Electronic Bill Payment System Internal Entities

Question: Discuss about the Electronic Bill Payment System for Internal Entities. Answer: 1. EBP stands for electronic bill payment system and EBPP stands for electronic bill presentment and payment system. As the name suggest the former offer a system of payment of bills electronically whereas the later offer dual system of delivering the bill to the respective customers via electronic mode and also supports the payment of those bills electronically. The EBPP system offers delivery of bill over the email along with a link which on clicking would direct the payer directly to the payment site thus ensuring immediate payment without much of a hassle. This system also let goes of the concept of maintaining bills in hard copy thus saving upon the paper as well as reducing the burden of keeping the papers safely. Further bills can be easy accessible from any part of the world by a simple login to ones own email id. However EBP just provides an electronic medium for making payments but ensures that the bills are to be received in hard copy. However two systems are quite similar in certain aspects. Both the systems offer payment of bills via the internet or other electronic modes wherein money is directly deposited and payment is made through a payment system which is nationally accredited. Both the systems offer easy payment options thus reducing the burden of going to the payment desk physically, standing in the long queues for making payments. The major difference which lies between these two systems is that of receipt of bills. The EBP system does not offer the facility of receiving bills online which is available in the EBPP system. In todays world most of the larger MNCs have shifted their base from only EBP system to EBPP system as it offers better acceptability amongst its customers. Also the EBPP system follows the concept of Go Green thus reducing paper work and shifting towards a paperless platform (Stefanadis, 2002,). 2. As per the third normal form, it is very clear that the university works in a very simple manner. The entity relationship diagram that is portrayed shows a clear representation of the linkage between the student, courses applied and the instructor for the respective courses. These three are inseparable components for any university. A student is the most important entity wherein each student is given a unique number for identification purposes. A students table mainly captures name, a unique roll no allocated, address, the courses he or she has applied for and the respective instructor for that course and lastly the grade that the student acquires. Amongst the same, course is another important component which has a course number to which each student is linked depending upon the course it enrols for. Thus there is a many to one relationship in this instance where many students are linked to one particular course. Each course has an instructor allocated. With regards a university this is a weak key. Therefore it is very clear that in this context the basic reference lies with the number of students, the courses they have enrolled for and the grade that they have achieved in each course enrolled. Thus the university basically works keeping the students and the courses they enrol for as the primary constituents and the instructors are viewed basically as someone who overviews the students with regards the courses they have applied for(Beal, 2012). 3(a) The transfer of data amongst the entity, the process within the entity and the storage system of the data is defined as data flow and a data flow diagram distinctly shows the various tasks that are required to be performed as well as the information that is needed so as to enable performance. However the idea of internal entities should be within the organization and the external entities should be outside the organization given by my colleague is partially correct. An organization cannot flourish by working within some set boundaries. There has to be an uninterrupted interaction amongst the internal and external entities. Internal entities are those who are employed by an organization and external entities are those who are not on the payrolls of an organization (Donald, 2000). The external entity comprises of the creditors, investors, tax officials and the customers. They cannot be kept secluded in total from the organization as they would want to enter into a relationship with the organization only if they are given access to the basic accounting information required for making decisions else they would not be wary of the situations existing within an organization, hence nobody would want to be attached with such an organization (Epstein, Buhovac 2006). They would need access of organizations performance indicators so that investment decisions can be taken, the creditors can grant them better credit period and the tax authorities can ensure that the organization is not in default. Similarly the internal entities should also have a fair idea about the external entities and the environment outside the organization else they would not be aware of the conditions and the requirements of the outside environment. To have a knowledge with regards the various pro nouncements made by the government, the requirement of the customer, their tastes and choices as well as the financing requirements can be fulfilled only if the internal entities interact clearly and explicitly with the external factors. Thus both are inter-related to some extent and to some extent the privacy is also required to be maintained. 3(b) My colleague is correct to some extent. Internal entities are the people who are within the business organization like the employees, board of directors. External entities are those entities outside the organization who are impacted upon the performance of the organization. For example the employees of an organization , expecting them to work within the organization itself without any kind of communication with the external forces may lead to situations wherein the employees may become outdated and aloof to the outside environment. Each employee has to be keep itself updated with the changing requirements and the needs of the customers and the prospect investors. This knowledge base will enable them to give inputs to the organization to improvise upon their current work habits. Similarly if the prospect investor are kept far off from the organizations internal data then they would be reluctant enough to invest. This would lead to a reputational issue as well and company may end up loosing its present investors as well. Therefore on the basis of the above references it is clear that the statement made by my colleague is not acceptable ad verbatim. References: Beal, V., 2012, entity-relationship diagram (model), viewed on 03rd August 2016, https://www.webopedia.com/TERM/E/entity_relationship_diagram.html Donald, S.L.V., 2000, Understanding Data Flow Diagrams, viewed on 02nd Aug 2016, https://ratandon.mysite.syr.edu/cis453/notes/DFD_over_Flowcharts.pdf Epstein, M., Buhovac, A.R., 2006, The reporting of Organizational Risks for Internal and External Decision-Making, AICPA: Canada Stefanadis, C., 2002, Why Hasnt Electronic Bill Presentment and Payment taken off?, Current Issues in Economics and Finance, vol.8, no.7