E-Commerce Services Based on Mobile Agents

2011 ◽  
pp. 319-326
Author(s):  
Giancarlo Fortino ◽  
Alfredo Garro ◽  
Wilma Russo
Keyword(s):  
Reverse Engineering ◽  
Mobile Agents ◽  
Business Models ◽  
Customer Relationship ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
Contract Negotiation ◽  
Distributed Components ◽  
Development Lifecycle

The Internet offers a unique opportunity for e-commerce to take central stage in the rapidly growing online economy. With the advent of the Web, the first generation of business-to-consumer (B2C) applications was developed and deployed. Classical examples include virtual shops, on-demand delivery of contents, and e-travel agency. Another facet of e-commerce is represented by business-to-business (B2B), which can have even more dramatic economic implications since it far exceeds B2C in both the volume of transactions and rate of growth. Examples of B2B applications include procurement, customer relationship management (CRM), billing, accounting, human resources, supply chain, and manufacturing (Medjahed, Benatallah, Bouguettaya, Ngu, & Elmagarmid, 2003). Although the currently available Web-based and object-oriented technologies are well-suited for developing and supporting e-commerce services, new infrastructures are needed to achieve a higher degree of intelligence and automation of e-commerce services. Such a new generation of e-commerce services can be effectively developed and provided by combining the emerging agent paradigm and technology with new Web-based standards such as ebXML (2005). Agents have already been demonstrated to retain the potential for fully supporting the development lifecycle of large-scale software systems which require complex interactions between autonomous distributed components (Luck, McBurney, & Preist, 2004). In particular, e-commerce has been one of the traditional arenas for agent technology (Sierra & Dignum, 2001). Agent-mediated e-commerce (AMEC) is concerned with providing agent-based solutions which support different stages of the trading processes in e-commerce, including needs identification, product brokering, merchant brokering, contract negotiation and agreement, payment and delivery, and service and evaluation. In addition, the mobility characteristic of peculiar agents (a.k.a. mobile agents), which allows them to move across the nodes of a networked environment, can further extend the support offered by the agents by featuring advanced e-commerce solutions such as location-aware shopping, mobile and networked comparison shopping, mobile auction bidding, and mobile contract negotiation (Kowalczyk, Ulieru, & Unland, 2003; Maes, Guttman, & Moukas, 1999). To date, several agent- and mobile agent-based e-commerce applications and systems have been developed which allow for the creation of complex e-marketplaces—that is, e-commerce environments which offer buyers and sellers new channels and business models for trading goods and services over the Internet. However, the growing complexity of agent-based marketplaces demands for proper methodologies and tools supporting the validation, evaluation, and comparison of: (1) models, mechanisms, policies, and protocols of the agents involved in such e-marketplaces; and (2) aspects concerned with the overall complex dynamics of the e-marketplaces. The use of such methodologies and tools can actually provide the twofold advantage of: 1. analyzing existing e-marketplaces to identify the best reusable solutions and/or identify hidden pitfalls for reverse engineering purposes; and 2. analyzing new models of e-marketplaces before their actual implementation and deployment to identify, a priori, the best solutions, thus saving reverse engineering efforts. This article presents an overview of an approach to the modeling and analysis of agent-based e-marketplaces (Fortino, Garro, & Russo, 2004a, 2005). The approach centers on a Statecharts-based development process for agent-based applications and systems (Fortino, Russo, & Zimeo, 2004b) and on a discrete event simulation framework for mobile and multi-agent systems (MAS) (Fortino et al, 2004a). A case study modeling and analyzing a real consumer-driven e-commerce service system based on mobile agents within an agent-based e-marketplace on the Internet (Bredin, Kotz, & Rus, 1998; Wang, Tan, & Ren, 2002) is also described to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

E-Commerce Services Based on Mobile Agents

2009 ◽  
pp. 1226-1236
Author(s):  
Giancarlo Fortino ◽  
Alfredo Garro ◽  
Wilma Russo
Keyword(s):  
Mobile Agents ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Customer Relationship ◽  
Travel Agency ◽  
Software Systems ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Contract Negotiation ◽  
Distributed Components ◽  
Development Lifecycle ◽  
New Generation

The Internet offers a unique opportunity for e-commerce to take central stage in the rapidly growing online economy. With the advent of the Web, the first generation of business-to-consumer (B2C) applications was developed and deployed. Classical examples include virtual shops, on-demand delivery of contents, and e-travel agency. Another facet of e-commerce is represented by business-to-business (B2B), which can have even more dramatic economic implications since it far exceeds B2C in both the volume of transactions and rate of growth. Examples of B2B applications include procurement, customer relationship management (CRM), billing, accounting, human resources, supply chain, and manufacturing (Medjahed, Benatallah, Bouguettaya, Ngu, & Elmagarmid, 2003). Although the currently available Web-based and object-oriented technologies are well-suited for developing and supporting e-commerce services, new infrastructures are needed to achieve a higher degree of intelligence and automation of e-commerce services. Such a new generation of e-commerce services can be effectively developed and provided by combining the emerging agent paradigm and technology with new Web-based standards such as ebXML (2005). Agents have already been demonstrated to retain the potential for fully supporting the development lifecycle of large-scale software systems which require complex interactions between autonomous distributed components (Luck, McBurney, & Preist, 2004). In particular, e-commerce has been one of the traditional arenas for agent technology (Sierra & Dignum, 2001). Agent-mediated e-commerce (AMEC) is concerned with providing agent-based solutions which support different stages of the trading processes in e-commerce, including needs identification, product brokering, merchant brokering, contract negotiation and agreement, payment and delivery, and service and evaluation. In addition, the mobility characteristic of peculiar agents (a.k.a. mobile agents), which allows them to move across the nodes of a networked environment, can further extend the support offered by the agents by featuring advanced e-commerce solutions such as location-aware shopping, mobile and networked comparison shopping, mobile auction bidding, and mobile contract negotiation (Kowalczyk, Ulieru, & Unland, 2003; Maes, Guttman, & Moukas, 1999).

Agents and Payment Systems in E-Commerce

2011 ◽  
pp. 99-103
Author(s):  
Sheng-Uei Guan
Keyword(s):  
Credit Card ◽  
Business Models ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Mobile Internet ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Open Market ◽  
Payment Systems ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
Payment Scheme ◽  
Payment Schemes

An emerging outcome of the popularization of the Internet are electronic commerce and payment systems, which present great opportunities for businesses, reduce transaction costs, and provide faster transaction times. More research has been conducted with new technologies like mobile Internet used by business models (Baek & Hong, 2003). However, before using the Internet, it is essential to provide security in transferring monetary value over the Internet. A number of protocols have been proposed for these secure payment systems, including NetBill, NetCheque, Open Market, iKP, Millicent, SET (Sherift, 1998), E-Cash (Brands, 1995), NetCash, CAFÉ (Mjolsnes, 1997), EMV cards (Khu-Smith & Mitchell, 2002), etc. These systems are designed to meet diverse requirements, each with particular attributes. Automation and intelligence is another issue that poses challenges in the development of e-commerce. Agent technology has been incorporated into the area of e-commerce to provide automation and intelligence for the e-trade process. An agent is a software program capable of accomplishing tasks autonomously on behalf of its user. Agents must provide trustworthy consistency and fault tolerance to avoid eavesdropping and fraud. Also, agents should have roaming capability so as to extend their capability well beyond the limitations of owners’ computers. To meet these requirements, this chapter will discuss some related components under the SAFER (Secure Agent Fabrication, Evolution, and Roaming) architecture (Zhu & Guan, 2000) and propose an agent-based payment scheme for SAFER. Different types of electronic payment systems have been developed to meet its diverse requirements, which generally include integrity, authorization, confidentiality, availability, and reliability for security requirements (Asokan, 1997). Payment systems can be classified in a variety of ways according to their characteristics (Dahab & Ferreira, 1998), such as the exchange model (cash-like, check-like, or hybrid), central authority contact (online or offline), hardware requirements (specific or general), payment amounts (micropayment), etc. Among the available payment schemes in the market, E-Cash is one of the best in terms of security, flexibility, and full anonymity. E-Cash is a cash-like online system that uses electronic coins as tokens. E-Cash has unique advantages, such as flexibility, integrity, and full anonymity that cannot be found in electronic check and credit card based systems. It uses cryptographic techniques to provide full anonymity. The agent-based payment scheme for SAFER adopts some similar principles and concepts of E-Cash.

E-Commerce Agents and Payment Systems

2009 ◽  
pp. 822-828
Author(s):  
Sheng-Uei Guan
Keyword(s):  
Credit Card ◽  
Business Models ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Mobile Internet ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Open Market ◽  
Payment Systems ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
Payment Scheme ◽  
Payment Schemes

An emerging outcome of the popularization of the Internet is the electronic commerce and payment systems, which present great opportunities for businesses, reduce transaction costs, and provide faster transaction time. Research has been conducted with new technologies, like mobile Internet used by business models (Baek & Hong, 2003). However, before using the Internet, it is essential to provide security in transferring monetary value over the Internet. Quite a number of protocols have been proposed for these secure payment systems, including NetBill, NetCheque, Open Market, iKP, Millicent, SET (Sherift & Serhrouchni, 1998), ECash (Brands, 1995), NetCash, CAFÉ (Mjolsnes & Michelson, 1997), EMV cards (Khu-Smith & Mitchell, 2002), and so forth. These systems are designed to meet diverse requirements, each with particular attributes. Automation and intelligence is another issue that poses challenges in the development of e-commerce. Agent technology has been incorporated into the area of e-commerce to provide automation and intelligence for the e-trade process. Agent is a software program, which is capable of accomplishing tasks autonomously on behalf of its user. Agents must provide highly trustworthy consistency and fault tolerance to avoid eavesdropping and fraud. Also, they should have roaming capability so as to extend their capabilities well beyond the limitations of owners’ computers. This article will discuss some related components under the Secure Agent Fabrication, Evolution, and Roaming (SAFER) architecture (Guan & Hua, 2003; Guan & Yang, 2004; Guan & Zhu, 2002; Ng, Guan, & Zhu, 2002; Zhu, Guan, Yang, & Ko, 2000) and propose an agent-based payment scheme for SAFER. Different types of electronic payment systems have been developed to meet their diverse requirements, which generally include integrity, authorization, confidentiality, availability, and reliability for security requirements (Asokan & Johnson, 1997). Payment systems can be classi- fied in a variety of ways according to their characteristics (Dahab & Ferreira, 1998), such as the exchange model (cash like, check like or hybrid), central authority contact (online or offline), hardware requirements (specific or general), payment amount (micropayment), and so forth. Among all the available payment schemes in the market, e-cash is one of the best in terms of security, flexibility, and full anonymity. E-cash is a cash-like online system that uses electronic coins as tokens. E-cash has its unique advantages, such as flexibility, integrity, and full anonymity that cannot be found in electronic check and credit card-based systems. It uses cryptographic techniques to provide full anonymity. The agent based payment scheme for SAFER adopts some similar principles and concepts of e-cash.

Extending Client-Server Infrastructure Using Middleware Components

2011 ◽  
pp. 91-102
Author(s):  
Qiyang Chen ◽  
John Wang
Keyword(s):  
Business Models ◽  
Transaction Processing ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Web Browser ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Client Server ◽  
Major Threat ◽  
Message Oriented Middleware ◽  
Effective Integration ◽  
Server Infrastructure

Embracing inapt infrastructure technology is a major threat in developing extensive and efficient Web-based systems. The architectural strength of all business models demands an effective integration of various technological components. Middleware, the center of all applications, becomes the driver—everything works if middleware does. In the recent times, the client/server environment has experienced sweeping transformation and led to the notion of the “Object Web.” Web browser is viewed as a universal client that is capable of shifting flawlessly and effortlessly between various applications on the Internet. This paper attempts to investigate middleware and the facilitating technologies, and point toward the latest developments, taking into account the functional potential of the on-market middleware solutions, as well as their technical strengths and weaknesses. The paper would describe various types of middleware, including database middleware, Remote Procedure Call (RPC), application server middleware, message-oriented middleware (MOM), Object Request Broker (ORB), transaction-processing monitors and Web middleware, etc., with on-market technologies.

E-Learning Business Models

2011 ◽  
pp. 70-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sabine Seufert
Keyword(s):  
Business Models ◽  
Digital Economy ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Learning Models ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Education Market ◽  
E Learning ◽  
International Data ◽  
Web Based Education

According to several forecasts given by Gartner Group or International Data Corporation, for example, e-learning as a new buzzword for Web-based education and its commercialization seems to be a growing market in the digital economy. This case study will analyze this new and dynamic e-learning market and the corresponding changes on the education market. A framework of the different education models that have already developed on the e-learning market will be introduced and their benefits and risks discussed. Several cases demonstrate the new e-learning models in action. Therefore, this contribution consists of several smaller cases that can be used for getting an overview of the e-learning market and for a discussion about e-learning as a promising e-commerce application on the Internet.

Mobile Agent Authentication and Authorization

2009 ◽  
pp. 930-937
Author(s):  
Sheng-Uei Guan
Keyword(s):  
Mobile Agent ◽  
Mobile Agents ◽  
Research Effort ◽  
The Internet ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
Security Issues ◽  
Network Bandwidth ◽  
Authentication And Authorization ◽  
Authentication Schemes

With the increasing usage of the Internet, electronic commerce (e-commerce) has been catching on fast in a lot of business areas. As e-commerce booms, there comes a demand for a better system to manage and carry out transactions. This leads to the development of agent-based e-commerce. In this new approach, agents are employed on behalf of users to carry out various e-commerce activities. Although the tradeoff of employing mobile agents is still under debate (Milojicic, 1999), using mobile agents in e-commerce attracts much research effort, as it may improve the potential of their applications in e-commerce (Guan & Yang, 1999, 2004). One advantage of using agents is that communication cost can be reduced. Agents traveling and transferring only necessary information saves network bandwidth and reduces the chances of network congestion. Also, users can schedule their agents to travel asynchronously to the destinations and collect information or execute other applications, while they can disconnect from the network (Wong, Paciorek, & Moore, 1999). Although agent-based technology offers such advantages, the major factor holding people back from employing agents is still the security issues involved. On one hand, hosts cannot trust incoming agents belonging to unknown owners, because malicious agents may launch attacks on the hosts and other agents. On the other hand, agents may also have concerns on the reliability of hosts and will be reluctant to expose their secrets to distrustful hosts. To build bilateral trust in an e-commerce environment, the authorization and authentication schemes for mobile agents should be designed well. Authentication checks the credentials of an agent before processing an agent’s requests. If the agent is found to be suspicious, the host may decide to deny its service requests. Authorization refers to the permissions granted for the agent to access whichever resources it requested.

Supporting Executive Intelligence Activities with Agent-Based Executive Information Systems

2007 ◽  
pp. 69-86
Author(s):  
V. Ong
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Information Systems ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Design Model ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Executive Information Systems ◽  
Distributed Environment ◽  
Theoretical Underpinning ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Agent Based

This chapter examines the theoretical underpinning for supporting executive intelligence activities and reviews conventional studies of executive information systems (EIS) over the last two decades in responding to the current executives’ information processing needs and the current Internet era. The reviews suggest the need for designing advanced EIS that are capable of responding and adapting to executive information. This chapter recognizes the necessity of revitalizing EIS with advances in intelligent technologies and Web-based technologies. Empirical studies were conducted to elucidate executives’ desires and perceptions of the prospect of agent-based technologies for supporting executive intelligence activities in the more integrated and distributed environment of the Internet. Based on the insights gained from empirical studies, this chapter concludes by presenting a three-level agent-based EIS design model that comprises a “usability-adaptability-intelligence” trichotomy for supporting executive intelligence activities.

Effectiveness of Web Services

2010 ◽  
pp. 1754-1762
Author(s):  
Kamel Karoui ◽  
Fakher Ben Ftima
Keyword(s):  
Web Services ◽  
Mobile Agents ◽  
Business Models ◽  
Critical Factor ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Distributed Applications ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Heterogeneous Environments ◽  
Application Performance ◽  
Distributed Information

With the development of the Internet, the number of people buying, selling, and performing transactions is expected to increase at a phenomenal rate. The emergence of e-commerce applications has resulted in new net-centric business models. This has created a need for new ways of structuring applications to provide cost-effective and scalable models. Mobile Agents (MA) systems are seen as a promising paradigm for the design and implementation of distributed applications, including e-commerce. MA are also useful in applications requiring distributed information retrieval because they move the location of execution closer to the data to be processed. While MA have generated considerable excitement among the research community, they have not been applied into a significant number of real applications. Web services (WS) are emerging as a dominant paradigm for constructing distributed business applications and enabling enterprise-wide interoperability. A critical factor to the overall utility of WS is a scalable, flexible and robust discovery mechanism; an application can be built by integrating multiple services together to make a more efficient service. WS represent a major development in the e-commerce sector. They enable companies to capitalize on their existing architecture by making their application services accessible via the Internet. The application of MA and WS technologies to e-commerce will provide a new way to conduct business-to-business (B2B), business-to-consumer (B2C), and consumer-to-consumer transactions (C2C) and facilitate the communication between heterogeneous environments. In this article, we first focus on these two technologies of actuality and show their integration in an e-commerce system. Second, we present different kinds of interaction between MA and WS and study their effect on application performance. We also study an example that illustrates an e-commerce system including three categories of transactions: -Shopping transactions: a customer delegates one MA for research and purchase of articles online. The MA will interact with available WS to find the article and its best price. -Salesman transactions: to valorize their products, WS will invoke MA to make publicity for the customers. -Auction transactions: for this type of transaction, a MA (respectively a WS) can sell and buy a product from/to others MA (WS) by auction. Finally, we conclude with a discussion on our inferences and their implications. This work is structured as follows: Section “background” reviews the notions of e-commerce system, WS and MA paradigms. Section “Web services and mobile agents’ technologies on e-commerce system” presents the integration of these two paradigms on the e-commerce system. In section “performance evaluation,” we evaluate the performances of our approach and we study an illustrated example in the section “a case study.” The section “future trends” presents our future perspectives and we end this work with the “conclusion” in the last section.

A CRM Process Model for Agent-Based Simulation

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 56-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hichem Benaissa Anouar Badsi ◽  
Abdessamed Rdess Ghomari ◽  
Leila Zemmouchi-Ghomari
Keyword(s):  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Process Model ◽  
Business Models ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Customer Relationship ◽  
Suitable Model ◽  
Abstract Concepts ◽  
Generic Level ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
Information And Communication

To simulate the value generated by information and communication technologies, there is a need to design a suitable model. This article focuses on the little-used technology of ontologies, particularly Business Model Ontologies. Ontologies allow the representation of very abstract concepts, such as Business Models. The concept consists of four pillars, one of which, the “customer interface” is related to Customer Relationship Management (CRM). This paper proposes a modeling approach and a generic CRM model for the simulation of the value generated by information and communication technologies. The model must have a sufficient level of accuracy to achieve meaningful and helpful results, while maintaining a sufficiently generic level of abstraction to allow rapid implementation.

scholarly journals Implementasi Electronic Customer Relationship Management menggunakan Metode Framework of Dynamic berbasis Web

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 371
Author(s):  
Erwin Wicaksono ◽  
Fauziah Fauziah ◽  
Deny Hidayatullah
Keyword(s):  
Programming Languages ◽  
Customer Relationship Management ◽  
Building Materials ◽  
System Development ◽  
Relationship Management ◽  
Customer Relationship ◽  
Sequence Diagrams ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Development Lifecycle ◽  
Development Life Cycle

The purpose of this study is to build soft devices for electronic customer relationship management (e-CRM) with the Framework of Dynamic method which will facilitate customer relationship management that can help relationships between stores and customers so that customers can enjoy and feel comfortable with the store services that can eventually be formed. In implementing this software, the author uses the system development lifecycle (SDLC) method then produces a web-based e-CRM prototype with PHP programming languages and MySQL DBMS. This e-CRM prototype has been tested in terms of verification, validation, and prototype testing. To design this system Use Cases, ERD, LRS, Class Diagrams, and Sequence Diagrams are used. From the test results, it can be seen that the e-CRM prototype has been successful and is in accordance with the planning objectives. The result of this Marketplace Design is as a forum to make it easier for shop owners in the field of Building Materials and the like to market the products they have here.Keywords:e-CRM, Framework of Dynamic CRM, Customer, System Development Life Cycle.

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