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John Williams, senior director of marketing for Microsoft's .NET, was trying to build the .NET brand, a comprehensive family of next-generation connectivity software products. Highlights the challenges of branding and positioning a complex technology offering. The first challenge facing Microsoft was to develop a common definition of .NET, which had been in flux over the prior two years. The second challenge was to choose between an umbrella branding strategy, a sub-branding strategy, and an ingredient branding strategy. The third challenge was to create a value proposition that would appeal to three very different target audiences: business decision makers, IT professionals, and developers.

To analyze the branding and positioning of a complex new technology offering: by defining a new product offering for public understanding and comprehension; evaluating brand strategies for optimal effect, considering possible hurdles to implementation of each strategy; and developing a value proposition attractive to differing audiences.

The case deals with a chain of hospitals, that has grown vary fast in last few years as a result of various acquisitions and new developments. The hospital chain is lagging behind in use of technology. The IT department is inward looking and the focus is more on provide support services rather than strategic orientation. A new CIO takes charge of the IT department and decides to transform IT from playing a support to strategic role. He identifies cloud computing as a tool to take the leap. The case provides an opportunity to discuss the type of service and deployment models of benefits of cloud technology. A rough data to do financial evaluation of cloud technology is presented. Evaluation parameters that may be used to decide on cloud versus in-house technology are also discussed.

Marketing, Innovation, Strategy, Digital Marketing and E-Business.

Master's level and Executive Program.

MocDoc is a young Indian online health-care company that has achieved success in early years of establishment, and is looking forward to expand the customer base. The founder, Senthil Peelikkampatti, along with his friends decided to design a service that can bridge the gap between doctor and patients. However, initially, Senthil lost the trust in his idea due to the unacceptance of the idea by health-care experts. It took a little long for the team to gain visibility after launch of the service. Senthil and the team brainstormed to gain recognition online through different techniques of search engine optimization (SEO) and social media networking through Facebook Web site. MocDoc case is designed to stimulate discussion of a broad array of entrepreneurial issues related to online start-ups. In particular, it deals with strategy and marketing of service in the online arena. At the same time, it gives detailed overview of marketing techniques online as fuel to the business. The company is moving under strong leadership skills of CEO but fails to gain momentum in terms of gaining online customers. This case deals with decision-making capabilities to bring more number of registered customers in the online space.

The expected learning outcomes are as follows: to animate online business environment and challenges faced by virtual enterprises in the cyber space; to illustrate opportunity for students to speculate the start-up business environment; to illustrate opportunity to introduce cloud computing as a viable business option for the health-care industry; to develop understanding among students for designing effective marketing strategy for online business; to identify business opportunities and gaining competitive edge by offering bouquet of services; and to stimulate business environment for understanding innovation and strategy building.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

Firm success, organizational structure and values, business challenges, corporate change, decision making.

Senior undergraduate courses in Organizational Behavior and Business Policy and Strategy.

This case relates the story of growth of Future Internet, a small media firm launched in 1998 in Dubai, UAE. The case describes the past achievements of Future Internet along with the challenges met on the road, illustrates the key factors and core organizational values that were critical for its business success and discusses the new prospects that the company is seeking to explore in the future. As Future Internet is continuously searching to engage in a path of new business opportunities, what are the most viable strategic choices to be made for securing a sustainable corporate growth and development?

Discuss different aspects involved in the management of a small firm operating in a dynamic industry; assess the key factors that might contribute to explaining corporate success; and evaluate the effectiveness of managerial decision making over time (change in structure and values, opportunities' evaluation and selection of strategic options) to achieve sustainable development.

Teaching notes.

The case can be introduced in the information technology (IT) strategy course. The case can also fit well in courses like emergent technologies where the case forms the vehicle to show how cloud-based solutions can provide leverage to an organization.

The case is aligned more for management participants, for example, students who are enrolled in master's or executive program in management. Considering the master's program in management, the case can be introduced in the IT strategy course. The case can also fit well in courses like emergent technologies where the case forms the vehicle to show how cloud-based solutions can provide leverage to an organization. Assignment questions addressed below are designed from the perspective of teaching this case to a business student audience. The case could certainly be adjusted to fit the needs of students in more technical disciplines.

Set in March 2009, Charan Padmaraju, the CTO of redBus was grappling with his companies IT infrastructure and scalability issues. He was considering cloud computing as a solution to all his worries. redBus was founded in August 2006 as a bus ticketing company in India. From INR 50 lakhs of gross bookings in their first financial year 2006-07 to an estimated INR 300 million in gross bookings in the financial year ending 2008-09, redBus had registered phenomenal growth. From selling 10 tickets a day, it now sold more than 4,000 tickets a day for more than 5,000 routes across 15 states in India. However, the IT infrastructure of redBus could not match up with their business needs and required frequent upgrades. Charan thought “The procurement of new servers, upgrading existing servers and most of the developer's time went into circumventing scaling issues which were not adding values to our core business.” He wondered “Can cloud computing be an answer to all my worries? “But what exactly is cloud computing? Will it solve my existing scalability issues? How reliable it is? Is it expensive? What is the time for deployment?”

To understand what is a business model; to appreciate the technical issues related to business expansion decisions; to explain the concepts behind cloud based solutions; and to demonstrate how adoption of the cloud solution can enable an organization to achieve competitive advantage.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

Knowledge management strategy.

Small and medium organizations providing technology solutions.

This case presents the developments in BATOI, as it intends to proliferate its services and offerings. BATOI offers an enterprise-class cloud computing platform along with a set of software applications, a business social network and different online information and service portals catering to large audience at the global level. The organization focuses on customer satisfaction as an integral part of the value chain. The case presents the knowledge management (KM) initiatives that were introduced in BATOI as a part of the organization's strategy for growth and acquiring new customers. Based on the business goals of BATOI, the KM-related goals were identified as part of designing the KM strategy. Designing of the KM strategy further assisted BATOI to retain competent employees, and along the way, addressed the major concern of attrition that plagues many established organizations. To conclude, some of the future concerns of BATOI are indicated at the end of the case. The analysis of the case takes into account the KM challenges faced by BATOI and the necessary steps in successfully implementing a KM strategy in an organization.

The objective of this teaching case is as follows: to understand how KM is central to an organization's growth strategy; to appreciate the importance of KM in technology-intensive organizations; to understand the process of deriving the KM goals from the over arching business goals of an organization; and to comprehend the challenges associated with implementing KM strategy for the first time in an organization.

Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email: support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

Management, Information technologies.

Courses at the senior university level in social and organizational sciences.

This case aims to observe modes, levels and specific problems in application of information technologies in informing, information sharing and collaboration as important aspects in ensuring quality in control of the processes that occur at school. Some deficiencies in application of information technology within these processes have been identified and alternatives to solving them have been offered. The discussion concerning the solutions was performed according to the parameters that were singled out as important in the analysis of the problems. A school that is recognized in Zlatibor region and elsewhere in Serbia for its advanced development tendencies was selected for the case study. The proposed solutions are practically applicable in any work collective.

Modern management strategy in education; the importance of process management in insuring quality of whole management system; the importance of implementation of modern information technologies in school management system.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

Innovation, information technology, e-marketing and sales, strategy and entrepreneurship.

The case is intended for use in advanced graduate and executive education level management and technical programs of study. The case is high inter-disciplinary appropriate for all courses dealing in use of innovation, information technology, entrepreneurship, marketing and sales and strategy.

Practo Technologies Pvt Ltd is a company established in 2008 by entrepreneurs Shashank, N.D. along with Abhinav Lal. At Practo Technologies engineers practice to create technology that supports healthcare industry. In India, there is not enough assistance given to the patients in terms of searching for appropriate doctors and fixing an appointment with them easily. The patient's data lie scattered in reports and the patient's medical history goes unrecorded. Practo provides a robust platform for doctors and patients to collaborate together under one umbrella. It provides patients with open basket of doctor profiles and special search based on doctor's specialty. The case showcases the journey of transformation healthcare sector in India has gone through. The change was resisted, it never came that easy! The case explores issues in implementing information technology for clinics and hospitals in India. This case illustrates interesting facts Indian healthcare and the preparation they need to equip with to manage global technology tide.

The case can be used for teaching service innovation. Managing innovative practices and low-cost online business models is illustrated. In particular, it deals with how the early start up employs innovation to set up new working ideas. The case is designed to stimulate discussions of broad array of issues regarding deployment of IT services specifically in the hospitals and clinics across India. Evaluate the advantages and liabilities of expanding globally at a very early start up stage. The case focuses on Practo early development with only concept in hand and transforming it into a profit generating business. Evaluate the advantages and challenges of innovation, technology development, deployment and training of manpower to use it. The case offers students opportunity to understand and take view of strategically building early start up and management of concerns with no prior experience. To identify business opportunities and explore various possibilities of expansion into IT healthcare business. The students are given base to explore sales and marketing strategies for online model. The students get overview of cutting edge business offerings and surviving the dynamic competition in the era of globalization.

Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

The learning outcomes are as follows: to explore the challenges associated with Information System Project Management; to explore how to navigate certain Information System Project Management challenges and make recommendations on how to address them; and to evaluate the application of user-centred design.

This case looks at the small to medium enterprises (SMEs) Digitisation project that was initiated by Dr Ndiege, Assistant Professor of Information Systems, and a team of faculty at the School of Science and Technology, United States International University – Africa in Kenya. Dr Ndiege is considering the project in September 2020 and its future viability. The project called for computer science students to voluntarily assist in developing an online presence for local SMEs. The idea is to help cushion them against the shocks of the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr Ndiege looks at the details of the project through the eyes of team leader Sylvie Sarabwe and her encounters on the project. She leads a team of four students in a user-centered design to develop a website for social enterprise Kraft Therapy Foundation (KTF), located in Kibera slums within Nairobi County, Kenya. Sylvie must navigate the client relationship with KTF. But she soon starts to experience the difficulties involved with navigating this process. For Sylvie, it quickly dawns on her that a user-centred design project requires both hard and the soft skills to successfully deliver the final project. By the conclusion of the case, Dr Ndiege recognises the multitude of issues that this project ultimately faces.

The primary target audience for this teaching case is undergraduate information technology students, especially students in software application design and project management with little or no work experience. The case is clearly structured and the length of the case lends itself to the audience. It does not contain excessive or irrelevant information. Hence, learners have more time to focus on the application questions presented.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 7: Management Science.

Microsoft employs 90,000 people and its products affect millions of users around the world every day. Developing the next version of Windows or Office is easy for Microsoft, but the company has struggled when it comes to more radical innovation. Intense competition from Google, Apple, and others threatens a business model that has delivered tremendous success over 25 years. This case highlights the strategic challenges facing Microsoft and provides insights into the organizational, leadership, and operational issues that must be addressed in order to define a successful innovation strategy at one of the world's most well-known companies.