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Today's class will focus on the issues arising when an organization has to make decisions about hosting Web and IT services. Your assignment is as follows:

1. Read the Technology Note "Web and IT Hosting Facilities," available from Harvard Business School Publishing at no charge to you; see listing in texts and materials
2. Read the case "Selecting a Hosting Provider" also available from HBS Publishing

The context of the Hosting Provider exercise cases is as follows: 2 firms [an industrial equipment company (IEC) and a web billing firm (WBF)] are evaluating Web hosting providers. The case outlines the facilities and services available at three providers. Given the different requirements of the IEC and the WBF and the different capabilities of the providers, you are to identify and defend a choice of provider. There are a number of criteria that are relevant to the choice of a hosting provider, including, but not restricted to uninterruptible power delivery, physical security, climate control, fire suppression, network connectivity, help desk or tech support services, and exposure to natural disasters. Cost/benefit issues need to be considered, and all the factors listed are not necessarily equally important--equally important to each other or of the same relative importance to difference organizations. Therefore, some sort of ranking or weighting of the factors is required.

This is a group assignment; I will designate teams to represent the IEC and the WBF. For your company you are to establish and justify a weighting scale for the attributes of the providers; you may decide they are equally important, but you must justify your rankings. Having established the weights for the criteria, you are to develop a weighted score for each of the providers and prepare a recommendation about which provider to use. Prepare a brief [ ~ 5 minutes] Power Point presentation to be given to the senior management of your company. Since there are only two firms, there will be some similarity between your presentations. One of your challenges is to maintain interest and momentum even if you are the last presenters. Even if your recommendations really are very similar to those of a previous group, saying so only makes the situation worse. In some respects this is not materially different from many professional situations you will encounter. 

Copyright © 2008 Gerald M. Myers
Last modified:02/07/2010 03:53:02 PM