Before Dee could get very far with her project to create a blog for the sales force, she needed a budget. For that, she needed the approval of her boss. When Dee explained the idea to him, he was pleased that she was thinking innovatively, and he was positively inclined to support the project. However, he wanted more specifics and told her that before he would approve spending any money, he wanted answers to three questions:

• "How will this blog impact the sales process?"

• "How will the salespeople use it?"

• "How will it help us gain sales?"

Dee began her career as a salesperson, and she is intimately acquainted with the sales process. Consequently, it was easy for her to answer these questions. Before we consider her responses, however, you need to learn more about business processes and how they relate to information systems.

'Dee can use the knowledge from this chapter to craft her responses. To answer the first question, she needs to diagram the sales process in a format like that in Figure 2-1. The diagram will show the sales reps, the doctors and pharmacists, and the various stages of the sales process. It also needs to show information that the sales reps need during this process. To-answer the second question, Dee can add the blog as a facility that the sales reps can access. She would then amend the first diagram to show how the information would be accessed from the Web. Dee can structure her answer to the third question using Bateson's definition of information: a difference that makes a difference. For example, she can use the blog to publish successful sales strategies. When she does that, she will be publishing a difference (a new sales strategy) that makes a difference (it worked!). She can also publish other information (differences that make a difference) from herself, from sales management, and from doctors and pharmacists. Her boss didn't ask for it, and it probably is beyond what Dee wants to do at this point, but she could also create diagrams like Figures 2-3, 2-4, and 2-5. In one figure, she could summarize the five components of the information system that the reps will use when they access the blog. In another figure, she could summarize the five components of the information system she will use when she (or others) publishes and creates blog entries.

A) Is there any real value in providing sales people more information?

B) Why is a blog necessary? Why not just use email?