E-Government in Malaysia: Its implementation so far and citizen’s adoption strategies




E-government means the use of internet technology as a policy for exchanging information, providing delivery of public services and transactions with citizens, businesses and other arms of government. The most expectations for e-government are improved efficiency, convenience, and better accessibility of public services.


Malaysia’s e-government initiative starts in 1997 with the launch of the Multimedia Super Corridor’s E-Government Flagship Application. The vision for Malaysia government is to enable government to become more responsive and refills the needs for its citizens.


The seven pilot projects of the Electronic Government Flagship Application are:

1. Project Monitoring System (SPP II) - PMS project provides the new system for development projects observation. Scope of this project comprises 3 aspects (application, data, and communication) that aim to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of project management.


2. Human Resource Management Information System (HRMIS) - HRMIS is an integrated, technology-enabled Human Resource Management Information System for the Malaysian Public Service, incorporating Global Best Practices in HR that would enable the Public Service to successfully deal with the Challenges of the K-Economy.


3. Generic Office Environment (GOE) - great document and office management solution that enables users to effectively and efficiently handle their office environment. It is fully web-based and has been customized based on local developed package, DRDok.


4. Electronic Procurement (EP) www.eperolehan.com.my/– end-to-end electronic procurement system that enables Government Agencies around the country to procure products and services electronically from both local and international suppliers. E-Procuremeent transaaction value grew in 2006: RM 2 Billion worth of contract


5. Electronic Services (E-Services) http://www.eservices.com.my/- Provide perform transactions with various service supplier example Jabatan Pengangkutan Jalan (JPJ), Polis DiRaja Malaysia (PDRM), Polis DiRaja Malaysia (PDRM), Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB)

6. Electronic Labour Exchange (ELX)http://www.elx.gov.my/ - Electronic Labour Exchange captured 300,834 job seekers, 1,544,881 vacancies and 823,430 job matches

7. E-Syariah http://www.esyariah.gov.my/ - integrated with the Muslim Marriage System

Now goverment already provide 3,749 Government forms can be downloaded for free and 1,174 online services are available on the Portal.

The Problems faced by e-government are information infrastructure, efficiency, quality of service, lacks of public awareness ,language barrier and public administration. Government still not enough effort put for awareness.Many citizens do not use e-government for several reasons, amongthese unfamiliarity with ICT, lack of access, lack of training, and concerns about privacy and security of information.

So E-government may provide easy and convenience in the delivery of public services, and offer innovative government services that will prompt citizens.

Review on E-Commerce Site (Amazon.com)

I was reviewing on the Amazon.com. As I know, Amazon.com, Inc. was established by Jeff Bezos in the year 1994, and its e-commerce site was launched on the internet in 1995. Furthermore, Amazon is the very first foremost leading companies to execute business activities through the internet and it also act as intermediaries in transaction between buyers and seller. In Amazon web page, we able to look for merchandise such as digital video disk, furniture, electronic, jewelry, health and wellness, furniture, and etc. in its e-commerce site.

The first thought came through me about Amazon.com is just that it is just a website for electronically buying and selling activities that highlight on price offer and the features for the product itself. Eventually, after I surf into Amazon.com homepage, I found that Amazon.com provide recommendations for seller and also buyers, is something exactly being your personal buying or selling consultant.

Besides that, I found that Amazon.com offer service to assist buyers and seller that newly approach to the e-commerce business, in short, is to add on a new experience to them on dealing business that is not only physical approach but is through the internet. Additionally, I discovered Amazon.com is strong in customer tracking which it presents an ongoing, up-to-date comment to its customer. This is essential to a successful operation to be aware on the business activities and to recognize your primary customer on what are their need and wants, as well as their expectation from the company itself. Furthermore, customer tracking helps to build a good relation towards the company and the consumer trends. Amazon.com features multi-level e-commerce tactics towards its service. In short, Amazon.com allows other multi-level marketing company to market their product or services directly to its platform besides their own merchandise. For instance, Target and Toys 'R Us.

The world now is stepping towards technology and globalization, online business gives business people more benefit than harm, why not giving a try to extend business to online consumers with this method? After surfing in Amazon.com, I feel that people that do not have enough of financial capital, business experiences, time consuming, men-power, are most likely welcome to invest in e-commerce technology to market your product to worldwide.

Things to take note to prevent e-auction fraud when a consumer participating in an e-auction

This era, e-auction plays as an important role in electronic commerce, and many buyers and sellers enjoy the convenience and there is few popular e-auction website such as Ebay, Amazon, and some local e-auction website such as lelong.com has generate considerable income in doing business of electronic auction. Due to the convenience and rapidly increase of trade figures, many liar aim the area of e-auction and they start to deceive the user of e-auction. There is several types of e-auction fraud, such as:
1. Bid shielding: having fake bidders bid at very high prices and then later pull out at the last minute
2. Shilling : placing fake bids on auction items to artificially jack up the bidding price
3. Fake photos and misleading descriptions
4. Improper grading techniques
5. Selling reproductions
6. Failure to pay the auction house

So we should be aware of all types of e-auction fraud, and there is several ways to prevent e-auction fraud as well, such as :

1. User identity verification
Such in IC number, driver’s license number or date of birth. For example, verified eBay user, the voluntary program, encourages users to supply eBay with information for online verification.

2. Authentication service.
It is to determine whether an item is genuine and described appropriately. It difficult to perform because their training and experience, experts can detect counterfeits based on subtle detail.

3. Grading services
This is a way to determine the physical condition of an item, such as ‘poor quality’ or ‘mint condition. Different item have different grading systems. For example, trading cards are graded from A1 to F1, while coins are graded from poor to perfect recalculated.

4. Feedback forum.
It allows buyers and sellers to build up their online trading reputations. It provides user with ability to comment on their experiences with other.

5. Insurance policy
For example, eBay offers insurance underwritten, users are covered up to $200, will with a $25 deductible. The program is provided at no cost to eBay user.

6. Escrow services
Both buyers and sellers in a deal are protected with an independent third party. Buyer mails the payment to escrow services which verifies the payment and alerts the seller when everything checks out. An example of a provider of online escrow services s i-Escrow and 1hostMalaysia.
For 1hostMalaysia:

1HostMalaysia is the only ICANN Accredited Domain Registrar that has a special registrar escrow account devoted to domain escrow services. We have also partnered with Citibank, the largest financial services companies in the world, to make sure that escrowed funds will be protected while you’re buying or selling your domain names.

When you use 1HostMalaysia’s domain escrow services, you will receive:
Peace of Mind – the domain names will be transferred to escrow before funds are released to the seller.
Security – knowing that your financial information is going to a neutral third party and not a stranger.
Money Back Guarantee – if the seller doesn’t properly transfer the domain names, 1HostMalaysia will refund your money back to your account.
Convenience – deposit monies into escrow using credit card (Visa, MasterCard, American Express), personal, business, cashier’s or certified check, PayPal, or wire transfer.

7. Non-payment punishment
To protect sellers, a friendly warning for first-time nonpayment. A sterner warning is for second-time offense, with a 30 day suspension for a third offense and an indefinite suspension for a fourth offense.

8. Appraisal services
Which use a variety of methods to appraise items. It includes expert assessment of authenticity and condition, and reviewing what comparable items have sold for in the marketplace in recent months.

9. Item verification
Which is a way of confirm he identity and evaluate the condition of an item. Third parties will evaluate and identify an item through a variety of means. For example, some collectors have their item “DNA tagged” for identification purpose. It provides a way of tracking an item if it charges ownership in future.

10. Physical inspection
It can eliminate many problems especially for collectors’ item

refer to ( http://www.crime-research.org/library/Fraud.htm )

Corporate Blogging: A new marketing communication tool for companies

Blogs have become one of the hottest communication tools on the Web. Nowadays, blogs have reached into the corporate and government sectors as well. What started out as an outlet for teenage expression and grassroots journalism has turned into a lucrative communications tool for small and large businesses alike. Corporate Blogging refers to a company producing or supporting a blog that it uses to accomplish business objectives. These are very strong communication and information sharing tools in a corporate community and they are thought provocative.

Why become popular??

1. Leaders can communicate directly with customers, suppliers and investors, as well as employees, helping distribute and explain strategy.

2. Compared with conference or printed memos to all staff, enterprise blogs are highly cost effective.

3. Blogs' diary format gives a sense of immediacy, and regular posting soon creates a large, searchable database of information hyperlinked to extra relevant material.

4. Blogs are ideal for internal collaboration being a workspace where project members keep each other updated without wasting time writing reports or searching the Outlook inbox.

5. Sharing their ideas freely in an honest voice brings the blogging companies new connections and generates trust which will lead to business opportunities galore.

6. If the blog has a positive effect on company’s reputation then it is very beneficial to the career.

Tips for success in corporate blogging:

1. Culture: If a company has particular cultural traits worth revealing or a bad reputation it wants to repudiate, blogging can be an attractive option.

2. Transparency: important to establish credibility and trust with an audience. People want to see an honest portrayal of a company.

3. Time: It takes a lot of time to set up, research and write a quality blog. Companies need to identify a person who has the time or whose schedule is freed up to make the time.

4. Dialogue: A company's ability and willingness to engage in a dialogue with their customer base about topics that the customer base is interested in is critical to its blogging success.


5. Entertaining writing style and personalization: A blogger's writing style and how much they are willing to reveal about their life, experience and opinions brings human interest to a blog, helps build a personal connection with readers and will keep people reading."

Electronic Currency
Electronic currency means money or scrip use over the internet. Electronic currency allows people to buy the goods and the services that the hugeness of the internet offers.Typically people using electronic currency system example e-gold and pay-pal to make their transactions.

There are few benefits of people using electronic currency system:
-Debit cards and online bill payments allow immediate transfer of funds from an individual's personal account to a business's account without any actual paper transfer of money. This offers a great convenience to many people and businesses alike.
-Electronics currency system create convenience for both the buyers and merchant to make transactions for the payment just by clicking the confirm button and the deal is done.

One rare success has been Hong Kong's Octopus card system, which begin as a transit payment system and has grown into a widely used electronic cash system. Singapore also has an electronic money operation for its public transportation system (commuter trains, bus, etc), which is very similar to Hong Kong's Octopus card and based on the same type of card.

Type of E-micropayment systems

Paystone Technologies - http://www.paystone.com/

Founded in 2001, Paystone provides an reasonably priced online payment method without the risk of chargeback from fraudulent credit card use. Paystone can well handle small financial transactions (micropayments) as low as $0.25. The ability to development micropayments opens a whole new world for entrepreneurs of all sizes. A small business or individual now has a method of generating revenue from their website quickly, easily and inexpensively. This makes a whole new range of content available to personal account holders. The large online merchant can also realize the full benefits of the Paystone solution to expand and increase the profitability of their business.

Peppercoin -http://www.peppercoin.com/

Peppercoin is a cryptographic system for processing micropayments. Peppercoin Inc. was a company that offers services based on the peppercoin method. The core idea is to bill one randomly selected transaction a lump sum of money rather than bill each transaction a small amount. It uses "universal aggregation", which means that it aggregates transactions over users, merchants as well as payment service providers.

link: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_cash

Potentials and Consumers' Adoption of Mobile Payment Systems in Malaysia

How Consumer Adopt Mobile Payment System

Consumers define mobile payments as the use of a mobile device to conduct a payment transaction in which money is transferred from a payer to a receiver through an intermediary such as Mobile Money (MM). Mobile payments also come with definition of mobile payment transactions conducted via mobile banking systems. It’s important to differentiate between mobile payments and mobile banking services. Mobile banking services are based on banks’ own legacy systems and offered for the banks’ own customers while mobile payment are offered as a new payment service to a retail market, which is distinguished by:-

1) Mass competition of providers such as banks and telecom operators.

2) Two different and demanding groups of adopters who are consumers and merchants.

3) Challenges regarding regularity and compatibility of diverse payment systems.

Note: All these factors will increase the complication of mobile payment adoption environment thus affect consumer willingness to use mobile phone as a payment instrument in transactions.

Potential of mobile payment systems

Offers customers additional value in terms of location-free access – provide consumers with possibilities to purchase something in anywhere, timely access to financial assets as well as it’s also an alternative way in making payments to goods and services. Difference between traditional payment instruments and mobile payments are focus on time and location as well as independent purchase possibility.

Mobile payment systems also withhold compatibility between an innovation (mobile payment system) and values, experiences, and needs of potential adopters.

Complexity and problems with usability have contributed to the low adoption of a variety of payment systems, including smart cards and mobile banking. Similarly, ease of use and convenience has been found to affect consumer adoption of internet payments and WAP financial services. Mobile payments are commonly expected to increase consumer convenience by reducing the need for coins and cash in small transactions and increasing the availability of purchase possibilities.

The cost of a payment transaction has a direct effect on consumer adoption if the cost is passed on to customers. As shoppers in electronic channels are attentive to price of the transaction costs of mobile payments should be low enough to make the total cost of the purchase competitive with physical world prices.

The application of pre-paid cash card for consumers

For those who have bad credit, they might find it hard to get approved for a regular credit card. Nowadays, there are several options for them as well. One of these is the prepaid cash card.

Public Bank Debit Card

For prepaid debit card user, they can only spend the money within their account, which means that the money they have in the account is the credit limit in purchasing process. It is important for those who can’t control over the desire of purchase and ends up with bankrupt due to the credit cards debt. They will not longer suffer in the debt while using the prepaid debit card.

Besides, there are getting more and younger consumer declares to bankrupt year by year, it is a issue that we should concern. By applying the prepaid debit card for their children, parents can do more on control on their spending.

There are several advantages as well as disadvantages of getting prepaid debit cards, which will be further explained.

For advantages, it is available for just about anyone over the age of 18. So if they have the history of poor credit, it will be a smart choice for them. They can use the card instead of carrying around cash, it is more safety especially in high crime rate area. Besides, most of the prepaid debit cards are issued through Visa or MasterCard, which means they are widely accepted around the world. Since the credit limit is determined by the balance on the card, the user do not have to make monthly payments which is really annoying the credit cards user nowadays and they can free
from the hassle of bills and potential late fees.

Citibank Debit Card

However, there are disadvantage for prepaid debit card as well. Many prepaid debit cards come with a number of attached fees, which means that the user might be charged an application fee, as well as a fee for monthly maintenance. Some also include a charge every time the user makes a purchase which can be a big amount afterwards.

So for the viewers, prepaid debit card might be a great choice for you but please remember that you still have to control your desire of purchase to prevent the continuous decline in the money of the bank account.

Maybank Debit Card

Credit card debts : Causes and Prevention

Causes

Most debt problems arise when people experience changes in circumstances which leave them unable to meet their commitments. This can be due to the loss of a job, a birth, ill health, a bereavement, etc. The causes of debt can be devastating to people and their families. Causes include beliefs about future earnings, debt attitudes and financial knowledge. There are several causes of debt below:

1. Ignoring the debt problem is one of the main causes of debt.
2. Be unrealistic about basic needs such food, fuel, clothing etc.
3. Borrowing more money to pay off existing debts. This increases your outgoings and just delays dealing with the problem.
4. Not working out a budget so forgetting about occasional items such as school expenses, Christmas etc.
5. Not maintaining agreements with creditors, maintain it without fail. Do not ignore letters, reminders or default notices.

Prevention

By taking a few steps of prevention today, tomorrow your finances will have a clean bill of health freeing you to live a life of opportunity rather than of difficulty. Now, I will share some ways that how to avoid credit card debt

1. Manage your finances - starting with a strategy will help to keep you on track before you pull out the credit card. The first step is determining your monthly income and needed expenses. As part of these monthly expenses, figure in 5-10% of your income to set aside for emergencies, long range savings such as a retirement account, and short term savings.
2. Know your interest rate - If you’re going to use a credit card, regardless if you pay the balance in full each month, you need to know the interest rate. This means not only knowing what interest rate you were offered, but also the interest rate the issuer actually gives you on approval.
3. Pay on time - If your payment arrives before the actual due dates you will save more money on interest because any interest you pay is calculated based on the average daily balance.
4. Avoid extra expenses - Sometimes it’s the little extra expenses that sneak up on you before you even know it
5. Early Education - The best method for prevention is teaching our youngest generation all about money before they even qualify for a credit card. The earlier children learn how to manage finances the less likely they will be to fall into credit card and debt problems as an adult.

Phishing: Examples and its prevention methods
Phishing is intentional acquiring of personal and sensitive information from the victim such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a business or individual. PayPal, eBay, credit card and online banks are common targets. Phishing is typically carried out by e-mail or instant messaging, and often directs users to enter details at a website, although phone contact has also been used.

There are few examples most popular of phishing cases to look through, eBay phishing. Scammers phish on eBay to obtain eBay ID's which then are used to sell fake or non-existent goods or such accounts can be sold further in the underground market. Many types of eBay scams exist. a victim of phishing?

MESSAGE FROM EBAY MEMBER

This genuine looking email is a masquerade. As soon as you clicked on "respond", you were directed to an exact clone of eBay and your personal information was stolen. These messages come in different styles and writings. Go manually to ebay.com and check your private messages there and you will see if its real or not.

UPDATE CREDIT CARD INFORMATION
Look at the link here. It looks as valid as it could. It is written http://signin.ebay.com, but this written link actually points again, yes, to a clone of ebay. This is done with a href code in html coding. I will show you an example. Click on this link:http://www.amazon.com/The Address shows ebay, but you were linked to amazon. I have linked you to amazon, but Con artist will link you to dupes of legit business websites and scam you. Beware what you click, your browser shows you the link in the left bottom corner if you only point over the link, without clicking it.

RE-ENTER ACCOUNT INFORMATION

This whole email was actually an image which referred you to a scam website if you clicked anywhere on it. Your mouse cursor changed to a "hand", if you have this set as default when you point over a link.

Prevention Method
Install an Anti-phishing software-attempt to prevent fraudulent websites from masquerading as other legitimate web sites eg iTrustPage: An anti-phishing tool that prevents users from filling out suspicious Web forms, and suggests the corresponding legitimate form. It is an open source code, developed by people for people for free.

Ingore the thing links in suspicious e-mail.Company e.g. eBay all alike will never send you emails to enter your personal information! If you do receive a important notice from eBay or bank and you are in doubt if its real, close the email, start a new session with your internet browser.

If you got a private message to your email from a suspicious member, do the same as mentioned above.

The Threat of Online Security : How safe is our data?

Security today is definitely acknowledged and being addressed from the highest level of management down in most sectors. It’s because the problems has become ever more complex and important as investment into IT and communications has increased. The result is that the availability, integrity and safeguarding of intellectual property among other aspects are now paramount if organizations expect to operate effectively and competitively. For better or worse, much of the world is wired. As well, the passing of legislation by governments and industry bodies has forced many sectors to respond and obey the laws and rules which carry requirements for IT security compliance.

Do you think our data is safe from any threats? Well, it’s not, an astounding 81 percent of companies polled by the Ponemon Institute in 2007 reported the loss of one or more laptop computers containing sensitive information during the previous year. Concern over security on data has increased however security softwares are not enough to keep our data totally safe. Many small businesses believe a security breach won't happen to their employees. Most of the excuses range from, "Who would be interested in our data, anyway?" to, "It wouldn't affect the company." But those are just excuses. The reality is that every time you or your employees leave the office, they're putting your company's important data at risk. Unless you take precautions now, you could end up compromising that information and possibly damaging your company.

However, ways to recover from data stolen or lostthese are few ideas or ways to keep your data safe from harm of threats or viruses or etc.

1. Encrypt it. - Simple use of the Encrypting File System (EFS) or Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) is probably more than ample.

2. Back it up. - Make sure to back up all important files before turn off or logout the computer.

3. Don't work from an unsecured computer - Directly connect to a remote server for document and data management, preferable from your own PC or PDA. Many of public computers are infected with spyware that monitors and records your keystrokes.

4. Use a password to lock up your data - Passwords are among the simplest and most reliable form of data protection available

5. Save in a pendrive or any USB memory devices - Instead of carrying your company's sensitive data on a PC or PDA, keep it on a memory stick or portable hard drive. In that way, it doesn't matter if your laptop is stolen or damaged, your data will be fine as long as you have the USB memory device