3 is worth 10 percent of your final grade for this course. This assignment is based on the Hands-on MIS project Achieving Operational Excellence: Evaluating E-Commerce Hosting Services on page 342 of the textbook. You must compare the three e-commerce hosting services identified in the textbook PLUS one other hosting site that you find on your own. You do not have to prepare the report described in the textbook; instead, follow the instructions below for all four websites you are evaluating. Instructions: This assignment allows you to explore two important information system trends. First, you will investigate what is necessary to open an Internet business. Second, you will be introduced to cloud computing, in the form of Web page hosting. To submit the complete assignment, you must: Create a spreadsheet to compare the three identified e-commerce hosting sites and the ecommerce hosting site that you find. Ensure that your comparison includes (1) evaluation criteria based on customer requirements and other factors you deem to be important and (2) the raw data and an assessment for each hosting site for each evaluation criterion. For instance, you may include as a criterion "Storage" and find one web host offers 10 GB. The raw data is 10 GB; an assessment might be "H", "M" or "L" OR a number from 1 (low) to 5 (high) or other evaluation that you choose. Prepare a PowerPoint presentation that represents the presentation you would give to management explaining your selection. It should explain all the criteria that you included in your evaluation, the strengths and weaknesses of each hosting alternative; it should also identify your choice and the reasons why you made this choice. For each slide, include \"notes\" that represent what you would say if you were giving the presentation. For this assignment you must hand in: an Excel spreadsheet a PowerPoint presentation Marking criteria: You will be marked according to the following criteria. Spreadsheet contains evaluation criteria, each of the four website hosting companies being evaluated (the three identified sites plus the one you found), and the raw data and assessments for each 10 marks is clear and concise is of professional quality PowerPoint Presentation explains criteria clearly summarizes the strengths and weaknesses of each vendor identifies and explains the vendor choice contains Notes for each slide that indicate what you would say if you were giving this presentation Page 342 from BOOK 10.5 Hands-on MIS Projects The projects in this section give you hands-on experience developing e-commerce strategies for businesses, using spreadsheet software to research the profitability of an e-commerce company, and using Web tools to research and evaluate e-commerce hosting services. Management Decision Problems 1. Columbiana is a small, independent island in the Caribbean. It wants to develop its tourist industry and attract more visitors. The island has many historical buildings, forts, and other sites, along with rain forests and striking mountains. A few first-class hotels and several dozen less-expensive accommodations can be found along its beautiful white-sand beaches. The major airlines have regular flights to Columbiana, as do several small airlines. Columbiana's government wants to increase tourism and develop new markets for the country's tropical agricultural products. How can a Web presence help? What Internet business model would be appropriate? What functions should the Web site perform? 10 marks 2. Explore the Web sites of the following companies: Canadian Tire, Nygrd, Future Shop, Air Canada, Tim Hortons, and Priceline. Determine which of these sites would benefit most from the addition of a company-sponsored blog. List the business benefits of such a blog. Specify its intended audience. Decide who in the company should author the blog, and select some topics for it. Improving Decision Making: Using Spreadsheet Software to Analyze a DotCom Business Software skills: Spreadsheet downloading, formatting, and formulas Business skills: Financial statement analysis Publicly traded companies, including those specializing in e-commerce, are required to file financial data with the System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval (SEDAR) operated for the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA). By analyzing this information, you can determine the profitability of an e-commerce company and the viability of its business model. Pick one Canadian company that conducts e-commerce on the Internet, for example Hudson's Bay Company. Study the Web pages that describe the company, and explain its purpose and structure. Use the Web to find articles that comment on the company. Then visit the SEDAR Web site, at www.sedar.com, select your company, and select \"View This Public Company's Documents\" to access news releases and financial reports showing income statements and balance sheets. Select only the sections of the reports containing the desired portions of financial statements you need to examine, and print them out and enter the data into your spreadsheet. Create simplified spreadsheets of the balance sheets and income statements for the past three years. a. Is the company a dot-com success, borderline business, or failure? What information forms the basis of your decision? Why? In answering these questions, pay special attention to the company's three-year trends in revenues, cost of sales, gross margins, operating expenses, and net margins. See the Companion Website for Chapter 13 for definitions of these terms and how they are calculated. b. 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 startup 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 Volusion 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. Learning Track Modules The following Learning Tracks provide content relevant to topics covered in this chapter: 1. Building a Web Page 2. E-Commerce Challenges: The Story of Online Groceries 3. Build an E-Commerce Business Plan 4. Hot New Careers in E-Commerce