Excerpts

Preface Live in fragments no longer. Only connect. Edward Morgan Forster Welcome to the exciting world of the Internet, the World Wide Web, e-business and e-commerce. This book is by an old guy, a young guy, a young lady and the Deitel & Associates, Inc. writing team she heads, known collectively as "The PACK." The old guy (HMD; Massachusetts Institute of Technology 1967) has been in the computer field for 40 years. The young guy (PJD; MIT 1991) has been programming and/or teaching programming for 19 years. The young lady (Kate Steinbuhler; Boston College 2000) majored in English and communications and studied Web development. Kate's team, the PACK--for "Paul," "Abbey," "Christy" and "Kate"--consists of Paul Brandano (Boston College School of Management 2000; majored in marketing), Abbey Deitel (Carnegie Mellon University 1995; majored in industrial administration), Christy Connolly (Boston College School of Management; majored in marketing and finance), and, of course Kate Steinbuhler. Together, our experience includes Internet, World Wide Web, e-business and e-commerce software technologies, as well as academic study and industry experience in computer science, information technology, finance, marketing, management, English and communications. Ideally, we want this book to speak to students in all areas of interest; we hope you will find it informative, challenging and entertaining. This is not a computer programming book, but it does include an optional case study (in Appendices B through H) on building a storefront e-business that sells books online. E-business and e-commerce are evolving rapidly, if not explosively. This creates tremendous challenges for us as authors, for our publisher (Prentice Hall), for instructors, for students and for professional people. This book, e-business & e-commerce for Managers, is designed to meet these challenges. Why We Wrote e-Business and e-Commerce for Managers Today, e-business and e-commerce are exploding; businesses everywhere are creating Web presences and reaching their markets in ways that were never before possible. College professors are eager to incorporate e-business and e-commerce into their undergraduate and graduate Internet, Web and business curricula. Professionals are eager to incorporate ebusiness and e-commerce technology into their organizations. Students want to learn these leading-edge technologies that will be immediately useful to them as they leave the college environment and head into a world where the Internet and World Wide Web have a massive prominence. Our goal was clear: produce a textbook for college-level courses in e-business and ecommerce for students with little or no programming experience, and to explore the tremendous opportunities afforded by the Web. To meet this goal, we produced a comprehensive book that explains the different elements of e-business and e-commerce and provides abundant real-world applications to encourage students to learn from examples currently on the Web. We performed extensive research for this book and located hundreds of Internet and Web resources to help students learn about building and managing e-businesses. These links include general information, tutorials and demonstrations. Many of the demos are fun, such as the E*TRADE investing game in which students can win cash prizes for participating. The resources also point students to lots of free stuff on the Internet, including free Internet access. This book is appropriate for students and professionals who wish to create their own ebusinesses. Many of the Internet and Web resources we include point students to turnkey solutions (some for a fee and others for free) for creating e-businesses. Students will also be able to use the programming technologies presented in the appendices to create e-businesses themselves (they will also need to set up merchant accounts with banks and use an industrial-strength database system). The tour of the book in Chapter 1 outlines the elements we present for building real e-businesses. Teaching Approach e-Business and e-Commerce for Managers contains a rich collection of examples, exercises and projects drawn from many fields to gives students an opportunity to solve interesting real-world problems. The book concentrates on the principles of good e-business management, and provides opportunities for class discussion and scores of Web-based exercises. The text emphasizes good pedagogy. World Wide Web Access The installation instructions for the case study for e-Business and e-Commerce for Managers (and our other publications) is free for download at the Deitel & Associates, Inc. Web site: www.deitel.com Objectives Each chapter begins with a statement of Objectives. This tells students what to expect and gives them an opportunity, after reading the chapter, to determine if they have met these objectives. Quotations The learning objectives are followed by quotations. Some are humorous, some are philosophical and some offer interesting insights. Our students enjoy relating the quotations to the chapter material. Many of the quotations are worth a "second look" after reading each chapter. Outline The chapter Outline helps students approach the material in top-down fashion. This, too, helps students anticipate what is to come and set a comfortable and effective learning pace. Illustrations/Figures The illustrations and figures provide visual examples of business concepts, or feature actual businesses on the Web. Charts and tables offer lists of additional resources, and break information into an organized, easy-to-read format. e-Facts The e-Facts offer the student an interesting break from the text. They are tied into the current discussion, providing interesting facts and statistics on the effects of the Internet, current trends and future projections. Summary Each chapter ends with additional pedagogical devices. We present a thorough, bullet-list-style Summary of each chapter, to help the student review and reinforce key concepts. Terminology We include in the Terminology section an alphabetized list of the important terms defined in the chapter--again for further reinforcement. Self-Review Exercises and Answers Self-Review Exercises and Answers are included for self-study. This gives the student a chance to build confidence with the material and prepare for the regular exercises. Students should attempt all the self-review exercises and check their answers. Exercises The chapter exercises include simple recall of important terminology and concepts, issues for class discussion, Web-based demonstrations and group and semester projects. The large number of exercises across a wide variety of areas enables instructors to tailor their courses to the unique needs of their audiences, and to vary course assignments each semester. Instructors can use these exercises to form homework assignments, short quizzes and major examinations. The solutions for most of the exercises are included in the Instructor's Manual. NOTE: Please do not write to us requesting the instructor's manual. Distribution of this publication is strictly limited to college professors teaching from the book. Instructors may obtain the solutions manual only from their regular Prentice Hall representatives. We regret that we cannot provide the solutions to professionals. Optional Case Study Using the Deitel™Live-Code™Approach The optional case study, "Building an e-Business," in the appendices completely implements a simplified version of an e-business storefront that sells books. Please take a moment now and read about this case study in the Tour of the Book at the end of Chapter 1; the case study is summarized in the descriptions of Appendices B through H. In the case study, each new concept is presented in the context of a complete, working program immediately followed by one or more windows showing the program's input/output dialog. We call this style of teaching and writing our live-code approach ™. We use real, working programs to teach programming languages. Reading these programs is much like entering and running them on a computer. All the code in the case study is free for download at our Web site, www.deitel.com. If you choose to do the case study, please download this code and carefully read the installation and setup instructions in Appendices J and K on our Web site. Glossary The extensive glossary summarizes the key terms in each chapter to provide a quick reference for students while working on a homework assignment or preparing for an exam. Index Entries We have included an extensive Index at the back of the book. This helps the student find any term or concept by keyword. The terms in the Terminology sections generally appear in the Index (along with many more index items from each chapter). Students can use the Index in conjunction with the Terminology sections to be sure they have covered the key material of each chapter. Recommended Readings An extensive bibliography of books, articles and online documentation is included at the close of several chapters to encourage further reading. Excerpted from E-Business and E-Commerce for Managers by Harvey M. Deitel, Paul J. Deitel, Kate Steinbuhler All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.