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UNIVERSITY OF NAMIBIA

1. CRITERIA Sector Employment Turn over less Capital Employed than N 000 less than N 000 Manufacturing Less than 10 1 000 500 persons All Other Businesses Less than 5 250 100 persons Table 1 1 Definition of an SME in Namibia To qualify as an SME businesses must meet the employment criteria and one of the other two This is Namibia s official definition of SME obtained from Namibia Policy and Programme on Small Business Development paper by the Ministry of Trade and Industry 1997 pp 2 The method of simple random sampling was used to select a sample of SMEs to be visited A finite population of 100 SMEs Appendix II 3 was obtained from Namibia s Ministry of Trade and Industry From this a simple random sample of 36 SMEs was selected using a table of random numbers Anderson Sweeney and Williams 1994 pp 238 1 3 3 Methodologies for testing hypotheses 1 3 3 1 Methodology for Hypothesis 1 H1 To test this hypothesis it is necessary to break it down into a Null hypothesis and an Alternative Hypothesis i e Hlo SME sector in Namibia use e commerce to an appreciable extent Null hypothesis H1 SME sector in Namibia does not use e commerce to an appreciable extent Alternative hypothesis 12 Data was collected from a random sample of SME businesses by means of a questionnaire Appendix III Using a number of factors criteria were set to determine whether a company uses e commerce to an appreciab
2. rs update rs Close Set rs Nothing gt lt h2 gt amp nbsp lt h2 gt lt h2 align center gt Thank you for your enquiry lt h2 gt lt h2 align center gt Click lt a href Quotation_content asp gt here lt a gt to view our stock list lt n2 gt lt h2 align center gt amp nbsp lt h2 gt lt body gt lt html gt 98 99 3 An example of the database response showing the contents of the Enquiries table lt Code by JJ Magenya Date 01 October 2003 gt lt html gt lt head gt lt title gt Show the contents of the Enquiries table lt title gt lt head gt lt body bgcolor CCCCCC text 333333 link 00FFFF alink FFFFFF vlink 99CCCC gt lt Set conn Server CreateObject ADODB Connection Provider Provider Microsoft Jet OLEDB 4 0 DBPath Data Source amp Server MapPath MEMB1 mdb conn Open Provider amp DBPath Set rs Server CreateObject ADODB Recordset rs Open ENQUIRIES conn Cursor 2 gt lt div align center gt lt img src Mushy gif width 117 height 89 gt lt div gt lt h3 align center gt The following enquiries have been made about our products lt h3 gt lt div align center gt lt table width 88 border 1 cellpadding 1 cellspacing 0 gt lt tr bgcolor CCCCCC gt lt td nowrap gt lt strong gt User Name lt strong gt lt td gt lt td gt lt div align center gt lt strong gt Surname lt strong gt lt div gt lt
3. lt option gt Mushroom4 N 20 00 per kg lt option gt lt select gt lt div gt lt td gt lt tr gt lt tr gt lt td gt Address lt td gt 96 lt td gt lt div align center gt lt input type text name Address size 50 gt lt div gt lt td gt lt tr gt lt tr gt lt td gt Email lt td gt lt td gt lt div align center gt lt input type text name Email size 50 gt lt div gt lt td gt lt tr gt lt table gt lt p gt lt input type submit name Submit2 value Submit gt lt input type reset name reset2 value Reset gt lt p gt lt form gt lt div gt lt body gt lt html gt 97 2 An example of ASP code for the Enquiries form lt html gt lt title gt Enquiries response by JJ Magenya lt title gt lt body bgcolor 00CCFF gt lt include virtual adovbs inc gt lt Dim rs Set rs Server CreateObject ADODB Recordset Set cn server createobject ADODB Connection cn Open DSN MEMB1 rs activeconnection cn rs cursortype adopenkeyset rs locktype adlockoptimistic rs source Enquiries rs Open rs addnew rs Username Request form Username rs Surname Request form Surname rs Firstname Request form Firstname rs Productname Request form Productname rs Company Request form Company rs Address Request form Address rs Email Request form Email
4. a 100 usage b 50 usage c 10 usage d 0 usage a Credit card b Cash c Check d Electronic e All methods a Media 6 36 b Bulletin Boards 35 36 c Internet 1 36 d All types 1 36 7 How effective is the advertising a 100 effective b Between 50 and 80 c 10 effective d 0 effective 8 74 100 99 2 5 2 5 0 36 0 36 36 100 0 36 0 0 36 0 What is the level of computer usage in your company 25 36 70 9 36 25 1 36 2 5 1 36 2 5 What method s of payment do you use 20 36 56 36 36 100 20 36 56 15 36 42 16 36 44 10 What is the attitude of workers towards the introduction and use of computers a Good b Bad 36 36 100 0 36 0 75 11 What action should be taken to improve trade a Introduce computers 36 36 100 b Use e commerce 36 36 100 12 Would you like to use e commerce technology a Yes 36 36 100 b No 0 36 0 76 Appendix II 3 List of SMEs obtained from the Ministry of Trade and Industry No Company Name 02 Alpha Tronics cc 2 2 09 Le Trip Camping and cycling 10 Supertronics 6 0 1 36 Hakuna Matata Backpackers amp Tours 37 HP Plumbing Plumbers 38 Hansie s Barber Shop 52 Luisen Apotheke 5 5 5 54 Makalani Crafts Market 55 Makita Power Tools 56 Maria Hairsalon 5 6 4 7 80 Spes Bona Motors Kavandje Fruits 6 9 0
5. 54 Table 4 1 Types of System Implementation Number Type Description Discussion 1 Direct Abandon the old Very risky not recommended 2 Parallel Run old and new Very low risk however very expensive side by side not generally recommended 3 Pilot Convert part of Less expensive but riskier than parallel organization first conversion recommended for situations with many people performing similar operations 4 Phased Implement Less risky but more expensive than gradually parallel conversion recommended for situations with many people performing different operations For implementation of MEMB number 3 Pilot was preferred because farmers affiliated with ZERI will try out the new system Once the system is working smoothly in ZERI it can then be used in any other small scale business enterprise 4 3 7 System Testing Testing Philosophy After the system was developed it was fed with sample data The processed information was then evaluated to see whether results were correct This is the mode of testing that was adapted for MEMB In this approach relatively large number of users was used Keeping in mind that the Web site will be used by people who may be using a computer for the first time 55 the site was given to 40 University first year computer literacy students Some of these students were totally new to computers but managed to follow the instructions that were given to
6. size colour and sometimes even a picture Most sites include a search feature that lets customers search for an item and determine its availability http www dlib org dlib february99 thibadeau 02thibadeau html 1999 e Shopping Cart Keeps track of the items a customer has selected to purchase and lets the customer view and updates the contents of the cart add new items to it or remove items from it When a customer adds an item to a shopping cart all of the product s details including its item code description and price are stored automatically Some Web commerce sites let customers use a shopping cart to add items for purchase put the cart in virtual storage and then return to site later to confirm and pay for the purchases Schneider and Perry 2001 e Transaction and payment processing Occurs when the shopper proceeds to the virtual checkout The electronic commerce software calculates volume discounts sales tax shipping cost and the order s total cost and then processes the customer s payment credit or debit card or other form of payment including any verification process When a customer enters his her credit card information it is sent in plain unencrypted text form to the server hosting the website htto sbinformation about com cs technology a paymt_2 htm 2004 Most sites also provide a return policy page which includes information about how to return a purchase or instructions for returning dam
7. 1 gt lt head gt lt body bgcolor 00CCFF text 4333333 link O0OFFFF alink FFFFFF vlink 99CCCC gt lt div align center gt lt p gt lt img src Mushy gif width 127 height 89 gt lt p gt lt form name Enquiries method post action enquiry_response asp gt lt p gt lt b gt ENQUIRIES lt b gt lt p gt lt p gt lt b gt Please provide the following information regarding your enquiry lt b gt lt p gt lt table width 75 border 1 gt lt tr gt lt td gt Username lt td gt lt td gt lt div align center gt lt input type text name Username size 50 gt lt div gt lt td gt lt tr gt lt tr gt lt td gt Surname lt td gt lt td gt lt div align center gt lt input type text name Surname size 50 gt lt div gt lt td gt lt tr gt 95 lt tr gt lt td gt Firstname lt td gt lt td gt lt div align center gt lt input type text name Firstname size 50 gt lt div gt lt td gt lt tr gt lt tr gt lt td gt Company lt td gt lt td gt lt div align center gt lt input type text name Company size 50 gt lt div gt lt td gt lt tr gt lt tr gt lt td gt Productname lt td gt lt td gt lt div align center gt lt select name Productname gt lt option selected gt Mushroom1 N 12 00 per kg lt option gt lt option gt Mushroom2 N 15 00 per kg lt option gt lt option gt Mushroom3 N 17 00 per kg lt option gt
8. 20 year periods e 1955 1974 The Electronic Data Processing EDP era e 1975 1994 The Management Information System MIS era e 1995 Unknown The Internet era Seddon 1997 goes on to say If you accept the proposition that IT capability is dramatically different in each of these 20 year steps and that the third step is distinguished by world wide access to the Internet by millions of firms and individuals the definition of Electronic commerce is easy e commerce is commerce enabled by Internet era technologies It is the commercialization and popularization of the Internet that has put e commerce towards the top of the public and political agenda but e commerce using electronic markets and Electronic Data Interchange EDI has been an established part of the business scene for at least a decade prior to the Internet era A more general definition of e commerce as quoted by David Whiteley 2000 is given by Wigand 1997 as the seamless application of information and communication technology from its point of origin to its endpoint along the entire value chain of business processes conducted electronically and designed to enable the 22 accomplishment of a business goal These processes may be partial or complete and may encompass business to business as well as business to consumer and consumer to business transactions pp 5 This definition introduces the value chain which is an importan
9. Acceptance Arrange for delivery Invoice and bill customer Make a payment Warranty Claims and Receive and Process Customer payments Provide after sales support maintenance and warranty regular maintenance services Fig 4 2 Buyer and Seller Roles in Commerce Perry J T and Schneider G P 2001 46 In the design of MEMB a similar structure shown in Fig 4 2 was used The processes are depicted in the following Fig 4 3 4 4 Buyer Registers as a User Buyer Views Stock List Buyer completes and submits the Order Form and waits for response from Sellers Buyer completes and submits the Receive Note after receiving goods Buyer completes and submits the Payment Form Fig 4 3 The Buying process 47 Seller registers as a user Seller completes and submits the Quotation form Seller views Orders submitted Seller completes and submits an Invoice to for a particular buyer Seller delivers goods and completes and submits the Delivery note Seller receives Payment Note after buyer has paid Fig 4 4 The Selling process 48 Both Buyers and Sellers can 1 View customers details 2 View Enquiries submitted 3 Register with MEMB The site is designed to utilize a content administrator whose functions include 1 Updating the Web site as necessary 2 Control of the Registration of Users 3 Provision of Feedback as requested on the Feedback form by users 4 3 5 MEMB Architectu
10. Bentley L D and Dittman K C 2000 Systems Analysis and Design Methods Fif Williams B K and Sawyer S C 2001 Using Information Technology Mc Graw Hill USA ISBN 0 Published Papers and Journals 1 A country ICT Survey for Namibia Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency Sida December 2002 2 African Academy of Sciences Discovery and Innovation Volume 14 Number 1 2 June 2002 ISSN 1015 079X 3 G E Kiangi and K E Mshigeni Information and Communication Technology ICT in Africa Opportunities and Challenges 2002 4 G E Kiangi and K E Mshigeni Information and Communication Technology ICT and Economic Development A framework for Change in Developing countries 5 G E Kiangi Decentralized Information Management and Participatory Communication for Food Security IT Needs and requirements for the Pilot Region August 2003 6 Namibia Policy Programme on Small Business Development Ministry of Trade and Industry 1997 66 The following references identify key resources documents and policy information on the World Wide Web concerning each of the main issues and sub issues involved with the development of a National Electronic Commerce Policy 1 http docweb pwv gov za Ecomm Debate myweb docs discuss appen html National policy discussions concerning the development of Electronic Commerce in South Africa 2 http www doc gov ecommerce privacy htm More
11. Electronic Funds Transfer GUI Graphical User Interface HTML Hypertext Mark up Language HTTP Hypertext Transfer Protocol ICT Information and Communication Technology IP Internet Protocol IT Information Technology LAN Local Area Network MEMB Mushroom Electronic Micro Business MIS Management Information System OECD Organization for Economic Co operation and Development SME Small and Medium Enterprise SQL Structured Query Language TCP Transmission Control Protocol USA United States of America URL Uniform Resource Locator WWW World Wide Web ZERI Zero Emissions Research Initiative ix Abstract Wide varieties of trading methods are rapidly being replaced by the use of computers and communications networks the world over This new concept of trading is known as Electronic Commerce e commerce Great potentials exist for saving costs and improving services by utilizing this technology Examples of phenomenal successes and staggering cost savings are just too many Profits in millions of dollars are mentioned with ease as a result of applying e commerce It is apparent that the industry is trading a few paces ahead of the academics in the area of e commerce A research study on e commerce trends in the Namibian industry was therefore found necessary This research work is intended to make a contribution on the knowledge of e commerce status in Namibia and help in the socio economic development in t
12. Namibia To examine factors and conditions which inhibit the growth of e commerce in Namibia the following hypothesis was set That there is little use of e commerce and related Internet Technologies within the Small and Medium Enterprise SME sector in Namibia To test this hypothesis it was converted to a Null and Alternative hypothesis The Null hypothesis stated that SME sector in Namibia use e commerce to an appreciable extend Analysis of data gathered during this research shows that only 14 of companies Appendix II 2 interviewed use e commerce and related Internet technologies The Null hypothesis was therefore rejected The Alternative hypothesis stated that SME sector in Namibia does not use e commerce to an appreciable extent This was confirmed by the results of the survey because from the results obtained 86 of companies in Namibia do not use e commerce The Alternate hypothesis was therefore adopted Analysis of the data gathered also indicated that only 2 5 of the companies interviewed use the Internet for advertising indicating that most of the companies in Namibia do not use the Internet for advertising This research therefore showed that SME sector in Namibia does not use e commerce to an appreciable extent The specific objectives to determine how 60 much Namibian companies use the Internet and web hosting technologies in conducting their businesses and a study of the methods of advertising in use w
13. and submit it to the database Fig A3 8 Fig A3 7The Stock List 85 Fig A3 8 The Order Form On submission of the Order Form a message is returned to confirm the order FigA3 9 and the user can view Fig A3 10 the orders so far placed by clicking on the provided hyperlink Fig A3 9 Order Form response 86 Fig A3 10 Orders Placed so far This screen also provides a chance for the user to BUY or SELL by clicking on the relevant button 1 5 The Delivery Interface All items that have been delivered can be viewed by selecting the Links option on the Footer frame of the Website Home page and clicking on the Delivery Note content link which displays details of all deliveries that have been effected so far The list is shown in Fig A3 11 A delivery Note is completed and submitted by a seller after he has physically delivered items to a particular buyer The form is shown in Fig A3 12 Fig A3 11 Delivery Note Fig A3 12 Delivered items 87 88 1 6 The Links Interface The Links interface provides links to screens that show the current position regarding buying and selling activities on the site These include information about e The enquiries made so far e A list of all quotations e All orders placed on the site e Deliveries that have been effected e All items that have been delivered and received e Invoices sent out by the Sellers e All the payments that have been effected e A list of all registered customers of
14. is used by both small scale companies and large scale companies to conduct their businesses be created and address these conditions adequately The answer to this question was yes because existing computer Science technologies provided adequate tools to develop such software to address the question 3 2 Answer to hypothesis 1 H1 The hypothesis to be considered here was Hypothesis 1 H1 which stated that there is little use of e commerce and related Internet technologies within the Small and Medium Enterprise SME sector in Namibia Casual observations however indicated that e commerce as a fairly new method of conducting business had not yet permeated small business enterprises in Namibia This was also confirmed by the study by the Bank of Namibia Bank of Namibia 2003 3 2 1 Data analysis Data collected via the questionnaire was analyzed using a Decision Logic Table Appendix II Analysis of the reactions obtained via the questionnaire indicated the following 3 2 1 1 Computer usage Most companies who were using the Internet were using it mainly for e mail despite the fact that a few of them had Web sites which displayed static pictures of their products Companies still had to learn how to apply e commerce 39 25 of the 36 companies 70 interviewed showed that they use computers for one function or another in transacting their businesses 1 company 2 5 did not use computers at all 3 2 2 Types of busi
15. of this research were set out The main thrust of the research work was to show that the Computer Science System Analysis and Design methodology can be applied to develop a software system that combines programming internet Web Technology Active Server pages ASP scripting and database systems 5 1 The Objectives the Hypotheses and results The original objectives of this research were in two categories as follows 5 1 1 Overall Objective To examine factors and conditions which inhibit the growth of e commerce in Namibia and develop a suitable business model for trading that will be adapted to the Internet using electronic commerce technologies as an example on how to boost e commerce in Namibia 5 1 2 Specific Objectives The specific objectives related to this research are a To determine how much Namibian companies use the Internet and web hosting technologies in conducting their businesses b To study the methods of advertising in use c To show that the Computer Science System Analysis and Design methodology can be applied to develop a software system that combines programming Internet web technology Active Server 59 Pages ASP scripting and database systems that can be utilized for e commerce transactions in Namibia d To use the software developed to show that small scale Namibian companies could increase their efficiencies by utilizing e commerce 5 1 2 1 Factors which inhibit the growth of e commerce in
16. password are supplied then the system allows the user to view all contents of the Web site This interface is very simple and very user friendly 4 3 5 4 The Seller The primary intention of the seller would be to post his products on the Web site Therefore after registration and successful logging into the system the seller clicks on the selling button which is permanently visible at the top frame of every page The seller then completes a Quotation Form which details the products on offer then submits this to a database which holds all items being sold The submission to the database then triggers a request for the user to complete a form which gathers more information than simply the username and password This information is also kept in the database table which stores details of all customers Thus you only become a customer if you actually buy or sell a product on the site Sellers therefore keep checking the Orders Submitted to view any orders that may have been placed and respond accordingly by effecting physical delivery of the goods 4 3 5 5 The Buyer The buyer like the seller must register log in and provide other details as described in subsection 4 3 5 4 However the buyer must additionally complete the Order Form and submit to the database After delivery has been effected the buyer completes the Receive Note Form to confirm that he has received the goods 53 then he pays fro them Payment has not been addre
17. recent policy paper June 1998 by the United States Department of Commerce on privacy issues generally involved with e commerce Describes international consensus on principles for privacy protection and options for implementing those principles legislative vs self regulation Identifies the U S policy approach as a combination of these methods Also includes useful international examples and survey of basic questions to be raised in establishing a national policy 3 http www oecd org subject e_commerce ebooks ecomm1 _4 pdf An OECD summary document in pdf format concerning consumer protection issues relating to electronic commerce 4 http www ispo cec be ecommerce dataprotect html Links to the most recent Directives of the European Commission on data protection policy 5 The e commerce Analyst http www econminfocenter com Link to e commerce Analyst journal 6 What is Electronic Commerce http ecommerce vaderbilt edu 7 The Economic and Social Impacts of EC http www pcweek com 67 8 http www u arizona edu smason c2c htm A web site which describes the different types of e commerce 9 http www dlib org dlib february99 thibadeau 02thibadeau html A web site dedicated to e commerce catalog construction 10 http www alphastarcomputer com fp 2000 glossary htm i A glossary of definitions 11 http docweb pwv gov za Ecomm Debate myweb docs discuss01 html November 2002 a discussion paper prepa
18. td gt lt td nowrap gt lt div align center gt lt strong gt First Name lt strong gt lt div gt lt td gt lt td gt lt div align center gt lt strong gt Company lt strong gt lt div gt lt td gt lt td nowrap gt lt div align center gt lt strong gt Product Name lt strong gt lt div gt lt td gt 100 lt td gt lt div align center gt lt strong gt Address lt strong gt lt div gt lt td gt lt td gt lt div align center gt lt strong gt Email lt strong gt lt div gt lt td gt lt tr gt lt If Not rs EOF Then rs MoveFirst While Not rs EOF gt lt TR valign top bgcolor 00CC99 gt lt TD nowrap gt lt rs username gt lt T D gt lt TD nowrap gt lt rs surname gt lt TD gt lt TD nowrap gt lt rs firstname gt lt TD gt lt TD nowrap gt lt rs Company gt lt TD gt lt TD nowrap gt lt rs productname gt lt TD gt lt TD nowrap gt lt rs address gt lt TD gt lt TD nowrap gt lt rs email gt lt T D gt lt TR gt lt rs Movenext Wend gt lt table gt lt div gt lt h3 align center gt Please Click here if you want to lt a href Order_Form htm gt lt font color F FO000 gt BUY lt font gt lt a gt or lt a href Quotation_Form htm gt lt font color FFOO00 gt SELL lt font gt lt a gt lt h3 gt lt hr gt lt body gt lt html gt 101 4 The following code checks the authenticity of a user lt l ASP code fo
19. them The system was loaded onto the Researchers server located in his office and accessed via an Intranet The students were requested to run the application while taking note of their observations The entire class of 40 students opened the application concurrently Feedback from these users was unanimous that the site was quite straightforward to use The fact that the most frequently used buttons for the site were permanently visible to the users was a very attractive feature to the students The users were able to register with the system log in complete forms submit them to the database and also observe database responses The system did not show any signs of deterioration The prototype was therefore subjected to a large number of transactions and it demonstrated its ability to handle high volumes of transactions 4 3 7 1 MEMB Interactive components The following data components interact with each other on the site Buyer Seller casual visitor the Web administrator site objects a database and the server The site is designed with a view that it could be converted to a commercial site at a later date Therefore access to it at the moment is restricted to registered members only so that the condition can be easily changed to paid up members only if need be This is intended to make it easier later on to change it to a subscription site so that only paid up members may view the site contents Non members of MEMB must first reg
20. these menus are a table of contents for organizing and locating information Williams and Sawyer 2001 1 1 4 Implications and Resolution The implication of the availability of the Internet and the services that it can offer is that Namibia is not fully enjoying the benefits of the Internet and its services It was therefore necessary to find ways and means by which Namibia can benefit from the Internet technologies One other implication of e commerce is that if e commerce is implemented then middlemen who would normally come between the producer and the buyer will be eliminated In this regard a resolution that trading software that will serve specifically the Namibian small scale business audience be created was arrived at 1 2 Aim and Objectives 1 2 1 Overall Objective The overall objective of this research is To examine factors and conditions which inhibit the growth of e commerce in Namibia and develop a suitable business model for trading that will be adopted to the Internet using electronic commerce technologies as an example on how to boost e commerce in Namibia 1 2 2 Specific Objectives The specific objectives related to this research are a To determine how much Namibian companies use the Internet and web hosting technologies in conducting their businesses b To study the methods of advertising in use c To show that the Computer Science System Analysis and Design methodology can be applied to devel
21. All visitors to the MEMB Web site arrive at the Welcoming Screen The screen is designed so that it offers a friendly welcome by requesting the visitors first name This screen is a local page hyper linked to the MEMB welcome page It does not store the first name that is entered The welcome screen is designed to echo a visitor s name or no name if no name is entered This is to exemplify the friendly nature of the Web site The screen goes on to give a brief synopsis of the purpose of the Web site and an encouraging message for the visitor to proceed on after the submit button is clicked 4 3 5 2 Registration with the system All users of the system are required to register as members of MEMB Registration is currently free and any visitor who wishes to participate in any transactions on the site must register At the registration level the required inputs are a username and password These are taken and stored in a database No two users can share the same username If a user attempts to register An already existing username the system detects this and redirects the user back to the user registration form with instructions to use another username 52 4 3 5 3 Logging into the system After the user successfully registers the system allows him to log into the system using the supplied username and password at registration The log in details are submitted to the database via an ASP script for attention If matching username and
22. Categories of e commerce Fig 4 1 Major design options available to the analyst Fig 4 2 Buyer and Seller Roles in commerce Fig 4 3 The buying process Fig 4 4 The Selling process Fig 4 5 Accessing a database Fig 4 6 Typical Infrastructure for a Web enabled application Figures in the User Manual are labeled as follows Fig A3 1 MEMB Home Page Fig A3 2 User log on interface Fig A3 3 Wrong Username or Password or Unregistered response Fig A3 4 MEMB Customer s details Fig A3 5 Quotation form Fig A3 6 Quotation Response Fig A3 7 The Stock List Fig A3 8 The Order Form Fig A3 9 Order Form Response Fig A3 10 Orders placed so far Fig A3 11 Delivery Note FigA3 12 Delivered Items Fig A3 13 Receive Note interface FigA3 14 The Invoice Fig A3 15 Pay Note Interface Fig A3 16 Acknowledge Payment Fig A3 17 Acknowledge Payment Response vii List of Tables 1 Table 1 1 Definition of an SME 2 Table A3 1 List of Registered MEMB customers 3 Table 4 1 Types of System Implementation viii List of Abbreviations ARPANET Advanced Project Agency Network ASP Active Server Pages B2B Business to Business B2C Business to Consumer CERN Center for European Nuclear Research C2B Consumer to Business C2C Consumer to Consumer CGI Common Gateway Interface DOT Digital Opportunity Task Force EC Electronic Commerce EDI Electronic Data Interchange EFT
23. Database Fig 4 5 Accessing a database The architecture and requirements for developing a Web enabled application also differ from the traditional client server applications A Web enabled application cannot function in isolation It requires several network and application components to deliver the desired results to the user A client machine is connected to a Proxy Server within an organization The proxy Server contains firewalls required to filter information that is being sent to other resources and a database 50 Figure 4 5 illustrates the Web architecture that was used to develop and deploy the MEMB application L_ Client Browser Web Server Database HTTP Server Server based programs e g ASP Fig 4 6 The typical infrastructure for a Web enabled application At the prototype level Internet Information Server IIS was used to store all business and data access components IIS is Microsoft s brand of Web server software utilizing Hypertext Transfer Protocol http to deliver World Wide Web documents IIS incorporates various functions for security allows for CGI programs and also provides for File Transfer Protocol FTP servers http www alphastarcomputer com fp_2000_glossary htm l 51 The user interface was implemented using a browser which presents a Graphical User Interface GUI and facilitates communication between the user and the Web Server 4 3 5 1 Design for all users of the system
24. MEMB Each one of the links above provides a table to show the details of each of the transactions listed For example clicking on the link for Customers Details opens the table shown in Table A3 1 Table A3 1 List of registered MEMB customers 89 1 7 Receive Note Interface The Receive Note is completed and submitted by a buyer to confirm that the items specified in the form have been received It should be noted that on this site which deals with mushrooms exclusively a standard product name mushroom has been used The mushrooms are however classified as e Mushroom1 which cost N 12 00 per kg e Mushroom2 which cost N 15 00 per kg e Mushroom3 which cost N 17 00 per kg e Mushroom4 which cost N 20 00 per kg These choices are provided in combo box which allows the user to select the mushroom of his choice The interface is shown in Fig A3 13 Fig A3 13 Receive Note interface 90 1 8 Invoice Interface After a buyer has declared interest by completing and submitting the Order Form the Seller responds by completing and submitting an invoice These processes may seem laborious and repetitive but in the real sense they are necessary because each form is structured to capture specific information about a specific transaction If the two parties have to avoid misunderstandings in their deals then these structured documents are necessary All the information captured is kept in database and can be used for any subsequent lit
25. Null hypothesis states that use of e commerce Software developed in this research cannot improve the efficiency of SME businesses in Namibia This research showed that if SMEs use the software developed in this research their efficiency will improve The Null hypothesis was therefore rejected e Alternative Hypothesis This states that use of e commerce can improve efficiency of SME businesses in Namibia Based on the feedback obtained from students who used the MEMB software businesses can greatly improve their efficiency if they used e commerce because they would benefit from all the advantages provided by e commerce and benefits provided by the trading software The Alternative hypothesis was therefore adopted The objective that the software developed can increase the efficiency of SME companies in Namibia was therefore satisfied Although the MEMB Model specifies mushroom transactions it should be emphasized that the prototype can be modified with relative ease to transact any other business The Web site is therefore flexible and adaptable to any changing circumstance 5 2 Limitations and Constraints The following limitations and constraints were experienced in spite of the successes scored 62 e Gathering of data from traders was a major handicap Some merchants were unwilling to provide information citing that they were busy There were also some companies which cannot enumerate here that totally declined to either an
26. Schneider 2001 33 2 5 2 Cookies A cookie is a small data file that some Web sites write to your hard drive when you view the Web site Sites that create cookies do it transparently by recording information about Web browsing choices that you make or by storing your username and password for a particular Web site that you visited Greenstein and Feinman 2002 Your computer may store thousands of cookies one for each Web site that wishes to record them without your knowledge Frequently cookies make access to selected areas of a Web site more efficient Many Web sites recover critical user identification information from cookies that they have stored previously on your computer Storing a cookie on your computer eliminates requiring you to log into a Web site with a user name and password each time you access the Web site that originally wrote the cookie to your computer Because cookies contain specific information about you they are similar to photo identification Browsers support cookies and they provide various protection mechanisms to partially block or completely disallow cookie storage Cookies are a privacy threat because they usually contain accurate information such as your name address and credit card number unless you falsify this information when providing it to the Web site Falsified information that is stored in a cookie poses no privacy threat because it is inaccurate Perry and Schneider 2001 2 6 The Rese
27. UNIVERSITY OF NAMIBIA DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTING ELECTRONIC COMMERCE IN NAMIBIA ITS GROWTH PRESENT STATUS AND POTENTIAL BY JOHN J MAGENYA MAY 2004 ELECTRONIC COMMERCE IN NAMIBIA ITS GROWTH PRESENT STATUS AND POTENTIAL By John J Magenya A thesis submitted to the Department of Computing University of Namibia Windhoek Namibia In fulfillment of the requirement for the award of the degree of Master of Science in Computer Science May 2004 Supervisors Prof G E Kiangi Prof J E Odada 2004 University of Namibia UNAM All rights reserved iii Declaration This research work was conducted in fulfillment of the requirements of the award of Master of Science Degree in Computer Science The study was conducted by John Joxey Magenya Signature Date Supervised by Professor G E Kiangi Signature Date And Professor J E Odada Signature Date Dedication dedicate this research work to my wife Joyce and children William Sheena and Olivia Acknowledgement Few projects indeed very few are entirely a one man affair and this one is no exception would like to thank those who have written the many books on e commerce from which my own knowledge and understanding of e commerce and more importantly attitude towards e commerce are founded My individual thanks go first and foremost to my project Supervisors Professors G E Kiangi and J E Odada who in spite of their o
28. aged or defective items After 31 a user submits payment and the system secures authorization for that payment the system opens a Web page with an order number and order information and informs the user that it has accepted the order Whiteley 2000 Finally the system forwards the users order to the processing network for payment processing and order shipment called fulfillment These steps are common to both online and physical stores In addition the e commerce site should provide the following convenient features for the site developer entrepreneur as well as for the shopper e Tools for creating the store catalog for products e Tools for populating the store catalog e Tools for building or modifying the site and its pages e A mechanism to register and track shoppers both for other businesses and consumers e Security measures to secure transactions to prevent fraud and theft Carol and Hirschl 1998 2 5 E commerce security 2 5 1 Introduction Computer security and specifically computer security for electronic commerce is a complex and broad issue and the subject of ongoing research Computer security is the protection of assets from unauthorized access use alteration or destruction There are two general types of security 1 Physical and 2 Logical Physical security includes tangible protection devices such as alarms guards fireproof doors security fences safes or vaults and bombproof buildings Perry a
29. and Schneider 2001 This percentage is estimated to have risen to over 90 in 2003 Other examples of success in the use of computers in trading include 1 Avon cosmetics which makes cost savings of more than 700 million a year through the use of e commerce Source Avon Web site http www findarticles com cf_dls mOHWW 46_3 77033858 p2 article jhtml term 2 The Dell company which sells about 2million worth of computers a day on the Internet Source Dell Company Web site http www fastsearch com us success_stories dell 3 General Electric which saves 500 million annually after implementing Internet based e commerce Source General Electric Company Web Site http www fool com research 2000 foolsden000808 htm 4 Companies in retail business such as Tesco chain of Supermarkets in the UK AAH Pharmaceuticals Ltd dealers in pharmaceutical products Dixon s chain of supermarkets British Marks and Spencer and many more from all over the world These examples of success provide lessons for African countries to emulate However in order for one to participate in electronic commerce activities one must be connected to the Internet We shall therefore discuss what the Internet is the services it can offer and how we can take advantage of these services 1 1 1 The Internet The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks It was launched in 1969 when the Unites States of America USA funded a pro
30. and financiers anywhere in the world The rapid integration of Internet and other telecommunications based functions into nearly every sphere of business has led to an international focus on the new world of e commerce Whiteley 2000 These technological developments have gone hand in hand with a trend predominantly in the developed world towards a post industrial knowledge economy This new paradigm which is already having a significant impact on the way in which people lead their lives is difficult to define but is characterized by e an emphasis on the human mind rather than merely physical automation e being information rather than energy intensive e sustainability through networks not single organizations e supporting distributed rather than centralized intelligence e requiring multiple skills and continuous learning e replacing lifetime employment with labor market flexibility e customized rather than standardized products and 25 e being enabled by Information and Communications Technologies ICTs whilst simultaneously driving the development of new ICTs http docweb pwv gov za Ecomm Debate myweb docs discuss01 html November 2002 Just as the industrial society was built on and then dominated by the agricultural society the knowledge society is now building on the platform provided by the industrial society It can be argued that e commerce and other types of Web applications like e learning including th
31. arch 2 6 1 E commerce and the ZERI project There is on going research work on the Zero Emissions Research Initiatives ZERI project ZERI is a concept developed at the United Nations University Tokyo Japan in 1994 Mshigeni et al 1998 and promoted in Africa following a co operation agreement between the United Nations University and the University of 34 Namibia in 1996 Pauli Mshigeni and O Regan 1997 Since then ZERI has considerably expanded in Africa and conceived many new research ideas The concept behind ZERI is to look at the economic use of the earths biodiversity and at natural resources which are generally regarded as useless or as waste and even in some circumstances as obnoxious such as water hyacinth and generate products of value ZERI proposes to develop a Web site as a source of information that can be assessed via the Internet ZERI has decided to use electronic networking to link all involved in the ZERI project which include researchers farmers entrepreneurs extension workers and short course training One of the areas that ZERI can significantly benefit is to link farmers and entrepreneurs producers on one hand with buyers customers on the hand Thus ZERI was chosen as an ideal environment to demonstrate how e commerce can be used in Namibia and in Africa in general to the benefit of the entire commercial community The Web site provides information on current and coming events rega
32. are application that would be used for e commerce transactions for small scale businesses in Namibia 4 3 2 Generation of alternatives The need for new application software had already been identified from the analysis of the questionnaire The Checklist O Leary and O Leary 2002 method of data analysis was used to analyze the data collected via the questionnaire A checklist is a list of questions and it is helpful in guiding the researcher through 43 User Requirements Do Design Minor or major Nothing New systems Modification to existing system Develop new system in house Develop new system with outside resources Purchase system from outside Operate system Operate system Operate the system outside the within the in house with outside organization organization services Fig 4 1 Major Design Options available to the analyst Note The path taken for this project is shown in bold key issues for the present system It is important to note here that there was no existing computerized system of trading therefore creating a new system was the only viable alternative 44 An evaluation of the system for its feasibility was carried out The feasibility evaluation included the following three elements a Economic feasibility The costs of the new system would be justified by the benefits the system would provide b Technical feasibility The system would work reliably because there was availabl
33. ay they trade by eliminating exchange of paper orders between them Exchange of paper orders between two trading partners is both costly and time consuming The introduction of electronic ordering provides a number of mutual benefits for the trading partners some of which are listed below 1 E commerce can increase sales and reduce costs 2 A business can reduce the costs of handling sales inquiries providing price quotes and determining product availability by using e commerce in its sales support and order processes 3 7 8 Just as e commerce increases sales opportunities for the seller it also increases purchasing opportunities for the buyer E commerce increases the speed and accuracy with which businesses can exchange information which reduces costs on both sides of transactions E commerce provides consumers with a wider range of choices than traditional commerce because consumers can consider many different products and services from a wider variety of sellers E commerce provides consumers with an easy way to customize the level of detail in the information they obtain about a prospective purchase Consumers can have instant access to detailed information on the Web Some products such as software audio clips or images can even be delivered via the Internet which reduces the amount of time customers must wait to begin enjoying their purchases Schneider and Perry 2001 The costs of electronic
34. base If Request Form txtUserPass rsCheckUser Password Then If the password is correct then set the session variable to True Session blnlsUserGood True Close Objects before redirecting Set adoCon Nothing Set strCon Nothing Set rsCheckUser Nothing Redirect to the authorised user page and send the users name 103 Response Redirect home htm name amp strUserName End If End If Close Objects Set adoCon Nothing Set strCon Nothing Set rsCheckUser Nothing If the script is still running then the user must not be authorised Session blnlsUserGood False Redirect to the unautorised user page Response Redirect unauthorised_user_page htm gt 104 6 Why use the adovbs file Why include the adovbs file ADOVBS inc is a file included with IIS that has all of the Active data Objects ADO constants defined When connecting to databases use constants with names like adOpenForwardOnly and adLockReadOnly These are constants that are defined in the ADOVBS inc file and define various connection and recordset rs properties with English like names To include ADOVBS inc all you need to do is add one simple line to the top of your ASP pages lt include virtual adovbs inc gt and be sure to put ADOVBS inc in your root web application directory Here is an example of the contents of ADOVBS inc CursorTypeEnum Values Const adOpenForwardOnly 0 Const a
35. by chapter 19 Chapter two presents the literature review that was undertaken for this project which includes the beginnings of e commerce its history and the different categories of e commerce The chapter also looks at the current status of e commerce globally and a discussion of the areas of current concern and research The chapter concludes by looking at e commerce security and how e commerce has been integrated into the Zero Emission Research Initiative ZERI project Chapter three deals with a discussion of the research findings by first looking at the preliminary analysis of the research problem then the answers to the hypotheses and finally the use of the Trading software Chapter four deals with the Design and implementation of an e commerce model named Mushroom Electronic Micro Business MEMB It starts by introducing what MEMB is then goes into the actual analysis and design details using computer science System Analysis and Design approach The chapter goes through the six stages of System Analysis and Design by defining the problem generating alternatives choosing the best alternative designing a new system followed by system Implementation and Testing Chapter five looks at the problems encountered during research work and self evaluation of the work done This is for the purpose of ascertaining whether the stated objectives of the research were achieved or not The thesis presentation is then concluded by list
36. dOpenKeyset 1 Const adOpenDynamic 2 Const adOpenStatic 3 CursorOptionEnum Values Const adHoldRecords amp HO0000100 Const adMovePrevious amp HO0000200 Const adAddNew amp H01000400 Const adDelete amp HO1000800 Const adUpdate amp H01008000
37. ded 1 1 2 1 Communication Customer Service is crucial in any business This has been overlooked in many e commerce applications yet it is a very important part of the on line business model Those who use it wisely by ensuring feedback and support mechanisms for their customers will guarantee themselves that their customers will come back and therefore increase their sales Schneider and Perry 2001 1 1 2 2 Collaboration The web is gradually supporting collaboration among people in new ways The web is forcing a change in companies from the inside out by cultivating an extended enterprise and a more open forward looking corporate culture and by transforming the social structure from the traditional hierarchical chain of command to a more collaborative environment Rayport and Jaworski 2001 1 1 2 3 Co operation Companies need to look beyond their traditional boundaries Winning in Electronic Commerce often requires multi company co operation within and across industry boundaries New ways to distribute products across the web with affiliate programs or associate programs are emerging Whiteley 2000 1 1 2 4 Community Cooperative communities are being created among online consumers Unhappy customers can voice their frustrations publicly and this may have a negative impact on your business Greenstein and Feinman 2000 1 1 2 5 Communalism To benefit fully a business should partner up with other related compan
38. designed and used to test these hypotheses Appendix Ill The results of the questionnaire were augmented by the little literature available on e commerce in Namibia 1 3 3 4 Design of the questionnaire The problem in question targeted the small scale business community The design of the questionnaire sought to address the types of business documents in use their mode of delivery and how long they take to be delivered Advertising is an inevitable component of trading Several methods of advertising were used Advertising via the Internet revolutionizes the way products are introduced to the market This was exhibited by examples from the Internet The level of computer and Internet usage was of great interest Hence it was necessary to find out whether some companies already have Web sites and what they do with the Web sites The questionnaire was also able to determine in general terms how an average Namibian company transacts business 15 The questionnaire Appendix III was also used to determine whether there existed willingness by the small scale companies to use e commerce if it was made available to them For the companies which were already involved in some form of electronic trade it was necessary to know what type of activities were going on by which company and to what extent It was also possible to determine which activities could be used to increase a particular company s output and efficiency and hence generate m
39. e and make use of this technology The benefits that e commerce offers can therefore be extended to Africa The use of e commerce in Namibia is supported by the fact that in July 2000 the group of G8 countries passed the Okinawa Charter on the Global Information Society a resolution to set up the Digital Opportunities Task Force DOT Force One of the priority areas was to encourage participation in global e commerce networks Sida Dec 2002 The use of Trading software by Namibian small businesses is therefore in direct compliance with the Okinawa Charter The Sida publication further reports that the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa COMESA council of Ministers of which Namibia is a member has adopted a programme for the stimulation of electronic commerce in the region 36 Chapter 3 Research Findings 3 1 Preliminary Analysis Preliminary analysis of the methods of trading used by businesses in Namibia done for this research showed insignificant use of e commerce This was happening when there was proliferation of computers with immense capabilities in every sphere of human life Kiangi 1998 Namibia is a developing country with a growing economy Businesses are therefore mushrooming and expanding at all times However the Namibian population and particularly the business community have low computer literacy levels and are not able to embrace and take advantage of e commerce What was observed though is t
40. e reliable hardware software and user training facilities c Operational feasibility The small scale business people would use the system and that they would not resist its implementation 4 3 3 Choice of the best alternative As noted in ii of section 4 3 there were no alternative choices However the new system would be able to satisfy the following requirements a The system would be integrated with existing systems like ZERI b The system would be flexible enough so that it can be modified in the future to be used for any type of small scale business transactions c The system would be equipped with enough security mechanisms to avoid its unauthorized use d The benefits of the system would be worth its cost 4 3 4 System Design Membership of MEMB For now the membership of MEMB is by registration It is hoped that if this work is developed further the membership will be obtained by subscribing to the site hence make the site a full fledged commercial website The design of MEMB was centered on Buyers and Sellers The Buying and Selling process is shown in the Fig 4 2 45 BUYER SELLER Identify a need Identify customer needs Search for products or Create a product or service services that will satisfy the that will satisfy the need customer needs Negotiate a purchase Advertise and promote the transaction product or service Negotiate a site transaction Arrange for delivery Inspection Testing and
41. e technologies and knowledge required to effect them is the first real manifestation of the knowledge society The question for the less industrialized developing countries is whether they can use appropriate technologies to leapfrog into the knowledge society by passing some of the stages of the industrial paradigm The view of the author is that we in the developing world embrace technology as it comes without regard to how it has evolved For example a peasant farmer in a remote African village will make use of a cellular phone without knowing how an open wire telephone looks like This is because technology is changing so fast that it is virtually impossible to keep up with these changes Likewise e commerce is permeating every sphere of life and we can identify activities that contribute to this proliferation of e commerce worldwide As stated in the e commerce policy paper for South Africa http docweb pwv qgov za Ecomm Debate myweb docs discuss01 html among the principal activities that can be identified as contributing to global e commerce are e government services and information e business to business wholesale and retail services and sales e business to consumer and consumer to consumer retail sales and transactions e financial services and transactions e subscription and usage based telephony online and Internet access services 26 e subscription or transaction based information services and software sal
42. eeee nsec eee ee erreen 68 Appendix II 1 Summary of e commerce questionnaire 605 72 Appendix ll 2 Summary of e commerce questionnaire 20 73 Appendix II 3 List of SMEs in Namibia cee eee eeeee ee eeee ed 76 Appendix Ill MEMB User manual 0ceceeeee ee eee ee ee eee errereen 19 Appendix IV Selected source code ceceeeee ee ee eee ee ee ee eee ee tend 93 xii Chapter 1 Introduction 1 1 Background Information Electronic Commerce e commerce is a modern business methodology that addresses the needs of organizations merchants and consumers to cut costs while improving the quality of goods and services and increasing the speed of service delivery using computers and communications networks Kiangi 1998 E commerce encompasses e mail e messaging electronic bulletin boards groupware electronic forms electronic publishing etc E commerce can be regarded as a commercial activity that takes place by means of connected computers It can occur between a user and a vendor through an online information service the Internet or between vendor and customer computers through Electronic Data Interchange EDI Kiangi 1998 Its implementation is through computerized structured documents with spaces reserved for entering information which is exchanged between the vendor and the customer Trading partners need electronic commerce if they want to improve the w
43. ems are you experiencing between your company and customers in terms of ordering and delivery of goods 8 How do you advertise your goods and or services State the kind of advertising methods you use and indicate whether they are effective or not 70 9 What method of payment do you use e g cash check etc Please specify 10 What is the general company attitude towards the use of Electronic trading 11 Feel free to give any other comments regarding how you think trading could be improved between your company and its customers Your Position in the company Telephone contact 71 72 73 Appendix II 2 Summary of e commerce questionnaire The following summaries were obtained from the data collected in appendix II 1 A summary response is shown against each question 1 Does the company use e commerce Yes 5 36 14 No 31 36 86 2 What type s of business documents are used a Invoices 13 36 53 b Order forms 16 36 44 c Quotation forms 3 36 8 d Delivery notes 2 36 6 e All 19 36 53 3 How are invoices delivered a By hand 36 36 100 b By Post 36 36 100 c Electronically 30 36 83 d Fax 30 36 83 e Allmethods 9 36 25 4 How long do deliveries take on average a Less than 1 week 36 36 100 b Over 1 week 0 36 0 5 Are there any problems with deliveries a Yes 36 36 100 b No 0 36 0 6 How is advertising done
44. ere therefore achieved 5 1 2 2 Development of a software system In order to show that Computer Science System Analysis and Design methodology can be applied to develop a software system that combines programming Internet web technology Active Server Pages ASP scripting and database systems that can be utilized for e commerce transactions in Namibia the following Hypothesis was set That it is possible using Computer Science Systems Analysis and Design Methodology to develop computer software as an e commerce tool for SME sector in Namibia A Web site MEMB was developed using Computer Science Systems Analysis Methodology to enable traders to buy and sell their products as detailed in chapter 5 of this thesis This fulfilled the specific objective that Computer Science System Analysis and Design methodology can be applied to develop a software system that combines programming Internet web technology Active Server Pages ASP scripting and database systems that can be utilized for e commerce transactions in Namibia 5 1 2 3 Use of the software developed for the SME in Namibia To show that the software developed can increase the efficiency of SME in Namibia the following hypothesis was set 61 That e commerce can improve efficiency of the business of small scale entrepreneurs in Namibia To test this Hypothesis a Null Hypothesis and an Alternative Hypothesis was formulated as follows e Null Hypothesis The
45. es e advertising and marketing services and e ancillary functions contributing to business commercial activities The vast majority of these transactions to date have been taking place in countries with advanced economies and infrastructure such as the members of the Organization for Economic Co operation and Development OECD The author s view is that for developing countries like Namibia e commerce presents important new opportunities to achieve a more level playing field vis a vis larger more developed economies it would diminish existing advantages of cost communication and information that developed countries have over developing countries and can create huge new markets for indigenous products like mushrooms as well as services While some companies and individuals in Namibia are beginning to take advantage of the potential of e commerce critical challenges still remain to be overcome before its potential can be fully realized for the benefit of all citizens Appropriate policy recommendations that would lead to the formulation of a national policy on e commerce in Namibia should be made 2 3 Categories of e commerce Four distinct categories of e commerce can be identified as follows business to business business to consumer consumer to consumer and consumer to business Rayport and Jaworski 2001 2 3 1 Business to Business B2B This category of e commerce refers to the full spectrum of e commerce that ca
46. gt 1 3 Maagano Hair Salon 6 9 1 i 77 92 Uwe s Autoelectric 93 Valley Omar Car Sales 94 Up Up Hawkers 95 Vet to Pet 96 Vera s Properties 1 8 86 Topaz Agency 8 9 78 79 APPENDIX III MEMB USER MANUAL 1 0 The Interface MEMB is launched through the browser by typing its Uniform Resource Locator URL address in the browser s address line This will start MEMB and the first page to load is the MEMB Welcome Screen A greeting message which echoes the visitor s first name encourages the visitor to proceed The next screen displays a brief write up about what the site is all about This screen then invites the visitor to either register for new users or login for registered users After registration and or successful login the MEMB homepage opens The Home page is divided into three frames the Header Frame the Mainframe and the Footer Frame The Header and Footer Frames contain the main navigation buttons These buttons are e Home e Zeri e Enquiries e Selling e Buying e Links e Receivenote e Invoice e Paynote e Acknowledgement The Center Frame displays a brief statement about the mission of MEMB contact person address telephone numbers e mail and links to a Feedback Page b Registered Customers c About us Fig A3 1 MEMB Home Page 1 1 User log on interface A user can either create a new account or log on to his account if he is a registered user The screen t
47. hat is displayed to the user is shown in Figure A3 2 80 81 Fig A3 2 User log on interface The interface further allows the user to register if he has not done so If the user name does not exist in the system users database the response shown in Figure A3 3 is returned Fig A3 3 Wrong Username or Password or Unregistered response 82 1 2 User account details When a user commences to buy or sell products on this site the site administration requires more than just a username and a password Because Buyers and Sellers must contact each other more details are essential A buyer seller must therefore complete the form shown in Figure A3 4 in order to proceed with the transaction Fig A3 4 MEMB Customers details 1 3 The Selling Interface A user with products he wishes to sell posts his product details by clicking on the selling button which activates the Quotation Form shown in Fig A3 5 A successfully completed form after submission returns the response shown in Fig A3 6 Fig A3 5 Quotation Form Fig A3 6 Quotation Response asp 83 84 From the screen of Fig A3 6 a seller is able to view the stock list and is requested to complete the Customer Details form so that other customers can reach him 1 4 Buyers Interface A buyer invokes the buying process by clicking on the Buying button This opens a screen which presents him with 2 options i To view the Stock List Fig A3 7 ii To complete the order form
48. he country especially to the small business community Key technological inhibitors and drivers of business to business and business to customer e commerce have been identified and presented in this research Electronic Commerce offers an opportunity for business development In Namibia we are being left behind by the developed world mainly because of lack of awareness of the existence of e commerce and its potential advantages Even in cases where we may be aware of its existence the application software which is used in this area is expensive and not easily affordable by small businesses Another problem is that some small businesses cannot be able to use e commerce when they are struggling to sustain themselves economically The specific case presented in this thesis is that of mushroom growers in Namibia This research develops a trading software package that is used by trading partners in the country to improve their trading practices and thereby benefit from the advantages that e commerce offers Although applied to mushroom growers however the concept is applicable to any other group of commodity producers The hypotheses that there exist poor knowledge and poor use of e commerce in Namibia that companies in Namibia can improve their efficiency and cut on costs by using e commerce and that the existing infrastructure in the country is good enough to support e commerce activities have been assessed and analyzed in this work Thi
49. he general tendency of businesses to buy computers and various software packages including those that support the use of the Internet Internet cafes are also mushrooming making it possible for more people to have access to the Internet and the World Wide Web In addition numerous courses in computer literacy were being advertised in all the newspapers and other media outlets Institutions of higher learning were also offering courses in IT and computer science which include electronic commerce Despite all these it was apparent that e commerce was still far from being a common way of conducting business in the Namibian context This was attributed to various factors including the level of Internet usage of computers whether or not the companies have Web sites how the companies were using the Web sites compatibility of current documents to business operations delivery of the documents and duration of delivery whether or not the companies were using the Internet for advertising and the willingness of the small scale companies to use e commerce 37 The Bank of Namibia conducted a study on the status of e commerce in Namibia in July 2003 Bank of Namibia 2003 Although the main focus of the study was the Banking Industry it also covered a number of areas which are relevant to other sectors The survey established that a number of local companies having realized the potential and opportunities offered by the Internet are now
50. ies in the product chain in addition to e commerce services for products and services to new and existing clients Rather than simply linking to a site the idea is to actually try to build a business community of sites and services This is a form of business communalism Whiteley 2000 All these fundamentals should be upheld in the quest for Electronic Commerce SUCCESS 1 1 3 Other services provided on the Internet Apart from the Web the Internet provides numerous other services Let us mention three of these that are of interest to e commerce These are Telnet File Transfer Protocol FTP and Gopher 1 1 3 1 Telnet This is the Internet service that helps you to connect to another computer host on the Internet and log onto that computer as if you were on terminal in the next room Shelly Cashman and Vermaat 2003 1 1 3 2 File Transfer Protocol FTP This Internet service is used for transferring files Many computers on the Internet allow you to copy files from your computer This is called downloading You can also use FTP to copy files from your computer to another computer on the Internet This is called Uploading O Leary and O Leary 2002 1 1 3 3 Gopher Gopher is a software application that provides menu based search and retrieval functions for a particular computer site Internet Gopher sites are computers that provide menus describing their available resources and direct links to the resources Essentially
51. igation that may arise between a buyer and a seller This interface is shown in Fig A3 14 Fig A3 14 The Invoice Interface 1 9 Payment Note Interface The Payment Note Form provides a record of payment by the buyer It is completed by the buyer to detail how a payment has been effected This is shown in Fig A3 15 Fig A3 15 Pay Note Interface 2 0 Acknowledge Payment Interface This form is completed and submitted by the buyer It is the last document to be completed and signals the end of a particular transaction On submission of this document a response is generated to tell the buyer that the transaction is over and further invites him to select another link for further navigation of the site if necessary Figure A3 16 shows the Payment Acknowledgement form and Fig A3 16 shows its response Fig A3 16 Acknowledge Payment Fig Fig A3 17 Acknowledge Payment Response 92 93 Appendix IV Some selected code Most of the web pages on the MEMB website basically utilize a combination of html forms ASP scripts and database response forms The following pages of code show some of the code as follows An html form An ASP form A database response form Check user login script a A O N gt Why the adovbs inc code is used 94 1 An example of an html form lt html gt lt head gt lt title gt Enquiries form by JJ Magenya lt y title gt lt meta http equiv Content Type content text html charset iso 8859
52. ing the original objectives the hypotheses set and discussions of the results against each Hypothesis It also enumerates the limitations and constraints that were encountered The chapter concludes with suggestions for future work related to this research work The References section at the end shows the sources of information that were used for this research The references are listed in alphabetical order of the author s 20 A list of Appendixes is included to provide additional information as follows Appendix The questionnaire that was used for data collection Appendix II 1 and II 2 Summary of e commerce questionnaire Appendix III MEMB user manual a detailed explanation of how to use the MEMB software Appendix IV Selected Source Code Some of the program code that was written to perform certain tasks in Web site design Appendix V A list of the companies visited for this research 21 Chapter 2 Literature Review 2 1 What is e commerce E commerce is like so much in the areas of business and information systems the subject of numerous discussions with an ensuing plethora of definitions Some authors see e commerce as largely or entirely an Internet phenomenon David Whiteley Whiteley 2000 says Seddon has suggested that the world has just entered a third new phase in the evolution of Information Technology IT capabilities the Internet era The suggestion divides the evolution of IT into
53. ister as members by providing a unique username and password If a user enters a username that already exists in the users database he is prompted that the particular username has already been used then he is requested to select another one A user can therefore only 56 successfully register if he chooses a username that does not exist in the users database already This information is kept in a database on the web server and a message is returned from the server to inform the new user that he is now registered and can log into the system Login requires the user to use the exact username and password supplied during registration Otherwise an error message is generated A user can be a Buyer or Seller A buyer may view the contents of the stock list which shows a list of what sellers have posted to sell He then completes and submits an order form and the process continues as shown in Fig 4 3 and Fig 4 4 4 3 7 2 Site Administration As for the Administration of the site the Administrator has access to all components of the site He can update the site delete pages create new ones have access to customer passwords and generally have full control of all functionalities of the Web site A user cannot perform Administrator functions 4 4 Problems and Evaluation 4 4 1 Problems Encountered No major problems were observed during this final phase of testing However during earlier testing sessions the system could not allow more tha
54. ject that developed a national computer network called Advanced Project Agency Network ARPANET O Leary and O Leary 2002 Using the Internet you can communicate with other people throughout the world by means of electronic mail read online versions of newspapers magazines academic journals and books and join discussion groups on almost any conceivable topic 1 1 2 The Web The Web also known as the World Wide Web WWW was introduced in 1992 at the Center for European Nuclear Research CERN O Leary and O Leary 2002 Prior to the Web the Internet was all text no graphics animations sound or video Today the Web provides a multimedia interface to resources available on the Internet From these research beginnings the Internet and the Web have evolved as tools for all of us to use The Web has a lot of unique characteristics Open interactive immediate dynamic convenient extensive powerful increasingly authoritative etc Those who would like to conduct business online should keep in mind the nature of the Web as this will affect the nature of their business For example Internet is an open Network and this implies a Global Open Market The Internet is offering an instant and versatile communication across the world Kiangi 1998 There are five fundamental concepts that make the Internet so popular These are reviewed here and a description of how they translate to Electronic Commerce is briefly provi
55. le extent Appendix Il A number of standard business transactions were identified and the survey checked whether or not a given company used e commerce for each of those transactions If less than 20 of the standard documents used e commerce then the company was considered not to be using e commerce to an appreciable extent otherwise the company was considered to be using e commerce to some extent Following this the proportion of companies not using e commerce was used to test the Null hypothesis If the proportion is large at 5 significance level the Null hypothesis is to be rejected and the Alternative Hypothesis H1 is to be adopted that is the SME sector in Namibia did not use e commerce to an appreciable extent 1 3 3 2 Methodology for Hypothesis 2 H2 Using Computer Science Systems Analysis Methodology software was developed for use in the SME sector in Namibia The following are the steps in Systems Analysis and Design Methodology that were adopted Kendall and Kendall 1999 a System Planning This first phase of Systems Analysis and Design Methodology involved a preliminary investigation of the proposed project to determine the need for a new system Two stages were involved here and which are 1 Defining the problem 2 Suggesting Alternative Systems b System Analysis In the Systems Analysis phase the present system was studied in depth and new requirements specified To accomplish this data were c
56. le telephones linked to the Internet can significantly add value to the Web site usage This possibility needs to be examined Work need to be done to allow queries by e mail only and allow the system to respond automatically again by e mail Policy makers should see the need to formulate a National Policy on e commerce that would guide the development of e commerce in Namibia Similar policies exist in South Africa htt document pwv gov za and the United States of America http www doc gov ecommerce privacy htm 64 REFERENCES 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Anderson Sweeney and Williams 1994 Introduction to Statistics West Publishing Company USA ISBN 0 314 02813 7 Elizabeth Eisner Reding 2001 Building an eBusiness McGraw Hill USA ISBN 0 07 2427365 Carol M Cram C M and Hirschl M C 1998 Creating Websites Projects Course Technology USA ISBN 0 7600 5802 4 Capron H L 2000 Computers Tools for an Information Age Prentice Hall USA ISBN 0 201 612111 9 Design Team H O Mumbai 2000 Sever Side Scripting with ASP APTe commerceH Computer E Greenstein M and Feinman T 2000 Electronic Commerce Security Risk Management and Cont Jankowicz A D 2000 Business Research Projects Thomson Learning UK ISBN 1 86152 549 4 Kendall K E and Kendall J E 1999 Systems Analysis and Design Fourth Edition Prentice Hall Kiangi G E 1998 Introduction to Elect
57. ly 2003 Bank of Namibia 2003 1 4 2 Models of e commerce available on the Internet The basic ingredients of e commerce are secure and robust network protocols electronic authentication payment and delivery chains and scalable web servers for product offering and ordering Rayport and Jaworski 2001 These technologies are readily available and mature They do not therefore form the basis of this research 1 4 3 Methods of implementing e commerce for small scale businesses in Namibia What however was of interest to this research was the speed in identifying a buyer and an appropriate market for a particular product In implementing this research a software package was built and tested for mushroom trading The concept however can be applied to any other product An aspect of mushrooms that makes them ideal as a first consideration is that they are perishable by nature Therefore speed in identifying a buyer and an appropriate market can greatly reduce loses that may arise if the mushrooms are not bought on time A website speeds business transactions and cuts costs by avoiding having to physically search for a market 1 5 Outline of the Thesis The thesis is presented in five 5 chapters as follows Chapter one presents the background information about e commerce the advantages of using e commerce in comparison with the traditional commerce the aim objectives and scope of the study and the outline of the thesis chapter
58. med thereby eliminating mislaid paperwork 17 E commerce enables improved quality of information concerning trading data because both the seller and the buyer have access to detailed information about their transactions 18 In traditional commerce invoices are either hand delivered or sent by post When e commerce is used invoices arrive instantaneously thereby saving time Generally e commerce helps an organization to become more cost effective competitive and customer responsive Although consumer shopping on the Web is expected to exceed 300 billion by 2004 electronic commerce is much broader and encompasses many more business activities than just Web shopping In fact the total volume of all business activities on the Web is expected to exceed 4 trillion by 2004 Schneider and Perry 2001 Some of the companies that are contributing to this high volume of electronic commerce trade are i Amazon com they deal in books music videos toys etc and have enjoyed a lot of success by selling their products over the Internet Annual sales over the Internet in the year 2000 were 2 billion Schneider and Perry 2001 ii Cisco Systems dealers in Computer equipment sold 72 of its computer equipment over the Internet in 1998 Because no customer service representatives were involved in these sales Cisco estimates that it avoided handling 500 000 calls per month resulting in an annual saving of over 500 million Perry
59. n occur between two organizations Among other activities B2B e commerce includes purchasing and procurement supplier management inventory management sales activities payment management and service and support One example of a practical B2B is the emergence of a venture consisting of a group of three major automakers that are working with Oracle and Commerce One 27 to provide auto parts sourcing This venture is forecasted to create a 250 billion market in the US Rayport and Jaworski 2001 Greenstein and Feinman 2000 argue that the biggest growth area in e commerce over the last few years has been business to business transactions This is true because B2B involves Internet enabling of existing relationships between two companies Hence with the availability of the Internet companies have been able to increase their trade relationships by using B2B e commerce 2 3 2 Business to Consumer B2C This refers to exchanges between businesses and consumers Examples of these are Amazon com and Yahoo com Similar transactions that occur in business to business e commerce also take place in the business to consumer context These are retailing transactions with individual customers Rayport J F and Jaworski B J 2001 2 3 3 Consumer to Consumer C2C C2C e commerce is an alternative to B2C Simply put it allows consumers to purchase goods from one another An example of this is an online auction such as eBay http Av
60. n one user to write into the database The problem was that all users had not been given sufficient rights to access the database The problem has since been solved MEMB Website can be accessed via the Internet A link to the MEMB Web site has been placed on the ZERI Web site http www zeri unam na The name of the link is Trade Web 57 4 4 2 Evaluation System evaluation refers to the way a system is performing in terms of its failure or success in achieving its initially stated objectives It would be deemed to have failed if it does not meet the objectives or succeeded if its objectives are satisfied 4 4 2 1 Achievements The following objectives were realized e A model to help a small scale businessman was developed and tested e Buyers are able to use MEMB and buy mushrooms online e Sellers are able to post their products on the site e MEMB is able to restrict its access to registered members only e Multiple users can access MEMB simultaneously e MEMB demonstrates the combined use of system Analysis and Design network technology database management systems Active Server Pages technology and Web site Development Techniques 4 4 2 2 Failures In the course of developing MEMB the following failures were encountered e MEMB did not tackle the problem of payment over the Internet e The database access could have been made more interactive 58 Chapter 5 Conclusion In chapter 1 of this document the objectives
61. nd Schneider 2001 32 Protecting assets using nonphysical mechanisms such as antivirus software and passwords is called logical security An example of antivirus software is VirusScan from Network Associates which scans your disks in search of viruses A password is another protective measure that denies access to unauthorized persons Any act or object that poses a danger to computer assets is called a threat Countermeasure is the general name for a procedure either physical or logical that recognizes reduces or eliminates a threat The counter measures can vary depending on the importance of the asset at risk Greenstein and Feinman 2002 Protecting Internet and e commerce assets from both physical and nonphysical threats is important Examples of threats to the Internet and its traffic include impostors eavesdroppers and thieves An eavesdropper in this context is a person or device that is able to listen and copy Internet transmissions To implement a security scheme you must 1 Identify the risk 2 Determine how to protect the asset and 3 Calculate how much you can afford to spend to protect it Many sources use the terms privacy and secrecy interchangeably but a closer evaluation reveals that these terms are different Privacy is the protection of individual rights to nondisclosure Secrecy however provides protection from inadvertent information disclosure without regard to existing legislation Perry and
62. ness documents Traditional brick and mortal trading documents in paper form delivered by hand or post and whose delivery time depended on the mode of delivery were in use 19 out of the 36 companies 53 visited responded that they use invoices order forms quotation forms and delivery notes However 36 of them said that they only use invoices 44 use order forms only 8 use quotation forms only and 6 use delivery notes only 3 2 3 Methods of advertising 36 out of the 36 companies visited 100 advertise through the print media television radio and open space billboards despite the fact that Internet advertising was beginning to mushroom A very small percentage 2 5 use the Internet for advertising 3 2 1 4 Views of small scale businesses toward use of e commerce All 100 of the companies visited showed willingness to embrace the use of e commerce 2 5 of the companies knew of the existence of e commerce let alone its use in transacting business 3 3 Use of the Trading Software Appendix III MEMB User manual The original idea was to test the software with mushroom growers in the ZERI project However after the software was developed the ZERI project experienced 40 delays in acquisition of funds to assist the mushroom growers A decision was then made to use students to represent mushroom growers in order not to delay this research A group of forty students was selected The software was loaded on a se
63. ng to David Whiteley 2000 car companies have been doing e commerce for many years their e commerce technology is called electronic data interchange EDI Airline seats have also been sold using e commerce systems that technology is called an electronic market The French have been doing e commerce using the Internet since 1983 they do it exclusively in French with a system called Teletel 24 The first actual implementation of e commerce happened in 1994 Schneider and Perry 2001 when the founder of Amazon com Jeff Bezos became intrigued by the rapid growth of the Internet Looking for a way to capitalize on this new marketing tool he made a list of 20 products that might sell well in the Internet After some intense analysis he determined that books were at the top of that list By the year 2000 Amazon com had an annual sale of over 2 billion and a list of over 20 million customers When communications networks first became available entrepreneurs were quick to recognize their value and use them to create business opportunities Schneider Gary P and Perry James T 2001 Recent advances in telecommunications and computer technologies have moved computer networks to the center of the international economic infrastructure Most prominently the meteoric rise of the Internet and the World Wide Web has transformed global commerce by facilitating instantaneous inexpensive contact among sellers buyers investors advertisers
64. nterorganizational activities that facilitate such exchanges pp 3 23 David Whiteley 2000 proposes that e commerce is Formulating commercial transactions at a site remote from the trading partner and then using electronic communications to execute that transaction pp 6 Some of the texts from which the above definitions have been extracted cover the business use and implications of e commerce and its technical requirements The texts are supported by comprehensive Websites containing materials on e commerce software to support e commerce projects and technical information on Hypertext Mark up Language HTML and EDI standards The Web has a lot of unique characteristics It is open interactive immediate dynamic convenient extensive powerful increasingly authoritative and provides an extremely competitive marketplace Those who would like to conduct business online should keep in mind the nature of the web as this will affect the nature of their business For example Internet is an open Network and this implies a Global Open Market The Internet is offering an instant and versatile communication across the world Schneider and Perry 2001 There is overwhelming literature available on e commerce over the Internet The important point here is to know what information is relevant for this research The Internet was therefore a major source of information in the research 2 2 History of e commerce Accordi
65. ollected about the present system and analyzed to determine the new requirements Based on the interviews and other observations from the survey the following was developed 1 A business process model 2 System requirements comprising of Management and user requirements c System Design In the System Design phase a new or alternative system was designed To accomplish this the following Computer Science tools were used e Structured Query Language SQL Server MS Access database Vaughn W 1998 e Active Server Pages ASP scripting to link the database to the web page Morneau H and Batistick J 2001 e Hypertext Mark up Language HTML to create Web pages Design Team H O Mumbai 2000 e Macromedia DreamWeaver Web site development software d System Implementation The new application software was implemented using forty computers located in the computer science laboratory to determine the system s ability to handle many concurrent users 14 1 3 3 3 Methodology for Hypothesis Three H3 To test this Hypothesis a Null Hypothesis and an Alternative Hypothesis was formulated as follows e Null Hypothesis H3o The Null hypothesis states that use of e commerce Software developed in this research cannot improve the efficiency of SME businesses in Namibia e Alternative Hypothesis H3 This states that use of e commerce can improve efficiency of SME businesses in Namibia A questionnaire was
66. op a software system that combines programming Internet web technology Active Server Pages ASP scripting and database systems that can be utilized for e commerce transactions in Namibia d To use the software developed to show that small scale Namibian companies could increase their efficiencies by utilizing e commerce 1 3 Research Methodology and Organization 1 3 1 Methodology 1 3 1 1 Hypothesis A hypothesis is a tentative assumption or preliminary statement about the relationship between two or more things that needs to be tested Welman and Kruger 1999 In other words a hypothesis is a tentative solution or explanation of a research problem and the purpose for which research is to investigate The research work was divided into three hypotheses 1 Hypothesis 1 H1 stated that There is little use of e commerce and related Internet technologies within the Small and Medium Enterprise SME sector in Namibia 2 Hypothesis 2 H2 stated that It is possible using Computer Science Systems Analysis and Design Methodology to develop computer software as an e commerce tool for SME sector in Namibia 3 Hypothesis 3 H3 stated that E commerce can improve efficiency of the business of small scale entrepreneurs in Namibia Riley Wood Clark Wilkie and Szivas 2000 1 3 2 Sample and Sampling Procedure In Namibia a business is designated as an SME if it meets the criteria shown in the table 1 1
67. ore profits The bottlenecks to e commerce known and unknown were also observed The method by which a company gets paid for its goods and or services is very important Some companies would prefer cash payments others prefer many different types of payments like credit cards cheques electronic cash and so on These methods of payment were looked at in the questionnaire The attitudes of the company s workers towards changes greatly influence the general performance of a company The attitude of workers and customers towards the use of electronic transactions was therefore investigated With these concerns addressed it was possible to establish the extent of e commerce its impact and future as detailed in the following chapters 1 3 3 5 Administration of the questionnaire The researcher visited about thirty six different companies in Windhoek Appendix V at random and personally interviewed responsible people in each establishment and gathered information as detailed in appendix II An attempt to collect data from areas outside Windhoek was not necessary because telephonic interviews revealed that there was practically no e commerce activities in outlying areas to Windhoek and therefore there was 16 no need to visit the areas because no new additional data would be gathered from there In the course of administration of the questionnaire it was borne in mind that people use the web for various reasons Thus an
68. payments of tax refunds public retirement and welfare support can be significantly reduced while transactions are made more secure and faster when transmitted via the Internet Electronic payments can be easier to audit and monitor than payments made by cheque 10 E commerce provides protection against fraud and theft losses by providing authentication methods like data encryption electronic signatures etc 11 E commerce can make products and services available in remote areas For example distance education is making it possible for people to learn skills and earn degrees no matter where they live or which hours they have available to study 12 The use of e commerce can result in the elimination of large quantities of paper and therefore reduce the number of trees felled to make paper and thereby contribute to the efforts in environmental protection 13 Use of e commerce can reduce costs by eliminating human manual handling thereby reducing overheads 14 Use of e commerce can reduce administrative and postage costs because all transactions are on line Product delivery may be the only area that may incur administrative and postage costs 15 Because e commerce is transacted over telecommunications networks its use results in increased processing speeds efficiency and accuracy 16 In traditional commerce mislaid paperwork can be a problem When e commerce is used end to end audit trails can be perfor
69. pter 2 Literature Review 2 1 What is COmMerce jc s1200 Scela2se ies dade enn cadek eee 21 2 2 History of C COMMEMCE 2 sceceee eee ceeeee eens eeeeeeeeceeees 23 2 3 Categories of COMMEICE 20c ceeceteseeceeeeteeee sence 26 2 4 Current status of CE COMMEICE e cece eee eee ee ee errereen 29 2 5 E comMmMerceSecUrity sesiet n ea ee 31 2 6 The ResealGh icr eier e n r e a aa aaea 33 2 7 Extending e commerce to Africa eeesee ese erre eerren 35 x1 Chapter 3 Research Findings 3 1 Preliminary AMAlySiS scx test tn ests tech inert ae eka ead ddauh Sie 36 3 2 Answer to Hypothesis 1 H1 cceeeeeeeee eect este ea eeeeeeas 38 3 3 Use of the Trading Software cccceeeeeeeee ee eee ee ee ee ee ees 39 Chapter 4 E commerce Model Design and Implementation AT MAEORMUCHON ss rne a a a e 41 4 2 ADOUt MEMB siecscsdgncesisese oren siinne iadaaa sban 41 4 3 Analysis and Design of MEMB c ceeeeeeeeeee teen eaters 42 4 4 Problems and Evaluation cccceceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees 56 Chapter 5 Conclusion 5 1 The Objectives Hypotheses and Results 2000 58 5 2 Limitations and Constraints cceeeeeeeee eee ee eee eeeeees 61 5 3 Suggestions for future WOrk 2 0 c 0ceeeceeeeeeeeseeeeeeeeeeees 62 RefereNCES 3520s erae rea a E saeae Heed sae pS tus 64 Appendix E commerce Questionnaire cece
70. r authenticating users Code by JJ Magenya Date 01 October 2003 gt lt Dimension variables Dim adoCon Database Connection Variable Dim strCon Holds the Database driver and the path and name of the database Dim rsCheckUser Database Recordset Variable Dim strAccessDB Holds the Access Database Name Dim strSQL Database query sring Dim strUserName Holds the user name Initalise the strUserName variable strUserName Request Form txtUserName Check the database to see if user exsits and read in there password Initialise the strAccessDB variable with the name of the Access Database strAccessDB users Create a connection odject Set adoCon Server CreateObject ADODB Connection Database connection info and driver strCon DRIVER Microsoft Access Driver mdb uid pwd letmein DBQ amp Server MapPath strAccessDB 102 Set an active connection to the Connection object adoCon Open strCon Create a recordset object Set rsCheckUser Server CreateObject ADODB Recordset Initalise the strSQL variable with an SQL statement to query the database strSQL SELECT tblUsers Password FROM tblUsers WHERE tblUsers UserlD amp strUserName amp Query the database rsCheckUser Open strSQL adoCon If the recordset finds a record for the username entered then read in the password for the user If NOT rsCheckUser EOF Then Read in the password for the user from the data
71. rding the ZERI publications and resources A hyperlink was created on the ZERI Web site so that visitors to ZERI can access MEMB in order to participate in buying and selling process 2 6 2 Decentralized Information Management and Food Security in Namibia In a report presented by G E Kiangi 2003 it is recommended that a trading Web is created to allow farmers access better markets for their produce On this Web site farmers can post advertisements Buyers can also post enquiries including prices they are offering This will allow farmers to reach better markets Kiangi further recommends that efforts should be made to ensure that potential buyers are familiar with the site and that conscious efforts need to be made to popularize the site to farmers and buyers 35 The trading Web will be used to link producers and consumers directly thereby cutting the middlemen who in many instances do not add value in the supply chain The creation of MEMB therefore falls in line with the above recommendation It should further be re emphasized that although the MEMB website currently caters for buying and selling of mushrooms only the site can be used to buy and sell any other commodity with very minor modifications 2 7 Extending e commerce benefits to Africa Phenomenon successes of e commerce have been reported and witnessed in advanced countries These successes can be experienced in Africa if businesses in Africa are willing to embrac
72. re MEMB was implemented within a windows environment In particular Windows 2000 Operating System was used Windows 2000 was found to be most suitable because it did not pose any problems during the construction and testing phases of the project System data is stored in an MS Access database MS Access was chosen because of its availability being a part of the Microsoft office tools The amount of data to be processed at the level of this research was found not to be big enough to warrant use of a bigger database management system like Oracle Further work on this may require the use of a more powerful database management system like Oracle Interaction between the Web site and the database was implemented via Active Server Pages ASP ASP was used to make the Web site more interactive The system used here was a three tier system whereby the server program connects to the data source and processes the required data The data is then returned to the client application In such an instance the client does not connect directly to the 49 data source For example you can create an application that connects to the Internet Information Server IIS Then the IIS connects to the data source and processes the required information The information is then returned as standard HTML to be displayed on the browser Figure 4 5 illustrates this process HTTP ActiveX Data Objects ADO Client HTTP Browser Web Server IIS
73. red on behalf of the Department of Communications DoC of the Republic of South Africa to serve as a Starting point for national policy discussions concerning the development of Electronic Commerce in South Africa 12 http www findarticles com cf_dls mOHWW 46_3 77033858 p2 article jhtml t erm Avon Web site 13 http www fool com research 2000 foolsden000808 htm General Electric Web site 68 APPENDIX QUESTIONNAIRE Introduction In order to improve the way businesses are transacted in Namibia New ways of trading must be employed Electronic trading is rapidly replacing the traditional trading practices worldwide A survey is therefore necessary to determine what types of trading methods are in force currently in Namibia from which recommendations shall be made to help improve trading between businesses To help us in this exercise please answer the following questions as comprehensively as possible 1 Company Enterprise name 2 Physical address 3 Nature of Business 4 Do you use computers in your company Yes No If Yes for what purpose s Please enumerate a b c d 5 Do you use Electronic Commerce Yes No If Yes Please briefly explain with which partners 69 What type of business documents do you use gt Kindly provide us with some samples 6 How are the documents delivered to their destinations How long do they take Do you experience delays Yes No 7 What probl
74. ronic Data Interchange and Electronic Commerce SAR Put Morneau H and Batistick J 2001 Active Server Pages Thomson Learning Canada ISBN 0 61 O Leary T J and O Leary L I 2002 Computing Essentials 2001 2002 Edition Mc Graw Hill USA ISBN 0 07 116610 6 Perry J T and Schneider G P 2001 e commerce New Perspective Thomson Learning USA ISBN 0 619 01929 8 Post G V 1999 Database Management Systems Mc Graw Hill USA ISBNO 07 289893 3 Rayport J F and Jaworski B J 2001 e commerce Mc Graw Hill Singapore ISBN 0 07 118945 Riley M Wood R C Clark M A Wilkie E and Szivas E 2000 Researching and Writing Disser Rob P and Coronel C 2002 Database Systems Design Implementation and Management Cou Sarah E Hutchinson and Stacey C Sawyer 1998 Computers Communications And Information McGraw Hill USA ISBN 0 07 115759 X Schneider Gary P and Perry James T 2001 Electronic Commerce Course Technology Canac Shelly G B Cashman T J and Vermaat M E 2003 Discovering Computers 20 21 22 23 24 65 Course Technology USA ISBNO 7895 6514 5 Vaughn W 1998 Visual Basic and SQL Server Sixth Edition Microsoft Press USA ISBN 1 57231 848 1 Welman J C and Kruger S J 1999 Research Methodology for Business and administrative Scier Whiteley 2000 E commerce Strategy Technologies and Applications McGraw Hill Cambridge U Whitten J L
75. rver which was accessible by the forty users over an intranet The users were instructed on how to use the software and they were monitored as they used the software for a period of time During this time observations were carried out to determine changes in trading habits the response of the users and any other obstacles relating to real implementation of the software The software was observed to be performing according to the software specifications 41 Chapter 4 MEMB E commerce model Design and Implementation 4 1 Introduction Mushroom farming is a new business in Namibia As such it provides us with an opportunity to create an e commerce model that can assist mushroom farmers to market their product The model is named MEMB 4 2 About MEMB MEMB is an acronym for Mushroom Electronic Micro Business Mushroom growing in Namibia is an on going activity that is being undertaken under the supervision of ZERI ZERI is an acronym for Zero Emissions Research Initiatives project It is a concept that was developed at the United Nations University in Tokyo Japan in 1994 Mshigeni et al 19981 and promoted in Africa following a co operation agreement between the United nations University and the University of Namibia in 1996 Pauli Mshigeni and O Regan 1997 Since then ZERI has considerably expanded in Africa and conceived many new research ideas The concept behind ZERI is to look at the economic use of the earths biodiversit
76. s was accomplished by administering questionnaires personal interviews and developing a computerized software The computerized system which consists of a Web site supported by a database management software and other networking technologies has been created and used by a number of students in a computer laboratory simulating trading among each other The effect of this method of trading has been observed and recommendations made to extend the technology to other businesses The research was conducted in Windhoek Table of Contents Declaratio Mi serieren ror e a aa a EEE a a aaea i DedicatioM ese or fence el acne Geos cere Lee see eeead oleae cera cua chases ii ACKNOWIEdGEMeN icc dsesse Nee eoes ee ive ee RM iii List Oft FIQUES fcc auesnsseadue pwd Seana n s E dee even ieedde pees ai iv Listof WaDlGSs accuses wes soc E a sree se lee aus neue acid V Abbreviations aCronyMs 2 2 25 ceseecseeeeetenesessedeeceieedeeestaneessinees vi PROS UAC alah seis stor aa Sie pas eac hated BAA a IT ta ald IER a AN ae Ra au am Som vii Table of Contents ne r a E e cate ae ae e aN openbaar es ix Chapter 1 Introduction 1 1 Background Information c cece eee ee erreneren eee 1 1 2 Aim and Objectives creere eee ed a a a 9 1 3 Research Methods and Organization eceeeeeee ee ees 10 1 4 SCOPE OF Ihe Stuy si25i 421 casecuecbs nr aat 17 1 5 Outline ofthe WeSIS 1 scvecstprcaceveeesticuccsesevintecderebentiiat 18 Cha
77. ssed but can be effected either before of after delivery of the goods 4 3 5 6 User Design Interface The following factors were designed and implemented The Web site was designed to allow people with the least knowledge of computers to be able to use it However the basic idea about the operation of windows and the use of the mouse will be necessary It was designed to allow visitors to navigate the links very easily All frequently used links were designed to be permanently visible to the user no matter which page is being viewed The Web site s name and contact information were clearly placed on the home page The Business jargon and terms that may not be familiar to visitors were strictly avoided Consistency with the use of design features and colors on all web pages within the site was strictly adhered to All navigation controls and links were clearly labeled 4 3 5 7 Site Administration and maintenance design The site Administrator has access to all aspects of the site including all the database contents The database Administrator can disable or even delete a particular user account from the system if the user s conduct is not in the best interests of the site s objectives The site Administrator may change the design appearance content etc of the site without reference to another party 4 3 6 System Implementation A new system can be implemented using one of the types of conversions shown in Table 4 1
78. swer questions or complete questionnaires e The research work took longer than anticipated because the researcher and supervisor suffered extreme time constraints It happened that when either of the two was free the other was busy Thus it was not easy to organize meetings and therefore progress was very slow and deadlines were hard to meet 5 3 Suggestions and Future Work The following are suggestions by the author for future work on this research e The topic of payments has evidently been left out in this research Payment in e commerce is a complex issue and requires further research Therefore this Web site can be re engineered and the payment functionality added to it This is an area that would be suggested for further work e The database schema could also be revisited so that the database tables are connected to enable more automated searches to the database e As the volume of users increases it may be necessary to use a bigger database management system like Oracle e MEMB however has provided a resounding platform from which other research work can be launched to implement an application with even more functionalities than hitherto undertaken e Work need to be done on computerizing fully the entire supply chain for each product and assess the benefits 63 Issues of bandwidths particularly to customers who may have poor dial up lines of very low bandwidth need to be examined The possibility of using mobi
79. t it offers 2 4 1 Infrastructure support Several factors must be in place for electronic commerce to exist The most obvious technology needed for electronic commerce is the Internet Beyond that system of interconnected networks many other sophisticated software and hardware components including database software network switches and hubs encryption hardware and software multimedia support and the World Wide Web provide the required support structure to maintain an electronic commerce site Perry and Schneider 2001 To compete in the constantly changing realm of the Internet businesses that conduct electronic commerce must be able to adapt their sites to use new technology as it becomes available or risk losing potential and existing customers to better sites More online shoppers and the increasing traffic between businesses will force companies to find faster and more efficient ways to conduct business electronically For companies that plan their electronic commerce strategies well the payoff can be huge with online business volumes sometimes doubling in less than a year Rayport and Jaworski 2001 30 2 4 2 Electronic Commerce Software Functions Regardless of how an electronic commerce site is created most electronic commerce sites have the following common features and functions e Catalog Contains detailed information about each product sold by the company including the items name description price shipping cost
80. t point because e commerce technologies can be applied in transactions between manufacturer and supplier manufacturer and retailer and or retailer service supplier and consumer A further definition of e commerce is provided at a European Union website Esprit 1997 as quoted by Whiteley 2000 E commerce is a general concept covering any form of business transactions or information exchange executed using information and communication technology between companies between companies and their customers or between companies and public administrations It includes electronic trading of goods services and electronic materials pp 6 Schneider and Perry 2001 define e commerce simply as shopping on the part of the Internet called the World Wide Web the Web However he further expands the definition as Business activities conducted using electronic data transmission via the Internet and the World Wide Web WWW Y pp 8 Greenstein and Feinman 2000 define e commerce as The use of electronic transmission mediums telecommunications to engage in the exchange including buying and selling of products and services requiring transportation either physically or digitally from location to location pp 2 Rayport and Jaworski 2001 provide us with a formal definition of e commerce as technology mediated exchanges between parties individuals organizations or both as well as the electronically based intra or i
81. ther numerous duties still found time to attend to my many requests for appointments with them Their co operation and generous sharing of ideas enjoyed during the production of this project Without them it is likely that this work would not be in its present form Secondly wish to extend my sincere gratitude to Mr Daliso Zuze and Mr J K Lukusa for their invaluable advice and support during the development of this work More importantly Mr Zuze found some of the blunders had not noticed Special thanks also go to Mr Emmanuel Mkusa who assisted with the formulation of the initial project proposal and proofreading of the final draft and general encouragement to undertake the study All the lab technicians and other Lecturers in the Department of Computing at the University of Namibia need a tap on their backs for all the support and patience they extended to me during the project work My sincere appreciation to all the people who played a role in whatever capacity and who assisted me willingly in the course of working on the project Last but not the least members of my family who at times have had to do without me because of this research work need to be appreciated for their tireless patience and understanding single out Sheena who assisted with typing of the manuscript Thanks to you all List of Figures Fig 1 1 Projected growth of Internet based business to business electronic commerce for the USA and Japan Fig 2 1
82. understanding of how people interact with computer interfaces was required why they use the Internet what level of technological sophistication they were at what hardware and connection speed they had and that their state of mind and patterns changed depending on the time of day the day of the week their job role their gender and various other characteristics This information formed the archetype of Using the Web and was the key to understanding a web audience 17 1 4 Scope of study The scope of this study was as follows 1 4 1 Current Status of e commerce in Namibia Computers have completely revolutionized the way we live by changing many manually operated systems to fully electronic and computerized processes Development of the Internet has made the use of computers even more popular With the rapid growth of the Internet Electronic commerce has evolved and is still growing Scholars view Electronic commerce as a major potential in the trading area for the future Figure 1 1 shows the projected growth of Internet based business to business electronic commerce for Japan and USA Fig 1 1 Projected growth of Internet based business to business electronic commerce for the USA and Japan Kiangi and Mshigeni 2002 Electronic Commerce activities in Namibia have not been readily noticeable However a research to establish the status of e commerce in Namibia in the 18 banking industry was carried out and completed in Ju
83. using it in one way or another It further establishes that companies have started to offer online products and services such as shopping communication with clients branches headquarter obtaining after sales reports marketing research bookings and reservation confirmations Research by the Bank of Namibia established that Internet usage in Namibia is still very low compared to developed countries None of the companies surveyed had an online share turnover of above 50 In light of this situation the following basic question related to the impact and expanded future use of e commerce in Namibia had to be addressed What were the factors or conditions that inhibited the growth of e commerce in the Namibian business environment The specific questions underlying this were 1 To what level did Namibian companies use the Internet and Web hosting technologies in conducting their businesses 2 What types of business documents were being used and how were they delivered 3 What methods of advertising were used and how did they relate to the Internet 4 What were the views of small scale businesses with regard to using e commerce 38 On the other hand expanded future use may require the availability of a software package adapted to the specific business environment in Namibia In light of this requirement the following was the basic question related to the expanded future use of e commerce in Namibia Could a trading software that
84. ww u arizona edu smason c2c htm_ March _2004 In C2C e commerce first a prospective customer visits an online auction site and selects a category of interest Next a product is selected and in many instances is bided on These bids must often be completed within a certain time constraint set by the seller Finally once time has expired the item is auctioned off and is sent to the highest bidder 28 2 3 4 Consumer to Business C2B In this type of e commerce customers can gang together to form and present themselves as a buyer group to businesses Such groups could buy products or services from large business enterprises Rayport and Jaworski 2001 Figure 2 1 below shows the four different categories of e commerce depending on whether you are buying or selling products to another business or to consumers Business originating from Business Consumers Business And Selling to Consumers Fig 2 1 Four categories of e commerce 29 2 4 Current status of e commerce E commerce has permeated every aspect of trade because of its inherent benefits and the availability of an enabling environment in which it can be carried out As mentioned in Chapter one companies in the developed world talk of billions of US dollars of profits with ease It is therefore not a technology that can be ignored or taken for granted It is increasing Fig 1 1 and those companies that are ready to embrace it will reap the benefits tha
85. y and at natural resources which are generally regarded as useless or as waste and even in some circumstances as obnoxious such as water hyacinth and generate products of value ZERI has developed a Web site as a source of information that can be assessed via the Internet The Web site provides information on current and coming events regarding the ZERI publications and resources Kiangi and Mshigeni 2002 MEMB therefore acts as a support tool for this initiative 42 4 3 Analysis and Design of MEMB The Systems Analysis and Design approach was used in the creation of MEMB Systems analysis and Design approach involves six steps as follows i Problem Definition identification of the problems or needs ii Generation of alternatives the present system is studied in depth New requirements are specified iii Choice of the best alternative a new or alternative system is chosen iv System Design a new or alternative system is designed v System Implementation the new system is installed and people are trained to use it vi Testing the new system is tested for its applicability and performance Using the Systems and Design approach the MEMB software was created as follows 4 3 1 Problem Definition The problem at hand was to develop a software system that would combine programming Internet web technology Active server Pages ASP scripting and database management systems to produce a softw

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