Page 105 -

104 Part One Organizations, Management, and the Networked Enterprise

Prepare a recommendation of how you can use the data in this spreadsheet database to improve
your decisions about selecting suppliers. Some criteria to consider for identifying preferred suppliers
include the supplier’s track record for on-time deliveries, suppliers offering the best accounts payable
terms, and suppliers offering lower pricing when the same item can be provided by multiple suppliers.
Use your spreadsheet software to prepare reports to support your recommendations.

Achieving Operational Excellence: Using Internet Software to Plan
Efficient Transportation Routes
Software skills: Internet-based software
Business skills: Transportation planning
In this exercise, you will use MapQuest software to map out transportation routes for a business and
select the most efficient route.
You have just started working as a dispatcher for Cross-Country Transport, a new trucking and delivery
service based in Cleveland, Ohio. Your first assignment is to plan a delivery of office equipment and fur-
niture from Elkhart, Indiana (at the corner of E. Indiana Ave. and Prairie Street) to Hagerstown, Maryland
(corner of Eastern Blvd. N. and Potomac Ave.).To guide your trucker, you need to know the most efficient
route between the two cities. Use MapQuest to find the route that is the shortest distance between the two
cities. Use MapQuest again to find the route that takes the least time. Compare the results. Which route
should Cross-Country use?

Video Cases

Video Cases and Instructional Videos illustrating some of the concepts in this chapter are available. Contact your
instructor to access these videos.

Collaboration and Teamwork Project

In MyMISLab, you will find a Collaboration and Teamwork Project dealing with the concepts in this chapter.
You will be able to use Google Sites, Google Docs, and other open-source collaboration tools to complete the
assignment.

MIS_13_Ch_02_Global.indd 104 1/18/2013 10:13:50 AM