1. Many CIO’s and IT industry professionals agreed with Scott McNealy, founder and CEO of Sun Micro, when he stated at the dawn of the Network Era: “The network is the computer.”

• Explain the substance of McNealy’s statement. (7 pts)
• Do you agree, or disagree with the statement. Explain your position. (8 pts)

2. Bill Gates in reflecting on Microsoft’s strategy states: “We look for opportunities with network externalities—where there are advantages to the vast majority of consumers to share a common standard.”

• Give and explain an example where Microsoft (or another company) has implemented “network externalities.” (15 pts)
   

3. In the lecture, we presented the following slide on the estimated cost of a banking transaction such as making a deposit:
At a bank branch: Cost = $1.50
At an ATM (Automated Terminal Machine: Cost = $.50
On a bank customer’s PC over the Internet: Cost = $.01

• What is enabling the lower costs in this case? (15 pts)
   

4. Last week, the United States population passed the 300 million mark. Over 200 million cell phones have been sold in the United States. Some IT Industry “watchers” and pundits cited these two statistics as evidence of the “convergence” of voice, data and video—that is, the cell phone has become more than a “cell phone.” Some went on to predict that the “next big thing” in the IT Industry is the cell phone replacing the PC as the main access to the Internet.

• Explain the concept of voice, data and video convergence. [Hint: Look at the abstract of Information Technology Management from 1960-2000] (5 pts)
• Do you agree or disagree with the prediction that the cell phone will become the dominant access to the Internet. Explain. (10 pts)

5. One of the main reasons of success for Monster.com was High Scalability. Discuss high scalability in the context of Monster.com or any dotcom business of your choice? (10 pts)

6. Explain the concept of Network Externalities? Explain how they are important in PC market? (15 pts)

7. Explain the concept of Network Externalities in the context of Microsoft Windows. (10 pts)

8. Analyze the following three factors that were instrumental in success of Monster.com

• High Scalability (Inhibitors to scalability are high variable costs and logistics.  High scalability means that cost incurred by the company per additional customer is very low) (10 pts)
• Ability to avoid commoditization (how network effects allowed monster.com to differentiate their product from others). (5 pts)
• Ability to provide greater customer value than competitors (careerbuilder.com etc) and substitutes (newspapers) (5 pts)

9. The use of technology at Circuit city (POS systems) enabled it to collect a lot of data about its customers. However, Circuit city was still not able to leverage the benefits of this data. Explain the reasons behind this dilemma. (7 pts)

10. "In evaluating and designing CRM systems technological capabilities should take precedence over business needs. "

• Do you agree or disagree with the above statement. Why/ Why not? (10 pts)

11. What problems was Evergreen investment facing with the CRM system. How mobile CRM alleviated them. (15 pts)

12. Explain how ITC addressed the following problems while implementing eChoupal.

• Farmer Illiteracy (This leads to lack of trust towards ITC, aversion to risk, resistance to change, and problems in using and understanding technology) (15 pts)
• The cost and farmers' unawareness of technology. (5 pts) 

 13. Comment on the following statements:

• "Customer strategy should be designed around CRM software" (5 pts)
• "CRM should be rolled out and the organization can transform itself later with time" (5 pts)
• "More CRM technology is always better" (5 pts)

 14. Draw two diagrams showing information flow before and after the implementation of eChoupal. [Show major actors in rectangles and arrows between them to represent the flow of information. On the arrows you should write what information is being passed on from one actor to another] ([5 + 10] pts)

15. Several industry analysts, during the dotcom boom (before 2000) believed that for any dotcom business to be successful the mantra is "GET BIG FAST". It requires a lot of spending on initial advertising and aggressive market capturing (free membership joining). Venture capitalists invested a huge amount of money in these dotcom businesses. However, only a few of such businesses were successful.

• What should be the key characteristics of a dotcom business that would make sense for implementing this "GET BIG FAST" strategy. (10 pts)

16. Moore's law implies that the technological power would double every 18 months. Infact, the technological power has shown an even higher growth rate than what was predicted by Gordon Moore. Discuss the opportunities and dilemmas this causes for the managers/CEOs who operate in competitive markets and want to invest in technology.  (5 + 8 pts).

17.  Any firm’s goal is to make profit. It can do so by increasing its revenue source or by cutting costs as
Profit = Revenue – Costs
Discuss whether OTIS’s investment in technology was aimed at increasing revenue (improving service) or reducing costs. (10 pts)

18. Which value proposition would you consider Otis's investment in technology served and why: (7 pts)

• Customer intimacy
• Operational Excellence
• Product leadership 

19. Harrah's frequent bettor program and the customer worth model are not something very novel and can be easily replicated. Would replicating these programs lead to similar success for other casinos or businesses in general as in the case of Harrahs?
 

20. Which value proposition would you consider Harrah's use of Database marketing served and why: (8 pts)

• Customer intimacy
• Operational Excellence
• Product leadership