The W Life Cycle Model and Associated Methodology for Corporate Web Site Development

The last few years witnessed the increasing internal and external use of the Internet by organizations. Web sites grew in sophistication from conventional sites composed of a simple collection of Web pages for public relations or marketing to complex Web information systems dealing with business-to-customer transactions or business-to-business networks. However, most organizations still do not have a formal process of Web site development, and corporate Web sites are often developed in an unorganized and uncoordinated fashion. The results of this chaotic situation include slow delivery, conflicting standards, discrepancies with respect to corporate objectives, and redundant development efforts. To help alleviate this situation, this paper presents the W software life cycle model for corporate web site development along with an associated methodology to guide Web development groups in their endeavors. The proposed process model and methodology are based on insights gleaned by studying development projects for three types of corporate Web sites: intranets, Web-presence sites, and transactional sites. However, because Web information systems are more complex, the article also provides recommendations for how the methodology can be adapted to handle these types of applications better

The Role of Information Technology in One-to-One Marketing

The short, fifty or so year history of modern information technology is replete with examples, large and small, of how IT has enabled changes in business organizations, business practices, and, indeed, entire business models. Without IT there would be no just-in- time inventory management, no instant credit card verification, and no email. IT has been credited with helping to eliminate levels of management and providing executives with the data they need for decision making. Indeed, business process re-engineering is predicated on the use of IT as the driver for organizational change. The purpose of this tutorial will be to discuss the role of IT in the exciting changes taking place in the field of marketing and, in particular, in what is becoming known as one-to- one marketing

Information Technology as the Enabler of One-to-One Marketing

Until recently, one-to-one marketing, the ability to sell targeted goods to an individual based on their known or perceived needs, was not possible for most product types on a mass basis.. Indeed, marketing practice in recent years centered around segmented marketing, in which people are treated as members of groups with similar interests and marketing is done at the group level. However, recent advances in information technology, including the Internet and its World Wide Web, database management systems, computer graphics, and electronic mail, as well as increased processor speeds, now permit one-to-one marketing on a mass basis over the Web. This tutorial explains the concept of one-to-one marketing, including how companies can aspire to move in this direction. It outlines a set of one-to-one marketing practices on the Web and explain how advances in information technology made these practices possible

A Taxonomy of Web Site Traversal Patterns and Structures

As electronic commerce grows rapidly and web sites proliferate, the issue of web site design becomes increaasingly important. A significant aspect of web side design is the set of choices for traversing from one web site page to another and the ramifiations that these choices have for establishing the overall flow patterns throughout the web site. This study establishes a taxonomy of web site traversal patterns and structures which will allow the organized study of the navigational aspects of web site design. It also points out the ramifications of key structures. Finally, it describes how the use of traversal patterns and structures can achieve web sites that range from loose to tight control of the end user\u27s experience in visiting the web site

Consumer Acceptance of Virtual Stores: A Theoretical Model and Critical Success Factors for Virtual Stores

Virtual stores provide great efficiency in the retail value chain, and their existence has tremendously paved the way for the diffusion of electronic commerce. Understanding the determinants of consumer acceptance of virtual stores will provide important theoretical contributions to the area of business-to-consumer (B-to-C) electronic commerce and lead to the development of more effective and meaningful strategies for virtual stores. By expanding the Technology Acceptance Model and the Innovation Diffusion Theory, this study aims to provide an integral theoretical paradigm that can successfully support a wide array of technical, business, and consumer issues involved in online retailing. The results from a Web-based survey of 253 online consumers indicate that the proposed theoretical model is able to explain and predict consumer acceptance of virtual stores substantially well. The resulting theoretical model explains a large portion of the factors that lead to a user\u27s behavioral intention to use and actual use of a virtual store. In addition to providing new theoretical grounds for studying the virtual store phenomenon, this article also supplies virtual stores with a number of operative critical success factors to remain competitive in the volatile electronic marketplace. © 2004, Authors. All rights reserved

Enticing online consumers: An extended technology acceptance perspective

The business-to-consumer aspect of electronic commerce (EC) is the most visible business use of the World Wide Web (WWW). A virtual store allows companies to provide product information and offer direct sales to their customers through an electronic channel. The fundamental problem motivating this study is that: in order for a virtual store to compete effectively with both physical stores and other online retailers, there is an urgent need to understand the factors that entice consumers to use it. This research attempted to provide both theoretical and empirical analyses to explain consumers\u27 use of a virtual store and its antecedents. By applying the technology acceptance model (TAM) and innovation diffusion theory (IDT), this research took an extended perspective to examine consumer behavior in the virtual store context. The data from a survey of online consumers was used empirically to test the proposed research model. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was performed to examine the reliability and validity of the measurement model, and the structural equation modeling (SEM) technique was used to evaluate the causal model. The implication of the work to both researchers and practitioners is discussed. © 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved

Fixed target combined with spectral mapping: approaching 100% hit rates for serial crystallography

The advent of ultrafast highly brilliant coherent X-ray free-electron laser sources has driven the development of novel structure-determination approaches for proteins, and promises visualization of protein dynamics on sub-picosecond timescales with full atomic resolution. Significant efforts are being applied to the development of sample-delivery systems that allow these unique sources to be most efficiently exploited for high-throughput serial femtosecond crystallography. Here, the next iteration of a fixed-target crystallography chip designed for rapid and reliable delivery of up to 11 259 protein crystals with high spatial precision is presented. An experimental scheme for predetermining the positions of crystals in the chip by means of in situ spectroscopy using a fiducial system for rapid, precise alignment and registration of the crystal positions is presented. This delivers unprecedented performance in serial crystallography experiments at room temperature under atmospheric pressure, giving a raw hit rate approaching 100% with an effective indexing rate of approximately 50%, increasing the efficiency of beam usage and allowing the method to be applied to systems where the number of crystals is limited

The hit-and-return system enables efficient time-resolved serial synchrotron crystallography

We present a ‘hit-and-return’ (HARE) method for time-resolved serial synchrotron crystallography with time resolution from milliseconds to seconds or longer. Timing delays are set mechanically, using the regular pattern in fixed-target crystallography chips and a translation stage system. Optical pump-probe experiments to capture intermediate structures of fluoroacetate dehalogenase binding to its ligand demonstrated that data can be collected at short (30 ms), medium (752 ms) and long (2,052 ms) intervals