615-252 Electronic Commerce

This subject is regarded by the Faculty of Science as a non-science subject for students enrolled in the BSc, BASc and combined BSc courses.

Students may not gain credit for both this subject and either 615-325 or 306-316.

Commerce degree students are not permitted to enrol in this subject, except BCom/BIS students, where this subject is a core requirement.

615-150 Organisational Processes, or equivalent.

This subject provides an introduction to electronic commerce. It focuses on the managerial rather than technical aspects of electronic commerce. In the B2C section, the importance of creating an effective web presence and strategies to attract and retain customers are discussed. Some of the key issues when establishing a web presence, including the options for hosting, development and integration, will be outlined. In the B2B section of the subject, topics that will be covered include the principles and use of e-Commerce technologies such as EDI, automatic identification, standardised numbering, EFT, e-Hubs and e-Markets in managing and re-engineering supply chains.

At the completion of this subject, students should:

• understand the main concepts underlying electronic commerce;

• be familiar with the different ways that electronic commerce can add business value to an organisation;

• be able to list and analyse the key decision faced by an organisation when establishing or updating a web presence;

• have an appreciation of the principles and use of key technologies applied in electronic commerce;

• understand the processes involved in doing business electronically; and

• be able to design and develop a good quality web presence for business purposes.

The subject will be taught with lectures and a combination of tutorial and laboratory sessions.

Individual written work of up to 2000 words due during the semester (20%); a group project involving practical and written work due during the semester (20%); ongoing tutorial/laboratory work during the semester (10%); a 2-hour written examination in the examination period. Satisfactory completion of the examination, project work and tutorial work is necessary to pass the subject.