Business models and Information and Communicatiom technologies (ICTs)

Every business online operates with some sort of business model there are few basic models for enterprise according to Marko Hurst and usually 9 business models . Brokerage , advertising , infomediary , merchant , manufacturer , affiliate , community , subscription , utility are the 9 main business models . Every business model has its unique features and every model operates according to its own features. Broker makes link between manufacturer to consumer, manufacturer to manufacturer , consumer to consumer and through this mechanism  business is operated. Every business model has its own features like in  subscription model consumer or buyer s charged daily , weekly , monthly or annually based on level of purchase. In manufacturer level direct link between manufacturer and consumer is made . In advertising various advertisements are done to promote businesses . These business models are adopted by firms and according to Marko Hurst usually firms appoint 2 basic models from that 2 basic model of his . Amazon has adopted 3 out of 4 businesses models of Hurst. So all these models have different identity.

Information and Communication Technologies(ICT) can change the economies of the world  . Every economy and society can be changed with ICTs but there is need to adopt it with efficiency. ICT revolution in progress in lots of nations but still its not widely spread. Various countries like Ethiopia and Central American nations reached improved positions in ranking of ICTs. In advanced economies certain segments of society are getting benefitted whereas lots of people are deprived of it because of their age , limited digital literacy and lack of access to technology.

Usable Doesn’t Have To Mean Ugly ‘for a web design to be truly beautiful, it has to be functional, have purpose and contribute in some way to the website’s intuitiveness, usefulness and branding. All of these things contribute to the overall effect of a design’.

Every website has the combination of design and navigation , they both need to be balanced otherwise your website may Suck like the website of the HEADHUNTER hair styling and many more. Your website is commercial so there is need to have purpose and usefulness for customer. Website is not only dependant on design or on navigation or on other features there has to proper mix of everything so that customers can easily find whatever they need and design of site should also impresses . Good design and proper functionality of site enables customer to dig more and more in site so that they can find and order wide range of things. Comparison features should be their in websites dealing with products that can be compared with its own company products or with other companies products. Websites should have main offer links and contact info on their homepage for an easy access to customers. According to me FLIPKART.COM webpage that does not suck at all it has all the features which any webpage need. It delivers all the basic things which every good webpage has. Contact info , main offer links , now trending webpage design of pics in background , footers, etc. everything on homepage , its perfect example of classic good webpage.

‘Presence’. Firms that do business on the Web should be more concerned about presence than firms that operate in the physical world.

Presence in digital world of enterprises means presence of all the necessary information or links for the customers so that they can have easy access to everything they would like to search and find. There should be proper availability of content , design , strategy with effective use of technology.

It is absolutely relevant to say that those firms which operate on web should be more concerned about presence than the firms that operate in physical world. There is difference in interaction level between business operation online and offline . Offline businesses are more flexible as customer can reach different salesmen but it is bit different in online operation businesses where website has to express all the available options to customers because its difficult to call customer services every time. Digitally operating businesses should have everything present in there site for efficiency of there services to customer's. Link to main offers , contact info , footers , video and other important links should be on homepage of website because otherwise its difficult to search whole site. In offline business there is bit of direct link with customers and they don't need to have much on their online sites.  Customers approach online websites for saving time but if poor design and navigation of site can ruin the expectations of customers and company can lose its customers. Good design but poor navigation can also have negative impacts on customers so presence need to be carefully managed in online operation businesses .So that's why I think business on web should be more concerned about presence than firms that operate in physical world.
 

In two paragraphs explain why a customer centric Web site design is so important, yet so difficult to accomplish

Web sites are designed to express the thoughts and products of the company and these products are available to be used by Customers so websites need to be customer oriented. There are piles of websites which sucks because of their design and there navigation . Customers some times often get confused while navigating site which means that site sucks . Customer centric website is the aim for every company but it is so difficult to accomplish because its not easy to satisfy customers. Most difficult task for every business is to satisfy customers with every kind of possible help and services. It is the customer who is going to give reviews regarding site so it has to be customer centric. Customers approach websites for buying goods and services because they don't have time to visit stores if  they have to spend lots of time on websites because of poor design and navigation of site than this can become the frustration for buyer.

Though every customer need easy way to buy products, websites give this option but if poor design and navigation of website can lead to frustration. There are advertisements on sites but they should be of very minimal level because ultimately website is for customers but not for advertisers. Heaps of advertisements will develop frustration in mind of customer so there is need to websites designed according to customers. Good looking design of website is of no use if there is no effective navigation of site because customer is finally satisfied with the way he/she is treated but not with the looks of websites. There should be contact links on homepage for customers and links to main offers on website. So all these things are though very difficult to achieve but still if these things are achieved than we can say website is customer centric.

Intellectual property

Intellectual property implies the legal rights of owners on it and they are often misused it creates hype. Patents , Trademarks and Copyrights are important parts of intellectual property. Every legal work tend to have patent trademark or copyright.As seen in video of TED  copies can be very useful. often big companies have copyrights of there videos which cannot be copied. If same video is uploaded with other name of up-loader it is detected by mechanism used by YouTube and than company was given choice to remove or to keep that video .Sometimes companies old songs tend to get popular with home made videos on that song than  companies allowed that  videos to remain on YouTube. These kind of scenarios can be very handy for companies as there old non trending songs tend to become famous and they start earning alot from them. So according to me these copies and mash ups should be allowed because they sometimes gives huge revenue along with fame. Normal people tend to get lots of fame from YouTube videos. Big singers has come out big only because of YouTube and there help by allowing videos to be on YouTube rather than removing them from YouTube.

Example of Privacy Breach - DAVID JONES

After the one day of security breach of KMART , DAVID JONES also suffered the hacking of personal information of their customer. Customer ordered product from David Jones online store and breach of Personal information occurred like Name, address , telephone no.,email id ,billing address but fortunately no credit card or online payment information was hacked. When David Jones received the information about hacking of personal information of customer than they contacted each affected customer and they apologised to customers for this inconvenience .Company revealed that information hacked has not been misused and they said its cyber crime and they informed there forensic doctors to study this case and solve the issue and breach was also reported to Australian federal police.Customer was warned to lookout for calls and emails in the name of DAVID JONES though company dont ask for personal information without any need so customer should be careful. Company apologised heavily everywhere for this inconvenience .Company apologised on Facebook page and on other resources.
Often I have seen that there is option of OPT OUT while providing information this can be dangerous as when you opt out your stored information can be hacked but if there is opt in option that it shows the marketing strategy which gives negative impact on information provided.