List and describe the four fundamental questions/decisions/strategies for acquiring IT applications (including the sub-parts). You've justified your IT investment, so now you need to decide how you want to pursue it. You are an entrepreneur who wants to start your own small business; how would you answer these questions? Now assume you are the CEO of a multi-billion-dollar company; how would you answer these questions?

How much computer code does the company want to write? Prewritten (no code), customize prewritten (some code), custom-write (all new code); small - either prewritten (could actually be cheaper) or custom-write/customize if the student knows programming or knows someone who can program; large - any option is good because they have the money to do what they want - time is the big issue with customization so it may be easiest to purchase prewritten but that could harm strategic advantage (have the same software as everyone else) - so it depends on the strategy
How will the company pay for the application? Buy or lease; small - leasing may be the best option to get the business started; large - this depends on the student's perspective of buying/leasing - some feel buying is cheaper in the long run while others feel leasing is the best because upgrading is often easier (but it is more expensive in the long-run)
Where will the application run? In-house or outsourcing; small - Outsourcing may be the cheapest way of doing this so the company doesn't have to buy hardware or hire IT personnel; large - could make the same argument as small but many large organizations already have an IT staff that can manage these things in-house
Where will the application originate? Open-source, vendor, customized, in-house, customized; small - open-source or outsourcing could be viable options because it is cheaper but see above arguments; large - see above arguments