We would first like to acknowledge and thank our families for their unfaltering support and innumerable sacrifices, not only as we worked on our thesis, but during the entire year as Sloan Fellows at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Without their support this difficult year would have been impossible.
Many thanks to the employees of Electronic Data Systems (EDS) for their support and openness throughout the thesis. Particular thanks to Kathy Sawey, who was our primary contact at EDS and was always quick to respond to our many requests.
We also acknowledge the support that we have provided each other during this project. We believe that "team" environment resulted in a better end product and added yet another dimension to the learning experience this year at MIT.
Finally we would like to thank the individuals at MIT that supported us in this endeavor; our Advisor - Bob McKirsie, our Reader - John Van Maanen, and the director of this structured thesis - George Roth. George was very helpful in guiding the thesis project for novice researchers such as ourselves.
The authors hereby grant to MIT permission to reproduce and to distribute publicly paper and electronic copies of this thesis document whole or in part.