Boston College

Carroll School of Management

Electronic Commerce

MD853

 

Spring 2002

 

Professors:       Paul Tallon                                                                Nigel Melville

                        Room 452A, Fulton Hall                                            Room 350D, Fulton Hall

                        Email:     paul.tallon@bc.edu                                      Email:   nigel.melville@bc.edu

                        Phone:   (617) 552-4277                                           Phone:  (617) 552-0468

                        Fax:       (617) 552-0433                                           Fax:      (617) 552-0433

 

Office hours:     Tuesday: 2:00pm – 3:30pm (or by appt.)                   Wednesday: 2:00pm – 5:00pm (or by appt.)

 

Class time:        Tuesday: 4:00pm – 6:30pm, Room #130                   Tuesday: 7:00pm – 9:30pm, Room #130

 

Textbook:         Course packet of Harvard Business School cases is available at the BC bookstore (price $55 + tax).

 


 

Class Items Available for Download and Viewing

Ø      Course syllabus (miscellaneous articles for each class can be viewed by going to the relevant section in the syllabus)

Ø      Guidance in Preparing Answers to Case Questions

Ø      Final Project Guidelines

Ø      Case Questions: NTT DoCoMo, Cisco, BMG, CVS, Staples.com, Dell, Onsale, Pay EZ, Priceline, USA Today, BroadVision, Napster

 

To download a PowerPoint file from the list of PPT files displayed below, using the RIGHT button on your mouse, click on the filename. When the menu box appears, click on "Save Target As" to save the PowerPoint file to your desktop. You can then double click on the file on your desktop and it should automatically load into PowerPoint.


Group Members (Last names)

4:00pm – 6:30pm class

This table is for the 4:00pm – 6:30pm class only.

 
Group #1: Hogland, Kopin, Mataraza, McNeil, Weilbacher

Group #2: Carroll, Gilo, Maffei, McGuire, Thalmann 

Group #3: Aradi, Dudley, Troy, Yeoh

Group $4: Fish, O'Leary, Sullivan, Winokur 

Group #5: Balaji, Hehr, O'Connell, Perrier

Group #6: Cookson, Finucci, Kennedy, Schumacher

 

 

 

Group Numbers

Week

Case

1

2

3

4

5

6

1

No Case Due

2

NTT DoCoMo

P

C

 

 

 

 

3

Cisco**

 

 

P

C

 

 

4

BMG

W

W

W

 

P

C

5

CVS

C

P

 

 

 

 

6

Staples.com**

 

 

C

P

W

W

7

Dell

W

W

W

W

C

P

8

SPRING BREAK

9

OnSale

 

C

 

P

 

 

10

Pay EZ

 

 

P

C

 

 

11

EASTER BREAK

12

Priceline.com**

P

 

C

W

W

W

13

USA TODAY

 

 

 

 

P

C

14

Broadvision**

C

P

 

 

 

 

15

Napster**

 

 

 

 

C

P

16

STUDY DAY (April 30) - NO CLASS

17

Project Presentations (May 7)

P: Presentation; C: Critique; W: Individual Case Write-Up; ** Guest Speaker


This table is for the 7:00pm – 9:30pm class only.

 
7:00pm – 9:30pm class

Group #1: Cote, Milewski, Kosinski

Group #2: Oakes, Schulz, Remley

Group $4: Dolan, Julhe, Swaminathan, Charrie

Group #5: Orrick, Pasters, Rudolph

 

 

 

Group Numbers

Week

Case

1

2

4

5

1

No Case Due

2

NTT DoCoMo

 

 

C

 

3

Cisco**

P

C

 

 

4

BMG

W

W

P

 

5

CVS

C

 

 

P

6

Staples.com**

 

P

 

C

7

Dell

W

W

W

W

8

SPRING BREAK

9

OnSale

 

C

P

 

10

Pay EZ

P

 

 

C

11

EASTER BREAK

12

Priceline.com**

C

P

W

W

13

USA TODAY

 

 

C

P

14

Broadvision**

Please contact us if your group wants to present/critique. 

15

Napster**

Please contact us if your group wants to present/critique.

16

STUDY DAY (April 30) – No class

17

Project Presentations (May 7)

P: Presentation; C: Critique; W: Individual Case Write-Up; ** Guest Speaker

 


In-class PowerPoint Presentations (☻indicates guest speaker)

Date

File Names (PPT: PowerPoint)

1.    January 15

Introduction

 

 

2.    January 22

NTT DoCoMo (Questions)                                                               Melville

4:00pm – 6:30pm:     Presentation (Group 1), Critique (Group 2)

7:00pm – 9:30pm:     Presentation (Group 3), Critique (Group 4)

 

Internet: Prof. Melville’s presentation

 

 

3.    January 29

Cisco (Questions)                                                                              Melville

4:00pm – 6:30pm:     Presentation (Group 3), Critique (Group 4)

7:00pm – 9:30pm:     Presentation (Group 1), Critique (Group 2)

Cisco and Intranet comments: Prof. Melville’s presentation

 

Speaker (6:15pm – 7:15pm)

Peter Ward, VP eCommerce Marketing, Cambridge Technology Partners

   (Slides are confidential, not available for distribution at speaker’s request)

 

 

4.    February 5

BMG Entertainment (Questions)                                                        Tallon

4:00pm – 6:30pm:     Presentation (Group 5), Critique (Group 6)

7:00pm – 9:30pm:     Presentation (Group 4), no critique group assigned

 

 

5.    February 12

CVS: The Web Strategy (Questions)                                                 Tallon

4:00pm – 6:30pm:     Presentation (Group 2), Critique (Group 1)

7:00pm – 9:30pm:     Presentation (Group 5), Critique (Group 1)

 

 

6.    February 19

Staples.com (Questions)                                                                    Melville

4:00pm – 6:30pm:     Presentation (Group 4), Critique (Group 3)

7:00pm – 9:30pm:     Presentation (Group 2), Critique (Group 5)

 

Speaker (6:15pm – 7:15pm)

Mike Ragunas, Chief Technology Officer, Staples.com

 

Bio: Mike heads development and implementation of e-commerce and related technologies for Staples, Inc., the (Framingham-based) $11 billion retailer of office supplies, business services, furniture and technology. A 15-year veteran of Staples, Mike was formerly director of strategic technology and systems architecture for the company, where he managed the selection and usage of leading-edge technologies and led the initial development of Staples.com. He was recently featured in the book, “Inside the Minds: Leading CTOs” (Aspatore books), and was named to Computerworld's Premier 100 IT Leaders for 2002 and to InfoWorld magazine's Top 25 Most Influential CTOs. Mike is a graduate of Harvard College.

 

 

7.    February 26

Dell (Questions)                                                                                 Melville

4:00pm – 6:30pm:     Presentation (Group 6), Critique (Group 5)

7:00pm – 9:30pm:     no groups assigned – Professor will drive discussion

 

B2B Technology (EDI / XML): Prof. Melville’s presentation

 

 

~ SPRING BREAK ~

 

 

8.    March 12

Onsale (Questions)                                                                            Tallon

4:00pm – 6:30pm:     Presentation (Group 4), Critique (Group 2)

7:00pm – 9:30pm:     Presentation (Group 4), Critique (Group 2)

 

Articles:   Egghead.com and Onsale merge

 

 

9.    March 19

Pay EZ (Questions)                                                                           Melville

4:00pm – 6:30pm:     Presentation (Group 3), Critique (Group 4)

7:00pm – 9:30pm:     Presentation (Group 1), Critique (Group 5)

 

Articles:   New Online Payment Options Emerging

 

Payment systems, keys, encryption: Prof. Melville’s presentation

 

 

~ EASTER BREAK ~

 

 

10. April 2

Priceline.com (Questions)                                                                  Tallon

4:00pm – 6:30pm:     Presentation (Group 1), Critique (Group 3)

7:00pm – 9:30pm:     Presentation (Group 2), Critique (Group 1)

 

Articles: Inside Priceline's Sausage Factory

 

Speaker (6:15pm – 7:15pm)

Scott Johnson, Managing Director, DFJ New England Fund (slides not avail.)

 

Bio: Mr. Johnson is responsible for the management, strategy and direction of the Fund. He has twelve years experience as a high tech entrepreneur and venture investor. Most recently, he was the East Coast partner of the Cambridge Technology Capital Fund, cited by Venture Economics as one of the top performing post-IPO funds of 1999. Before that, he founded InterSense, Inc., a 3D visualization technology company. Mr. Johnson began his career as a founding employee of Cambridge Technology Partners, a global systems integration and consulting company. Mr. Johnson holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Operations Research from Cornell University, and an MBA from MIT's Sloan School of Management.

 

 

11. April 9

USA Today (Questions)                                                                    Tallon

4:00pm – 6:30pm:     Presentation (Group 5), Critique (Group 6)

7:00pm – 9:30pm:     Presentation (Group 5), Critique (Group 4)

 

Articles:   Online Content: Fee or Free

               (Articles below refer to the theory of real options – for reference only).

               Tapping into Real Options

               Busin