Career in E-Commerce and Information Systems

Career in E-Commerce and Information Systems
E-Commerce or Electronic Commerce is a technology enabled communication of a business organisation with its customers and suppliers. In other terms, e-commerce means conducting business through the electronic media, particularly through paperless information technology such as Electronic Data Interchange (EDI). E-commerce transactions may take place involving business to business (B2B) or business to customer (B2C). Unlike a traditional 9-5 company, e-commerce site remains 24 hours operational, besides reaching unreached. Due to its completeness and interactive nature it can engage customers more directly, bypassing complex distribution network that includes manufacturers, wholesalers / distributors or brokers, retailers and the customers. In fact, we are rapidly progressing towards a new business era, where traditional concepts of dong business will be as far out of mainstream as a business without a telephone today.

E-commerce in India

India is currently in the midst of an E-Commerce revolution. The increasing usage of internet together with escalating growth of web-based business is leading us to E-Commerce both on the B2B and the B2C sides. E-Commerce trends in India are constantly changes as per the global market. As per the study, E-Commerce activities within India can earn more than US$10 billion by 2008.
Experts have argued that the low cost of personal computer, growing internet usage and increasingly competitive Internet Service Provider (ISP) market will help E-Commerce growth day by day. The B2B market has expanded following greater investment in the Indian telecommunication infrastructure, particularly by addressing intellectual property rights and legal protections.
In order to promote e-commerce in India, Government has already passed the Information Technology Act to provide legal recognitions to transactions carried out by means of any electronic medium including the Internet. This Act has enforced authentication of an electronic record by a person using electronic means. As per the survey conducted on the plans and capabilities of software companies in India, the Supply Chain Management optimisation and Customer Relation Management are going to be one of the strongest drivers of the global e-commerce solutions market. As per survey 72% Indian software houses have shown strong expertise in Supply Chain Management and Customer Relation Management.

Benefits of E-Commerce

· It allows us to carry out transactions without the barriers of time or distance
· It minimizes the cost of transaction
· It is ideal for niche products
· It is cheapest means of doing business
· It reduces the delivery time, labour and other intangible costs.
· It is effective and powerful communication and market tool

Enabling E-Commerce requires

· Domain name
· Web-hosting
· Digital certificate
· Provider of online transactions
· Designing / purchasing a shopping cart software

Where to start an E-Commerce career

In order to start E-Commerce career there are various entry points. First entry point would be after 10+2 stage. At this point various options include Certificate course in EDI and E-commerce, E-commerce application programme, certificate course in web and e-commerce technology, Certificate in web and internet programming. Second entry point start after graduation. The courses offered at this stage include Bachelor of e-commerce (BE-Com), Bachelor of Business Administration in e-Commerce (BBA-e-Commerce). Third entry level starts after graduation. Here one can go for Ecommerce MBA (eMBA), Master of Business Administration in e-Commerce (MBA-e-Commerce), Master in e-Commerce (MeC), Master of Engineering in e-Commerce(ME e-Commerce), Master of Science in Information Technology and e-Commerce (MS-IT & e-Commerce), Master of Science in e-Commerce Applications (MS e-Commerce Applications), Master of Information Technology-e-Commerce (MIT-EC), Post Graduate Diploma in e-Commerce Applications (PGD e-Commerce Applications), PG Diploma in Information Technology & Management in e-Commerce (PGDITM-EC), Advance Diploma in Web & e-Commerce Technology, e-connect, e-commerce visual application developer, E-commerce application programmer etc. In addition to the programmes mentioned above Anna University offers a unique e-commerce programme in collaboration with Opensource, Inc., USA for the students who have already passed ME, MCA, MBA, M.Com and M.Sc.

Ecommerce Careers

· Web site design and developer
· Content developer
· Web programming and application developer
· Database administrator
· Webmaster

Website design and development : The activities involved in web site design and development are web site layout design, creation of web pages, graphic, multimedia and animation design using HTML or graphical Web authoring tools that allow us to create attractive web sites with ease.
Skills required:-
o Knowledge of Internet and World Wide Web
o Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML)
o Familiarity with web creation tools such as Macromeda Dreamweaver, Hotmetal Pro, Fusion, adobe photoshop, Corel Draw, Fireworks, Gif Animator and Macromedia Flash etc.

Content development: Web site and portal creations have created a great demand for people who can do research and provide written matter for the web sites. The job involves extracting and analyzing information form varied source including Internet, write synopsis and prepare final content. People having knowledge and experience are hired to research and prepare write-ups in their area of expertise. Experience as a copy writer in an advertising agency or journalistic background can be an added advantage.
Skills required:-
o Writing and communication skills
o Subject matter specialization
o Research ability

Web programming and application development: Web development is fully technical job in the web development. The web programmer creates web pages that constitute a web site and also adds the required programme functionality to it. At advanced level, the programmer creates complex applications that provide dynamic content, using databases and even provide electronic commerce functionality using shopping cart software.
Skills required:-
o HTML / DHTML
o VB Scripts, Java Scripts, CGI/C, Active Server Pages (ASP), Java Server Pages (JSP)
o Java, Java Servlets
o KML / PHP/ PERL

Database administrator: Database administrator is responsible for design, development and maintenance of database systems that act behind the scenes of commercial and information intensive web sites.

Skills required:-
o MS SQL Server
o Oracle / MySQL
o Sybase
o Informix
o Informatica

Webmaster : Webmaster is backbone of web design and development team. He keeps web site running all the time, protects the site from hackers, virus attacks and hardware problems. He should be well versed with Operating System, Server Hardware and software.

Skills required:-
o IIS, Apache, Java Web Server.


Institutes / Universities offering courses in e-Commerce and Information Systems

In India like any other courses in frontier areas of IT, it is the private sector training institutes, which were the first to introduce courses in e-commerce. Several Universities have also started offering e-commerce programmes both at UG and PG level. The following Universities/ Institutions are offering various courses in e-Commerce:-

S.No. Name of the University Course offered Duration Collaboration
01. Alagappa University, Karaikudi – 630 003 PGD e-Commerce 1 year Sitech
02. All India Management Association, Centre for Management Education, New Delhi- 110 003 MIT-EC 2 year Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology
03. e-Commerce Centre, Anna University, Chennai-600 025 Certified e-Commerce Programme 1 year Opensource, Inc., USA
04. Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal-576 119 ME e-commerce /Diploma in e-Commerce 1 year Aptech Computer Education
05. Bharatidasan Univerity, Tiruchirappalli-620 024 PGD e-Commerce 1 year Bitech
06. Bhubaneswar Institute of Management and Information Technology, Bhubaneswar – 751 010 MBA with e-commerce (Certification Programme) 2 year IBA-Asset International
07. Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya, Institute of Management Studies, Indore-452 001 MeC / BeC 2 year / 3 year -
08. Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Univeristy, Agra-282 004 BE Ecom. 3 year -
09. Guru Govind Singh Indraprastha University, New-Delhi-110 006 MBA e-Commerce / Bachelor of e-Commerce 2 / 3 years Zee Interactive Learning Systems Ltd.
10. Centre for Information Technology, Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, Abishakapathi, Thiruvelveli – 627 012. MS-IT & e-Commerce 2 year Radiant
11. S P Jain Institute of Management & Research School of Information Technology, Mumbai-400 058 e-Commerce Application Training 6 months IBM
12. Institute of Professional Studies and Research, New Delhi Diploma / Advance diploma in e-commerce 1 year -
13. Manonmaniam sundaranar Univsity, Abishekapatti, Thirunelveli – 627 021 MS – e-Commerce Applications 2 years -
14. All India Management Association PGDITM-EC 1 year -
15. Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra – 136 119 Diploma in e-Commerce 1 year -
16. Madurai Kamaraj Univerisity, Palkalainagar, Mudurai – 625 021 PG diploma in e-Commerce 1 year -
17. U. P. Rajarshi Tandon Open University, 17, Maharshi Dayanand Marg, Allahabad – 211 001 Bachelor of Computing & e-Commerce (BECE) 3-6 years -
18. -do- International Marketing and International e-Business (DIMB) 1-3 years -

Besides these Universities and Institutes some reputed private sector Institutions also offers the following courses in e-Commerce :-


S.No. Name of the Institute Course offered Duration
01. Aptech Computer Education eACCP 3 years
02. Asset International e-Commerce Professional 7 months
03. CMC Computer Education Diploma in Advanced Computer Technology-EDI& E-Commerce 2 year
04. Datapro Diploma in Software technology (e-commerce tract) 6 months
05. EL Net-3L Academy e-Commerce 1 year
06. Kashyap Radiant Systems e-Commerce 1 year
07. KarRox technologies eMBA 2 ½ year
08. NIIT Futurz (E-commerce + Internet) 2 year
09. Software Solutions Integration E2com 1 year
10. Software Technology Group(STG) Advance Diploma in Web & e-Commerce technology 6 months
11. Tata Infotech education e-technology 1 year
12. Wintech e-commerce 1 year
13. WWW Institute Certified e-com expert 2 year
14. Zed Career Academy Zap-e-prodigy 7-8 months
15 -do- e-connect 6 months


Future of e-Commerce

There is a promising future in development of e-Commerce in India and it is expected that overall e-commerce will increase exponentially in coming years. But based on the growing trend of e-commerce in global business, it is also expected that B2B transactions will represent the largest revenue. Online retailing, financial services, travel, entertainment and groceries will also enjoy a drastic growth. With the viable technology and standard agreement it will be easy to create e-commerce site, protect it against payment fraud, share information with suppliers and customers.

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