Tuesday 6 January 2009
The Big Oxford Computer Co. Ltd.

eCommerce System Case Study - Trade Unions Congress

Overview

The Trade Unions Congress (TUC) is the voice of Britain at work. With 58 affiliated unions representing nearly seven million working people from all walks of life, they campaign for a fair deal at work and for social justice at home and abroad.

http://www.tuc.org.uk/

Objectives 

To develop a modular online payments facility that will be extensible for the future so as to enable the payment of additional services and goods, including publications and events. 

Solution

BOCC developed the website for the organisation to include the publications module, which integrates with the online payments system. 

Users are able to:

  • Browse publications by category and name search;
  • Add items to their shopping basket;
  • Review postage and packing information;
  • Select member or non-member prices by entering a Union account code, which is then validated; 
  • Purchase items directly using the online payments facility. 

BOCC developed the modular online payments engine that integrates securely with Barclaycard, who provide realtime payment card authorisation. The system provides both receipt and invoice generation, as printable web pages, downloadable PDFs and optional emails.

The system was recently upgraded and integrated with the new 3-D Secure requirement. 3-D Secure is the new technical standard developed by Visa and MasterCard to help improve online transaction security.

Technologies 

The system utilises:

  • Microsoft® SQL Server 2005
  • Adobe® ColdFusion®
  • Web services API
  • Microsoft Internet Information Server 
  • Hosting on a fully managed dedicated web server at BOCC
  • SSL (Secure Server Certificate)
  • Extensible HyperText Markup Language 1.0
  • Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) 2.0 compliant