By Carol Olechowski usiness owners and senior managers often face information systems, marketing, finance, or human resources problems that impact their firms� growth and survival. Some attempt to devise their own solutions. Others call upon UAlbany School of Business faculty and students for help in the form of a Living Case. The Living Case, explains Associate Professor of Management Science and Information Systems Salvatore Belardo, is a critical component of an intensive, �results-oriented� joint program conducted twice a year by UAlbany and Zurich�s Graduate School of Business Administration. It brings together participants from the United States, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, France, and several other countries. The students, whose professional backgrounds are as diverse as their national origins, organize themselves into six groups to study a particular company�s problems and propose solutions. In the process, they earn six credits toward the MBA at Albany and the GSBA graduate degree. Belardo, one of several school faculty who oversee the Living Case, worked with 36 students last fall on a case for CommerceHub, which was founded as Commerce Technologies, Inc., at the Center for Environmental Sciences and Technology Management (CESTM). Now located in Clifton Park, the firm provides technology infrastructure and applications that facilitate real-time electronic communication between merchants and suppliers. Its clients include JC Penney, Kmart, Sears, and Wal-Mart. CommerceHub was seeking input on strategy related to information systems, �but also to marketing, financial, operational, and HR (human resources) issues,� recalls Lester Mills, a Cambridge University graduate and a global purchasing manager for Roche Pharmaceuticals in Switzerland. �Our task was to analyze CommerceHub�s situation and develop a strategy to secure the company�s future success.� A written summary about CommerceHub and three two-hour presentations and question-and-answer sessions with the firm�s founder and CEO, UAlbany alumnus Frank Poore, MBA �97; Vice President for Technology Richard Jones, M.S. �98; and consultant Peter Otto convinced Mills and his group that the company needed to build its client base. The students proposed a strategy �involving the acquisition of customers that included health, fitness, and sports equipment suppliers and a home grocery-delivery service.� They also suggested that CommerceHub �develop a data warehouse, data mining, and knowledge management for its existing and new clients; and form partnerships with appropriate consultants to help sell its special drop-ship software solution and network to find new customers.� Mills, who also has a Ph.D. in synthetic organic chemistry from the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England, found the Living Case �fascinating� because �I am responsible for developing an e-commerce (procurement) solution for Hoffmann-LaRoche. I was aware of recent developments in this extremely dynamic and competitive market of application solution providers.� The case, he adds, �was very much at the forefront of information technology (IT) developments. It was challenging, as well, because business models for companies [like CommerceHub] have no historical reference, and future scenarios are difficult to project with any certainty.� For Sharon Hover, a State University Construction Fund associate financial analyst, the Living Case was also �a challenging, very exciting, and unique learning experience.� Her six-person team included two Germans and three Swiss who brought to the table experience in such fields as IT, Internet banking, management training, and re-insurance underwriting. Hover and her colleagues �used information from our classes, written material, and the Internet to assess and formulate our proposal. With our various backgrounds, it was interesting to work as a team and to try to put together a written proposal and a Power Point presentation in a relatively short time frame.� The Empire State College graduate and her team �proposed that CommerceHub become more focused. The company has no sales force, and we felt that Frank Poore was stretched too thin in trying to be part of so many aspects of the business. We recommended also that CommerceHub try to raise venture capital.� Hover, who is in the process of earning a master�s in business and policy studies at ESC, found the team presentations particularly interesting. �Each was different not only in the perception of the problem, but in the solution,� she observes. �I learned from the lectures, and also from my team and my other classmates. I would recommend that any student wishing to complete a Living Case do so. It is a very enriching experience.� Poore was not available for comment for this story.