links should be fast and the navigation should be easy as not to irritate a customer.
Also clear presentation and sufficient information is important.

Information should be updated regularly and have up-to-date prices.
Any images should show the latest products not something that is out of date.
The visit to the website should be enjoyable and its usability and accessibility should be very good and say a lot for the company.

Finance:
Any department within a company/organisation needs budgets to prevent them from becoming bankrupt. This is because if a company spends more than they earn they get themselves into debt. It is important that every organisation, even those that are non-profitable such as schools and hospitals, keeps track of their finances.
Main Categories of Expenditure in a School
· Staff wages
· Text books and stationary
· Equipment for technology, art, cookery etc.
· School trips
· Student Insurance
· Internet Connection
· Extra curricular activities (clubs)
· Maintenance
· School Food


Human resoursces (HR):
Large organisations have a whole department that looks after recruiting new staff and looking after existing workers. They have to make sure that promotions are dealt with, applicants of the right qualifications and that interviews are conducted according to set rules. They need information about the applicants and about the staff who are already working at the company.
IT systems are vital here.
Activity: A PC retail outlet wants to hire some sales staff:

what information will they need before they call an applicant to an interview?
CV - especially name and phone number so the applicant may be contacted.
Their communication skills because they will be sales staff and these skills are vital here. the applicant must be a confident person.
Qualifications needed for the job e.g. maths, english, etc. etc.
An idea as to whether the person may be right for the job.
what extra information will they need if they appoint someone?

Criminal record check.
Previous job records.
National Insurance number
Uniform size

Production:
Many different businesses sell a product, in the process of making the product there is the production process, this is either mass production, batch production, continueoues production or one-off production, with a good IT system the production is kept going and the supply under control if this supply was not kept under control then for example a car manufacturer may run out of components and th eproduction line will come to a standstill, either though the workers are getting paid for this.Batch Production- is when there is a small amount around 1000 being producedMass production- when there is huge amount being produced like car manufacture like FordOne-off production- is when a product is made only once like a conecpt gadgetContinueous production- is when the production line is running 24/7 like making aluminiun cans.

Marketing:
This is the way in which a product is advertised. It can’t be sold if no one knows about it, and the right people need to know. Therefore, market research is carried out so that products and services are advertised to the right audience.
For example, if a published wants to sell a new textbook, he will need to contact exam boards, teachers, pupils etc to make sure that correct, necessary and helpful information if included. It will also need to be advertised to the right people- schools, teachers, students, parents etc. This could be through school magazines, teaching websites, revision websites and websites such as Amazon.

Processing

If you are purchasing a book from Amazon you will be using transaction processing. This is because the book will need to be paid for, so a transaction will take place.

If you are buying a ticket for V festival that you will be using real time processing. This is because there is the time element- a website cannot say there is a ticket left and whilst you are in the process of buying it, someone types in their detail faster and gets it. This would lead to problems when the event occurs and require refunds etc.

If someone is paying their gas bill online they will be using batch processing. This is because there is data collection and no human involvement is needed. A piece of paper can be printed off and that is it.

Paper Forms:
Human data collection usually means filling in forms. Forms are useful because they can force a structure on the data being collected. For example, if someone is filling in a form in order to provide a name and address, there will be separate spaces for each item of information. Tick boxes can be used to restrict the information being entered. When forms are given out to people, they will all have to fill in they same type of information so that it is easy to process
The structure can have some restrictions so that the data is more generalized and easy to store on a database.

Screen forms:
It easier to change mistakes on a computer and validation is available. Validation makes sure that the information you are typing in is relevant to the field you are entering data into. You can set the format of fields, for example whether the data is going to be words or numbers. Validation cannot stop all mistakes. In a table that holds stock items, validation can check that you do not enter a letter for the number of items in stock, or a number less than zero. But, if the number in stock is 25 and you enter 35, validation checks are unlikely to stop the error. You can set a maximum, but it won’t notice the mistakes in numbers in-between. Computers also save a lot of time.

Transactional Websites-

Websites which carry out a purchase between a customer and the company providing the goods or services.
They collect details from the customer and collect payment-
Some people use pay pal instead of direct credit card payment, pay pal is a feature linked up with eBay. It is an intermediary between the customer and the company.

Databases play a big role in these websites to store all of the customer’s information, like payment details, names, phone number and address. It might be details of what you have already purchased from the company, like a purchase history record, showing how much you have spent as a customer so the company can keep track if the payment hasn’t come through. Furthermore, they could have a database to keep on track of all the stock they have.

Data is often useless without information.

In order for organisations to function, they need to store and communicate information. Information they need on a daily basis is email addresses to keep their customers informed etc. Websites like Amazon will also need information such as addresses, what is in stock and what isn’t and the quantity.

People say that information is the most valuable thing for a company as it can give them a competitive edge. Business can succeed or fail depending on how effective they are in information handling.
Information is extremely vital for hospitals and police as in hospital, if information about patients is lost about previous treatments or allergies, then this could lead to major problems with correct prescriptions and treatments.
If police databases were lost, then they would have no record of the criminals they have to keep track of, and all the information they need for detective work.

You have to tell a computer what to do by typing something in or clicking on something
You can’t have a conversation


Data – collection of facts. What we input into computers is all data. Data is often useless with out information to back it up.
Information – is what humans want, it is output from a computer system. It is data in context, it has meaning to us but not to the computer, a computer only understands data.
Knowledge - it is coherent understanding based on information. It includes understanding links between different items of information and how actions can be decided.

Data capture is a process of getting data information from the outside world and putting it onto a computer.