Alternative ways to use the Internet for business

	Introduction
Home	The typical business usage of the Internet is a client browser interacting with a WWW host web site. While this may be typical, it is certainly not always the best way to implement specific business tasks. This web site addresses the many advantages available from alternative Internet applications.
	Considering alternatives: public or private usage
	Public For public interaction you need dynamic data-driven web pages that can be accessed by ordinary browsers like Internet Explorer or Netscape. These web pages can interact with the browser in many ways that a computer program can interact with its operator. It can be an intelligent interface that connects your company to the rest of the world, anywhere, anytime. Despite its tendency toward complexity and expense and the fact that browsers are not designed for specific business tasks, there is no other alternative if you want the general public at your cyber door. Private If the business transactions and communications are between corporate staff, agents in the field, branch offices, or selected customers or clients, then the data processing and transactional capabilities that you need may be misdirected as a WWW web page application. Instead, consider one of our alternative methods that we have designed specifically for private or limited audience use.
	But first, some basics:
	This web page talks about overcoming many basic problems posed by the use of the Word Wide Web for business transactions. Take a moment here to review these basics... Review The examples show below are based on remote order entry. This only one of any number of possible alternate uses of the Internet. Order entry was chosen simply because it is a process familiar to everyone.

Alternatives using ordinary email

(1) The simplest example is using email to transmit data. Here an application program is being used by a salesperson in the field to enter a customer's orders.

(2) The program formats the order into data-encoded email (with optional encryption) and sends it to the company's mailbox.

(3) The email message contains only the data representing the order and includes date, time, the ID of the sales person, customer ID, P.O. number, and line items with quantity, price, and line item total.

(4) An order receiving program at the home office picks up the order, reformats it to order data entry format and sends it on to the order processing stream, as well as sending a confirmation back to the originating program. Orders can be sent and processed individually or in batches.

The end result is a simple, reliable, low cost alternative for using the Internet in business transactions.

Alternatives using FTP

FTP means File Transfer Protocol, a method that quickly and directly transmits data from one point to another across the Internet.

(1) A customer starts a program from his hard disk that accesses a corporate server on the Internet.

(2) The server responds with a short burst of data, triggering a display that actually comes from the user's program, itself. It looks like a web page, acts like a web page, and even contains all the latest changes that the server wants the user to see.

(3) The user places an order transmited by FTP.

(4) The home office receives orders and processes them.

This is similar to the email example except the interaction between the user and the home office is in real time. Quantities on hand, special buys, current pricing and inventory are immediately updated.

Transactions are fast and reliable because only the data directly relating to the order is sent through the Internet, which is being used as if it was a very large office network or LAN.

Alternatives using a custom browser

Here we have an application program with a web page browser built in. The program has complete control over what can be accessed through the internet and how it is displayed. In addition, the program can perform specific business tasks such as displaying data entry screens for input to be sent back to the server, reporting, hardcopy generation, ad-lib queries into the server's database, and so on.

The application program may be regarded as an intelligent "wrapper" around a browser capability that greatly extends the range of the user's interaction with the web server.

Alternatives using an application program inside a browser

This illustration is the reverse of the example above. It is an application program contained within a web browser. The browser, itself, is the "wrapper."

This is the best of both worlds, full Internet and WWW functionality mixed with smart, automated, task-specific business applications.

The advantages of "strictly-business" applications are combined with the advantages of having the broad range of WWW presentation modes.

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	Unique approaches to business using the Internet