Question

Natalie is an avid baseball fan. She also has a small business in which she buys, sells, and trades baseball cards. Because business has been a bit slow lately, she is seeking new avenues to attract customers. She thinks that increasing her online exposure might do the trick. She has decided to have some fun with this idea and is going to start a blog in which she critiques the performance of the players.

Answer 1

From her business classes, Natalie knows that when making technology decisions, she needs to consider:

her goals
the available options
the costs, including purchase price, training requirements, and operational expenses
convenience
availability
Natalie wants her blog to:

have attractive, easy-to-use templates
allow users to add comments
provide the ability to blacklist spammers
be inexpensive
be available right away
Natalie begins to research the different types of blogging software out there, finding that there were quite a few choices, each with different features. In order to determine which blogging software to use, Natalie has constructed a table into which she can put the information she has learned about various products.

Regardless of the blogging software she choses, Natalie's goals will not change, so these are not included in the table. She is also pretty confident that she can learn how to use the program herself without paying for additional training. Finally, she has made sure that all of her choices allow her to download the software from the Internet.

To get started, Natalie creates the table below:

Answer 2

After she has entered the information in the table, it is easy for Natalie to compare products. She can see right away that Option 1 would not work for her. Option 2 is a possibility. She likes the fact that Option 2 is a bit cheaper than Option 3, and she thinks that fifteen different templates would provide her with enough choices. However, the ability to blacklist only fifty addresses a day has her a bit concerned. For this reason, she decides to purchase Option 3.

Directions
You have learned that choosing the best telecommunications technology for a specific business need is a complex decision. There are a number of points that must be taken into consideration—goals, available options, cost, convenience, and availability. You have also learned that creating a comparison chart will help you compare similar technologies, rendering the decision-making process simpler. Now it's your turn to apply what you've learned.

Morgan is the operations manager for a national appliance distributor. The company has offices throughout the United States. Communication between offices is vital to the efficient operation of the company. Phone sales are an important source of revenue.

Managers and department heads across the nation strategize on a weekly, if not daily, basis. For the past three quarters, telephone charges have increased and sales have decreased. Morgan needs to cut expenses while keeping the lines of communication open.

Analyze the telecommunications technologies you've studied in this unit—fax, broadcasting, VoIP, e-mail, blogs, and wikis—to determine which technology will best meet the needs of Morgan's company.

Once you have determined the best technology solution, use the Internet to compare the features and pricing offered by different providers of that technology. Select four or five criteria you think would be most important to Morgan. Create a comparison chart to help compare the products and services offered by providers of the technology you selected. Upload your chart using the button beneath the essay box.

In the space below:

Write down the technology you selected for Morgan's company and the reason for your choice.
Then select a provider for Morgan to use. Indicate the reason(s) for your choices.