Review a local e-commerce site (week 6)

One of the famous local E-Commerce sites in Malaysia is the Public Bank.

Public Bank was established in August 1966 by its Founder and Chairman, Tan Sri Dato’ Sri Dr. Teh Hong Piow. Known for its superior service delivery, super PB Brand, strong corporate governance and a corporate culture committed to excellence, Public Bank is a top-tier bank in Malaysia. The Public Bank Group employs more than 14,000 people, with over 90% in Malaysia, with the balance spread out in Hong Kong and China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Sri Lanka. The Public Bank Group has demonstrated a strong capability of delivering exceptionally high rates of organic growth in its core businesses.

The main Core Business The Public Bank Group focuses on a wide range of banking and financial services which include commercial banking, retail wealth management, Islamic banking, investment banking, stock broking and card businesses. Complemented by corporate banking services, Public Bank is a market leader in consumer banking and retail commercial lending to SMEs in Malaysia.

As a UTAR student, it is convenience for them to access pbebanking. These sites allowed student to pay their school fees online. Students just have to subscribe an account and the transaction will be done without have to queue in the bank. Save time and cost. Recently, UTAR and Public Bank have comes up a new Debit card system with 0% interest charge card holder for students. This may allowed students to use the credit card and don’t need to bring out bundle of cash money

For more information, please refers to the website:-

http://www.pbebank.com/

Fraud Prevention In E-Auction (week 6)

An E-Auction is an electronic "reverse" auction where suppliers use internet-based software to bid against each other online and in real time against a published specification. E-Auctions can be based on price alone or can use transformational bidding to account for other criteria such as quality and delivery. E-Auctions are most often used in the final stages of the procurement where all "non-price" factors (e.g. quality evaluation and terms and conditions) have already been agreed.

Online frauds are by far the hardest to track and scammers rarely get caught. When a buyer files a dispute to Paypal, I usually find that Paypal works in favor of the buyer. There is little a seller can do sometimes.

Do you know that over 176,000 complaints were lodged in 2006 relating to Internet fraud; an increase of 16,000 over 2005? The two most common age groups reporting online fraud were 30 - 39 and 40 - 49 at 24% each. Statistics for 2007 are not out yet though.

To prevent consumer from fraud during the E-Auctions. Consumers must beware of:-

Fraud committed by sellers:
1. Shipping faulty items or parts and never acknowledge buyer about it.
2. Shill bidding on own accounts.
3. Dispatching items which are not as described.
4. Selling stolen goods.
5. Selling counterfeits or replicas.6. Receiving payments but not shipping items.

Corporate Blogging: A new marketing communication tool for companies (week 6)

A corporate blog is published and used by an organization to reach its organizational goals. The advantage of blogs is that posts and comments are easy to reach and follow due to centralized hosting and generally structured conversation threads.

In the corporation are divided into internal and external blog. An internal blog, generally accessed through the corporation's Intranet, is a weblog that any employee can view. Many blogs are also communal, allowing anyone to post to them. As for an external blog is a publicly available weblog where company employees, teams, or spokespersons share their views. It is often used to announce new products and services.

Currently, corporate blogging become a new marketing communication tool for companies. Blogs are the order of the day. They have become a way of promoting just about anything whether it may be public relations, marketing a new product, improving brand image and for research. Besides that, this is a form of advertising for company and it is excellent because it will be sought by customers when they seek to visit it again.


Corporate blogs primarily are used for national branding. They allow companies to present accurate information without the filter of the media or advertising. Marketing blogs can be used to amplify marketing messages through traditional channels. The use of
a blog allows a company to provide a destination of information for consumers, from commercials to promotional coupons, to directions on how to use products

A successful marketing through blogs creates or enters an area of interest where readers are caught up in the use and means of a product or service. In addition, blog writers who believe they can sell musings by payment have been let down, and companies that have used blogs to sell overtly and generated interest.

E-Government In Malaysia (week 6)

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 7 pilots 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 (ES)


6. Electronic Labor Exchange (ELX)
   
7. E Syariah

Listed above are the implementations so far of our E-Government in Malaysia. Further information on each of the pilots please visits this site.

http://www.mait.com/admin/enews_images/MAIT%20Country%20Intelligence%20eNews96_37.pdf

Prepaid Card - "Touch and Go" "Smart Tag" ( Week 5 )

Prepaid card is far from a new idea. A prepaid card looks like a credit or debit card, and gives users the ability to purchase products and services with a card but with a crucial difference - you can only spend the balance that has been preloaded onto the card. This means there is no risk of running into debt as it has no credit or overdraft facility. Examples of a prepaid card in our country are the “Touch and Go”.

Touch and Go or another more advanced card for travel the Smart Tag which is a type of credit card that are widely use by Malaysian. “PLUS” highway has come out with this service in order to convenience user during traveling. Money can be loaded on to a prepaid card by cash at a bank, Post Office, or even by another credit card. The function of touch and go is that user may pay for the highway toll faster by just tab on the card on the sensor to direct credit the toll amount. This may reduce traffic jam on the highway.

Smart Tag is another prepaid card that is slightly advanced than touch and go. You don’t have to even stop in order to pay the tolls. There is a mechanical device where you just insert the touch and go card there and place it on top of the front dash box. Whenever you paying the toll, all you have to do is just drive through the toll. The device in your car will directly connect with the sensor means that the payment is credited.

Credit Card Debts : Causes and Prevention (week 5)

A Credit Card is a system of payment named after the small plastic card issued to users of the system. In the case of credit cards, the issuer lends money to the consumer to be paid later to the merchant. It is different from a charge card, which requires the balance to be paid in full each month. In contrast, a credit card allows the consumer to 'revolve' their balance, at the cost of having interest charged. Most credit cards are issued by local banks or Credit Unions, and are the same shape and size, as specified by the ISO 7810 standard.

Credit card debt is an example of unsecured consumer debt, accessed through ISO 7810 plastic credit cards. 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. When a consumer

has been late on a payment, it is possible that other creditors, even creditors the consumer was not late in paying, may increase the interest rates the consumer is paying. This practice is called universal default.

Causes
Sometimes the late fees, high Annual Percentage Rate (APRs), and universal default overcome consumers who frequently do not pay off their debt, and the customer declares bankruptcy. If a customer files for bankruptcy, the credit card companies are required to forgive all or much of the debt, unless such discharge of debt is successfully challenged by one or more creditors, or blocked by a bankruptcy judge on legal grounds irrespective of creditors' challenges.

Prevention

The best way to get rid of debt, experts agree, is to attack the balance with the highest annual percentage rate first. When that one is paid off, move onto the debt with the next-highest interest rate.

"The amount you owe doesn't really matter when you're paying an enormous amount of interest," "Try to pay the highest interest rate ones first. Muster all the funds available and get the debt out of your life."

Electronic Currency (week 5)

Electronic Currency or known as Electronic money that included e-money, electronic cash, digital money, digital cash or digital currency which 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.

Technically electronic or digital money is a system of debits to exchange value, within another system. Also sometimes the term electronic money is used to refer to the provider itself. 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.

The main focuses of digital cash development are being able to use it through a wider range of hardware such as secured credit cards. Followed by, linking bank accounts that would generally be used over an internet means, for exchange with a secure micropayment system such as in large corporations (PayPal).

Although digital cash can provide many benefits such as convenience and privacy, increased efficiency of transactions, lower transaction fees, and new business opportunities with the expansion of economic activities on the Internet, there are many potential issues with the use of digital cash. The transfer of digital currencies raises local issues such as how to levy taxes or the possible ease of money laundering. There are also potential macroeconomic effects such as exchange rate instabilities and shortage of money supplies (total amount of digital cash versus total amount of real cash available, basically the possibility that digital cash could exceed the real cash available). These issues may only be addressable by some type of cyberspace regulations or laws that regulate the transactions and watch for signs of trouble.

For more infomation. Please visit http://www.wikipedia.org/