COMM Introduction to Management Information Systems Winter 2014 Term 1

Transcription

1 Introduction COMM Introduction to Management Information Systems Winter 2014 Term 1 COURSE PROJECT DESCRIPTION The purpose of this project is to enable you to gain some experience in conducting research on emerging information technologies, identifying the business needs, and examining how information technologies can contribute to enable a business to succeed. It will also provide an opportunity for you to learn and apply some basic business analysis techniques and tools. This project accounts for 20% of the final grade. Requirements You should work in groups of 4 5 members. Each group can choose one of the cases (listed in Annex 1) to conduct the study. The case documents are available for sale at Ivey Publishing. The ordering instructions can be found in Connect. You will analyze the business strategy of the company, study the key issues, problems and/or opportunities of strategic significance to the business, and conduct research on an emerging information technology that supports the business needs and addresses the particular challenges involved. You will apply and integrate the knowledge and skills acquired throughout the term to further develop your analytical, team and project management skills. At the end of the project, you are required to present your findings and recommendations. Your study should include, but not limited to, the following: (a) An analysis of the business strategy of the company and the problem identification. (b) A high level description of the business processes to support the business strategy. (c) A list of information requirements at the strategic and operational levels to support the business strategy, and a brief description of how the required information will be generated, stored and distributed. (d) A detailed explanation of how your proposed IT solution can support the proposed business processes and information requirements, and a comparison with other alternatives. (e) A discussion on how the company can benefit from the proposed IT solution. (f) An assessment of the economical and operational feasibility of the proposed IT solution and the key challenges facing its implementation. (g) A description of organizational consideration on how the proposed IT solution should be implemented and how the identified challenges should be addressed. Course Project Description Page 1 of 6

2 To maximize the students learning experience, the same case will not be assigned to more than 11 groups in each section. You are encouraged to discuss with your instructor and Head TA before selecting the case. Project Deliverables (1) Case Selection (No grade will be assigned. Due on Sept. 24, 2014.) Purpose: To enable you to choose a case and obtain your instructor s approval for you to proceed to the next phase. The case selection is on a first-come, first-served basis. Details will be announced in Connect. (2) Group Contract (No grade will be assigned. Due on Sept. 24, 2014.) Purpose: To enable each group member to fully understand his/her responsibilities and commitments to the project. The contract should be signed by all members of the group before it is handed in personally to your instructor. The instructor will keep the original copy while students who wish to have a copy can receive a scanned copy of the contract. (3) Interim Presentation (5% of the final grade. To be held between Oct. 27 and Oct. 30, 2014.) Purpose: To enable you to present your initial findings and proposals to your TA and instructor and obtain their feedback on the work that you have done. The presentation will be judged by alumni who have practical business analysis experience, but the grade will be assigned by your instructor and TA. Other students may also be asked to provide comments on your presentation. Time allowed: 15 minutes (presentation), 5 minutes (Q&A), 10 minutes (feedback) An evaluation rubric will be distributed before the interim presentation. (4) Final Presentation (15% of the final grade. To be held between Nov. 17 and Nov. 21, 2014.) Purpose: To enable you to present your detailed analysis and the proposed IT solution, the justifications and recommendations. Similar to the interim presentation, the final presentation will be judged by alumni but the grade will be assigned by your instructor and TA. Other students may also be asked to provide comments on your presentation. Time allowed: 15 minutes (presentation), 10 minutes (Q&A), 5 minutes (feedback) An evaluation rubric will be distributed before the final presentation. Course Project Description Page 2 of 6

3 Evaluation The group grades for the project will be assigned by the instructor and TA s as follows: Interim Presentation 5% Final Presentation 15% TOTAL: 20% Peer evaluation of individual contributions to the project may be used to adjust this group grade for individual group members. Peer Evaluation In order to ensure that students can apply what they learn in class and contribute equally to complete the course project throughout the term, the following checkpoints have been added to the course schedule: Each individual member is required to submit a peer evaluation every two weeks in order to enable the instructor and TA s to identify any problems prior to the presentations. Course Project Description Page 3 of 6

4 Annex 1 Case Studies The following is a list of the case studies from which your group can select. 1. Caterpillar Tunnelling: Revitalizing User Adoption of Business Intelligence Caterpillar Tunnelling Canada Corporation, a Toronto-based subsidiary of the U.S. company Caterpillar Inc., specializes in the custom design and manufacture of tunnelling boring machines used in the construction of transportation and utility tunnels such as subway, sewage and telecom cable tunnels. After the acquisition by Caterpillar, the company was chosen as one of the sites to undergo enterprise resource planning (ERP) transformation. After over a year of localization effort to adapt the corporate ERP template to the subsidiary s business processes, the project was called off due to both the strained local resources and the significant gap between the parent company s repetitive manufacturing model and the subsidiary s concurrent engineering/project-based model. Moreover, the lack of executive buy-in and a mandate in establishing company-wide performance metrics and consistency in business semantics led to sporadic user adoption of business intelligence tools and the creation of sometimes irreconcilable reporting. The business resource manager and head of finance has to rethink the management of business intelligence technologies and come up with a strategy to achieve coherent data analytics for effective business decision making. 2. Information System Strategy at Neelkanth Drugs Neelkanth Drugs Pvt. Ltd. (NDPL), one of the leading pharmaceutical distributors in Delhi, was making plans for further expansion, and the dynamic nature of the business was leading this small- and medium-sized enterprise towards implementing an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. The company s head of information technology had prepared a complete report on the various ERP solutions available for NDPL and presented it to the chief executive officer (CEO). According to this analysis, cloud-based ERP was the best solution out of the various options available. The CEO was indecisive because of NDPL s past cloud experience, which had been disruptive and unsatisfactory, to say the least. The CEO pondered whether it would make sense to go for a cloud-based ERP solution, or whether it would make more sense to look for an alternative that may not be as cost-effective but that would entail less risk. Course Project Description Page 4 of 6

5 Annex 1 3. Social Media Content Strategy at Ayojak Ayojak was an online event management product solution offered by Signure Technologies Limited, a firm established in 2007 in India and the United Kingdom that had product development and business development centres in Pune and Bangalore, India. As of May 2011, Ayojak had two operational products and two more products in the development stage. Ayojak provided an end-to-end solution to any event organizer, including such activities as the creation of an event web page, ticket sales, collation of attendee information, event promotion on social media, and customer support for booking tickets online. To promote its clients events, Ayojak made extensive use of such social media platforms as Facebook, Twitter, and blogs. It engaged in few offline marketing activities and hence depended solely on word-of-mouth through its social media presence. However, in April 2011, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Signure realized that Ayojak s social media content strategy had been focusing on promoting its clients events. Now, with two more products soon to be launched, the CEO needed to rethink Ayojak s content strategy. He wanted to build Ayojak s brand among its stakeholders by leveraging its social media presence, instead of using this presence merely as a promotion platform for its clients events. - end of document - Course Project Description Page 5 of 6