Violet Blossom Technology develops and markets computer software for the agriculture industry. Since support costs comprise a large portion of the cost of software development, the director of cost operations of Violet Blossom, Shirley Donko, is especially concerned with understanding the effects of support cost behaviour. Donko has completed a preliminary activity analysis of one of its primary software products: Ferti Mix (software to manage fertilizer mixing). This product is a software “template” that is customized for specific customers, who are charged for the basic product plus customizing costs. The activity analysis is based on the number of customized lines of Ferti Mix code. Currently, support cost estimates are based on a fixed rate of 50 percent of the basic cost. Data are shown below for two recent customers:

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CUSTOMER WEST ACRES PLANT BEAUTIFUL BLOOM $12,000 Basic cost of Ferti Mix Lines of customized code $12,000 490 180 Estimated cost per line of customized code $ 23 $ 23 1. Compute the support cost of customizing Ferti Mix for each customer using each cost estimating approach. 2. If the activity analysis is reliable, what are the pros and cons of adopt- ing it for all of Violet Blossom's software products?