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Use the Internet to obtain pricing information on hardware and software for an office of 30 people. You
will need to price 30 PC desktop systems (monitors, computers, and keyboards) manufactured by Lenovo,
Dell, and HP. (For the purposes of this exercise, ignore the fact that desktop systems usually come with
preloaded software packages.) Also obtain pricing on 15 desktop printers manufactured by HP, Canon,
and Dell. Each desktop system must satisfy the minimum specifications shown in tables which you can
find in MyMISLab.
Also obtain pricing on 30 copies of the most recent versions of Microsoft Office, Lotus SmartSuite, and
Apache OpenOffice (formerly Oracle Open Office), and on 30 copies of Microsoft Windows 7 Professional
or Windows 8 Pro. Each desktop productivity package should contain programs for word processing, spread-
sheets, database, and presentations. Prepare a spreadsheet showing your research results for the software
and the desktop system, printer, and software combination offering the best performance and pricing per
worker. Because every two workers share one printer (15 printers/30 systems), your calculations should
assume only half a printer cost per worker.

Improving Decision Making: Using Web Research to Budget for a Sales
Conference
Software skills: Internet-based software
Business skills: Researching transportation and lodging costs
The Foremost Composite Materials Company is planning a two-day sales conference for October 19–20,
starting with a reception on the evening of October 18. The conference consists of all-day meetings that
the entire sales force, numbering 120 sales representatives and their 16 managers, must attend. Each sales
representative requires his or her own room, and the company needs two common meeting rooms, one
large enough to hold the entire sales force plus a few visitors (200) and the other able to hold half the force.
Management has set a budget of $150,000 for the representatives’ room rentals. The company would like to
hold the conference in either Miami or Marco Island, Florida, at a Hilton- or Marriott-owned hotel.
Use the Hilton and Marriott Web sites to select a hotel in whichever of these cities that would enable
the company to hold its sales conference within its budget and meet its sales conference requirements.
Then locate flights arriving the afternoon prior to the conference. Your attendees will be coming from Los
Angeles (54), San Francisco (32), Seattle (22), Chicago (19), and Pittsburgh (14). Determine costs of each
airline ticket from these cities. When you are finished, create a budget for the conference. The budget will
include the cost of each airline ticket, the room cost, and $70 per attendee per day for food.

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.

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