Social Commerce Information System Design Designing a Social Commerce Information System Social Commerce Information System DesignGraduate Research ProposalbySundeep BollipoHarrisburg University of Science & Technology,Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.April 15, 2016 ABSTRACT Social media has become a major communication platform where people share their ideas, interests, opinions, review and feedback on products and services they have experience or aspire to purchase. The Most of the social media and virtual media communication networks, such as Pinterest, Vine, Instagram, Twitter, Tumbler, Facebook, Google+, YouTube channel, brand specific digital campaigns and mobile applicable, provide vital information about the consumer experiences and interests, which are valuable to business to not just learn about their products but also design and develop better product for the customers. These communication platforms enable the users to interact with their network group and share their likes, dislikes and product experience, which allow others to become possible potential buyers for the brand. The social networks also provide a great opportunity for the business to establish their presence in the markets and reach out the potential customers by sharing information on future product lines and additional product features. The existing information systems in most of the business obtain consumer experience on their products through feedback from their website, mailing existing customer base, online and store surveys. This limits the information to consumers who have access to either of these channels or who are aware of their products only. The new social ecommerce system, known as Social commerce, will gather information from various social media websites and analyze it further by acting as communication channel between the product design, marketing and the potential consumers in the market. The system is integrated with social networking channels to improve digital campaigns, online presence and mobile applications. The data from these channels will be tracked with help of keywords, hashtags and clickable links, which further provide necessary data for web and consumer analytics. The new ecommerce information systems will also include additional security and privacy of the customer’s information and the product transactions. With this new system the business can establish a strong social media presence, establish better customer relationship, further improve their brand experience and creating a higher business value.Keywords: Social Media Networks, E-Commerce, Information Systems, Analytics, Business Processes etc. Table of Contents ABSTRACT2 Keywords:2 RELATIONSHIP TO CPT5 Overview of CPT Assignment5 Highlights of Proposed Research6 Relationship between CPT Assignment and Proposed Project6 INTRODUCTION7 Background7 Problem Overview7 Why do we need new system?8 Why choose Social Commerce?10 Definitions10 PROBLEM STATEMENT AND JUSTIFICATION11 Problem Sta.

1. Social Commerce Information System Design
Designing a Social Commerce Information System
Social Commerce Information System DesignGraduate Research
ProposalbySundeep BollipoHarrisburg University of Science &
Technology,Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.April 15, 2016
ABSTRACT
Social media has become a major communication platform
where people share their ideas, interests, opinions, review and
feedback on products and services they have experience or
aspire to purchase. The Most of the social media and virtual
media communication networks, such as Pinterest, Vine,
Instagram, Twitter, Tumbler, Facebook, Google+, YouTube
channel, brand specific digital campaigns and mobile
applicable, provide vital information about the consumer
experiences and interests, which are valuable to business to not
just learn about their products but also design and develop
better product for the customers. These communication
platforms enable the users to interact with their network group
and share their likes, dislikes and product experience, which
allow others to become possible potential buyers for the brand.
The social networks also provide a great opportunity for the
business to establish their presence in the markets and reach out
the potential customers by sharing information on future
product lines and additional product features. The existing
information systems in most of the business obtain consumer
experience on their products through feedback from their
website, mailing existing customer base, online and store
surveys. This limits the information to consumers who have
access to either of these channels or who are aware of their
products only. The new social ecommerce system, known as
Social commerce, will gather information from various social

2. media websites and analyze it further by acting as
communication channel between the product design, marketing
and the potential consumers in the market. The system is
integrated with social networking channels to improve digital
campaigns, online presence and mobile applications. The data
from these channels will be tracked with help of keywords,
hashtags and clickable links, which further provide necessary
data for web and consumer analytics. The new ecommerce
information systems will also include additional security and
privacy of the customer’s information and the product
transactions. With this new system the business can establish a
strong social media presence, establish better customer
relationship, further improve their brand experience and
creating a higher business value.Keywords:
Social Media Networks, E-Commerce, Information Systems,
Analytics, Business Processes etc.
Table of Contents
ABSTRACT2
Keywords:2
RELATIONSHIP TO CPT5
Overview of CPT Assignment5
Highlights of Proposed Research6
Relationship between CPT Assignment and Proposed Project6
INTRODUCTION7
Background7
Problem Overview7
Why do we need new system?8
Why choose Social Commerce?10
Definitions10
PROBLEM STATEMENT AND JUSTIFICATION11
Problem Statement11
Problem Justification11
Deliverable12
Type of Research Work13
Delimits of Research Work14

3. LITERATURE REVIEW15
Overview15
Proposed
Solution
Overview16
Framework & Topic Breakdown17
Additional Studies19
Was problem solved?22
PROPOSED SOLUTION APPROACH23
Research Methodology23
Key Output23
Research Design23
Research Approach24
Research Design - Work Breakdown Structure26
PROPOSED WORK PLAN27
REFERENCES28
RELATIONSHIP TO CPT Overview of CPT Assignment
My CPT assignment is with a multination corporation which
develops and sells software products used for architectural and
engineering designs in various industries like construction,
product development, manufacturing, digital media, movies and
entertainment fields. These products are also used to design 2-D

4. and 3-D models in above mentioned industries. The assignment
deals with the design and optimized solution offerings to the
brand products in real time, enabling the customers to license
what they need under the terms that meet their unique business
goals.
I have been working in Information Technology (IT) services
domain for about a decade which included software engineering
projects for major social media, retail and e-Commerce business
which provide both consumer goods and services. Also my
academic majors which include Computer Systems Networking
and Communications Engineering (also known as Computer
Networking), Information Systems Engineering and
Management (ISEM), helped me to better understand the
business need and applications of Information Systems (IS) and
the communication channels. And my interest has always been
inclined towards e-Commerce industry, may it be consumer
products and services or software products used to develop and
engineering of 3-D models. With my academic background and
professional work experience in the field of Software Quality
Engineering, I choose to work in the field of Software Product
design and development. This combination has provoked me to
take the current assignment.
As a programmer analyst in Software Quality Engineering, I

5. handle quality engineering activities such as understanding the
business requirements, conducting technical analysis of the user
stories and develop test strategies and plans for the Client
product licensing application. Also I develop test guidelines,
reusable automation frameworks for RESTful (Representational
state transfer architecture) and Amazon Cloud Computing Web
Services. In-order to ensure higher quality and productivity of
the application I also conduct and analyze performance tests,
metrics and respective acceptance criteria for the web services.
Highlights of Proposed Research
Here are some of highlights of proposed Information System
design for Social Commerce.
· The new social ecommerce system, known as Social
commerce, will gather information from various social media
websites and analyze it further by acting as communication
channel between the product design, marketing and the potential
consumers in the market.
· The system is integrated with social networking channels to
improve digital campaigns, online presence and mobile
applications. The data from these channels will be tracked with
help of keywords, hashtags and clickable links, which further
provide necessary data for web and consumer analytics.
· With this new system the business can establish a strong social

6. media presence, establish better customer relationship, further
improve their brand experience and creating a higher business
value. Relationship between CPT Assignment and Proposed
Project
Since the selected research topic area is closely related to my
field of work. In due process of developing a research proposal
and final deliverable, I will be exploring many research papers,
articles, journals and web-published content. This will help me
in learning more about my field of work, study and interest
which further helps me to do better at my assignments. The
learnings from the course and developing a research proposal
will also improve my reporting and other documenting skills in
the project assignment. With a combination of these skills,
knowledge and experience I’m sure it will enrich the overall
learning capabilities as well as practical approach to my work
assignments
INTRODUCTIONBackground
Social media has become a major communication platform
where people share their ideas, interests, opinions, review and
feedback on products and services they have experience or

7. aspire to purchase. [1]. Most of the social media communication
networks, such as Pinterest, Vine, Instagram, Twitter, Tumbler,
Facebook, Google+, YouTube channel, brand specific mobile
applications and digital campaigns provide vital information
about consumer experiences, interests and their opinion on the
products and services a business offers. These communication
channels enable the users to interact with their network groups
and share their experiences, which allow others to become
potential consumers of the brand. This valuable information not
only helps the businesses to learn about their product
experience but also develop new and improved product and
services with features aspired by the consumers. [2]. Also it
provides a great opportunity for the business to establish their
social media presence in the industry by identifying and
reaching out these potential customers and share information
on future product lines and additional product features thus by
increasing their customer base. [3].
Problem Overview
In order to establish strong social media presence and utilize its
full potential a business would require advanced information
system which gather and analyze information from various
communication channels in the internet. The lack of strong
social media presence of the company, leaves a disadvantage in
accessing the information on product experience from
consumers who do not access the brand website but purchase the

8. products and services through retail stores. The information and
data shared by these customers, cannot be tracked without
integration of the existing information system with social
networking channels. This limits the businesses to local markets
with focus on local trends and existing customer choices only,
decreasing the rate of brand expansion and its value. [4].
The existing information systems in most of the small and
medium scale business obtain information on their products and
services experience through feedback from brand website,
mobile applications, online and telephone surveys, emails,
letters and retail stores.
Figure 1: Existing e-Commerce Information System Model
This again limits information gathering from existing consumer
base, who have access to either of these channels or who are
aware of their products only and do not consider potential
customers who are not aware of the brand products but are
interesting in similar product line. [5]. This lack of integration
of information systems with social media networks and other
communication channels creates a disadvantage in expanding
the business, its brand value and customer base in the industry.
Why do we need new system?
An information system well integrated with social media
networks and communication channels, create a great advantage

9. in handling the responses from the consumers as well as
controlling their feedback. In the advent of any false allegations
or propaganda on the brand products, controlling of such
information is a near to impossible as these social networks act
as an echo channel for distributing the information. And with
the industry competitors awaiting to leverage such an
opportunity to extend their business will leave no chance for the
business to flourish ahead. [6]. Situations like these can be
handled by advanced information system which can gather,
identify and analyze right information and measure the validity
of it before processing it further and taking necessary actions
against it. This allows the business to resolve the issues quickly
and secure its product sales and brand value.
Figure 2: Proposed Social Commerce Information System Model
The proposed social media integrated e-commerce, known as
Social Commerce, information system will gather information
from various social media websites, analyze and distribute it
further by acting as communication channel between the product
design, marketing and the potential consumers in the market.
This is achieved by introducing a social media business process
in the existing information system which is integrating with
social media communication channels to not just gather
information but also to expand brand’s digital campaigns and its
online presence. The data from these channels will be tracked

10. with help of keywords, hashtags and clickable links, which
further provide necessary data for web and consumer analytics.
The internal business services such as Customer relationship
management (CRM), Application Management Services (AMS),
Supply Chain Management (SCM) and web application services
like Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can utilize this
information and quickly responds to the changes required to
improvise their products’ design, features, services and
manufacturing needs by further distributing the data across the
systems.
The new information systems will also include additional
security and privacy standards that ensure the safety of
customer’s information and their product transactions data. This
can be achieved by replacing the simple data encryption
standards (DES) with new advanced encryption standards (AES)
like Triple DES and other such, which involve higher bit
encryption of product transaction data. [2]. With this new
system the business can establish a strong social media
presence, establish better customer relationship, further improve
their brand experience and creating a higher business value. [7]
Why choose Social Commerce?
The e-Commerce industry has always caught my attention with
its rapid growth and accessibility to small and medium business
as well. And with the increasing number of users and easy

11. access to social media networking, new ways to share products
and services experience with the consumer’ network groups
have started. This enabled business to reach consumers
distributed geospatially, by establish a strong social media
presence. I have been working in Information Technology (IT)
services domain for about a decade which included software
engineering projects for major social media, retail and e-
Commerce business which provide both consumer goods and
services. Also my academic majors which include Computer
Systems Networking and Communications Engineering (also
known as Computer Networking), Information Systems
Engineering and Management (ISEM), helped me to better
understand the business need and applications of Information
Systems (IS) and the communication channels. With a
combination of these skills, knowledge and experience I was
motivated to find a solution to the problem, which is lack of
social media networks integration with information systems,
incurred in small and medium scale business.
Definitions
Social Media: A virtual network services used for creating,
sharing, promoting, exchanging, interacting information or data
or any sharable content with the registered users of the service
[8].
Information Systems: A data exchange system which is used to
collect, gather and analyze data from different sources online or

12. offline web services in a business or organization.
PROBLEM STATEMENT AND JUSTIFICATION Problem
Statement
The information systems in most of the small and medium scale
business obtain information on their products and services
experience through feedback from brand website, mobile
applications, online and telephone surveys, emails, interviews,
letters and brand specific retail stores. This limits business to
gather information from existing customer groups, consumers
who are aware of their products and have access to these
communication channels. This does not include potential
customers who are not aware of the brand products but have
interest in similar products. The views and opinions shared by
these customers across internet, cannot be captured without
integration of the existing information systems with social
media services [5]. This lack of integration of information
systems with social media networks and other communication
channels creates a disadvantage in expanding the business, its
brand value and customer base in the industry.
Problem Justification
The social media networks have become the new means of
communication among the consumers. They are used to connect
users to each other in their network groups as well as to share
information such on products and services experiences,
feedbacks, suggestions and recommendations. Also these social

13. networks are used to propagate new and upcoming market trends
in consumer goods and services, which help the business to
identify, adopt and develop them quickly to capture their market
share.
Here are some of the business areas which are effected by the
lack of social media services integration into their information
systems.
· Business Strategy: With lack of integrated system, the
businesses are limited to expand their brand through website
and mobile application only. The business and marketing
strategies target local markets with focus on local trends and
existing customer choices, which leads to slow expansion of the
business and its brand value. [4].
· Budget & Resources: With limitations in budget and resources
the businesses tend to depend on open source data gathering
techniques. These techniques would require complex integration
methods which would again need skilled and diverse resources.
This will increase the cost of resources as well as developing
and maintaining the systems.
· Information Technology: The significant area of impact will
be with infrastructure expansion, development of improved
business and online applications, adoption of new web
technologies, social media analytics and data mining programs.
The existing information channels should be modified to be

14. compactable with newly introduced components. This creates a
challenge on application integration and sustainability. It would
require skilled resources and adoptions of newer technologies
for design and development standards. Also the employees
would require in-depth knowledge about the functionality and
features of the new system through sequence of trainings and
workshops.
· Public Relations: As much as the communication channels are
boom to the business they can be their doom as well. The main
challenge a business will encounter with integration its business
with social media networks is to optimize its presence. In the
advent of any false allegations or propaganda on the brand
products, controlling of such information is a near to impossible
as these social networks act as an echo channel for distributing
the information. And with the industry competitors awaiting to
leverage such an opportunity to extend their business will leave
no chance for the business to flourish ahead [6]. Also the
businesses fall back in securing the customer data which creates
a higher correction cost and lawsuits. This not only looses the
customer base but as well disrupts the business reputation.
The proposed information system will gather information from
various social media websites and analyze it further by acting as
communication channel between the product design, marketing
and the potential consumers in the market. The system is

15. integrated with social networking channels to improve digital
campaigns, online presence and mobile applications. The data
from these channels will be tracked with help of keywords,
hashtags and clickable links, which further provide necessary
data for web and consumer analytics. This is further utilized by
internal business services to optimize their operations and
improvise brand products’ design, their features, services and
manufacturing needs.
Deliverable
The main deliverable of this research work is to design a social
media integrated e-commerce information system design. This
design will include the new business process components that
will be added to an existing information system design,
allowing it to collect information from various social media
services selected by the business. This new design is based on
the research learnings and findings from various articles,
journals, websites, case studies and others such data related to
the research work. This new system will provide the business
with in-depth information about their product experience and
allow the business to adopt to the changing market trends.Type
of Research Work
Since the social commerce system is an emergent technology in
the e-commerce industry, it’s design mainly requires a non-
sequential and flexible qualitative research. This involves
exploring relevant case studies pertaining to marketing treads in

16. e-commerce industry, the information gathering systems and
how the social media drives the business. It would also require
a holistic research of the effects of social media platforms on
the business sales, marketing, sustainability and their response
to customer needs. The below figure-3 provide an outline of the
research work, its inputs, data considered and final deliverable.
Figure 3: Overview of Research Work
Case Studies: As part of qualitative research design, case
studies related to the influence of social media interactions on
the e-commerce businesses [9], the effectiveness of social
media driven marketing strategies [2], and establishing a strong
social media presence [10] will be studies and analyzed. The
study provides an overview of on-going challenges the
businesses face with evolving social media platforms as well
explore the the opportunities involved in integrating these
platforms into the existing e-commerce systems.
Holistic Research: The holistic research provides more of a
philosophical approval to every research perspective involved in
designing a social commerce information system. This would
provide an overview on the impact of social media platforms not
only on the businesses but on the customer groups as well. The
study helps to analyze the benefits of integrating social media

17. platforms to e-commerce systems and how they provide a new
communication channel between the businesses and its
customer, allowing them to better understand their needs and
meet their expectations. This is achieved by gathering
information from various media platforms and understanding
the consumers from every perspective both rationally and
philosophically.
Delimits of Research Work
The research work is limited to developing a design for social
media integrated e-commerce information but not the
development of a system or an application itself. Also the
research work will consider the research areas related to the
impact of social media networks on information gathering and
analysis. It does not include any research in improving
marketing strategies or sales or a business. The research work is
purely conceptual and for learning purpose and so it does not
endorse of support any social networking services or businesses.
LITERATURE REVIEW Overview
Social media networks have become a major communication
platform where people share their ideas, interests, opinions,
review and feedback on products and services they have
experience or aspire to purchase. [1]. The communication
channels enable the users to interact with their network groups
and share their experiences, interests and opinions on the

18. products and services a business offers. These users are tending
to be potential consumers of the brand which when learned by
the businesses become a valuable information in helping them
to learn about their products and services and what needs to be
done to improve their experience in a positive way. [2]. Also it
provides a great opportunity for the business to establish their
social media presence in the industry by identifying and
reaching out these potential customers and share information
on future product lines and additional product features thus by
increasing their customer base. [3].
In order to establish strong social media presence and utilize its
full potential a business would require advanced information
system which gather and analyze information from various
communication channels in the internet. The lack of strong
social media presence of the company, leaves a disadvantage in
accessing the information on product experience from
consumers who do not access the brand website but purchase the
products and services through retail stores. The information and
data shared by these customers, cannot be tracked without
integration of the existing information system with social
networking channels. This limits the businesses to local markets
with focus on local trends and existing customer choices only,
decreasing the rate of brand expansion and its value. [4].

19. The information systems in most of the small and medium scale
business obtain information on their products and services
experience through feedback from brand website, mobile
applications, online and telephone surveys, emails, interviews,
letters and brand specific retail stores. This limits business to
gather information from existing customer groups, consumers
who are aware of their products and have access to these
communication channels. This does not include potential
customers who are not aware of the brand products but have
interest in similar products. The views and opinions shared by
these customers across internet, cannot be captured without
integration of the existing information systems with social
media services. This lack of integration of information systems
with social media networks and other communication channels
creates a disadvantage in expanding the business, its brand
value and customer base in the industry. [5].
Proposed