E COMMERCE : Ecommerce (e-commerce) or electronic commerce, a subset of e business, is the purchasing, selling, and exchanging of goods and services

s over computer networks (such as the Internet) through which transactions or terms of sale are performed electronically. Contrary to popular belief, ecommerce is not just on the Web. In fact, ecommerce was alive and well in business to business transactions before the Web back in the 70s via EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) through VANs (Value-Added Networks). Ecommerce can be broken into four main categories: B2B, B2C, C2B, and C2C.

B2B (Business-to-Business) Companies doing business with each other such as manufacturers selling to distributors and wholesalers selling to retailers. Pricing is based on quantity of order and is often negotiable. B2C (Business-to-Consumer) Businesses selling to the general public typically through catalogs utilizing shopping cart software. By dollar volume, B2B takes the prize, however B2C is really what the average Joe has in mind with regards to ecommerce as a whole. Having a hard time finding a book? Need to purchase a custom, high-end computer system? How about a first class, all-inclusive trip to a tropical island? With the advent ecommerce, all three things can be purchased literally in minutes without human interaction. Oh how far we've come!

C2B (Consumer-to-Business) A consumer posts his project with a set budget online and within hours companies review the consumer's requirements and bid on the project. The consumer reviews the bids and selects the company that will complete the project. Elance empowers consumers around the world by providing the meeting ground and platform for such transactions. C2C (Consumer-to-Consumer) There are many sites offering free classifieds, auctions, and forums where individuals can buy and sell thanks to online payment systems like PayPal where people can send and receive money online with ease. eBay's auction service is a great example of where person-to-person transactions take place everyday since 1995.

The invention of faster internet connectivity and powerful online tools has resulted in a new commerce arena Ecommerce. Ecommerce offered many advantages to companies and customers but it also caused many problems. ADVANTAGES OF ECOMMERCE

Faster buying/selling procedure, as well as easy to find products. Buying/selling 24/7.

More reach to customers, there is no theoretical geographic limitations. Low operational costs and better quality of services. No need of physical company set-ups. Easy to start and manage a business. Customers can easily select products from different providers without moving around physically. DISADVANTAGES OF ECOMMERCE

Any one, good or bad, can easily start a business. And there are many bad sites which eat up customers money. There is no guarantee of product quality. Mechanical failures can cause unpredictable effects on the total processes. As there is minimum chance of direct customer to company interactions, customer loyalty is always on a check. There are many hackers who look for opportunities, and thus an ecommerce site, service, payment gateways, all are always prone to attack.

Turkey fast rising in e-commerce volume Zaman - The e-retailing business is taking a strong hold among Turkeys 35 million internet users, as the country emerges as the second fastest grower in terms of the volume of online transactions. The countrys e-commerce volume reached TRY 17.5 billion (approx. USD 9.7 billion) in the first 7 months of 2012, rising 40 percent over the same period of 2011, according to Turkeys Minister of Customs and Trade, Hayati Yazici. Turkeys e-commerce sector attracted USD 750 million of foreign investment in the last two years with principal names such as Amazon, eBay and Naspers investing in Turkish internet start-ups

E-Commerce Trends in Industrial Manufacturing

Best practices from B2C ecommerce sites can help industrial manufacturers reduce costs and increase sales online.

Adoption of e-commerce by industrial manufacturers has been unexpectedly slow, due to challenges such as the need to custom configure products, offer complex promotions involving specific terms and conditions, and execute multiple bulk orders quickly. However, when implemented effectively, e-commerce delivers an engaging, buyer-centric online experience while allowing industrial manufacturers to reduce administrative costs, increase sales and improve brand loyalty. They can do so by adopting best practices in B2B ecommerce such as targeting customers with buyer-specific promotions, recommendations and messages, increasing brand visibility through social networking and opening new markets and channels through alternate business models such as mobile commerce. Consider a large U.S.-based HVAC manufacturer that asked Cognizant to help revamp its ecommerce portal from multiple standalone applications for functions such as search, order and cart processing to a single rich Internet application-based portal. Among the capabilities provided were better navigation and robust cart capabilities; improved pricing and availability; multiple search and display options and marketing tools to help cross-sell and up-sell products. Within one year of its implementation, the manufacturer saw online orders rise 300% and parts sales rise by close to 150%.

The three key drivers of an industrial manufacturing e-commerce solution are expediting the shopping process, enhancing the customer experience and taking advantage of future trends and tools. The customer must be able to effectively search for products and quickly complete their purchase. Industrial manufacturers must make it easy to find products. For instance, display recently viewed and purchased items and popular customer buys, provide multiple search options and the ability to filter on the basis of specific attributes. It is also important to make the checkout process easy, convenient and quick. Personalizing the site to reflect each customer's needs and providing a rich online experience help enhance the customer experience and to make it easier to shop.

Personalization requires providing customer-focused marketing campaigns and promotions such as banners, recommendations and special offers. Just as vendors have done in the B2C space, industrial manufacturers can display customer-specific promotions prominently on the home page to up-sell and cross-sell products. A rich online experience visually guides shoppers between steps, lets them easily search for, filter and compare products, and see comments by others (or contribute their own comments) via social media. This increases customer satisfaction as well as the size and frequency of online orders. Leverage the Latest Tools and Techniques Mobile commerce As e-commerce and in-store channels converge with mobile networks, customers will be able to check promotions, product descriptions and reviews by past purchasers via their mobile and smart phones. Making it easy for them to also purchase via these devices requires single-click check-out with a seamless flow of payment and shipping information between the seller's ecommerce and m-commerce engines. Analytics Sellers should have a real-time view into the Web store and into marketing campaign performance, and be able to monitor lead conversion and Web site metrics to maximize the site's effectiveness. They should also be able to analyze cart abandonment, the performance of promotions and campaigns and have visibility into live transactions and customers details to identify up-sell opportunities. Using the same skills and capabilities that have revolutionized B2C ecommerce, industrial manufacturers are enhancing the customer experience while reducing costs and maximizing their revenue.

THE CONEPT OF BPO & ITS ADVATAGES & DISADVADVATAGES BPO is the process of hiring another company to handle business activities for you.

BPO is distinct from information technology (IT) outsourcing, which focuses on hiring a thirdparty company or service provider to do IT-related activities, such as application management and application development, data center operations, or testing and quality assurance. In the early days, BPO usually consisted of outsourcing processes such as payroll. Then it grew to include employee benefits management. Now it encompasses a number of functions that are considered "non-core" to the primary business strategy. Now it is common for organizations to outsource financial and administration (F&A) processes, human resources (HR) functions, call center and customer service activities and accounting and payroll. These outsourcing deals frequently involve multi-year contracts that can run into hundreds of millions of dollars. Often, the people performing the work internally for the client firm are transferred and become employees for the service provider. Dominant outsourcing service providers in the BPO fields (some of which also dominate the IT outsourcing business) include US companies IBM, Accenture, and Hewitt Associates, as well as European and Asian companies Capgemini, Genpact, TCS, Wipro and Infosys. Many of these BPO efforts involve off shoring -- hiring a company based in another country -- to do the work. India is a popular location for BPO activities. Frequently, BPO is also referred to as ITES -- information technology-enabled services. Since most business processes include some form of automation, IT "enables" these services to be performed. An offshoot of BPO is KPO -- knowledge process outsourcing. Considered by some to be a subset of BPO, KPO includes those activities that require greater skill, knowledge, education and expertise to handle. For example, whereas an insurance company might outsource data entry of its claims forms as part of a BPO initiative, it may also choose to use a KPO service provider to evaluate new insurance applications based on a set of criteria or business rules; this work would require the efforts of a more knowledgeable set of workers than the data entry would. The current definition of KPO encompasses R&D, product development and legal e-discovery, as well as a number of other business functions. Also coming into use is the term BTO -- business transformation outsourcing. This refers to the idea of having service providers contribute to the effort of transforming a business into a leaner, more dynamic, agile and flexible operation.

Business process outsourcing (BPO) is a subset of outsourcing that involves the contracting of the operations and responsibilities of specific business functions (or processes) to a third-party service provider. Originally, this was associated with manufacturing firms, such as Coca Cola that outsourced large segments of its supply chain

ADVATAGES OF BPO TO COMPANIES: 1.) BUSINESS RISK ALLEVATION : Business risks alleviation is one of the key advantages of BPO services. Certain risks and responsibilities of business entities are shared with BPO providers. Since the third party vendors are specialized in the field, they can analyze the risks involved and plan procedures to lessen these. 2.) HIRING EMPLOYEES : Outsourcing helps corporates get away from the process of hiring employees and maintaining the required infrastructure. Thus operational and recruitment costs are reduced to maximum. 3.) SUPPORT TECHNCAL PROBLEMS: Moreover, business process outsourcing companies ensure excellent expertise to support technical problems and to provide desirable guidance. 4.) WORK IN QUICK TURNAROUND TIMES AT AFFORDABLE RATES: Since BPO companies are specialized in the field, they can perform outsourced work in quick turnaround times at affordable rates. They utilize state-of-the-art techniques and expert staff to provide excellent output under controlled cost. 5.) ALLOW MORE TIME TO BUSINESS PROFESSIONALS: Outsourcing document scanning and data entry work to reliable BPO firms often allows more time for business professionals to engage in core business activities, thus creating new revenue streams. Back office outsourcing also helps business enterprises focus more on customer care, sales and market. 6.)HELPS TO PROCUREMENT: Flexible services are provided to meet the changing demands in the market. Outsourcing also supports company procurements, consolidations and joint undertakings ADVANTAGES OF BPO TO EMPLOYEES 1. SALARY: BPOs in India offer good starting salaries with regular raises every year. Typical salary of a person working in India can vary between 15000 rupees to 30,000 rupees or even higher. This is much higher than individuals working in most other traditional professions like Government jobs, teachers, clerks and armed forces. there is no doubt that money is very important these days and BPOs are a good opportunity to earn some good money. Therefore you need not be just an engineer or a doctor to earn good money. 2. QUALIFICATION:

All BPOs require to be fluent in English, although most do expect you to have at least a bachelors degree like BSC or BA. For certain types of jobs like Medical or Tech. outsourcing, having a background or education in that field can certainly add to your advantage. Bilingual (people who speak multiple languages) individuals who are fluent in Spanish, German and French have a great advantage over others. Spanish language has nice penetration in United States due to Mexican (Spanish speaking) immigrants, similarly French has a great demand in Canada. 3. CLEAN WORK: Well there is no running around to get work done, most bigger BPOs will even provide a convenient bus service from several pick-up locations in the city. This is especially convenient for girls of India because of elevated women crime in recent years. Your job requires talking over the phone after going through an intensive customer support training. Most BPOs also provide free snacks and drinks to their employees. 4. GROWTH- FLEXIBILITY TO CHANGE JOBS EASILY: People with just a few years on experience are in great demand, and will usually be able to change their jobs to a competing BPO company for a better salary and position. 5. ON JOB TRAINNING: BPOs provide trainning and how to deal with customers and the best part is that they even pay you when they train you. The trainning typically lasts for a few weeks and often followed by a supervised practical experience. 6. MEDICAL INSURANCE: Many call canters provide good health insurance for your family at a low cost. They may even provide counseling to deal with the stress is you happen to deal with a tough or abusive customer. 7. OPPORTUNITY TO WORK OVERSEAS: Often Indian all centers have an overseas office, they will regularly send a small percentage of their employees to countries like United States, Britain etc .. so that they understand their working environment better. These trips can not only be fun but also a great opportunity to earn higher money in US dollars. 8. BPO EMPLOYEES MAY BE ABLE WORK FROM HOME NOW: As of August 2008, The Indian government has given its go-ahead to agents working at BPOs, other service providers included, to work from home. But BPO firms are already voicing security concerns which, they say, would not allow them to make full use of the concept. DISADVATAGES OF BPO TO COMPANIES

It is important to dwell upon the possible disadvantages of BPO services before outsourcing any work. Here is a list of some of the shortcomings BPO companies. 1.) HIDDEN COST: Although outsourcing is considered cost-effective, there are some hidden costs. So before signing an assignment make sure to have detailed contract paperwork. 2.) SLOW TURNAROUND TIMES : A single BPO company may associate with multiple organizations at a time. Consequently, providers cannot concentrate comprehensively on assigned tasks. This will lead to slow turnaround times, poor quality and sluggish issue settlement. 3.) HIGH RISK OF EXPOSING DATA: Even if BPO companies guarantee data security, there are high risks of exposing confidential data mainly associated with human resources, recruitment, payroll, and account services. 4.) ISSUES OF LIGUNSTIC: If the right BPO provider is not chosen, it is difficult to get the expected final outcome. There may be issues related to linguistic variations, time frames and classification of responsibilities. Sometimes, outsourcing leads to loss of control above the corporate business processes.

DISADVATAGES OF BPO TO EMPLOYEES :

1. ODD WORKING HOURS: Most of the BPOs in India support overseas operations and majority of professionals have night shifts. Although many have day shifts as they support domestic Indian customers, or off-business support hours of the overseas company which happens to be day-time for India. In majority of cases Indian BPO jobs mostly have odd hours. 2. FAMILY LIFE: This is somewhat associated with odd working hours. Evenings are the best time to spend quality time with your spouse and children and those are actually your working hours. Your life as a BPO employee can be very lonely and frustrating at times. 3. HEALTH ISSUES: Sleep disorders, heart disease, eyesight problems and depression are just a few issues surrounding the BPO jobs. People also tend to gain weight as most of the time they are sitting in their small cubicle. Health issues in Indian BPO industry is becoming a major issue. Even though you work only 5 days a week, for rest of the two days it is not easy to swap your sleep cycle the

other way around. 4. ABUSIVE CLIENTS: Many of the customers you speak with can actually get very abusive or angry. They are often able to guess from you accent that you are located in India and many customers are anyway unhappy about their work being outsourced to India. Since your call is often recorded you cannot reply them back angrily, in most cases you will transfer the call to your manager or to a BPO located in their own country or in worst case hang up. American accent and Indian English accent are quite different and takes time to overcome the difference. As a BPO employee you should try not to take things too personally. 5. AGE FACTOR: Since BPO jobs are quite stressful, especially after a few months working in this industry many individuals quit and change their profession, often to a lower paying job. If you able to make your way up to the managerial level or the higher corporate ladder, life is much better, otherwise the daily monotonous work starts to really frustrate you. 6. SOCIAL ISSUES / ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION / SEX ISSUES: Most people working in BPOs are in 20's or early 30's, so it is very obvious that they often get into physical relationships. There was an article from Reuters (in 2006) "sex life of BPO workers fascinates India", this is often a shock for people who follow conservative values. Additionally the alcohol consumption is much higher in the Individuals working in BPOs. In extreme cases some individuals switch to drugs use. Condom vending machines will soon be installed in several BPOs and IT companies to deal with rising threat of HIV/AIDS because young employees are increasingly having unprotected sex with multiple partners in affairs developed during nights shifts (Ref - IANS). 7. FUTURE TREND OF BPO JOBS: BPO jobs are the easiest to be transferred from one place to another. Today India offers a great cost saving compared to other locations, but with salaries rising about 10% every year in near future they will become comparable to other low cost locations like Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Mexico and Eastern Europe. In that case either the salary increments will slow down substantially or companies will start moving jobs from India to these locations. RUPEE APPRECIATION - Additionally if the rupee becomes stronger then your current salary will start to appear costly overseas