Hewlett-Packard and Oracle are examples of companies that create key account teams, including product, sales, and other functional specialists. What is the purpose of such teams?

After experiencing steady declines in its traditional personal computer markets, Microsoft shifted substantial resources into cloud-computing services. For example, its Azure service offers highly scalable provisioning, load-balancing, and system health monitoring features on a subscription basis. Like many other technology services, cloud products enable Microsoft to obtain recurring revenues and reduce its reliance on one-time sales. Describe Microsoft's shift in terms of at least one of the three components of B2B (business-to-business) strategy.

The passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2012 in the United States created requirements for many firms to provide health insurance for their employees. Before purchasing a plan, companies needed to decide how effectively different plans delivered the benefits they sought. For example, some plans offered low co-pays but small physician networks, while others had high co-pays but large networks. Such an effort would take place during which stage of the business buying process?

Identify the three types of B2B (business-to-business) buy classes and rank them from least risky to most risky.