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442 Part Three Key System Applications for the Digital Age

need to examine, and download them into your spreadsheet. (MyMISLab provides more detailed instruc-
tions on how to download this 10-K data into a spreadsheet.) Create simplified spreadsheets of the com-
pany’s balance sheets and income statements for the past three years.
• Is the company a dot-com success, borderline business, or failure? What information provides the basis of
your decision? Why? When answering these questions, pay special attention to the company’s three-year
trends in revenues, costs of sales, gross margins, operating expenses, and net margins.
• Prepare an overhead presentation (with a minimum of five slides), including appropriate spreadsheets or
charts, and present your work to your professor and classmates.

Achieving Operational Excellence: Evaluating E-Commerce Hosting
Services
Software skills: Web browser software
Business skills: Evaluating e-commerce hosting services
This project will help develop your Internet skills in commercial services for hosting an e-commerce site
for a small start-up company.
You would like to set up a Web site to sell towels, linens, pottery, and tableware from Portugal and are
examining services for hosting small business Internet storefronts. Your Web site should be able to take
secure credit card payments and to calculate shipping costs and taxes. Initially, you would like to display
photos and descriptions of 40 different products. Visit Yahoo! Small Business, GoDaddy, and Comcast
Business Class and compare the range of e-commerce hosting services they offer to small businesses, their
capabilities, and costs. Also examine the tools they provide for creating an e-commerce site. Compare these
services and decide which you would use if you were actually establishing a Web store. Write a brief report
indicating your choice and explaining the strengths and weaknesses of each.

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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