Project – Design and Implementation of a web-based local service search engine management system

CHAPTER ONE

1.0 Introduction

A universal electronic identification system ensures that all citizens have default access to digital services. We discuss the core features of the Nigerian digital ecosystem that have led to an exponential growth of in public digital service usage and started a move into the so-called postdigital society.

As SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises) conduct more and more of their business through collaborations and networks, the key focus in ICT is shifting from the individual enterprise to the supply chains of which they are a part, and to the wider ‘business ecosystem’. Just as we can only get a proper understanding of nature by considering each of the species as part of an ecosystem, so we can only get a proper view of local economies by considering them as communities of interacting and evolving organizations. This insight calls for a new approach to ICT infrastructure: one that enables businesses of all sizes, and especially SMEs, to develop, adapt and use innovative applications and services quickly and easily so as to compete in the fast-moving global economy.

Digital Ecosystems is an innovative concept, is emerging as the next step towards ICT adoption. The related technologies can support the spontaneous evolution of business relationships through the composition of software/services, components, and applications. The digital business ecosystem model brings together the digital and service economy and the material economy, considered as ecosystems. This will endow its participants, especially SMEs, with accessible Information Technology, supporting and reinforcing their competitiveness.

Here in this chapter the following will be deeply looked into; introduction, background of the study, statement of problem, aim and objectives of the study, significance of the study, scope of the study, limitation of the study and definition of terms.

 

• Background of the Study

Local Service Search Engine (Digital Ecosystem) is defined as“an open, loosely coupled,domain-clustered,     demand-driven,    self- organizing and agent-based environment, in which each species is proactive and responsive for its own benefit and profit”,which is an eotericter minology whose emergence is a result of the natural existence of the business ecosystem, along with the evolution of business network and information technology. The goal of DE is to improve the efficiency of the communication between internal agents, and to structuralize the existing business ecosystem. The contemporary DE researchesfocusontheoreticalstudyandapplicationdevelopment.DEiscomposedoftwobasicelements: Species and Environments. Species are mainly categorized into three types:Biological species, Economic species and Digital species. Species can play two different roles in digital ecosystems, as a service requester (client) that needs services, and as a service provider(server)that provides services. Moreover, a given species can be both a service requester and a service provider at the same time, and thus interacts with other species to form a dense social network.

DE comprises heterogeneous and distributed species. These species are distributed over the existing network infrastructures. Currently available services are less semantic in the network. Thus, it is not possible for a given service requester to know all the other service providers based on a service request. That is why we plan to design a semantic search engine to build a reliable and trustworthy link between service providers and service requesters in theDE environment.

The paper discusses related works in the problem domain; highlights the general overview of the proposed system; details design considerations of the system, both at the hardware and software level; discusses the operation and how the system was tested in conformity to system design and functional objectives; concludes the observations made; and makes recommendations for future improvement.

• Statement of the Problem

It is very unfortunate that the technology potentials have not been fully or even adequately utilized in the local ecosystem. Very little service providers and service seekers have grabbed this powerful opportunities. This has put managers, service providers, service seekers and researchers in the ecosystem far behind and results to some rising issues like;

1. The compliance risk associated to just any random local service provider.
2. Lack of visibility of local vendors by service seekers.
3. Lack of database applications for vendors’information
4. Manual method of promoting a vendors area of competence for hire purpose.

 

• Objectives of the Study

The aim of the project is to develop a search engine system for local service providers with the following objectives:

1. To develop a system that will keep track of local vendors’ services.
2. To develop a system that gives room for efficient recording of vendors’ information for accountability and easy retrieval of records.
3. To develop a system that improves vendor and service seeker
4. To develop a system that is users friendly as regards digital ecosystem.

• Significance of the Study

Many organizations’ strategies are built on digital transformation. No matter where in the digital journey a company is, it is essential that a digital ecosystem is established to improve performance and assist with interactions outside the company. The digital ecosystem allows an organization to focus its energies on facilitating business value by removing any frustrations linked to outdated, legacy B2B services. Furthermore, digital ecosystems add value to customer relationships by helping companies consistently meet service-level agreements (SLAs), provide fast fixes and quickly surface expectations.

Digital ecosystems are also transforming supply chains. Supply chains that originally functioned in separate markets are coming together in digital ecosystems to support the development of new products and services, creating supplier ecosystems. Although the traditional supply chain is still the foundation of most companies, the new model — digital ecosystems — is transforming the world of business by creating linear paths between suppliers and customers, thus creating new business opportunities.

• Scope of the Study

The scope of this research work for the proposed system “Local Service Search Engine” (Digital Ecosystem) was carried out in Emfrank Global Resources, Abuja to provide the organization with a web based search engine for service provision.

 

• Limitation of the Study

During the course of writing this project, some challenges were encountered

These problems include:

1. Access to the internet was somehow a problem because of Network Connections.
2. Financial constraint is a limitation encountered in the course of this research work.
3. Inadequate time frame to carry out the research due to a tight academic calendar schedule.
   • Definition of Terms

Search Engine – This is a software program that helps people find the information they are looking for online using keywords or phrases.

System – A system is a group of interacting or interrelated elements that act according to a set of rules to form a unified whole.

HTML Code- HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language. It is a type of computer language that is primarily used for files that are posted on the internet and viewed by web browsers. HTML files can also be sent via email.

Markup Language – A markup language is a combination of words and symbols which give instructions on how a document should appear. For example, a tag may indicate that words are written in italics or bold type.

Web Browser – A Web browser is a software program that interprets the coding language of the World Wide Web in graphic form, displaying the translation rather than the coding. This allows anyone to “browse the Web” by simple point and click navigation, bypassing the need to know commands used in software languages.

File Extension – A file extension is the suffix at the end of a filename that tells a computer, and the computer user, which program is needed to open the file. Also called a filename extension, this suffix preceded by at least one period, is generally one to five characters long but the norm is usually three characters in length.

Web – A complex system of interconnected elements.

TCP/IP – This often used but little understood set of operations stands for Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol. TCP/IP is the combination of the two and describes the set of protocols that allows hosts to connect to the Internet. In actuality, TCP/IP is a combination of more than those two protocols, but the TCP and IP parts of TCP/IP are the main ones and the only ones to become part of the acronym that describes the operations involved

Text File – A text file is a computer file that stores a typed document as a series of alphanumeric characters, usually without visual formatting information. The content may be a personal note or list, a journal or newspaper article, a book, or any other text that can be rendered accurately in typewritten form.

Hyper Link –   A hyperlink is a graphic or a piece of text in an Internet document that can connect readers to another webpage, or another portion of a document. Web users will usually find at least one hyperlink on every webpage. The simplest form of these is called embedded text or an embedded link.

Project – Design and Implementation of a web-based local service search engine management system