Abstract:

It is common for many enterprises, particularly those in the Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) sector, to have their business websites hosted externally. When such enterprises start to capture business transactions on those remote websites, the problem of how to deal with the transactions emerges. The problem can be considered in two parts. The first relates to the systemic problem of how the business integrates the processing of those transactions into its normal operations. The second part of the problem is related to the transmission of the transaction data from the website to the business, either pre-processing or post-processing if some processing occurs at the web server. This paper will examine the issues of whether transaction data should be stored on a remote server or relayed and also the implications for the transmission problem that is peculiar to externally hosted web sites, with a particular viewpoint of the security associated with the pre-process data capture and transmission. While no single approach will work for everyone, the suggestions outlined are particularly useful reminders for SME managers seeking to embark on web-based transactions when using remote hosting.