Critical Mass was a highly successful Internet marketing services firm with a blue chip client list. The rapidly changing Internet environment demanded continuous innovation and an exceptional level of creativity from the Technology Group. The company invested substantial resources in a creative-friendly physical environment and organized an array of activities intended to "keep creativity bubbling." The company was ready to embark on a significant expansion in its customer base and management had decided to review and reassess these activities to determine if they were having the desired effect and if corrective changes were required.

Critical Mass was a highly successful Internet marketing services firm with a blue chip client list. The rapidly changing Internet environment demanded continuous innovation and an exceptional level of creativity from the Technology Group. The company invested substantial resources in a creative-friendly physical environment and organized an array of activities intended to keep creativity bubbling. The company was ready to embark on a significant expansion in its customer base and management had decided to review and reassess these activities to determine if they were having the desired effect and if corrective changes were required.

Pay Zone Consulting is a small, highly-specialized, global consulting group providing information management solutions for the exploration and production sector of the oil and gas industry. The company operates entirely virtually with consultants and software developers in different parts of the world. The principals are considering growth options but are intent on preserving the quality of life benefits provided by their virtual business model. The case examines the communication technologies employed by the principals in support of their virtual teamwork and describes the administrative information technology (IT) infrastructure that enables the firm to operate with no administrative staff or office. The case also discusses the organizational and personal factors underlying the company's ability to operate successfully virtually.

Pay Zone Consulting is a small, highly specialized global consulting group providing information management solutions for the exploration and production sector of the oil and gas industry. The company operates entirely virtually with consultants and software developers in different parts of the world. The principals are considering growth options but are intent on preserving the quality of life provided by their virtual business model. The case examines the communication technologies employed by the principals in support of their virtual teamwork and describes the administrative information technology infrastructure that enables the firm to operate with no administrative staff or office. The case also discusses the organizational and personal factors underlying the company’s ability to operate successfully virtually.

Anduro Marketing is a Canadian company that sells technical services to companies wanting to improve their search engine website rankings. Though small, Anduro has attracted several major clients in both Canada and the United States, and expects steady profitability and growth. Anduro believes it can generate substantial additional profit by developing and selling a suite of software products that automate its technical service offerings. Anduro's managers must decide whether Anduro is better off staying with its current safe and profitable strategy or if Anduro should instead pursue a riskier but potentially more profitable software sales model. Several tough questions must be answered to determine whether the risk is worth the reward. The Anduro case provides an interesting description of an Internet technical/marketing services business and contrasts this with software sales.

Shopster.com is a Calgary-based e-business company whose business is to assist other individuals or companies in setting up their own retail transactional websites. Shopster differs significantly from ordinary website developers in that retailers are able to select from a huge inventory of salable products, through Shopster's network of goods providers. Shopster also provides software tools, and expertise, to allow anyone wishing to create an online retail store to do so quickly and easily. Shopster's business has done well to date, but there are plenty of operational challenges ahead. As well, the principals would like to "raise the bar" substantially, to something they refer to as "Shopster 2.0," the specifics of which are still at a formative stage. The Shopster case provides an interesting example of a small but rapidly growing Canadian company with an innovative business model and big dreams for the future.

Shopster.com is a Calgary-based e-business company whose business is to assist other individuals or companies in setting up their own retail transactional websites. Shopster differs significantly from ordinary website developers in that retailers are able to select from a huge inventory of saleable products, through Shopster's network of goods providers. Shopster also provides software tools, and expertise, to allow anyone wishing to create an online retail store to do so quickly and easily. Shopster's business has done well to date, but there are plenty of operational challenges ahead. As well, the principals would like to raise the bar substantially, to something they refer to as Shopster 2.0, the specifics of which are still at a formative stage. The Shopster case provides an interesting example of a small but rapidly growing Canadian company with an innovative business model and big dreams for the future.

Anduro Marketing is a Canadian company that sells technical services to companies wanting to improve their search engine website rankings. Though small, Anduro has attracted several major clients in both Canada and the United States, and expects steady profitability and growth. Anduro believes it can generate substantial additional profit by developing and selling a suite of software products that automate its technical service offerings. Anduro's managers must decide whether Anduro is better off staying with its current safe and profitable strategy or if Anduro should instead pursue a riskier but potentially more profitable software sales model. Several tough questions must be answered to determine whether the risk is worth the reward. The Anduro case provides an interesting description of an Internet technical/marketing services business and contrasts this with software sales.

Stock Research Group (SRG) is an information broker. SRG's primary business is serving as a collection point for information useful to investors seeking to invest in small-cap mining companies. SRG, in effect, pulls potential investors to its site, then channels them to the specific sites of companies in which the investors may have an investment interest. SRG's revenue comes from the mining companies, who generally pay on an impression basis (i.e. pay for eyeballs delivered to their web pages). The resource companies are willing to pay for this, since on their own they are much less likely to attract much investor traffic. SRG is also in the business of developing web pages for these small-cap resource firms, since generally the companies do not have in-house expertise to create and maintain their web presence. SRG thus represents a new kind of business - the specialized infomediary, or information broker. SRG is doing quite well financially, something that cannot be said of many web-based companies. SRG's main challenges involve managing growth, deciding on appropriate future directions, and determining how best to lever the virtual community they have created.

Stock Research Group (SRG) is an information broker. SRG's primary business is serving as a collection point for information useful to investors seeking to invest in small-cap mining companies. SRG, in effect, pulls potential investors to its site, then channels them to the specific sites of companies in which the investors may have an investment interest. SRG's revenue comes from the mining companies, who generally pay on an impression basis (for "eyeballs" delivered to their web pages). The resource companies are willing to pay for this, since on their own they are much less likely to attract much investor traffic. SRG is also in the business of developing web pages for these small-cap resource firms, since generally the companies do not have in-house expertise to create and maintain their web presence. SRG thus represents a new kind of business--the specialized infomediary, or information broker. SRG is doing quite well financially, something that cannot be said of many web-based companies. SRG's main challenges involve managing growth, deciding on appropriate future directions, and determining how best to lever the "virtual community" they have created.

The Euro-Arab Management School is an academic institution established by the European Union and the Arab League. The school is a "virtual organization": it does not operate bricks and mortar classrooms. Instead, programs are offered in an innovative manner that combines web-based learning with local tutoring. The case deals with the concept of management of a virtual organization, and introduces some of the benefits and challenges of virtual organizations. Also deals with issues of the future of education in the age of the Internet.

Homegrocer is a new Internet-based grocery store that is experiencing slow market penetration because the business concept entails fundamentally changing individual grocery shopping behavior. The owner is wondering what it takes to attract new customers and then convert them into repeat customers. Other issues include lack of management IT experience, anticipated hyper-growth, investment decisions needed in a quickly changing industry and funding in the future.

Homegrocer is a new Internet-based grocery store that is experiencing slow market penetration because the business concept entails fundamentally changing individual grocery shopping behavior. The owner is wondering what it takes to attract new customers and then convert them into repeat customers. Other issues include lack of management IT experience, anticipated hyper-growth, investment decisions needed in a quickly changing industry, and funding in the future.

Mondex is a "smart card" application that can be used as a payment mechanism--much like cash, or debit/credit cards--to pay for small, everyday items. This case describes the development and implementation of the Mondex stored-value payment system. The Mondex Canada consortium includes the major Canadian financial institutions, led by Royal Bank and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. Mondex has been undergoing a lengthy trial in the city of Guelph, Ontario. The director of marketing for Mondex Canada is faced with a rather large implementation challenge: planning and managing the roll-out of Mondex to the rest of the country.

Richard Ivey School of Business has a need for the creation of a database, to be used for managing information about students and their courses of study, in its Business PhD program. Information on students to date has been maintained in a mix of paper and computer-file systems. The program director would like to develop a database, using a facility such as Microsoft Access, to be used for this purpose. The case provides examples of the actual forms and data maintained currently, and challenges the students to first create an entity-relationship data model, then a design for a relational database.

Metalco is a large Australian mining company. It has a rocky history in terms of its effective use of information systems (IS), and there is widespread dissatisfaction in the company concerning IS and the IS department. A recent resignation of the chief information officer led to the decentralization of the IS function, to move it closer to the operating departments. At the same time, one of the division heads has proposed that the company buy the SAP enterprise-wide system, to replace an earlier internal system which had been poorly received. The price tag for SAP is very high, $23 million. Implementing it would also require substantial changes in company processes. In light of its history, recent IS decentralization, and the high SAP price tag, the company is faced with making the decision of whether to go ahead with SAP. An appendix in the case provides extensive information on the procedure used to evaluate SAP, and results thereof.

As a central component of its Vision 2020 strategy, the city of Wellington, New Zealand has developed preliminary plans to transform itself into a wired city. The overarching project was called Info City. One of the sub-projects was called City Link. The objective of City Link was to create a high-speed digital communications infrastructure for the downtown business district. Fibre optic cable was to be used to wire up, simply and inexpensively, the city's downtown businesses, to provide a backbone network that businesses could utilize, however they wished, to make themselves more competitive. A consortium of interested parties had recently been formed, a telecommunications architecture was being developed, and plans for stringing cable were under way. While the project champion was unclear about the utility of the new system, he was confident that once the infrastructure was in place, ideas for its utilization would readily emerge. This case provides a setting for exploring the issue of the role of IT in competitive strategy. It also raises interesting social policy questions, about who should pay for such undertaking, who should benefit, and so forth.

Scandinavia Translations (Scantran) provides translation services between English and the three Scandinavian languages (Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian), as well as Finnish. The business is operated primarily by one person, Heidi Wade, assisted by her husband Mike. The unique thing about Scantran is that it is a purely virtual business: Heidi and Mike never meet with, see, and rarely even speak with any of their clients, nor with any of their individual translators. Almost all the business is done over the Internet, supplemented by faxes and occasionally the telephone. Documents are mainly transferred as file attachments to Internet electronic mail messages. There are no other permanent employees, and all the work is done out of the couple's apartment, with no need for expensive overhead such as office premises or fixed salaries. Scantran's business has grown rapidly since its inception. The Wades are faced with a number of decisions, including whether to try to stay the size they are or "go for growth," which implies adopting a new business model. If the decision is to grow, what should the new business model be? Can the company maintain the great flexibility provided by the Internet and still expand? This case nicely illustrates both pros and cons of virtual small businesses, typical of a great many Internet-dependent startup companies created in recent years.

First Virtual Holdings, Inc. (FVHI) is an Internet payments company based in San Diego, CA. The company developed a technology by which consumers can securely purchase goods and services over the Internet. Each participating consumer is provided with a "VirtualPIN" number, which is used in place of a credit card number to make purchases from participating online vendors. The vendors forward the consumer's VirtualPIN number, along with the amount of the transaction to FVHI. FVHI then sends an e-mail to the consumer asking for confirmation of the transaction. When confirmation is received, FVHI processes the transaction and pays the vendor. The technology ensures that a consumer's credit card number is never sent across the Internet. The system is secure but embodies a certain amount of inconvenience as each purchase required two steps. FVHI is a good example of a company with a good technology whose main challenge is to gain the critical mass of users necessary to make the system viable. The company faces strong competition from established industry players such as software developers, banks, and credit card companies. In addition, continued consumer reluctance to embrace online commerce has hampered the company's progress.

First Virtual Holdings, Inc. (FVHI) is an Internet payments company based in San Diego, CA. FVHI's original offering, an Internet payments system based on consumers' receiving and using a "VirtualPIN" number for online purchases instead of a credit card number, had not been successful. Consumer apathy to the system, coupled with vendor disinterest, have prevented them from attaining the critical mass necessary to make the system viable. In response to the failure of their payments system, FVHI decided to change their focus. The company developed an interactive advertising banner, about the size of a regular web advertising banner. The "VirtualTAG" functions like a mini web page within a page. Users can click through pages in the banner without leaving the page on which the banner was found. The VirtualTAG can have multiple uses such as to provide information or facilitate transactions. FVHI intends to develop and license the VirtualTAG to web page administrators. They also intend to incorporate the VurtualTAG into e-mail messages. VirtualTAGs may be used as a form of "mass" interactive Internet advertising, although the company is quick to point out that the technology will only be used with targeted and consenting consumers. FVHI's ideas and technology regarding Internet advertising provide a useful vehicle for discussing trends in online commerce and Internet privacy issues.