Monday, February 23, 2009

Review a local e-commerce site-FRONTIER

Frontier Safety Footwear was initially started as a hand-made shoe manufacturer by name of Chung Hing Shoe Store. Through years of experience, innovation and producing high quality footwear, the company slowly upgraded themselves into a highly productive machine-oriented shoe manufacturing company.

By the year 1990, in view of the call of the Malaysian Government in turning our country into an industrialized nation, their company saw great opportunity in the area of safety footwear. As such the company diversified itself into a manufacturer of safety footwear and thus Frontier Safety Footwear was started to meet the demands and opportunities of our country ever growing industrial sector. Quality is Frontier’s utmost priority. Automated machinery was introduced to meet the ever increasing demand of the safety shoe market. Their production facilities were constantly monitored and upgraded in order to maintain a high quality of range of products.

Highly skilled workers were provided with the necessary training on a regular basis in order to keep themselves equipped with the latest safety footwear standards and technology. As a result of stringent monitoring and maintaining a high quality of products, the company has been awarded the following safety certifications for having complied with safety standards.

They are EN345-1:1993, MS1599:1998 and MS SIRIM. In the year 2001, the company was awarded the prestigious ISO9001:2000 standard for quality in products and factory operations. The company is also a member of the International SATRA Technology Centre and The Association of Malaysian Shoes Manufacturer. As of today, Frontier Safety Footwear is a pioneer in the area of safety shoe manufacturing. Besides manufacturing own range of safety footwear, they also involved in manufacturing for other OEM branded safety footwear. With their established team of professional marketing personnel and stringent Quality control production personnel, the company is confident that it is able to continuously provide top quality services and products to customers.

Corporate Blogging: A new marketing communication tool for companies


Nowadays, Corporate Blogging is widely used and published by an organization to achieve the organizational goals through internal, external and CEO Blogs. Every day, 70,000 new blogs are appeared on the Internet. Corporate blogging provides a clear mind map or guidelines of overall marketing or communication strategy to its employees and third parties with organization communication plan and media mix.


Besides that, corporate blogging encourages employee participation in contribution of expertise, free discussion of issues or topics and deal with it, collective intelligence, be a direct communication between various layers of an organization and shares with others employees, teams or spokespersons publicly. Furthermore, it can be used to announce new products and services, explain and clarify policies of the company and to react on public criticism on certain issues.


Blog for business are no differences from the channels such as video, audio, presentations and so on. The kind you can expect from blogs is mainly about stronger relations with important target groups.


From a business perspective there are several potential reasons to lead the corporate has a blog. The reasons are as below:



1. The Conversations

Author is not alone out there. There's always other bloggers sharing their interests. Author must become a part of the conversation by linking to those blogs from posts of their own, stating his or her opinions, publishing related information or thoughts. If the author does it well and they link to the author and a kind of conversation between blogs have started. It's of course not necessary to actively try to converse, but most bloggers would argue that this is an important part of blogging.

2. Customer RelationshipsIn a forum where author’s main objective is not to sell, but expected to have a more personal relationship between them and their customers. Blogs are a fast way to join the customers' discussions, provide tips and insights or receive feedback.

3. Internal CollaborationUse blogs as a workspace where project members keep each other updated without wasting time to write reports or search the Outlook inbox. At the same time, also can increase the employees’ motivation in their jobs.

4. Test ideas or productsA blog is informal. It's part of a conversation where people can comment, and the blog can provide the corporate with a measure of value. Publish an idea and see if it generates interest.

5. Knowledge ManagementBlogs works in two ways. First of all, there are an easy way for the readers to find information and resources that they want or need. That's obvious could be used internally in many organizations. Secondly, blogs are a kind of "university light" for the bloggers. Blogging is on-the-job learning.

Finally, a blog is a tool, not a panacea to solve your company problems when you face it. Therefore, don't expect it to turn your company around.

For further information, please refer to these links:
1. http://www.corporateblogging.info/basics/why/
2.
http://www.corporateblogging.info/basics/what/
3.
http://money.cnn.com/2006/02/28/news/companies/pluggedin_fortune/index.htm 4.http://mariosundar.wordpress.com/2008/05/19/the-5-types-of-corporate-blogs-with-examples/

Friday, February 20, 2009

Things to take note to prevent e-auction fraud when a consumer participating in an e-auction






An auction is a competitive process in which a seller solicits consecutive bids from buyers (forward auctions) or a buyer solicits bids from sellers (backward auctions). The prices are determined dynamically by the bids. Electronic auctions are auctions conducted online. For examples, www.ebay.com, www.dellauction.com and www.lelong.com.my
Because of the lack of meaningful consumer protection with respect to online auctions in the form of consumer education efforts and appropriate regulation and effective enforcement thereof, the rising numbers of online auction fraud victims are left with no meaningful avenues of relief.
Below are some tips on keeping your risk at a minimum when purchasing items from an online auction website.
Become familiar with the auction website. Look into the websites protection policies. Never assume you are protected from auction fraud and check the courier services provided to make sure the delivery are delivered on time without any problem.
Learn as much as you can about the seller before placing a bid. If you can’t find anything out about the seller, then avoid doing business with them. Never fall for promises of better deals by moving away from the original auction website.
If the seller wants you to use an escrow service you’ve never heard of, look into it. Check out the website. Escrow Services is a licensed and regulated company. They collect, holds, and send buyer’s money to the seller according to instructions agreed by the buyer and seller. Once the buyer receives the items and approved, the escrow service will sends the payment to the seller within the agreed time frame. If you can’t confirm the legitimacy, don’t use it.
Never ever give out your social security number, drivers’ license number, credit card number, or bank account information until you have thoroughly checked out the seller and the escrow service.
Always save 100% of the transaction information. You’ll be glad you did in the event your case makes it to court.
Always give attention to the feedback forum. Feedback forum allows buyers and sellers to build up the online trading reputations. Most of buyers will give comment on the business; therefore, you can understand the performance of the business.









link:
http:// www.crimcheck.com
http://www.iescrow.com/

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

E-Government in Malaysia: Its implementation so far and citizen’s adoption strategies

The Electronic Government initiative was launched to lead the country into the Information Age. It will improve how the government operates internally, as well as how it delivers services to the people of Malaysia. It seeks to improve the convenience, accessibility and quality of interactions with citizens and businesses. At the same time, it will improve information flows and processes within government to improve the speed and quality of policy development, coordination and enforcement.

To accelerate the objectives of Vision 2020, a path has already been defined through seven innovative Flagship Applications. These applications are engineered to start the MSC initiative and create a multimedia heaven for innovative producers and users of multimedia technology. Both local and foreign companies work with various government agencies to enhance the socio-economic development of Malaysia. The Multimedia Super Corridor offers a Malaysian initiative for the Information Age. The Flagship Applications are:

  1. Electronic Government

  2. Multipurpose Card

  3. Smart School

  4. Telehealth

  5. R&D Clusters

  6. E-Business

  7. Technopreneur Development


E-Government


The vision of Electronic Government is a vision for government, businesses and citizenry working together for the benefit of Malaysia and all of its citizens. The vision focuses on effectively and efficiently delivering services from the government to the people of Malaysia, enabling the government to become more responsive to the needs of its citizens.

The 7 pilot projects of the Electronic Government Flagship Application are as follows;

  1. Project Monitoring System (SPP II)

  2. Human Resource Management Information System (HRMIS)

  3. Generic Office Environment (GOE)

  4. Electronic Procurement (EP)

  5. Electronic Services (E-Services)

  6. Electronic Labour Exchange (ELX)

  7. E-Syariah



Multipurpose Card


The National Multipurpose Card seeks to develop a single and common platform for a Multipurpose Card (MPC) that will enable the government and private application providers to implement smart card solutions without duplications of effort and investment. Initially, the MPC is implemented through the GMPC and PMPC projects. As a result, MyKad and Bankcard are the products developed for the GMPC and PMPC initiatives.

The objectives of the MPC Flagship Application are:

  1. To provide the government and payment application, and other future applications on a single MPC platform;

  2. To provide enhanced services to customers; and

  3. To enhance security and convenience of existing and new applications delivered on the MPC platform.

MyKad developed by the National Registration Department (JPN) and private ICT developers that create a common platform for smart card solutions. The card is embedded with a security enhanced 64K microprocessor chip that is multifunctional across varying systems. MyKad applications are:

  1. National ID

  2. Driving License

  3. Passport Information

  4. Health Information

  5. Touch N Go

  6. MEPS Cash

  7. ATM

  8. Public Key Infrastructure

The GMPC project is developed in two phases – the initial pilot roll-out for an estimated population of 2 millions in the Kuala Lumpur, Klang valley and MSC area followed by a national roll-out. The project was successfully implemented with the issuance of 2.59 million people in the Klang Valley as of October 2002. As for the national roll-out (NRO), the project will be extended nationwide, targeted for 2005.

As one of the Multimedia Super Corridor Flagship Applications, the development and implementation of the chip based Bankcard began in 2000 with the Malaysian Electronic Payment System (1997) Sdn. Bhd. (MEPS) at the helm working together with domestic banking institutions. Bank Negara Malaysia served as the lead agency whose primary function is to facilitate the implementation. The Bankcard will spur the vision of promoting electronic payment in the country. Initially the Bankcard will contain three payment applications namely:

  1. ATM

  2. E-Debit

  3. MEPS Cash

The use of Bankcard encourages cashless payment transaction for various sectors e.g. retail, vending machines, car parks and transport and closed community to leverage on Bankcard to use MEPS Cash as the mode of payment. It also encourages participation of business venture in undertaking merchant acquiring business.

Under this initiative of implementing multiple payment applications onto a single smart card, the domestic banking institutions pioneered the chip based electronic purse during the Commonwealth Games (SUKOM) in September 1998. The full implementation of the PMPC project (ATM, e-Debit and MEPS Cash) commenced in early 2001. In August 2002, several domestic banking institutions began their pilot rollout by issuing the Bankcard to their staff and the public. On 28 February 2003, the Bankcard was officially launched.



Smart School


The Smart School Flagship Application is driven by the need for Malaysia to make the transformation from an industrial to an information-based economy. This would call for a technologically-literate thinking workforce who is well able to perform in a global environment as well as use information age tools and technology to improve productivity. It is also a learning institution that has been systemically reinvented in terms of teaching-learning practices and school management in order to prepare students to practice self-assessed and self-directed learning focusing on individual achievements and development.

The Smart School Flagship Application comprise

  1. School Teaching-Learning Materials

  2. Smart School Management System

  3. Smart School Technology Infrastructure

  4. School Assessment System

  5. Systems Integration

  6. Help Desk and Support



Telehealth


The Telehealth initiative aims to keep people in the wellness paradigm, through the availability of health information and virtual health services thus transforming the way healthcare services are delivered and accessed. Definition of Telehealth is a multimedia network linking all players to provide products and services in health care.

The four Telehealth Flagship Application pilot projects are :

  1. Teleconsultation (TC)

  2. Mass Customised / Personalised Health Information and Education (MCPHIE)

  3. Lifetime Health Plan (LHP)

  4. Continuing Medical Education (CME)



R&D Cluster


MSC’s Research and Development Cluster (R&D) flagship application pools corporate resources and creates an environment to further promote the development of next-generation multimedia technologies. This is achieved by forging collaborative R&D efforts among leading-edge corporations, public research institutions and universities.

To catalyze R&D activities in the MSC, the following programs have been initiated:

  1. MSC R&D Grant Scheme (MGS)

  2. MSC Student Attachment Programs (SAP)

  3. MSC Technology Forum Series

  4. Collaborative R&D efforts between firms, universities and research institutes

  5. Exhibitions (local and overseas)


E-Business


The E-Business cluster aims to shape an Electronic Business environment competitive with the major economic powers. This cluster has an enormous potential market that could be one of the driving forces for future economic growth.

It is transforming the way in which business was conducted - it enables businesses to become more adaptive and responsive. The E-Biz aims to provide more efficient and better quality services to the community, and encourage the business and community to accept electronic business as an integral part of their daily lives.


More on E-Government


The Government wants to make e-government more customer-oriented to complement the large infrastructure build-up that has been the primary focus of its efforts.

The new emphasis on the customer – that is, the public – is expected to be a key item in the Malaysian Public Sector ICT Strategic Plan that is currently being drafted by the Malaysian Administrative and Management Planning Unit (Mampu).

The conference was organized by Microsoft Knowledge Capital Center in collaboration with Mampu, National Institute of Public Administration and, the Energy, Communications and Multimedia Ministry.

There was a need to move up the scale in which the basic services offered online would create new avenues of value added services.

Such a move would involve integrating multiple channels of service delivery – counter, telephone, SMS, and Internet – and end-to-end services that involve “cross-agency collaboration.This will ensure that the Government portrays the image of ‘one government’ to citizens and business, instead of the view of a myriad of agencies and departments.

Malaysia’s huge e-government initiative began in 1997 with the launch of the Multimedia Super Corridor’s E-Government Flagship Application.

Since then, the Government has made large strides in areas such as electronic procurement, project monitoring, and human resource management.

But services that require members of the public to come into regular contact with the government, like driving license renewals or income tax returns, remain at a rudimentary level or have yet to make it online.

The Government has conducted a study to take stock of its e-government achievements so far, and the findings have been used to develop the Malaysian Public Sector ICT Strategic Plan.It will serve as the blueprint for future ICT development and implementation in the public sector.

The blueprint would also chart the public sector’s path towards an “e-government that is able to provide seamless services and information.”

In line with the plan’s customer focus, the Government will set up a portal through which the public would eventually be able to access all online public services. The portal would also provide access to community sites as well and represents a progression from the current scenario of disparate websites too.

Many public sector websites currently focus largely on providing information, rather than services that are available.

The Electronic Government initiative was launched to lead the country into the Information Age. It will improve both how the government operates internally as well as how it delivers services to the people of Malaysia. It seeks to improve the convenience, accessibility and quality of interactions with citizens and businesses; simultaneously, it will improve information flows and processes within government to improve the speed and quality of policy development, coordination and enforcement.

The vision of Electronic Government is a vision for government, businesses and citizenry working together for the benefit of Malaysia and all of its citizens. The vision focuses on effectively and efficiently delivering services from the government to the people of Malaysia, enabling the government to become more responsive to the needs of its citizens.

The 7 pilot projects of the Electronic Government Flagship Application are as follows;

1. Project Monitoring System (SPP II)
2. Human Resource Management Information System (HRMIS)
3. Generic Office Environment (GOE)
4. Electronic Procurement (EP)
5. Electronic Services (E-Services)
6. Electronic Labour Exchange (ELX)
7. E-Syariah

Sunday, February 15, 2009

• Mobile payment systems in Malaysia: Its potentials and consumers’ adoption strategies

Mobile payments (also known as mobile web payments or WAP billing) is a collection of money from consumer via a mobile device such as their mobile phone, Smartphone, Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) or any other devices. With such application, it does brings advantages to the world of e-commerce and it’s relatively growing in Malaysia as well.

The examples of mobile payments available in Malaysia are Mobile Money. It are using the concept of making payment transactions just through a mobile device to pay for goods and services anytime without having cash on hand, cheques or even physically present a store.



Mobile Money offers products such as food and beverages, car accessories and personal care products which can be viewed from thier website. They also offer services such as buying or paying broadband bills(Streamyx) by SMS the code of product to them.

Potentials

The potential for this market is quite big, because it is very convenient to use mobile payment. The mobile payment providers have a large market share to be grab on. This mobile payment is still new and developing in Malaysia. It has potential to continue to grow as consumer’s confidence on mobile payment increased. Mobile payment providers has most potential for growing.

To put it simple:

  • Market still at developing stage
  • Many mobile phone users
  • Low competition

Strategies:

  1. Educate consumers about mobile payments, how to use and introduce its functions (e.g. bill payment, mobile purchase)
  2. Enchance security and confidence to mobile users
  3. Collaborate with more banks and companies to widen the ability to pay via mobile at the same time it helps to increased customer’s satisfaction and confidence
  4. Maintain customer’s loyalty

Mobile Commerce

Just like internet commerce, which uses internet to conduct business, Mobile Commerce is a term used to describe businesses done via the mobile phone. Mobile Money enables our members to do just that. With mobile money, one can buy directly from suppliers to save, or to trade.

How does MM provide these business opportunities?

MM is a remote payment platform. We also provide a mobile commerce platform where by we allow suppliers to list their products in our platform. Together with the referral networking platform that we provide, one can refer members to form their network and make money out of the business activities conducted via the network.

What do I need to capitalize on this business opportunities?

Just your phone. You don’t even need to put in large capital, in fact, in many cases, you can even make lots of money with just a couple of hundred ringgit to start with. You can make back this money within a few days, if you really work hard, and grow a permanent business of your own. What you need is the willingness to learn and to work.

The benefit of Mobile Money

It gives you the convenience to pay anyone, including to any bank accounts from anywhere, at anytime. You can pay bills , including credit card bills, and your loan repayments from home. It is safe, secure and convenient. With mobile money, one can start to buy and save from our mobile commerce platform.



~~Electronic Currency~~

Electronic currency also known as e-money, electronic cash, electronic money, digital money, digital cash or digital currency.
It refers to money or scrip which is exchanged only electronically. Typically, this involves use of computer networks, the internet and digital stored value systems. Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) and direct deposit are examples of electronic money. Also, it is a collective term for financial cryptography and technologies enabling it.
Typically electronic or digital money is a representation. It is a system of debits and credits, used to exchange value. It happened within another system or as a stand alone system. Which mean: online or offline.
Sometimes the term electronic money is used to refer to the provider itself. A private currency may use gold to provide extra security, such as digital gold currency. An e-currency system may be fully backed by gold. Example: e-gold and c-gold, non-gold backed, or both gold and non-gold backed such as e-Bullion and Liberty Reserve. On the other hand, some private organizations, such as the US military use private currencies such as Eagle Cash.
Many systems will sell their electronic currency directly to the end user, such as Paypal and WebMoney, but other systems, such as e-gold, sell only through third party digital currency exchangers.
In the case of Octopus Card in Hong Kong, deposits work similarly to banks'. After Octopus Card Limited receives money for deposit from users, the money is deposited into banks, which is similar to debit-card-issuing banks redepositing money at central banks.
Somecommunity currencies, like some LETS systems, work with electronic transactions. Cyclos Software allows creation of electronic community currencies. Ripple monetary system is a project to develop a distributed system of electronic money independent of local currency.





A soldier refills his Eagle Cash card at a kiosk


~Credit Card debts: Causes and Prevention~


Credit card is any card that may be used repeatedly to borrow money or buy products and services on credit. It is issued by banks, savings and loans, retail stores, and other businesses. Credit card debt is an example of unsecured consumer debt. Debt results when a client of a credit card company purchases an item or service through the card system. Debt accumulates and increases via interest and penalties when the consumer does not pay the company for the money he or she has spent.



Nowadays, credit card debts are major cause of bankruptcies each year. It is because many people have never realized of its consequences from financial and non financial perspectives when get a new credit card or not enough safety net when there is an incident happen.



Causes of debts are as below:

1. POOR MONEY MANAGEMENT
Many people are unaware to conduct a monthly spending plan and do not keep track of monthly bills. People have never realized their spending on the items that are useless and do not have any value in their life. Thus, it has lead to a rise in debts by using credit cards.

2. UNEMPLOYMENT
People who experience under employment may continue to think of it as only temporary or if they are coming off unemployment feel a false sense of relief. This may lead to a rise in debt when expenses are not cut down in line with the reduction in income.

3. GAMBLING
Today, gambling has become part of entertainments in our life. It is hard to stop when it becomes addictive. Thus, it will surely lead to a financial disaster if borrowing money through credit card for gambling.

4. EXCESSIVE MEDICAL EXPENSES
If one of our family members suffers serious illness and our health insurance is not adequate to cover the medical bills then our credit cards are probably the only source of funds to pay off the medical expenses.

5. DIVORCE
More than half of us do it, some more than once. Fees that must spend for divorce such as attorney, division of assets between husband and wife, proceeds given to children are the way to rack up huge debts by using credit card if it is the gap between the expenses and income. Moreover, it will lead to reduction in income because divorce may force some people to quit their job and to have a walk in other countries.

Preventions for debts are as below:
1. MAKING AN BUDGET
People have to create clear budget and stick on it that includes monthly bills, food, clothes, entertainment and miscellaneous expenses will prevent from overspending and fall under deeper debt load. Avoiding the expensive purchases and not buying things that you don't really need on credit is an important step to getting on the right track.

2. SELF CONTROL AND DISCIPLINE
Keep our credit cards spending to amounts that we know we can pay off, don't go over-board with unnecessary purchases, and budget how we plan on paying back our charges. One of the best practices is to have a direct set up so that able to pay back the full amount each month and use in emergencies. Thus, self control and discipline to keep these cards in wallet and would not overspend.
3. PRIORITIZE YOUR DEBT REPAYMENT
Credit cards users are advisable to pay off the debts to get rid of the highest interest payment first. List out all of the credit card debts, and the amount need to pay for each month. Firstly, pay off the lowest amount and following by the second lowest amount.
4. CONTACTING AND DEALING WITH CREDITORS
Address the problem to creditors instantly to investigate whether they could give revised payment arrangement when you have trouble to pay off debts because running away is not a good solution. You may let the creditors know about your situation and help you to solve it. If not, may refer to Fair Debt Collection Practices Act if the collection of money from creditors is not fair enough. Creditors may approve proposal and accept modified payment plan when hiring a good credit card debt consolidation companies.

Finally, I hope all of the credit cards debtors are cleared to their problems with the causes are provided. Within the causes, they can get the ways to solve it as soon as possible.

http://www.mozdex.com/prevent-credit-card-debt/