CHAPTER 7 THE INTERNET AND INTRANETS

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CHAPTER 7THE INTERNETAND INTRANETS
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Learning Objectives

• Describe what the Internet is, how it works, and
  how users connect to it
• Describe the capabilities that the Internet
  offers to users
• Describe the World Wide Web and differentiate it
  from the Internet
• Identify and describe the tools that allow users
  to view and search the Web
• Identify and briefly describe the management
  challenges caused by the Internet
• Define the term intranet and discuss how
  intranets are used by business

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Chapter Overview
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Case Schwabs NewInternet Business Model

• The Business Problem

• give top-notch advice and service but not to push
  products or recommend which stocks to buy keen
  competition from both deep-discount Internet
  brokers and full-service investment firms

• The Solution

• coach people on investing through the Internet
• allow customers access to their own Web pages and
  initial public offerings online interviews with
  top executives

• The Results

• the more they go online for routine business, the
  less the staff needs at Schwabs service centers
  and branches
• earns its highest ratings on customer
  confidence, but not initially rated well in
  ease-to-use

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Case (continued)

• What have we learned from this case??

• Internet strategy is no longer just a source of
  competitive advantage it is necessary for
  survival

• An innovative use of the Internet can bring
  competitive advantage but it may not be
  sustainable
• The Internet in its various incarnations is a
  powerful medium whose understanding is essential
  for the modern business competitor

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What is the Internet?

• The Largest computer network in the world (a
  network of networks)
• Exchanges information seamlessly by using the
  same open, non-proprietary standards and
  protocols, within interconnected networks
• Forms a massive electronic communications network
• Provides a true democratic communications forum
  and has produced a democratization of information

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The Evolution of the Internet
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The Internet Today

• The Internet is international, with users on all
  continents
• The cost of personal computers and Internet
  connections are prohibitively high for most of
  the population
• Political, cultural, and regulatory barriers have
  slowed the rate of Internet adoption
• The vast majority of sites are in English
• The vast majority of content is generated in the
  United States

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The Infrastructure of the Internet

• Commercial communications companies now largely
  provide the physical network backbone of the
  Internet
• The U.S. government continues to contribute some
  funds to essential administrative processes
• The National Science Foundation (NSF), in the
  USA, pays for certain high-performance portions
  of the network backbone
• The Internet infrastructure is supplied by
  network service provider

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Internet2

• In 1996 a consortium of universities began
  establishing a faster network, Internet2, with
  limited access devoted exclusively to research
  purposes
• Internet2 grew from 34 to more than 110 U.S.
  research universities in one year
• Internet2 is capable of transmitting gigabits of
  information per second

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The Operation of the Internet

• Addresses on the Internet
• IP address - uniquely identifies one from the
  other computers
• Domain name system (DNS) - derives the names of
  the computers
• Domain name - consists of multiple parts,
  separated by dots, and are translated from right
  to left upper names are most important (the dot
  com wiley.com)

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The Operation of the Internet (continued )

• Accessing the Internet
• Connect via LAN Server
• Connect via Serial Line Internet Protocol/Point
  Protocol (SLIP/PPP)
• Connect via an Online Service

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Services Provided by the Internet

• Communication Services

Electronic Mail (e-mail)
USENET Newsgroups (Forums)
LISTSERV
Telnet
Streaming Audio and Video
Internet Fax
Chatting
Internet Telephony
Real-Time Audio and Video
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Services Provided by the Internet (continued )

• Information Retrieval Services

File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
Gophers
Archie
Wide Area Information Servers (WAIS)
Veronica (Very Easy Rodent-Oriented Netwide Index
to Computer Archives)
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The World Wide Web

• The Internet - functions as the transport
  mechanism
• The World Wide Web - an application that uses the
  Internet transport functions, a system with
  universally accepted standards for storing,
  retrieving, formatting, and displaying
  information via a client/server architecture
• Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) - standard
  hypertext language used in Web
• Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) -
  text-based language for describing the content
  and structure of digital documents
• Hyperlinks - from one Web page to another

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The World Wide Web (continued )

• Home Page - a text and graphical screen display
  first, introductory page in a web site
• Web Site - all the pages of a company or
  individual
• Webmaster - the person in charge of a Web site
• Uniform Resource Locator (URL) - points to the
  address of a specific resource on the Web
• Hypertext transport Protocol (HTTP) -
  communications standard used to transfer pages
  across the WWW portion of the Internet

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The World Wide Web (continued )

• Browser (software application that is used to
  access and navigate the Web)
• Netscape Communicator
• a multipurpose suite that handles news, e-mail,
  audio- and video conferencing, and more
• Microsoft Internet Explorer
• Internet Explorers tight integration with
  Windows offers users the advantage of one-stop
  computing
• Offline Browser
• enables a user to retrieve pages automatically
  from Web sites at predetermined times, often
  during the night

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The World Wide Web (continued )

• Search Engines
• programs that return a list of Web sites or pages
  that match some user-selected criteria
• ways to select pages for inclusion in the
  database Web Crawlers and Registration
• metasearch engines
• automatically enter search queries into a number
  of other search engines and return the results

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The World Wide Web (continued )

• Push Technology automatically supplies desirable
  information to users by means of a process
  running on either the users desktop or a network
  server
• provides timely, prioritized distribution of
  information over a corporate network in the
  workplace
• enhances traditional Web advertising in the
  consumer market
• used for software delivery and updates

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The World Wide Web (continued )

• Information Filters
• automated methods of sorting relevant from
  irrelevant information
• Clipping Services
• track news topics and retrieve articles from
  database of publications
• personalized Web Services
• offer the ability to generate Web content that is
  personalized for individual Web site visitors
• Collaborative Filtering
• a form of personalization services exemplified by
  Personalogic

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The World Wide Web (continued )

• Web Authoring (for page and site design)
• Standard HTML is the common denominator
• CompuServe Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) and
  Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) is the
  common format of graphics files
• Enhancements to HTML
• cascading style sheets (CSSs)
• Dynamic HTML (DHYML)
• Extensible markup language (XML)
• Voice markup language (VoxML)
• Virtual reality modeling language (VRML)

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Internet Challenges

• New Technologies
• Vendors are adopting new technologies more
  rapidly than many users and customers can
  implement them
• Internet Regulation
• Some technical organizations are not formally
  charged in any legal or operational sense with
  responsibility for the Internet
• Internet Expansion
• The massive growth of Internet traffic has
  strained some elements of the network

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Internet Challenges (continued )

• Internet Privacy (Web sites collect information
  with and without consumers knowledge)
• Cookie - small data file placed on users hard
  drives when they first visit a site
• three potential bills are in USA Congress
• the government should let groups develop
  voluntary privacy standards but not take any
  action now unless real problems arise
• the government should recommend privacy standards
  for the Internet but not pass laws at this time
• the government should pass laws now for how
  personal information can be collected and used on
  the Internet

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Intranets

• A private network that uses Internet software and
  TCP/IP protocols
• Teamware (intranet software)
• used for team building, sharing ideas and
  documents, brainstorming, scheduling, and
  archiving decision to facilitate productivity
• Security
• public key security, encryption, digital
  certificates, firewall and assured pipelines

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Examples of Intranet

• NationsBanks Intranet improves relations with
  big business customers
• sales associates can get a global customer
  overview
• Philips Electronics cuts delivery time
• the intranet and the CAD eliminated the
  mislabelling of products, inaccurate
  manufacturing fulfilment, and correct areas of
  customer dissatisfaction
• How BD manages knowledge
• anyone at the company can find an in-house expert
  on the firms core competencies

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Whats in IT for Me?

• For Accounting
• Accounting personnel use corporate intranets to
  consolidate transaction data to provide an
  overall view of internal projects
• Internet keeps accounting personnel informed on
  legal and other changes affecting their
  profession
• For Finance
• Corporate intranets can provide a risk-evaluation
  model so that financial analysts can evaluate the
  risk of a project or an investment
• The Web can be a marketing and service provision
  channel

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Whats in IT for Me? (continued )

• For Marketing
• Marketing managers use corporate intranets to
  coordinate the activities of the sales force
• The Internet opens a completely new marketing
  channel
• For Production/Operations Management
• Intranet provides three-dimensional models and
  animation to speed product development
• The Internet is a great source of cutting-edge
  information for POM pros.

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Whats in IT for Me? (continued )

• For Human Resource Management
• On intranets, you publish corporate policy
  manuals, job postings, company telephone
  directories, and you conduct training classes
• Companies deliver online training obtained from
  the Internet to employees through their intranets
• the Internet supports worldwide recruiting efforts