UNIVERSITY EXAMINATIONS: 2016/2017
EXAMINATION FOR THE DEGREES OF BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY/ APLIED COMPUTING/BUSINESS
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
BIT 1302A, BUSS 208, BAC 2105 E COMMERCE
FULLTIME/ PART TIME
ORDINARY EXAMINATIONS
DATE: AUGUST, 2017 TIME: 2 HOURS
INSTRUCTIONS: Answer Question One & ANY OTHER TWO questions.
QUESTION ONE [30 MARKS]
a) Describe the following terms as they are applied in the e-commerce environment
i) Business process
ii) EFT
iii) Industry
iv) Industry value chain (8 Marks)
b) Public policy and technical standards are the two pillars supporting any e-commerce
architecture. Discuss each of these, stating their usefulness (4 Marks)
c) Identify the following perspectives of e-commerce and cite characteristics of each
i) Buyer’s perspective (4 Marks)
ii) Seller’s perspective (4 Marks)
d) Identify THREE technical limitations and THREE non-technical limitations involved in
the use of e-commerce (6 Marks)
e) Describe the term quick response (QR) with respect to EDI and cite any TWO limitations
of QR (4 Marks)
QUESTION TWO [20 MARKS]
a) Conducting a commercial transaction involves a trade cycle
i) Identify and briefly describe the steps involved in a trade cycle. Draw a diagram to
illustrate this (4 Marks)
ii) Describe three common trade cycles (3 Marks)
b) Describe the SET protocol and identify TWO specifications for SET (4 Marks)
c) The use of EDI offers both benefits and limitations to companies. Identify FOUR
advantages and FIVE disadvantages of EDI. (9 Marks)
QUESTION THREE [20 MARKS]
a) Define the term transaction with respect to e-commerce (1 Mark)
b) Explain the following types of transactions:
i) Market driven transaction (2 Marks)
ii) Market link transaction (2 Marks)
iii) Market place transaction (2 Marks)
c) The system architecture is a critical consideration when building an e-commerce website.
i) Define the term “system architecture” (2 Marks)
ii) Describe and draw a diagram to illustrate each of the following website architectures:
– Two-tier architecture (3 Marks)
– Multi-tier architecture (4 Marks)
d) Identify TWO ways of scaling e-commerce hardware (4 Marks)
QUESTION FOUR [20 MARKS]
a) Multimedia contents make up a large proportion of e-commerce transactions
i) Discuss the term multimedia and identify any THREE types (4 Marks)
ii) Describe THREE characteristics of multimedia servers (6 Marks)
b) Discuss any FIVE controls on electronic cash to reduce operational risk (10 Marks)
QUESTION FIVE [20 MARKS]
a) Distinguish between the semantic and packing layers of EDI (4 Marks)
b) Cite TWO similarities and TWO differences of EDI versus email (4 Marks)
c) Identify FOUR advantages of trading with electronic cheques (4 Marks)
d) Explain FOUR types of route providers for e-commerce (8 Marks)
