1) You are requested to join a student group; each group consists of 4-5 students. 2) Each group should work independently of the other groups. 3) This work should be submitted by the end of this lecture. Selecting a supplier for hosting web site services Although the 2000 Olympic Games took place in Sydney, the web-based results service was administered from the other side of the world-at Bristol in the UK. High-speed telecommunications and standard web access software makes such remote operation not only possible, but also desirable: 'Only a couple of years ago, everyone wanted their web site in their office. But now organizations are beginning to see the advantages of getting someone else to shoulder the technology burden and take advantage of the economies of scale,' says Dominic Brodrick, business development manager at Hewlett Packard's (HP) global e-services group, the organization responsible for the Olympic Games results service. The physical location of a web site, he says, is becoming largely irrelevant: "We tried the results system out originally for the 1998 World Cup soccer tournament and registered a record number of hits on the site. In both cases, the location of the web server is really not important - only the availability and scalability of the site.' Some IT applications naturally fall into the category of 'non-core' activities. Companies example, been quite happy to buy in payroll services on the basis that it is an application dictated by external forces and offers no competitive edge. On the surface, third-party hosting of web sites appears to fall into the same category. Like payroll, the processes and technology are standard - communications and presentation in this case being defined by the Internet standards such as Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/TP) and Hypertext Mark-up Language (HTML). Unlike payroll applications, however, company web sites are in the marketing front line. The degree to which they can be put in the hands of a third party depends on how closely the web site is linked with legacy databases and other internal IT systems. The new wave of e-business applications that require web sites to process financial transactions are inevitably more complex than simple 'information' sites. There are several different levels of outsourcing -from a simple shared web server to a full-blown e commerce system. The level a company chooses will depend on the number of sites, the nature of the web site traffic and the demand for bandwidth,' says Mike Gordon, commercial director at Virtual Internet, a specialist web-hosting company Whatever level they come in at, the drivers are the same - the need to cut IT costs, the economies of scale and the need for reliable systems -available 24 hours a day. With outsourcing they can start