Consumer Buying Behaviour & New Product Development Essay

Consumer Buying Behaviour & New Product Development - Essay Example   Though it might be argued that the patterns and stages of consumer purchasing are somewhat universal, each individual consumer maintains different preferences in terms of pricing, quality, as well as the level of utility offered by specific products. The utility can best be defined as a measure of satisfaction that a consumer receives from possessing or consuming goods and services (Boyes & Melvin, 2005). As such, consumers tend to make choices that offer them maximum utility. However, in order for marketing entities to deliver the products demanded by consumers, in the pursuit of maximizing utility and satisfying corporate profitability expectations, marketers must consider the methods by which consumers adopt new products. Before a consumer makes the decision to purchase a new product, they must first recognize the opportunities or problems with a life situation which needs improvement or correction. This is the first stage in the buying decision process whereby the consumer desires to provide a change or a resolution to an issue. For example, the consumer may recognize a specific problem: There is currently not an adequate supply of food in their refrigerator or the supply of food is not sufficient to their current tastes. Once the consumer recognizes that a problem or opportunity for change exists, they set out to correct the issue. During the second stage in the decision-making process, the consumer gathers the information necessary to attain a desirable solution to their recognized problem. This can be provided in the form of internal assessments or searching external sources of information. For instance, the consumer may make a mental review of a previous, positive experience with a particular brand or type of food product.  Ã‚  

Six Glasses by Tom Standage Essay Example for Free

Six Glasses by Tom Standage Essay Throughout history certain drinks have marked a trend that has changed the face of the earth. Each drinks including beer, wine, spirits (distilled alcohol), coffee, tea, and coca-cola have been a catalyst for the development of our society. As a result, the alcohol and the caffeine in the drinks have not only quenched our thirst through history, but have done much more than that; they have helped different cultures intertwine. Each one of them set humankind on a path towards modernity. Six beverages precisely, three alcoholic, and three caffeine marked the tendency; the first beverage to mark a trend was beer that both served as a currency and for political purposes. Later came the Greeks with a fermented grape juice, named wine that with the help of formal drinking parties helped diffuse ideas and thoughts. With the coming of the age of exploration and the discovery of America, raw goods and the distillation process arrived and helped the development of distilled drinks such as brandy, rum, and whiskey which were used as currency to buy slaves and became popular in North America. As alcoholism spread, other people especially professionals looked for that drink that instead of confusing the mind rather promoted clarity. Coffee, the black gift from the Arabs promoted clarity that was what professionals were looking for such a long time. However the emergence of the British Empire as a world dominion helped Chinas flagship drink, tea helped to open lucrative trade routes with the east. Perhaps, the most affluent of all, or at least the one single drink that reached every corner of earth is the carbonated soft beverage called Coca-Cola; Coca-Cola marked the start of the globalization period. Six drinks, six different stories that mark our world today. Beer, the first alcoholic beverage appeared as a result of a change of lifestyle from the humans that migrated from out of Africa. Before, these people were nomads meaning that they life was based on hunting and gathering. However, starting twelve-thousand years ago, Humans in the Near East abandoned the Paleolithic lifestyle and adopted farming rather than hunting and gathering. Beer was not invented but rather discovered since it was found that cereal grain could be stored for a long time a would not be spoiled. With the introduction of beer, people no matter their social rank were able to enjoy a drink that at the time was considered a gift of god. All along the Fertile Crescent people drank beer from the same container. This was considered a mayor development because it showed that beer was both a drink that united social classes, and it was a universal symbol and friendship and hospitality since drinking from the same container through a straw meant that the one offering the drink did not intoxicate the beverage. Beer abundance and invigorating flavors convinced the consumers of making ceremonies to god, whom in their conscience gifted such drink. Beer was used in religious ceremonies, agricultural fertility rites, and funerals by the Sumerians and Egyptians. Beer rich contents cannot be denied. Without such stimulating and rich content, beer would not have the same popularity as it has. When stored for a long period, beer starts the fermentation process. In the Neolithic period, beer was rather drunk much sooner than todays standards. Most people left it fermenting for about a week or less. As a result, the beer drank had a relatively low alcohol content but would be rich in yeast which would provide protein and vitamin, especially vitamin B. The rich contents of beer were essential for the development and survival of early civilizations since vitamin B provided the nutrients meat provided; so when there was a shortage of food, especially meat, people would opt drink beer. Although extremely important for the development of early societies, beer is constantly associated with drunkenness and unclear thinking. Even many scholars consider beer as just a drink that it is used to quench special cravings or just simply to get drunk. However, beer importance in the development of writing is more important than common thinking. The earliest written documents are Sumerian wage lists and tax receipts that were used to record several things; amongst them was beer. Since beer by this time was considered the drink of the common man, beer was used as a form of payment for many people. Some people were given the drink as it is the case during the construction of the pyramid of Giza, and others were given tokens so they could exchange them with beer. Beer importance in the development of our civilized world is often under regarded, especially by those whom believe that beer sole purpose is to get people drunk. Departing from Assyria, King Ashurnasirpar II gave a drink to his guests which aroma and taste was far more refined than that of beer. Even more, this vitalizing drink was not a universal drink for the common man, but was rather a way to show their wealth. As a result, wine development as the next popular drink, especially in Greece and Italy. Wine consists of a fermented juice of crushed grapes. Despite the availability of grapes through human history, wine did not emerge until later since in order to ferment the fruit it is necessary to use a pot. As wine became more widely available, it came to be seen as a social drink as well as a religious beverage. Its main consumption was based on the Near East and the Eastern Mediterranean. Furthermore, its increasing accessibility demised wine as an all elite drink. Despite its high cost, wine is a determining factor for the development of non-barbaric settlements such as Greece and Rome. Thucydides, a Greek writer described, the peoples of the Mediterranean began to emerge from barbarism when they learnt to cultivate the olive and the vine. When wine emerged in the Eastern Mediterranean wine price decreased and it was widely available. As a result, wine became increasingly important especially in the economic sense. Wine was now not considered as just a drink, but rather a form of income. Italys and Greece convenient location helped wine become easy to trade amongst other European and Muslim nations. Therefore, vineyards became prime targets in the Peloponnesian War between Sparta and Athens. Different from beer, old wine was a badge of status; the older the wine, the better. For Greeks and Romans wine drinking was associated with civilization and refinement. Also, wine was also a form to test someones personality. As Aeschylus, a Greek poet said, Bronze is the mirror of the outward form; wine is the mirror of the mind, referring to the ability of a person to speak truth when drinking wine. Some Greek philosophers considered wine as treacherous for the human society; they believed that placing too much power in human hands (wine alcoholic content), could ultimately lead to revolution and anarchy. Wine social is so important that is often undermined. For example there is a Roman story, that once Marcus Antonius sought for refuge  and someone accept it. In order to delight and give tribute to their guest, the house owner sent their slave to buy the most expensive wine, the kind only people such of Marcus Antonius would drink. As a result, the authorities discovered Marcus Antonius as a result of just the wine he drank, marking wine as a social drink. Therefore, wine became a symbol of social differentiation and a rentable way of business. Wines riches and development of trade led to the discovery of America. With the riches of wine European nations now sought more resources and other form of transporting beverages. For voyages such as those to America, wine was not that convenient. Instead in the Spanish city of Cordoba, the distillation process was developed. Distilled drinks provided a durable and compact way to transport alcohol on board ships. The first distilled drink was distilled wine and it was considered a therapeutically drink. Arnald of Villanova, a wine distiller, believed that the true water of life will come over in precious drops, which, being rectified by three or four successive distillations, will afford the wonderful quintessence of wine, he wrote we call it aqua vitae, and this name is remarkably suitable, since it is really a water of immortality. It prolongs life, clears away ill-humors, revives the heart, and maintains youth. As Villanova said, aqua vita godlike powers were tempting for many see king immortality. During the Pre-Columbian period, people believed that drinking a regular dose of aqua vita could improve the functioning human body and mind. Following the discovery of America and the establishment of the European colonies in the Americas, slavery soon out spurted, especially in the Caribbean colonies. In these colonies, especially in the British sugar cane was the main crop. However, in order to obtain the man power to extract the resource, the British sought to exchange Brandy for slaves in West Africa. Europeans soon realized that it was far more efficient to use distilled alcohol extracted from the sugar cane. Rumbullion as it is called was far superior for high seas since it didnt spoil like wine since it had a high concentration of alcohol. Rum was perhaps the most profitable spirits, or distilled drink of all became it is relatively easy to distill and it was also made with the leftovers of sugarcane plantations. Therefore, rum did  not only serve as a way to use the leftovers but it consequently was used as a form of income. Inevitably, rum became the American typical drink, rather than brandy, the British counterpart. Rum was far cheaper then brandy and was made from leftover molasses. Rum amongst the American minds alleviated hardship and provided a liquid form of central heating during harsh winters. More importantly alleviated the dependence of foreign imports. In some cases, rum was so cheap that a one day wage could get drunk a person for weeks. Indirectly, rum triggered the American Civil war. The story goes like this, as the colonies grew economically and constantly became more independent of foreign goods, the British felt that they were losing money from a market that before they controlled in a monopolistic manner. As a result, they decided to put taxes on the molasses, the main ingredient of rum. However, the British felt that they could exploit the Americans and kept increasing the taxes to see if the Americans once and for all opted for brandy. Instead, the number of rum producing factories increased and smuggling molasses became a normal business. During the fight for independence, the American soldiers opted for rum. As Henry Knox said in a letter, Besides beef and pork, bread and flour, Rum is too material an article to be omitted, he wrote, No exertions ought to be spared to provide ample quantities of it. Distilled drinks helped shaped the New World since it served as a form of income and as a form of enjoyment. After the age of exploration, came the Age of Reason where everything was put into contest. No longer were Greek and Roman scientific commonly accepted. As Bacon expressed, There is no hope of any major increase in scientific knowledge by grafting or adding the new on top of the old, referring that in order to develop new thoughts have to be accepted. Along with this advance came coffee, which promoted sharpness and clarity of thought. It became the preferred drink for scientists, intellectuals, merchants and clerks. Coffee instead of relaxing the mind instead sharpened it and was usually drank during the mornings or during continuous working time. Coffee drinkers argued that with alcohol people had a clouded view of the world; therefore, coffee was there to clear it. Coffee success is mainly as a result of the coffee houses. The coffee houses differed from the taverns in which they were often visited by scholars rather than by the common man, and had an environment more tranquil and better to think. Coffee houses were used as information hubs; there you could tell your thoughts of the book you just read, talk about new scientific developments, simply any information you could find in a coffee shop. These were so important that for example, after Hooke demonstrated an improved form of astronomical quadrant a the Royal Society, he repeated his demonstration at Garraways coffeehouse. In a certain manner, coffee helped European nations to develop at a faster rate since with coffee and coffee shops people were able to discuss and exchange ideas amongst them. Even today, coffee plays a major role in keeping our society awake and up to task. Despite its reach, coffee was not able to compete in England with a drink similar to coffee called tea. During the 17th, 18th and early 19th century, British enjoyed its golden reach. As Sir George McCartney described, this vast empire on which the sun never sets. Indeed it was true since Britain had colonies in America, Asia, and Australia, meaning that the sun was always seen in any one of the colonies. Britains reach during this epoch was immeasurable and its power imaginable. However as any other empire they needed a national drink. The British opted for tea that had been invigorating the Chinese for quite some time. As coffee, tea promoted, clear thought and the spread of thought. However tea was not well known in Britain until Catherine of Braganza, the wife of Charles II introduced tea to the English court. As any other mayor power, the citizens view their rulers of examples of what to do, so they inferred that drinking tea was good. Even some scientist said that tea had special powers. Such was the case for Cornelius Bontekoe who said, We recommend tea to the entire nation, and to all peoples! he declared, we urge every man, every woman, to drink it every day; if possible, every hour; beginning with ten cups a day and subsequently increasing the dosage-as much as the stomach can take.One of the most important aspects of tea was its economic factor. The East India Company, the largest at its time recorded that sixty percent of its profits derived from the tea trade. Moreover, ten percent of British tax revenue  derived from the tea. Clearly, teas economic influence is undeniable. With tea, Britain was able to develop settlements so far away, such as that of Hong Kong. Tea influence in Britain colonies helped Britain input more revenue since they created the drinking of tea as away of life. Everyone no matter their social class needed to have their tea at least once a day. As a result, tea was a drink that was s o popular that Britain it spread through the world and became the main association with Britain. Coca-Cola, perhaps the most well known brand in the world is a carbonated drink that was developed from Carbonated Water, or just simply Soda. Coca-Cola was developed by John Pemberton, a pharmacist who lived Atlanta, Georgia. Most people believe that the creation of Coca-Cola was a mistake. However this is false because in fact Pemberton was an experienced medicine producer and while creating Coca -Cola he was trying to find another remedy for stomach ache. While devising the formula, Pemberton added Coca that has a stimulating effect; later he added the koka leaf from Western Africa. In order to put a name for his invigorating, refreshing, quenching beverage he named it Coca-Cola referring to the two main ingredients of the product. Coca-Coca introduced globalization into our minds. Rather than thinking for a single market, Coca-Cola owners believed in mass production and versatility of the product. Advertisements such as, Drink Coca-Cola. Delicious and refreshing, showed the world that the age of reason was light years away and that now it was the dawn of globalization. For Asa Candler the Coca-Cola business turned out to be really profitable. First the product was easy and cheap to produce and people paid a lot for each drink. Following his purchase of the company came the prohibition period; a period were alcohol consumption was illegal in the United States. Therefore, as a remedy people opted for Coca-Cola. As a result, Coca-Cola enjoyed a relative monopoly in drinks. However this hit hard by the end of prohibition when alcohol reanimated its sale. Right after the prohibition, people said, Who would drink soft stuff when real beer and he-mans whiskey could be obtained legally? Furthermore, Coca-Cola was hit even harder with the innovating drink sizes of Pepsi that offer a similar flavor for a reduced price. Coca-Cola globalization was marked when Coca-Cola set a policy that those  fighting the war (World War II) would have a Coca-Cola no matter where they were. The refreshing drink inside that remarkable bottle was so important for the soldiers since it made them feel at home. Also, as people outside the war effort saw the soldiers consuming the drink, they opted to start drinking it. Coca-Cola influence today is undeniable; Coca-Cola is simply globalization in a bottle. Six drinks, each drink including beer, wine, spirits (distilled alcohol), coffee, tea, and coca-cola have been a catalyst for the development of our society. Each one has had its glory period and its place in history without them, the world would not be the same, nor as developed as it is today. From the start of civilization, to today globalize society each drink has played a major role in our development as a civilized world. However, the drink that we have to pay more tribute is water. Through history water has been essential for sustaining human life, but no one has paid respect to such precious item. In less than a century, water will become the transparent oil since only two percent of the whole planets water is drinkable. Although we live in a place where we believe there is sufficient water, there isnt, and we have to face it. In places such as Darfur and other dry places water has become so essential that instead of fighting for diamonds or any other resources; they are fighting for land in order to obtain at least was necessary for survival. If us (the youth), dont stop consuming that much we will have to find another remedy for survival because at its pace water could start lacking in many critical places. In the end, we cannot be self-centered and just think of ourselves, we have to also think of taking care of unacknowledged earth. American Beverage Association History of Beverage Products and Companies. American Beverage Association Beverage Industry News Resources Home. 14 Apr. 2008 . Beverages and Drinks History and Origins of Beverages and Drinks. Inventors. 14 Apr. 2008 . Standage, Tom. A History of the World in 6 Glasses. New York: Walker Company, 2005.

Medieval Sourcebook: Bede: Conversion of England :: European History Essays

Medieval Sourcebook: Bede: Conversion of England The Arrival in Kent of the missionaries sent By Gregory the Great (597) In the year of our Lord 582, Maurice, the fifty-fourth emperor from Augustus, ascended the throne and reigned twenty-one years. In the tenth year of his reign, Gregory, a man renowned for learning and behavior, was promoted to the apostolic see of Rome,' and presided over it thirteen years, six months, and ten days. He, being moved by divine inspiration, about the one hundred and fiftieth year after the coming of the English into Britain, sent the servant of God, Augustine, and with him several other monks who feared the Lord, to preach the word of God to the English nation. . . . [Augustine, with his companions, arrived in Britain.]. The powerful Ethelbert was at that time king of Kent; he had extended his dominions as far as the great river Humber, by which the southern Saxons are divided from the northern. On the east of Kent is the large Isle of Thanet, containing, according to the English way of reckoning, six hundred families, and divided from the other land by the river Wantsum, which is about three furlongs across and fordable only in two places, for both ends of it run into the sea. In this island landed the servant of our Lord, Augustine, and his companions, being, as is reported, nearly forty men. They had, by order of the blessed Pope Gregory, brought interpreters of the nation of the Franks, and sending to Ethelbert, signified that they were come from Rome, and brought a joyful message, which most undoubtedly assured to all that took advantage of it everlasting joys in heaven, and a kingdom that would never end with the living and true God. The king, having heard this, ordered them to stay in that island where they had landed and that they should be furnished with all necessaries till he should consider what to do with them. For he had heard of the Christian religion, having a Christian wife, of the royal family of the Franks, called Bertha, whom he had received from her parents upon condition that she should be permitted to practice her religion with the bishop, Luidhard, who was sent with her to preserve the faith. Some days later the king came into the island and, sitting in the open air, ordered Augustine and his companions to be brought into his presence.

Online Banking System

1. Introduction Online banking is an internet based account management service that allows to view our account balances and transaction transfer funds between authorized accounts, initiate loan payments, request stop payments on checks, order personal checks, download transaction information into your computer communicate with the bank using e-mail, and can include bill payment services bill payment services. On-line storage refers to a file of information (like a file on â€Å"students† or † courses) that the computer and the user can access immediately. The computer, in other words, is directly connected to the file. A database is simply a collection of on-line files to which the user can gain access Tape storage of data is inexpensive and reliable. Computer tape stores data much like audiotape and videotape store pictures and music, namely, in sequential order using magnetic impression on a thin film. Disk storage involves using magnetic impressions on a thin steel disk. The advantage here is that the information does not need to be in sequential order and the user can gain access to any piece of information immediately. Transactions Immediate Input Immediate Processing Immediate File Update On-Line Processing Online processing, which is now common involves transactions and processing them immediately. On-line processing systems use disk storage, which permits immediate access to specific items of information. In on-line processing, transactions are keyed into the system immediately and the system responds immediately. The master file is updated continually. The online has revolutionized the computer and communications world like noting before. The invention of the telegraph, telephone, radio, and computer set the stage for this unprecedented integration of capabilities. The online is at once a world wide broadcasting capability, a mechanism for information dissemination, and a medium for collaboration and interaction between individuals and their computers without regard for geographic location. In this paper online several of us involved in the development and evolution of the share our views of its origins and history. This history revolves around four distinct aspects. There is the technological evolution that began with early research on packet switching and the Arpanet (and related technologies), and where current research continues to expand the horizons of the infrastructure along several dimensions such as scale, Performance and higher level functionality. There is the operations and management aspect of a global and complex operational infrastructure. There is the social aspect, which resulted in a broad community of Internets working together to create and evolve the technology. And there is the commercialization aspect, resulting in an Extremely effective transition of research results into a broadly deployed and available information infrastructure. The online today is a widespread information infrastructure the initial prototype of what is often called the National (or Global or Galactic) Information Infrastructure. Its history is complex and involves many aspects-technological organizational and community. And its influence reaches not only to the technical fields of computer communications but throughout society as we move toward increasing use of online tools to accomplish electronic commerce, information acquisition, and community operations. 2. Importance of the study The banking business has been in effect since the importance and need of finance and money as well transaction in business. We got the banking culture in a usual form within the relationship between customers and bankers. In course of time banking became the inevitable part of our daily necessities through out our state. Banking business always appears to fulfill the need and convenience of customers in home and abroad. Nowadays, the banking business refurbished itself in accordance with variation in customer's need and utilization. Accordingly a larger section of population is still unaware of Online Banking owing to many reasons and legitimate crises. Moreover, this Online banking culture is such a culture or trend, as people ought to know, considering the issue. We should go forward to work immensely in this area or field as though this trend or culture spreads and gets access to the realization of people in no time. The money embezzlement in a bank poses tense and threat to the belief of people on bank, that man be eradicated through updated, modem service ensured in change of traditional banking management, therefore, my research work regarding this banking culture might grow the confidence, eagerness to large extent. On the contrary, this study would let the people and students be familiarized and come to a close contact in behalf of this banking system. 3. Objectives of the study: The primary objective of the term paper is to find out a feasible solution for the banking System of Bangladesh using a nation-wide network. Implementing a nation-wide Electronic banking system requires huge investment especially for the establishment of a backbone network. It really matters for a country like ours. But fortunately we need not go for establishing the backbone network; instead the high-speed optical fiber network previously owned by Bangladesh Railway can be leased partially to meet the requirement. This work also finds some comparison study with the existing system and finally focuses on few what-if analyses. The comparison study has been founded upon some important financial services such as fund emote transferring, letter of credit (L/C), assuring foreign exchange rate etc. It mainly finds the economic benefits. The what-if analyses have been formed using some internal matrices for performance evolution. The main objective of the term paper is to gather knowledge about the online Banking system and find out the consistency and inconsistency. I also try to adjust with the gap to be competent at the modem job market. The areas on which I have tried to give emphasis are: ? Working environment has and should be established. Identify the problems and prospects of online banking and recommends their solution. ? Justify the present supportive facilities, which are given by online Banking ? Interaction between different place with-in Bangladesh ? To show the influence of environmental situation on online. 4. Methodology of the study: Term paper is conclusive as well as descriptive in nature. Necessary Statistical tools have been applied to carry out the assigned study Following methods have been used to accomplish this proposed solution: ?  ¬ Basic principles of existing banking system (Bangladesh) ? Study the major drawbacks of existing system by interviewing the current employees of different banks. Interviews are mostly taken through emails and in some cases through telephone and Internet chat. ?  ¬ Study the existing IT infrastructure of Bangladesh in context of Bank by interviewi ng the developer of different banking software vendors ?  ¬ Study the E-banking system from different resources that are available in different websites, books and online journals ?  ¬ Some of the what-if analysis has been used to measure performance of the proposed solution. 5. Limitations of the study I have tried out best to collect the maximum information from the internet and Banks but I faced some problems: 1. Banks didn't provide all necessary information for their business secrecy. 2. Collecting data and preparing report is very expensive. 3. Times are not sufficient for preparing a very good report. As a result, information presented on the report might not reflect the utmost entire reality. Few data, which are gathered from secondary sources, could not match with present situation, because there was no annual report from the company. . 0 Findings and Analysis: 6. 1 The initial online concepts: The original ARPANET grew into the online, online was based on the idea that there would be multiple independent networks of rather arbitrary design, beginning with the ARPANET as the pioneering packet switching network, but soon to include packet satellite networks ground based packet radio networks and other networks. The online as we now know it embodies a key underlying technical idea, namely that of open architecture networking. In this approach, the choice of any individual network technology was not dictated by particular network architecture but rather could be selected freely by a provider and made to interwar with the other networks though a meta-level â€Å"Internetworking Architecture† Up until that time there was only one general method for federating networks. This was the traditional circuit switching method where networks would interconnect at the circuit level passing individual bits on a synchronous basis along a portion of an end to end circuit between a pair of end locations. Recall that Klein rock had shown in 1961 that packet switching was a more efficient switching method. Along with packet switching special purpose interconnection arrangements between networks were another possibility. Which there were other limited ways to interconnect different networks, they required that one be used as a component of the other, rather than acting as a peer of the other in offering end to end service. In an open architecture network, the individual networks may e separately designed and developed and each may have its own unique interface which it may offer to users and/ or other providers, including other internet roviders. Each network can be designed in accordance with the specific environment and user requirements of that network. There are generally no constraints on the types of network that can be included or on their geographic scope, although certain pragmatic considerations will dictate what makes sense to offer. Basically online is making up by networkin g of all branches. Any customer can collect money or deposit any amount of money, any branch of this bank. So modern world, online banking is call easy banking online system has two parts: Internal online system. External online system. Internal online system is any customer can deposit money or collect money from any branches of this bank. And external online system is any customer can deposit money or collect money or even pay his any kind of bill by ATM card or credit card. Online banking system is a powerful banking system for any banking transaction. For set up an online system need a lot of money. So which bank has only two or three branches don't want to set up online system. Online banking is secure. Every online bank is so confident of its technology that they guarantee the confidentiality of any transaction on the internet. Electronic payment is so easy. Just follow the instructions as outlined in the easy guide to electronic bill paying as it takes through the process. Step-by step or visit their bill payment tutorial as new things come on-line, well announce in these new area. The customer can get to it from their name page or as the customer â€Å"exit† online banking. They also e-mail their customers when there are changes in their bank, who has online banking system, they also have own website. In this website they must have obtain of online. Any customer can take the benefit of online service from this website. Every online bank sends customer's last month transaction report at their home. So check this report, to see what’s cleared and what hasn't. Customer's â€Å"Account summary† will display whether a bill payment was rejected. Mobile banking is the modify color of online banking. Any customer can take the benefit of online banking by phone. Any customer can enjoy the fabulous features of online banking even when they away from the bank. Mobile banking is the smart choice for busy People on the move and if they are already on online banking customer. It's available at no additional cost. Mobile Banking with a palm handheld adds an exciting new dimension to online Banking. Now customer can enjoy all the ease, convenience, privacy and security of Online Banking through a handheld computer that fits neatly in customer purse or pocket it’s the financial Imagine the freedom and control of viewing customer financial picture any time of the day of night, in the privacy of customer's own surroundings. Check the balances of saving accounts, business banking accounts, lines of credit, or VISA' credit card accounts; †¢ Transfer funds between accounts. †¢ Check the balances and details of your loan and mortgage accounts †¢ Pay your bills, †¢ Obtain up-to- the minute account information. Online Banking is anywhere you have Internet access, so it's never been more convenient to manage your finances. With online banking you can quickly and easily solution of the future and its there right now system Check your account activity and balances. †¢ Transfer funds and receive and pay bills. †¢ Contribute to your RRSP and double up on your mortgage payments †¢ Plus so much more. l management Enjoy all this convenience and control within the safety, security and privacy of Online Banking 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. 6. 2 Service Provided by Online Bank Most of the online Banks have the equivalence in the services. Considering the services of banks given, we can show the view of services offered based on the following forms given bellow: Services available | |Basic (Most bank offer) |Advanced (some banks offer) | |Check account balances |Apply for loans | |Transfer funds among accounts |Download information about accounts | |Pay bills electronically |Trade stocks or mutual funds | | |View images of checks and deposit | 6. 3 Description of Online banking service Online Ban king Service is an electronic service provided via the Internet that permits customer authorized access to Access information about certain deposits and credit accounts for which customer are authorized to view information. †¢ Transfer funds between authorized accounts. †¢ Request and receive confirmation of stop payment on a check. †¢ Enter an order for customer personal checks according to check order information on file. †¢ Download transaction information to personal financial management software or spreadsheet. Communicate with the Bank using the online Banking E-mail Feature. The service is provided free to charge except for Online Bill Payment and stop payment orders. The Bank may offer additional services in the future, which will be subject to these terms and conditions as from time to time modified. Fees and charges for online Banking Services and Bill Payment will not be changed without at least 30 days prior notice and shall be charged to customer acc ount. The service is generally available 24 hours a day, seven days a week; however, the service may be unavailable from time to time for routine software and hardware maintenance or due to unscheduled down time. 6. 4 General terms and conditions Anyone agree to indemnify, hold harmless, and defend this bank from and against any and all claims, actions, suits, judgments, and expenses ( including court costs and reasonable fees of attorneys, accountants , and expert witnesses) at us sole expense, arising from us failure to abide by the restrictions on use of the Online Banking Services set forth herein. He agrees that the following uses of the Online Banking Services are strictly prohibited: †¢ Unauthorized communication of any account information to any other person or entity. †¢ Unauthorized communication of any information concerning any password or other online access number, code, or identification or any other proprietary information belonging to any other person or entity. Use of the Online Banking Services to copy or to distribute or transmit copies of copyrighted materials belonging to any other person or entity is permitted only to the extent that the owner has provided express permission to the user Permit ting such activity and the Bank has also approved such use in advance. Copying or Distributing or transmitting copyrighted materials other than with permission as specified above is expressly prohibited. †¢ Communicating any absence or defamatory information. †¢ Use of the Online Banking Services in violation of any telecommunication, postal, or other local laws or regulations of the user's †¢ Any use of the Online banking services for any purpose other than conducting banking business pertaining to us account (s) with regarding Bank. 6. 5 Limitations and liabilities The Bank and its suppliers make no warranties or representations of any kind with respect to the Online Banking Services, whether express or implied including but not limited to merchantability or fitness for particular purpose and neither the Bank nor the Bank's suppliers nor anyone else who has been involved in the creation, production or delivery of the Online Banking Services assumes any responsibilities with respect to his use thereof. No oral or written information or advice given by the Bank, the Bank's suppliers or any of the Bank’s agents or employees shall create or increase the scope of a warranty or in any way decrease this limitation and he may not rely on any such information or advice. He explicitly agree that any liability of regarding Bank arising from the provision of Online Banking Services is limited to the fee he paid the Bank for the transaction which gave rise to the alleged liability. He expressly waive any claims for additional consequential, incidental, compensatory or punitive damages and agree that the damage provisions set forth herein are commercially reasonable in light of the value of such Online Banking Services (including the possibility that the fees he paid hereunder may not be sufficient to fully compensate for all losses, but such fees are in an amount as to make it unfeasible for us to be responsible for greater damages). Any cause of action concerning the online banking services or online bill payment services under the agreement must be commenced within one year after such cause of action has occurred and be filled the circuit Court of the sate of Oregon for Baker country. 6. 6 How does online banking work? Online banking offers many chances for consumers to do certain transactions over the Internet. They allow them to use online features, which are available on the web such as checking their account balance and other types of transactions. To use Internet features, consumers have to log in and type their account number with the password. This will enable them to view all the information they need of their accounts and by clicking on the type of transaction, they want. In addition to that, most online banks provide a proper privacy of the information related to consumers and maintains security aspects. There are many services that can be presented by the banks over the Internet instead of viewing accounts for consumers around the world. Paying bills electrically is also one of the most effective features of online banking. Consumers do not need to wait until receiving mails of bills if they use the electronic way of payments. More over, online banking can serve their customers with transferring their money between accounts, which could be as a real transaction in dealing with traditional banks. They also can contact their branches over the net by sending emails if they face any problem or ask for farther information. Architecturally, bank may design its Online Banking system in two ways: Central Server System Distributed Server System Considering the facts of telecommunication infrastructure, distributed system is preferred solution. So that, one branch can do its transaction and customers can get service even if the communication is disrupted. The foreign banks in our country use central Server concept. In these systems, all the branches log in the central server and perform transactions. Solid communication line is required for central server system. If the line is down, transaction hamper2. 4 Critical evaluation of online banking. 6. 6. 1 Bill payment services This applies to all checking accounts for which Online Bill Payment Service has been requested. He authorize regarding Bank to transfer funds in accordance with his payment request. Payment (s) will be deducted from his checking account and transferred to a designated vendor/merchant account based on the electronic instructions he authorize. The Bank will execute his request when instructed by him or his authorized representative, subject to the terms of this agreement and applicable disclosures. Consumer funds transfers are also subject to the Electronic Funds Transfer Act (EFTA). 6. 6. 2 Security procedures The Bank's financial standard security procedures are to request one’s online banking users ID code and password. User may change his/her password at anytime while online. He agrees that any use of the Online banking services indicates his acceptance of the Bank's security procedures. He agree that any request acted upon in good faith by the Bank in compliance with these security procedures whether or not authorized by him, shall be treated as his authorized request whether he paying his bills with Online Banking trading stocks with Action Direct Net Action or submitting a credit card application online, regarding bank financial group members have gone to great lengths to ensure your confidentiality and security. They use several layers of robust security methods including encryption, firewall and timed long outs among others to ensure his personal and financial information are kept private and confidential. With respect to his Online banking sessions, as an extra measure of security, confirmation numbers are issued with every transaction. To protect his password and online Banking session, they employ state of the art encryption technology. Encryption is presently the most effective way to achieve data security. That is why your browser must be compatible with 128-bit encryption in order to access Online Banking. Client privacy is an important issued both to him and to them regarding Bank is committed to respecting the confidentiality of them customer’s personal business and information. 6. 6. 3 Recording and records The user authorizes the Bank to record electronic transmissions between the Bank and him or any person acting on his behalf, to keep those records as long as we consider it necessary. If the bank records about a payment are different than the users records, recordings, including, but not limited to any payment instructions received by the bank. 6. 6. 4 Methods used to make the funds transferred The Bank may select any means for the transmission of funds which we consider suitable, including but not limited to Automated Clearing House (ACH). You should anticipate that payments made by ACH might take up to 4 days to be credited; other payments may take up to 10 days to be credited. The Bank is not responsible for performance failure as a result of a delay or interruption in transfer facilities, labor disputes, power failures, equipment malfunctions, suspension of payment by another bank or payee, refusal or delay by another bank or payee to accept the funds transfer, war , emergency conditions, fire , earthquake, or other circumstances not within our control. These difficulties may extend the time when payments are credited. 6. 6. 5 Incorrect instruction He agree that he are solely responsible for giving them correct instructions with regard to the account his wish debited, the time of payment, the amount of the payment and the correct payee. He furthermore agree that his obligation to pay the Bank the amount of the payment made on his behalf is not excused by his failure to give us accurate or proper instructions. He agrees that the Bank will not be responsible for any delay arising out of our attempt to obtain correct instructions. 6. 6. 6 Receipt, acknowledgement and execution of request by bank Payment request are considered received by the Bank after providing he with a confirmation number for his payments (s) and his payment (s) have been confirmed as correct by him at the end of the Online Bill Payment session. The Bank must have a certain amount of notice before paying a bill. In order to execute his order to pay a bill on the same day the request is received, the Bank must have the request before 12:00 noon, Pacific Time, of that day. If the request to pay a bill is received after 12:00 noon, Pacific Time, the request will not be made until the next banking day. 6. 6. 7 Payment of bank When the Bank makes him requested payment he authorized the Bank to automatically and immediately deduct form his checking account the amount of the payment. He also agrees that the Online Bill payment transaction fee will be automatically deducted from his account on a monthly basis. 6. 6. 8 Rejection of payment The Bank has a right to reject his request for a payment for reasons including but not limited to: insufficient funds or uncollected funds in the amount specified in his request; the Bank's inability to execute the funds transfer for the reasons set out above titled Method Used to Make the Funds Transfer or incorrect or incomplete instructions given by you. He recognizes that the payee may be advised of the reason a payment is reject. 6. 6. 9 Cancellation or amendment of payment If the Bank has received his payment request and he later decides he you want to cancel or amend that payment, he may be able to revise his payment transfer instructions. He will not be able to cancel or amend his bill payment request if it has already been executed by the Bank. The Bank shall have no liability if such cancellation or amendment is not effected, and he agree to indemnify and hold the Bank harmless from any and all liabilities, costs and expenses (including court costs and reasonable fees for attorneys, accountants, and expert witnesses) the Bank may incur in attempting to cancel or amend the payment. 6. 6. 10 Confirmation of payment execution and account statement All payee payments executed will appear on his monthly checking account statement. He should review his statement, or other notice, for any discrepancies in connection with his payments. If he thinks a payment was made incorrectly form his checking account. He must contact Pioneer Bank in writing upon discovery of the error or within 60 days after he receive the first statement or notice which has the discrepancy, whichever is earlier. Failure to do so will reliever the Bank of any obligation to compensate you for his losses and expenses directly related to the erroneous payment. 6. 6. 11 Duty of reasonable care The Bank shall exercise good faith and reasonable care in processing his payments. He shall similarly exercise good faith and reasonable care in observing and maintaining security procedures, in communicating payment requests to the Bank, and in reviewing Bank statements for any discrepancies. The Bank will use reasonable efforts in attempting to cause creditors to reverse any service fee or late charge, which is related to payment processing error or delay. He also understand that the Bank will not be responsible for any loss or penalty that he may incur due to lack of sufficient funds or other conditions that may prevent the withdrawal of funds from his account or cause delays of errors in his payments. He understand that the Bank will not honor any request to pay when there are not sufficient funds available for withdrawal of funds form his account or cause delays or errors in his payments. He understands that the Bank will not honor any request to pay when there are not sufficient funds available in his account. The Bank's rules on when deposited funds are available for withdrawal are outlined in the information he received when opening your accounts (s). 6. 6. 12 Limitation of liability He explicitly agree that any liability of regarding Bank arising from the provision of Online Bill Payment Services is limited to the fee he paid the Bank for the transaction which gave rise to the alleged liability. He expressly waive any claims for additional, consequential, incidental, compensatory, or punitive damages and agree that the damage provisions set forth herein are commercially reasonable in light of the value of such Online bill Payment Services (including the possibility that the fees you paid hereunder may not be sufficient to fully compensate for all losses, but such fees are in an amount as to make it unfeasible for the Bank to be responsible for greater damages) 6. 7. Features of online banking The features available from an on-line bank account are similar to those which are avail able via ‘phone banking or visiting the local branch. on-line banking features do differ between the banks, but usually include: 6. 8 The major principles are: 6. 8. 1 Online Bank ing Principles Supplement to consumers Union policy on Electronic money and Banking security: 1. Providers of on-line financial services should provide sites that are secure. Secure sites should include the most effective existing protections such as passwords and encryption, and should be routinely reviewed and updated to ensure that new security features are added as they are developed. 2. Financial services providers should be vigilant to expose imposters using their names or similar names to include consumers to reveal personal financial information. 3 . Federal and state regulations should carefully scrutinize the operating practices, security and solvency standards, and privacy policies of both on-line providers of financial services and of third-party providers, contractors and subcontractors. 4. Financial services entities should take responsibility to make the consumer whole for losses from computer crime not caused by the consumer; for security breaches; for failures and losses caused by third parties selected by the financial services entity or by its subcontractors; and for losses contributed to by the financial institution's sharing of customer data internally, with an affiliate, or with a third party. 5. Providers of on-line financial services should accept the responsibility to try to prevent, detect, and eradicate viruses and other security breaches. Viruses sometimes cannot be prevented, but some on-line banking contractors offered today attempt to eliminate all responsibility on the provider even to try to do so. Because a consumer's ability to access funds needed for daily living can be affected by viruses and other security breaches, on-line financial services providers should accept more responsibility than is commonly accepted by web site providers of lower cost, less financially sensitive products. 6. Banks should take affirmative steps to make on-line banking services available in neighborhoods where access to on-line services is low. This may include providing access and training in community centers, housing projects, and urban high schools, as well as other creative approaches. 7. On-line banking channels should not replace other channels that permit in-person activity unless and until there is clear evidence that all demographic groups (including age and income groups) are in fact bearing equally well served by on- line banking as by other bank channels, including brick and mortar branches. 8. Banks who provide special offers to internet customers must also have an effective method to make those offers available to customers without access to the internet. 9. Access to on-line banking services should not be tied to the purchase of another product or service, or to high minimum balance requirements. 10 . Banks and insured financial service providers who accept deposits nationally should not restrict their Community Reinvestment Act areas to the physical location of their home offices. 11. Banks and other providers of on-line financial services should protect and respect consumers' financial privacy. Information about account numbers, account balances, transaction patterns, specific transactions or similar information should never be provided to third parties, affiliates or internal divisions without the express permission of the customer. Material used to check permission should desirable all of the types of information that might be shared and with whom the information might be shared. 12. Banks who use an opt-out method should provide a means to exercise the opt-out directly through the sign-up process, in addition to providing a phone numbers or other methods. The customer who knows he or she wishes to opt-out at the time of signing up for on-line banking should not have to take a separate step to do so. If opt-out is used, it must include the opportunity to opt-out from information sharing among both affiliates and internal bank departments, as well as with third parties. 13. Financial services providers should not condition the provision of on-line services upon consent to share financial information with an internal division, affiliate, or third party, except to the extent that the internal sharing of such information id both necessary for the provision of the service and fully disclosed to the consumer. 14 Financial services sites should never store information about the consumer in any location where it can be accessed by a third party. On-line financial services providers should fully disclose the nature and purpose of any electronic markets they propose to place in the consumer's system, secure the consumer's consent to place those markets, and permit the consumer to decline to accept such markets. 15. Banks and others offering uninsured on-line financial services should prominently and effectively disclose which services, accounts, or products are not insured by the FDIC. At a minimum, insured and uninsured products should not be offered on the same screen. When linking from an insured to an uninsured product screen, special care must be taken to identify the uninsured nature of the products offered through the link. Providers should test their customer base to evaluate the effectiveness of these disclosers. Regulators should actively enforce these requirements, and should conduct their own tests to evaluate the effectiveness of disclosers. 16. Banks and other FDIC-insured entities should never permit their names to be used by or licensed to uninsured entities, nor to be used by any third party in a fashion that creates an impression that a communication from the third party is from the Bank. 17. Increases in fees and changes in material terms should be accompanied by at least 30 days advance notice. The notice should be sent by a means calculated to actually communicate the information to the customer. Posting information on the bank's web site about new fees or changes in material terms is not sufficient. 18. Providers of on-line financial services should make their contracts available before the customer must give personal financial information and should make those agreements available in a form which the customer can download, print, and retain in a manner that shows what the agreement was when the consumer entered into it. 19. On-line bill payment services, whether or not associated with on-line banking, should clearly disclose on the screen which is used to schedule the payment the date and time that the payment will be sent and whether the payment will be sent electronically or by ordinary mail. 20. On-line financial services providers should use the power of the electronic environment to facilitate more effective consumer discloser and education. 21. On-line banking services should meet the consumer protection and other statutory requirements and restrictions of the consumer's home state. 22. Disputes arising from on-line banking and bill payment should be resolved promptly, and should be at least as prompt as the voluntary time frame of not more than five business days to re-credit disputed funds which have been developed for debit cards. 23. If an arbitration clause is used, it should permit the consumer to choose whether to agree to arbitration after the dispute arises, and should provide fair, cost-effective procedures for the consumer. 24. On-line bill payment services should not impose an earlier time for stop payments than the time the payment could be stopped if it were made by check. 25. Financial services providers who use electronic mail to communicate with their customers should provide two-way 26. Customers wishing to close their accounts should be able to do so with an instantaneous electronic transfer of funds to another designated account 27. On-line banking contracts contain to provision presuming that a consumer is in receipt of information simply because the bank has sent or posted met information. 6. 9 Types of online banking: The common assumption is that Internet banking is the only method of online banking. However, this is not strictly the case, as several types of services are currently available: PC Banking- The forerunner to Internet banking has been around since the late 1980's and is still widely used today. Individual banks provide software which is loaded on to an SME's office computer. The SME can then access their bank account via a modem and telephone link to the bank. Access is not necessarily via the Internet. Internet Banking- Using a Web browser, a user can access their account, once the bank's application server has validated the user's identity. Digital TV Banking- Using the standard digital reception equipment (set top box and remote control); users can access their bank account. Abbey national and HSBC services are available via digital TV providers. One of its main selling points is that no account details are transmitted via the World Wide Web. Text phone Banking- HSBC has introduced this service to allow customers with text phones to check their balance, pay bills and transfer money. Internet banking can be split into two distinct groups: Traditional banks and building societies use the internet as an add-on service with which to give businesses access to their accounts. 6. 10 Critical evaluation of online banking 6. 10. 1 Advantages of Online Banking For consumers ? The privacy of customers. ? Online services are available for consumers 24 hours daily during the whole week. ? Customers might save time and efforts of doing their finance transactions. ? It will be easy for them to view all information they need clearly and simply. ? Searching of any branch of a bank will be accessibly by online users. For Banks ? One way of attracting more customers is to use their services. Increasing the bank's reputation around the world is well known by many people. ? It doesn't need to employ lots of suffer or bankers to deal with customers directly. ? Banks can deal simply with their branches all over the world with one network. 6. 10. 2 Disadvantages of Online Banking For c onsumers ? Some people feel uncomfortable to provide their passwords or any kind of information about their funds over the internet. ? Some websites might be difficult for consumers for the first time to check their finance. ? It is possible for banks to update their websites, which needs from consumers to type in again their data. ? It is necessary to have knowledge and skills on using the Internet. For Banks Banks may require big amount of money to establish a website with attractive features. ? They may lose their information if the network broke with other branches. ? Hacking and viruses will cause problems for online banking, which could broke and damage the information or 6. 11 Channels of Online Banking There are so many channels of online banking to get the online operation accomplished within a few branches of a bank in banking sector. 1. Wide area network (WAN): 2. WAN by radio link (Communication using Radio Frequency): By introducing Radio Link communication network WAN can be set up between Head office and branch office. It is a point-to-point communication network, which uses radio frequency. Radio frequency of that particular bandwidth should take the approval from Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board (BTTB). WAN through Radio linking provides 11 mbps bandwidth. 3. WAN by V-set (Very small Aperture Terminal): Online communication between two single nodes VSAT can be installed. For this, a fixed amount of fees is to be paid to the satellite company for renting bandwidth each year. 4. WAN by optical fiber backbone line: â€Å"WAN† can be set up by installing a switch consisting 72 Fiber Optic port at the place of Main Server that can make a connection directly with the Commercial Bank's Head Office server by putting the Optic Fiber Line but this is very difficult and expansive. Data can be transferred and received through a continuous speed. It costs near about TK. 90 million that is lower than the VSAT connection. 5. WAN by T&T leased line: These are simple copper wire leased lines provided by T&T. These connections are the most cost effective solution and provide sufficient data transmission speed up to 19. 2 kilobytes (kbps). 6. 12 The major types of business models are: |Brokerage |Advertising | |Infomediary |Merchant | |Manufacturer |Affiliate | |Community |Utility | Each type of those business models has individual way to be used by any business. For example. Brokerage model depends on helping both sellers and buyers with their transitions. Brokers charge for fees of doing transactions depending on the value of business. This model can be business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) and consumer-to-business (C2B). Advertising is another kind of business models that operates with web advertising such as creating banners of the business. Infomediary model is used by a business interested in having information about consumers and products. Online banking follows the merchant type as a business model to generate its revenue. They sell services and products such as loans, credit cards and other facilities against gaining charges and interests or commissions. It seems to be similar as traditional banks with its business model of operating their income but with electronic services it could be more simple and faster than traditional methods. This kind of model can be business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C). This means that online banks can provide and help consumers with loans, paying bills, opening accounts, credit cards and other services. Furthermore, online banking can offer certain services for businesses with the loans that invested in such projects . 13. Current Banking Security System Security is a vital issue for all financial institutions. Banks that provide services to customer must ensure security so those customers are satisfied about bank. In a sense, bank is a business organization so it is also their responsibility to maintain everything securely. Banks also maintain lockers for safekeeping the most important valuable assets of customers. To serve that purpose, bank takes some rent from customer; the same rule exists for safekeeping money, which will be also discussed in this chapter. To ensure the E-banking, there are some security principles that have to be provided by Banks. Because there are many transactions occurring in electronic media, so without securing the banking activities banks cannot run. Security principles are: 01. Authentication Authentication is the process by which two parties involved in a dialogue are given a guarantee that they are indeed interacting with whom they think they are interacting. Authentication might be from both sides- server authentication and client authentication. 02. Confidentiality Confidentiality deals with protecting the contents of message or data transmitted over the Internet from unauthorized people. For example, one wants to protect his/her credit card information when he/she purchases over the Internet. 03. Integrity Data integrity is related to preventing data from being modified by an attacker. For Instance, only the credit card number is protected while the contents of the order (online) are not. Then, the attacker could potentially modify your order while it is being transmitted over the network by adding or deleting contents from the order or even changing the delivery address. 04. Availability It is also important to guarantee that authentic users of an e-banking site expect to get his service when he needs it. Sometimes an attacker might set up a program that continuously attempts to be authenticated by the bank. But the authentication will repeatedly fail. However, attacker would occupy precious resources of the site. These resources become unavailable to the legitimate customers of the bank. 05. Non-repudiation Non-repudiation is an attribute of secure systems that prevents the sender of a message from denying having sent it. This might very costly for e-businesses such as online trading which want to ensure that a customer will not be able to deny having requested to buy or sell securities. 7. 0 Online Banking in Bangladesh Foreign Banks: 7. 1 HSBC in Bangladesh The HSBC Asia Pacific group represents HSBC in Bangladesh. HSBC opened its first branch in Dhaka on 17th December 1996, to provide personal banking services, trade and corporate services, and custody services. Through a lobal network linked by advanced technology, including a rapidly growing e-commerce capability, HSBC provides a comprehensive range of financial services: personal, commercial, corporate, investment and private banking; trade services; cash management; treasury and capital markets services; insurance; consumer and busines s finance; pension and investment fund management; trustee services; and securities and custody services. HSBC is fully on line banking & without any hesitation I can say one thing that they are providing best services for the customers rather than the other foreign banks. Hexagon: Hexagon is an electronic Banking system through which HSBC group customers have access to information about their relationship with the group and may transact their business. The HSBC group recognizes that in order to maintain and enhance its position as a global financial service organization, it must continue to provide and promote a sophisticated global electronic banking system to both existing and new group customers. Hexagon may be used by small and medium sized businesses, large corporate, institute high net worth individuals and retail customers. The HSBC group is committed to the success and Hexagon and has allocated significant TSV and business resources to its development, management and marketing. Hexagon is run from three electronic banking computers (EBCs) is Hong Kong (HK), Buffalo (US) and Great Britain (UK), with links to group systems such as HUB and TREATS. The main features of Hexagon The products and services offered by hexagon to customer include: |Current account information |(CA) CA A1 | |Saving account information |(SA) SA A1 | |Loan account information |(LN) LN AI | |Credit care information |(CC) CC A1 | |Funds transfers (PA and TR) |PA/TR Payments | |Transfers Foreign exchange (FX) |FX A1 | |Time deposits (TD) |TD A1 | |Trade services | | |Imports and exports |IM/EX Report writer | |Documentary credits |DC import | The main benefits of Hexagon Hexagon gives customers direct access to there account 24 hours a day, 365 days a year from any where in the world. Benefits for customer include ? Increase in business efficiency ? Flexibility- the system may be tailored to the needs or particular customers; ? Easy to use, training is simple and no sophisticated equipment is required. 7. 2 Standard Chartered Bank Standard Chartered Bank’s online banking service is known as â€Å"I-Banking†. I-Banking offer the convenience of managing and controlling ones banking and finances – whenever he wants to, wherever it’s needed. I-Banking is convenient, simple and secure. I-Banking: Standard Chartered Bank’s I-Banking facility is simple and secure and it’s absolutely free of charge! With I-Banking, one can access any of the basic banking services he requires, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a years. I-Banking offers the following range of online service. Which makes the client’s banking accessible anytime and from anywhere. I-Banking includes the following services. ? Account services ? Fund transfers ? Payments ? Card services. ? Personal update Private Banks: 7. 3 Eastern Bank Ltd. Online Banking: Flex [email  protected] is the Internet banking solution that delivers the Corporate, Consumer and Investment Banking products to bank’s customers over the net. EBL’s Internet Banking module is a secure, robust and extensible web banking solution. It is anchored on a reusable component framework that complies with industry standards. Customers will be able to transfer funds, inquired balance, and request for chequebook, pay utility bills on-line etc. Internet Banking: EBL Internet banking application addresses the needs of small, individual and corporate account holders of the bank. This application provides a comprehensive range of banking services that enable the customer to meet most of their banking requirements over the net. List of Transactions: 1. Account Operations and Inquiries 2. Fund Transfers and Payments 3. Utility Bill payment 4. Deposits 5. Loans 6. Inquires and other services 7. Session Summary Deposits: ? Maintain deposits ? Request for rollover of deposits ? Request for premature closure of deposits Loans: ? Loan application requests ? Initiate part of full payment of loan ? View schedules of loan payments Inquiries and other services: ? Interest Rates inquiry ? Foreign Exchange Rates Inquiry ? Messages & Bulletins ? Internet Banking ? Product information ? Change password EBL with new ICT Infrastructure features: Essentially, EBL was not in a well-connected situation. Data communication was limited to secluded offices in a very limited fashion. EBL now is a different scenario. EBL HO is now connected with the branches all around Bangladesh. Here is a breakdown of what the data communication infrastructure looks like today: ? High Speed DDN and Radio Link connectivity between Branches and the Head Office ? Local Area Network (LAN)- providing data network connectivity at the Head Office and the Branches. ? Metropolitan Are Network (MAN)- connecting the DHK branches with HO, CTG branches with Agrabad and SYL branches with Chouhatta. ? Wide Area Network (WAN)- enabling the data network circle between Head Office and the Branches. ? Solid foundation over data and network security implementation. EBL Banking Benefits: Flex cube banking software automated in all branches of EBL has the adaptability for incorporating the delivery channels like, Internet Banking, Tele-Banking, ATM/POS, Home Banking, Wireless Access Protocol, Call Centre are all superb services which a customer can avail in due course. EBL’s repertoire of hardware is highly sophisticated; as no other banks in Bangladesh have availed this are recent times. The combination of hardware will help consolidate the backbone for the plethora of services provided to the customers by the Bank for the years to come. Moreover, EBL, country wish bade farewell to the lackluster range of hardware, which were in use over the year. ? Anywhere 24 hours ( 7 days banking ? Internet banking, Tele banking and ATM/POS ? One Stop Shop for all you banking need. ? Significantly reduced time in banking transactions Sophisticated customer information at the fingertips and can be provided anytime. ? Online Inter-branch Transfer ? Any Branch pay order Syste m ? Digital Signature/photo image while transacting ? Display Customers Balance, Transactions, and Statements online. ? Automatic Sweep in & out ? Locker Service Availability ? EBL 5 to 9 Extended Service ? Bill payment o Utility Service Bill o Tuition Fees o Mobile Phone Bills ? Versatile Products availability ? Fast Cash ? Fast Loan ? Auto Loan ? Consumer Loans ? High Performance Account ? Savings Insurance Account ? Monthly Income Plan ? Monthly Deposit Plan. Visa Electronic online debit card EBL Introduces the Visa Electron online debit card: Unique Features: 1. With EBL via Electron you can now draw cash from the Q-cash ATM network, 24 hours a day through out the year. No need to carry excess cash in you wallet. Your card is electronically linked to your EBL account. 2. EBL Visa Electron is also accepted at Visa merchants with Electronic P. O. S Visa Symbol, where you can pay for merchandise and services. 3. Acceptance- hassle free acceptance at network of Q-cash ATMs currently 10 and to be expanded up to 50 by July 204 and approximately 100 POS deployed in major cities. 4. Photo card- Displays your photo & signature on front of your card for enhanced security. 7. 4 Prime Bank Ltd. Online Branch Banking (Any Branch Banking) The Bank has set up a Wide Area Network (WAN) across the country to provide online branch banking facility to its valued clients. Under the Scheme, clients of any branch shall be able to do banking transaction at other branches of the bank. Under this system a client will to be able to do following type of transactions: ? Cash withdrawal from his/her account at any branch of the Bank irrespective or location. ? Cash deposit in/he account at any branch of the Bank irrespective of location. ? Cash deposit in other’s account at any branch of the Bank irrespective of location. ? Transfer of money from his/her account with any branch of the Bank. Any amount can be deposited or transferred under Prime Line. In the system, however, at present there is a limit for cash withdrawal through bearer or by account holder himself. Online Branch Banking Service: Is designed to serve its valued clients. Under this system, you shall be able to do the following type of transactions: ? Cash withdrawal from you account at any branch of the Bank. ? Deposit in you account at any Branch of the Bank. ? Transfer of money from you account to any other account with any Branch of the Bank. One Stop Utility Service Scheme Like any other country of the world, the people living in the urban areas of our country lead a very busy life. Time is very valuable to them. Despite this, they are to waste their valuable time at the counter of different Banks and other Institutions for payment of their monthly bills of different utility services like Electricity, Telephone, Water, and Gas etc. They, as such, face enormous difficulties for payment of their monthly bills in time. Such inconveniences of the urban people can be removed by making a management to collect all the bills of various utility services at One Point. Scope of Services: With this end in View, Prime Bank Limited has introduced a scheme entitle â€Å"One Stop Utility Services Scheme†. The scheme is designed to provide all the required services to the customer in making payment of their following bills on their behalf from the counter of the Bank: ? To pay Electricity Bills ? Cash deposit in his/her account at any branch of the Bank irrespective of location. Cash deposit in other’s account at any branch of the Bank irrespective of location. ? Transfer of money from his/her a ccount with any branch of the Bank. ? Any amount can be deposited or transferred under Prime Line. In the system, however, at present there is a limit for cash withdrawal through bearer or by account holder himself. Main features of Master Card Credit: ? Prime bank ensure high level of security by inserting your photograph on the card. ? 20 to 50 day’s credit from the data of transaction. When you receive you monthly statement, you can either choose to pay in full or just minimum due amount shown on the statement. No interest in charged if you pay in full within payment due date. 24 hours a day, 365 days world wide service. ? No joining/administrative fees. ? Waiver of annual fees for International Card: If you accumulate 20,000 Prime Bank Bonus Point for you Gold Card or 10,000 Bonus Point for you Silver Card in a year then you enjoy our Card without fees ($1 purchase: 1 Bonus). ? Waiver of annual fee for Local Card: If you accumulate 10,000 Prime Bank Bonus Point for you Go ld Card or 8,000 Bonus Point for you Silver Card in a year then you enjoy our Card without fees (Tk. 50/- purchase: 1 Bonus Point). ? The Highest Prime Bank Bonus Point holder can enjoy free air ticket Dhaka-Bankok-Dhka. (Business Class) ? Cash advance facilities. 1, 39, 00,000 locations accept Master Card worldwide. Facilities available wide the card: The card can be used for: a. Making payments to Merchants against purchase of all goods and services by the Cardholder from Merchant(s); and b. Availing Cash Advances: i. From any of PBL Branches or any member of Master Card of any Merchant authorized to make Cash Advances; as may be agreed upon by PBL or ii. By the use of the Card on any ATM of PBL or of Master Card. Subject to these terms and conditions and in compliance with such requirements, PBL, any Merchant or Master card may impose limitations and procedures as from time to time. 8. Role of Government This is particularly important for countries like Bangladesh where very little has been done in development these technologies and skills to promote and support online banking. The government can take the following policies to promote online banking in our country: 1. The intergovernmental agreement for harmonizing the rules and regulations that can help in smooth transformation of the world economy and expansion of a unified world market. 2. The regulations should simply foster competition, protect intellectual property and privacy, and prevent fraud to do businesses under whatever terms they agree upon. An international uniform commercial code is needed to simplify and encourage electronic commerce under consistent rules and rights. 3. Govt. an undertake perfect initiatives to construct feasible, platform of information technology within affordable capacity. Financial allocation should be more widen for global standard banking technology. 4. Adequate number of bank employee will ha ve both computer and banking aptitude and cognizance, suitable in the banking perspective to improve the banking sector. 5. â€Å"Tele-communication† sector is pre-conditions to make fastest online banking services. Unfortunately a tale-communication service of govt. is yet to reach to remote and rural area. 6. Frequent inflow of information technology in the shape of broad band internet access, sub-marine optical fiber utility processed, might be patronized by govt. apidly to step ahead in respect to information technology for enhancement of blessing of on line banking. As well, this linkage of internet service will be encouraging for implementation of online banking in Bangladesh. 7. A project of â€Å"software development† should be under process to continue the function of banking software and expertise of banking network. Thus, banks and bankers enjoy creating creditable, demanding and world standard services for the shake of greater interest of nation and economy . 9. Conclusion The main objective of this term paper was to come up with a feasible proposal for implementing nationwide E-banking as well as ensure security. To ensure security we proposed some of the security features that need to be implemented in various levels of the proposed infrastructure like application level security, IP level security, user level authentication as well as employee level authentication as it is very much needed to keep track who is responsible for transferring money from one account to another account. We have analyzed the problems of existing system and shown that our proposed system can overcome most of the existing problems: Currently in our country accessing and transferring fund from remote area is a difficult and time-consuming task. Naturally it now takes 3 to 25 days. The key point is to note that the fund to be transferred is kept idle for the delay period. The proposed framework very clearly shows that it is a huge loss of money when considered collectively. So, it gains a remarkable save both for the customers and banks. Letter of Credit (L/C) is an important service of a bank. It is directly involved in foreign trade. The more efficient and cost-effective the L/C operation is the better opportunity comes for foreign trade affairs which is a prime factor to escalate the national economy. Basically an L/C operation comprises of a number of sequential steps. Information Passing required for an L/C operation is now done by foreign courier services like DHL, FedEx etc. It requires much time compared with the electronic transaction. Moreover, an amount of TK 1000/= (on an average) is spent per L/C. Proposed online transaction system cuts down this charges almost to zero. It contributes a lot when a large number of L/C is considered (i. e. total no. Of L/C of a branch in a year). At the same time due to reduced processing time it increases the no. of L/C transaction. It is very frustrating to note that now few banks deceives the Central Bank by giving a wrong calculation of its total deposit. So, they deposit less money as CCR to the Central Bank. In our proposed infrastructure, the Central Bank is given the supreme mandate for any required information from any bank at any time without delay. It removes the risk of escaping or misleading the deposit of proper CCR amount. As a result Bangladesh Bank would be properly benefited. CIB (Credit Information Bureau) generation is another important factor especially for inland trading loan. Currently the process of CIB report generation is very complicated and time-consuming. Proposed system maintains an integrated database with his past transactions record. So it becomes a matter of few clicks and prints to generate CIB report. Besides faster computation it also assures that the information is authentic and updated. Another important factor for banking services is updating foreign exchange rate. Now each day the Central Bank announces the rates. Each bank gets information on an interval of 30 minutes. It ensures some sort of unexpected loss/profit for both banks and customers. The suggested system maintains a complete connectivity among all banks so the foreign exchange rate is always updated at each bank. 10. Recommendations As this research-based study on the â€Å"Online banking† lets me a provision to come to the closest contract of the original plot of this banking system. There are some recommendations to improvise the On-line banking in our country. 1) Autonomous Banking culture, reducing dependence on manual service, should be in abundance irrespective of govt. and non-Govt. rganization in association with ‘SWIFT’ to bring about the whole banking service for massive well being of people. 2) The report of taskforce with the title of â€Å"Banking sector reform† committee with 21 major clauses on score of extinction of horrendous and problem some context that usurps our banking sector, has elaborately expressed the imminent enactment of suggestions of taskforce for the be

Seven Eleven Case

http://zh. scribd. com/doc/45901851/Study-Questions-2 Questions 1. A CONVENIENCE STORE CHAIN ATTEMPTS TO BE RESPONSIVE AND PROVIDECUSTOMERS WHAT THEY NEED, WHEN THEY NEED IT, WHERE THEY NEED IT. WHAT ARESOME DIFFERENT WAYS THAT A CONVENIENCE STORE SUPPLY CHAIN CAN BERESPONSIVE? WHAT ARE SOME RISKS IN EACH CASE? 1. 1 As responsiveness increases, the convenience store chain is exposed to greater uncertainty. A convenience store chain can improve responsiveness to this uncertainty using one of the following strategies, especially for fresh and fast foods:Local Capacity. The convenience store chain can provide local cooking capacity at the stores and assemble foods almost on demand. Inventory would be stored as raw material. This is seen at the U. S. fast-food restaurant franchise Subway where dinner and lunch sandwiches are assembled on demand. The main risk with this approach is that capacity is decentralized, leading to poorer utilization. Local Inventory. Another approach is to have all inventory available at the store at all times. This allows for the centralization of cooking capacity.The main risk is obsolete inventory and the need for extra space. Rapid Replenishment. Another approach is to set up rapid replenishment and supply the stores with what they need when they need it. This allows for centralization of cooking capacity and low levels of inventory, but increases the cost of replenishment and receiving. 1. 2 As responsiveness increases, the convenience store chain is exposed to greater uncertainty. A convenience store chain can improve responsiveness to this uncertainty using one of the following strategies, especially for fresh and fast foods:1. Local Capacity.The convenience store chain can provide local cooking capacity at the stores and assemble foods almost on demand. Inventory would be stored as raw material. This is seen at the U. S. fast-food restaurant franchise Subway where dinner and lunch sandwiches are assembled on demand. The main risk w ith this approach is that capacity is decentralized, leading to poorer utilization. 2. Local Inventory Another approach is to have all inventory available at the store at all times. This allows for the centralization of cooking capacity. The main risk is obsolete inventory and the need for extra space. . Rapid Replenishment Another approach is to set up rapid replenishment and supply the stores with what they need when they need it. This allows for centralization of cooking capacity and low levels of inventory, but increases the cost of replenishment and receiving. From the case study, Seven-eleven Japan Co. had provided their customers a variety of service that is difference responsive way from usual convenience store concept. 1. 7dream. comSeven-Eleven Japan established an e-commerce company which their customer can choose the product at home and pick the product at the store.Because from the survey, 92% of its customers preferred to pick up their online purchase at the local conv enience store rather than have them delivered at home. Since Seven-Eleven Japan have the distribution system that conforms with these drop and pick up system. So Seven-Eleven serve as drop-off and collection points for Japanese people. Instead of providing customers at that time the need is happen, the customers can choose the product at home and then pick up the product later at the store.The risk of this case is normally Seven-Eleven Japan established this system as a way to derive benefit from the existing distribution system. If in the future this system is popular among the Japanese, the capacity of the existing distribution system may not be enough to serve the customers such as a space to storage the goods waiting for customers to pick up (the store in Japan is smaller than other country)2. In-Store Payment Instead of selling household goods, food and groceries, a convenience store can be responsive as a payment spot.Seven-Eleven Japan add a variety of services that customers can obtain at its stores for example an in-store payment of Tokyo Electric Power bills, gas, insurance premiums, and telephone. In order to attracted millions of additional customers every year and take advantage of opening hour and number of stores to service customer. The risk of this case is when the company adopt this service every Seven-Eleven store Japan have to link with the data of the payment such as electric bill. If the employees not fully understand how the ystem works, he or she will misunderstand and take too long to serve customer. Result in lower customer satisfaction and can link to overall brand dissatisfaction. Some customer will stop buying at Seven-Eleven because the long waiting time. 2. SEVEN-ELEVEN'S SUPPLY CHAIN STRATEGY IN JAPAN CAN BE DESCRIBED ASATTEMPTING TO MICRO-MATCH SUPPLY AND DEMAND USING RAPID REPLENISHMENT. WHAT ARE SOME RISKS ASSOCIATED WITH THIS CHOICE? 2. 1The main risk for Seven-Eleven is the potentially high cost of transportation and receiv ing at stores. 2. By using rapid replenishment system, Seven-Eleven Japan store can manage lower inventory in the store and higher shelf space available. This fit for Seven-Eleven in Japan because of smaller size of the store. But it still have some risk in case of a very fluctuated demand, when the demand raise to a very high level the inventory that the store stock might not be enough to serve customers demand. This situation will lead to loss of a sale and lower customer’s satisfaction. The rapid replenishment is a core concept to lean thinking.It’s how you can manage the flow of inventory and how you can shorten the cycle time between each delivery. Which mean seven eleven will deliver more often and the quantity of the product between each deliver will depend on the demand of the customer that forecast from the Point Of Sale and previous Data. It allowed seven eleven to be able to control their inventory level because when they deliver more often they can deliver just few amounts at a time. Therefore there are also some risks associated with this system.First, even though the rapid replenishment is a good system but the cost of replenishing and receiving is high. It’s because the system that require to put the rapid replenishment become efficient, for example they have to install the point of sale system to generate the sale information to the dc and supplier so they can deliver the good that fit for the curtain demand. For the receiving they also have to have the product scanner to scan the product when it arrives to the store. All of that equipment that’s required will raise the cost of the replenishing and receiving.Furthermore, the receiving cost also high because of the number of the delivery that higher too. Second, even though rapid replenishment helps seven eleven to maintain their inventory level that drive by the demand of the customer, to save their inventory cost. Sometime it might be risk in the shorten of inventor y(backlogs) because when seven eleven tried to micro match the demand and supply, seven eleven have to rely on the past purchasing data and the point of sale data. To be able to generate the demand forecast to deliver the product to each of seven eleven chain store.What if the demand has become so fluctuate to the point that it over their inventory level, that time seven eleven will be suffer from the empty shelf. As you know that the favorite items from seven eleven are such as lunchbox, rice ball and sandwich, so most likely if the consumer come during the high demand won’t have the food to consume. So most likely the consumer will go to other convenience store to buy the food to serve their need in that curtain time. If this scenario happen more that few time, the consumer most likely to switch the convenient store.That’s why this is also the risk that seven eleven has to face and try to overcome in order to maintain their competitive advantage. Third, the risk that they have to face is that they will not have the economics of scale in production because when they apply the rapid replenishment, the suppliers will only produce the product to match the need of the store when they need it. They won’t produce the same item for the large amount, which is if they produce in that way they won’t have to suffer from the set up cost in each batch that they have to produce.Fourth, even though the rapid replenishment will lower the transportation but seven eleven still have to concern about the gas price because if the gas price raise it will again increase their operation cost. Then again seven eleven won’t be able to raise their product price to serve that cost too due to the incentive competition in the convenience market. Fifth, Due to the system that when the trucks deliver the product to the store, there will be only the store people who scan and check the product in to the system. There will be no way of detecting the feud.The replenishment system worked on trust and did not require the delivery person to be present when the store personnel scanned in the delivery. This is a very risky system because store personnel may stoles the products. It can cause company loss in a million. 3. WHAT HAS SEVEN-ELEVEN DONE IN ITS CHOICE OF FACILITY LOCATION, INVENTORYMANAGEMENT, TRANSPORTATION, AND INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURE TO DEVELOPCAPABILITIES THAT SUPPORT ITS SUPPLY CHAIN STRATEGY IN JAPAN? 3 .1 All choices made by Seven-Eleven are structured to lower its transportation and receiving costs.For example, its area-dominance strategy of opening at least 50 to 60 stores in an area helps with marketing butalso lowers the cost of replenishment. All manufacturing facilities are centralized to get the maximum benefit of capacity aggregation and also lower the inbound transportation cost from the manufacturer to thedistribution center (DC). Seven-Eleven also requires all suppliers to deliver to the DC where products aresort ed by temperature. This reduces the outbound transportation cost because of aggregation of deliveriesacross multiple suppliers. It also lowers the receiving cost.The information infrastructure is set up to allowstore managers to place orders based on analysis of consumption data. The information infrastructure alsofacilitates the sorting of an order at the DC and receiving of the order at the store. The key point toemphasize here is that most decisions by Seven-Eleven are structured to aggregate transportation andreceiving to make both cheaper. 3 .2 ? Filling in the entire map of Japan is not our priority. Instead, we look for demand where Seven-Eleven storesalready exist, based on our fundamental area dominance strategy of concentrating stores in specific areas.? hisabove statement shown that to ensure that the support of Seven-Eleven Japan ¶s facility location to its supply chain strategy, Seven-Eleven Japan has based its fundamental network expansion policy on a market dominanc estrategy. Wherever Seven-Eleven Japan entries into any new market, it was built around a cluster of 50  ± 60 storessupported by a distribution center. The main reason of applying cluster strategy, it is that clustering gave Seven-Eleven Japan a high-density market presence and allowed it to operate an efficient distribution system.There areseveral benefits of implementing the market-dominance strategy including such as boosting distributionefficiency, improved brand awareness, increasing the system efficiency, enhancing efficiency of franchise supportservices, improving advertising effectiveness and preventing competitors ¶ entrance into the dominant area. For inventory management, what Seven-Eleven Japan had done to develop capability that support its supply chain strategy is to offer its stores a choice from a set of 5,000 stock keeping units and each store could carry onaverage about 3,000 stock keeping units depending upon the local customer demand.Seven-Eleven emphasizedre gional merchandizing to cater precisely to local preferences. Each store carries food items, beverages,magazines, and consumer items such as soaps, detergents, etc. The highest generated sale of Seven-Eleven is under food category, and under Seven-Eleven Japan concept, thefood items were classified in four broad categories including Chilled items such as sandwiches, delicatessenproducts, and milk; Warm items such as box lunches, rice balls, and fresh bread; Frozen items such as ice-cream,frozen foods, and ice cubes; and Room-temperature items such as canned food, instant noodles, and seasonings.The efficiency in managing the inventory of Seven Eleven Japan could be proved by the resulted of inventory turnover rate is equal to over 50 when comparing to the second largest Seven Eleven in the United States is only about 17 in 2003. For transportation or distribution system of Seven Eleven Japan, the system was tightly linked the entire supply chain for all product categories as Seven E leven distribution centers and the information network played a key role in that regard.Its main objective is to carefully track sales of items and offer short replenishment cycle times. In 1987, Seven Eleven Japan had offered three times daily store delivery of all rice dishes and twice a day for freshfood. Its distribution system was flexible enough to alter delivery schedules depending on customer demand. When a store placed an order, it was immediately transmitted to the supplier as well as the distribution center. The supplier received orders from all Seven Eleven stores and started production to fill the orders.The supplierthen sent the orders by truck to the distribution center. The key to store delivery was what Seven Eleven calledthe combined delivery system. At the distribution center, delivery of like products from different suppliers was directed into a single temperaturecontrolled truck. There were four categories of temperature-controlled trucks such as frozen foods, c hilled food,room temperature processed foods, and warm foods. The number of stores per truck depended on the sales volume.The system worked on trust and did not require the delivery person to be present when the storepersonnel scanned in the delivery; this helps to reduce the delivery time spent at each store. Based on theinformation, it shown that Seven Eleven has continuously improve its transportation and distribution system,since 1974, there were 70 vehicles visited each store every day but later on in 1994, there were only 11 vehiclesnecessary. This dramatically reduced delivery costs and enabled rapid delivery of a variety of fresh foods.In2004, Seven Eleven Japan had a total of 290 dedicated manufacturing plants throughout the country that only produced fast food for Seven Eleven stores. The items were distributed through 293 dedicated distributioncenters that ensure rapid and reliable delivery. None of there distribution centers carried any inventory, they merely transferred inventory from supplier trucks to Seven Eleven distribution trucks. Transfleet Ltd. , a company set up by Mitsui and Co. for exclusive use of Seven Eleven Japan, provided this transportation.For information infrastructure, Seven Eleven Japan attributed a significant part of its success to the TotalInformation System installed in every outlet network linking the head office, stores, and the Seven Elevendistribution centers. Until July 1991, only a traditional analog network linked these chains. Later on, anintegrated services digital network or ISDN was installed, linking more than 5,000 stores; it became one of the world ¶s largest ISDN system. This system enables Seven Eleven to collect, process, and feed back point of salesdata quickly. Sales data generated in each stores by 11. 0p. m. , was processed and ready for analysis the nextmorning. In 1997, Seven Eleven Japan was introduced its fifth generation of the Total Information System, which was stillin use in 2004, the hardwar e system included as the following; Graphic Order Terminal, this was a handleddevice with a wide-screen graphic display, use by the store owner or manager to place the order. Once all theorders were placed, the terminal was returned to its slot, at which point the orders were relayed by the storecomputer to both the appropriate vendor and the Seven Eleven distribution center.Scanned Terminal, thesescanners read bar codes and recorded inventory. They were used to receive product coming in from a distribution center. This was then automatically checked against a previously placed order and the two were reconciled. Thisscanner terminal was also used when examining inventory at stores. Store Computer, this linked to the ISDN network, the POS register, the graphic order terminal, and the scannerterminal. It communicated between the various input sources, tracked store inventory and sales, places orders,provided detailed analysis of POS data, and maintained and regulated store equipment.P OS register; this POSdata was automatically transmitted online to a host computer. All sales data collected by 11. 00p. m. was organizedand ready for analysis by the next morning. The data was evaluated on a company wide, district, and store basis. Due to Seven Eleven done in its choice of information infrastructure to develop capability that support its supply chain strategy, the information system allowed Seven Eleven store to better match supply with demand. Storestaff could adjust the merchandising mix on the shelves according to consumption patterns throughout the day.The identification of slow and non-moving items also allowed a store to convert shelf space to introduce new items. 4. SEVEN-ELEVEN DOES NOT ALLOW DIRECT STORE DELIVERY IN JAPAN, WITH ALLPRODUCTS FLOWING THROUGH ITS DISTRIBUTION CENTER. WHAT BENEFIT DOES SEVEN-ELEVEN DERIVE FROM THIS POLICY? WHEN IS DIRECT STORE DELIVERY MOREAPPROPRIATE? 4. 1 Direct store delivery (DSD) would lower the utilization of the outbound trucks from the Seven-ElevenDC. It would also increase the receiving costs at the stores because of the increased deliveries.Thus,Seven-Eleven forces all suppliers to come in through the DC. DSD is most appropriate when stores arelarge and nearly-full truck load quantities are coming from a supplier to a store. This was the case, for example, in large U. S. Home Depot stores. For smaller stores it is almost always beneficial to have anintermediate aggregation point to lower the cost of freight. In fact, Home Depot itself is setting up theseintermediate facilities for its new stores that are often smaller. 4. There has been useful advantage of Seven-Eleven upon CDC and DSD as the centers allow smoothing of distribution operation to the stores and the provision of better quality and better information on supply anddeliveries is available and there was control of the supply chain as achieved. The presence of technology like theadaptation of the POS system can possibly move ahead and do aid the store employment and managementsituation by freeing up staff time. Seven-Eleven U. S. has begun introduce the Combined Distribution Center daily delivery of fresh-prepared foodsaround 2000.By partnering with multiple food companies, the convenience retailer will be able to offer fresh-made-daily and delivered-fresh-daily pastries, gourmet sandwiches, wraps, entrees, as well as other perishableand ready-to-eat foods once a day. This was a challenge because the CDCs are operated by several different third-party partners, and Seven-Eleven felt it did not have effective metrics for comparing performance to a reliable benchmark. This was due to many factors, including different facility sizes, building layouts and the variety of products handled by each CDC. pros yAdded choices to customers in perishable consuming. Seven-Eleven can add other specialty items to its selectionsuch as fruit salads, seasonal whole and cut fruit, fresh-squeezed juices and produce from a farmer ¶s ma rket. Theconsumers can easily get the fresh perishable products near their house. y Daily delivery means just that Seven-Eleven stores can place orders to the CDC and get fresh product by sortingfor delivery to stores at every night y With the company ¶s proprietary retail information system, each store can customize its order to provide the exactitems the customers in their neighborhood want. Receiving fewer deliveries to your store during the day. In this advantages, the stores no need to waste the time tocheck through each delivery because all needed products will be set up and combined since the DistributionCenters. y Expedite business for local food companies, which can now make one delivery to a central location fordistribution to local stores. y Reduce the holding Inventory Cost. Stores can order just the amount they sell in a day or two, so they don ¶t haveproduct sitting around on the shelves.That means that they can guarantee the freshness in the perishableproducts at Seven-Eleven. y The staffs are able to consolidate work and spend more time with your customers, growing your business. As they will check the stock and place the order to the CDC and receive the product at night. y The suppliers can delivery in large amount with one full truck load as there has a store big enough to keep theproducts with the method to keep the product longer and still perish. C ons y Much lower density (hence longer distance) of U. S. Seven-Eleven stores.Deliver a few product everyday may using too much cost with the longer distance of each branch. Need to increase density, even though setting upown system only reduce problems by eliminating delivers y Increase transportation cost at stores because of increased delivers. As Distribution Centers need to deliver theproduct everyday with a few amounts in order to keep the freshness of the product. y Losing the economics of scale advantages, as Seven-Eleven need to order the product everyday in the feweramounts. y H ig h costs of keeping the products as some products need a specific temperature to keep them 5.WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE 7DREAM CONCEPT FOR SEVEN-ELEVEN JAPAN? FROM A SUPPLY CHAIN PERSPECTIVE, IS IT LIKELY TO BE MORE SUCCESSFUL IN JAPANOR THE UNITED STATES? WHY? 7dream makes sense given that Japanese customers are happy to receive their shipments at the localconvenience store. From a logistics perspective, online deliveries can piggy back on Seven-Eleven AaA? s existing distribution network in Japan. Deliveries from the online supplier can be broughtto the DC where they are sorted along with other deliveries destined for a store.This should increase theutilization of outbound transportation allowing Seven-Eleven to offer a lower cost alternative to having a package carrier deliver the product at home. The primary negatives are that 7dream will use up storagespace and require the store to be able to retrieve specific packages for customers. One can argue that the concept may be more s uccessful in Japan given the existing distribution network of Seven-Eleven and the frequency of visits by customers. Online delivery is able to link with the existingnetwork.The high visit frequency ensures that packages are not occupying valuable store shelf space for along time. Also, the frequent visits ensure that the marginal cost to the customer of picking up at aJapanese Seven-Eleven is small. This is less likely to be the case in the United States. 6. SEVEN-ELEVEN IS ATTEMPTING TO DUPLICATE THEIR SUCCESSFUL JAPANESE SUPPLYCHAIN STRUCTURE IN THE UNITED STATES WITH THE INTRODUCTION OF CDCS. WHATARE THE PROS AND CONS OF THIS APPROACH? KEEP IN MIND THAT STORES ARE ALSOREPLENISHED BY WHOLESALERS AND DSD BY MANUFACTURERS.The difficulty of duplicating the Japan supply chain structure in the United States follows primarily fromthe much lower density of U. S. Seven-Eleven stores. This is compounded by the fact that Seven-Elevenstores are getting both direct store deliveries as well a s wholesaler deliveries to its stores. Setting up itsown DCs does not allow Seven-Eleven to get the same level of transportation aggregation as it gets inJapan. Its own distribution system would help more if all wholesaler deliveries and direct store deliverieswere stopped and routed through the DC.Even then, having its own distribution system would add muchless value than in Japan given the lower density of stores and larger distance between stores. 7. THE UNITED STATES HAS FOOD SERVICE DISTRIBUTORS LIKE MCLANE THAT ALSOREPLENISH CONVENIENCE STORES. WHAT ARE THE PROS AND CONS TO HAVING ADISTRIBUTOR REPLENISH CONVENIENCE STORES VERSUS A COMPANY LIKE SEVEN-ELEVEN MANAGING ITS OWN DISTRIBUTION FUNCTION? One can contend that a distributor brings much more value to the table in the United States relative toJapan.Given the lower density of stores, a distributor is able to aggregate deliveries across manycompeting stores. This allows a distributor to reach levels of aggregation that canno t be achieved by asingle chain such as Seven-Eleven. The big disadvantage to having all deliveries done through a distributor is that Seven-Eleven is unable to exploit having a large number of stores. In fact, it may be argued thatgoing through the distributor has Seven-Eleven subsidize deliveries to competing smaller chains that mayalso be using the same distributor.