Major Report 1 & 2
Due date: Major Report 1 Due Date 4 Jan 2016
Major Report 2 Due Date 25 Jan 2016
Value: 30% (each)
Description: Business Report
Email submission will NOT be accepted in any circumstance.
The assignment should be packaged as one single pdf file and then submitted via the link provided on the course page.
Submission
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Both major report 1 & 2 are individual submissions. You are asked to submit the assignment simply though the link provided.
You are encouraged to discuss the assignment solution path with others to improve your understanding and clarify requirements but you should develop the solution to the assignment on your own.
CIS8011 Major Report 1 (30 % marks)
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1.! Email submission will NOT be accepted in any circumstance.
2.! The entire report including appendices will be packaged as one single pdf file and then submitted.
3.! No need to attach plagiarism report. You keep it for any future reference.
Learning objectives
This assignment specifically addresses the following learning objectives of the course:
LO5 Demonstrate effective communication by composing writing that communicates ideas, meaning and/or argument in a format that broadly follows conventions in the information systems field.
LO6 Apply technology and online skills to locate relevant information for the assignments, analyse the presented problems and data, and engage in the use of the resources provided on UConnect.
Individual submission
Students should complete this assignment individually. You are encouraged to discuss the assignment with others to improve your understanding and clarify requirements but you should develop the solution to the assignment on your own.
Critical Analysis
Congratulations! You have just been hired as the Information Systems Manager of a successful multinational software services provider with offices in cities across the globe. You provide major software transaction services to News Paper industry to incorporate the digital economy (based on digital transformation, which is your specialisation). Your services include wide range of services to be able to provide one window solutions for digital transformation, such as data capture, data management, data analytics and data transcription are just few to mentioned hear.
Due to the volumes of data going through your organisation, the CEO approached you to provide an initial report on digital transformation for the news paper industry and management such systems within the organisation. He is keen to try this as an innovation in the organisation, and would like to carefully consider various strategies required to implementing such a system in the organisation. The first four-week course materials provide you some basis for this Major Report 1, but you need to undertake independent research to present a high quality report.
You are required to research the background for a project (digital transformation for the news paper industry) to implement and manage such Systems. You will consider current organisational aspect, and then recommend a way forward as to how this can be accomplished, through a management report, to the CEO.
The scope of this assignment is restricted to the following key aspects:
1.! How digital transformation for the news paper industry systems are utilised in other organisations and what are the risks (max half page)
2.! What experiences are gained by other companies in using digital transformation for the news paper industry systems (max 1 page)
3.! What are the advantages and disadvantages of using a digital transformation for the news paper industry concept in an organisation (max half page)
4.! The scope to which you recommend this organisation to utilise digital transformation for the news paper industry systems concept (max 1 page)
5.! The infrastructure required to realise such a concept (max 1 page), and 6.! Best-practice for how this concept should be managed (max half page).
The above components are presented to the CEO, therefore need to be precise, succinct and meaningful. For the purpose of the assignment, you can choose an organisation of your choice, and provide details of this organisation in the scope (a separate section – not more than half page), and then build the assignment.
The assignment should be thoroughly researched, with evidence provided through references. The CEO is keen to see a well argued case, highlighting insights as to the above 6 key aspects, and would like to see strong points arguing your case as to the infrastructure requirements and best-practice.
As this domain is new to the CEO, he is not able to provide too many details and expect you to conduct whatever research is required in arriving at the report. When you conduct your research, you will map the content researched to your course weekly materials so that what has been taught can be applied. This mapping will be presented as a table in an Appendix (see later in submission)
The assignment will have three additional submission components in an appendix in addition to the 6 key aspects. They are:
1.! A cover letter stating an estimated resource and time schedule
2.! A 5000 character report providing background details of the company
3.! A table showing the mapping of course content with material researched. This table will have, author details, paper tile, year of publication, journal details, key words/phrases you considered for your report, the comparable topics form weekly course content.
The report is provided to the CEO of the organisation and needs to be top class in presentation. You have absolute freedom in all other aspects.
Please note that there is no need to attach a plagiarism report. However, the markers will be instructed to verify that the content is original. If discrepancies are found, your work will be marked with zero, and you will be referred to the faculty for ‘academic misconduct’. Therefore, you are encouraged to check your written document for any potential plagiarism or collusion issues.
Any delays in submission MUST be accompanied with proper approval documentation, despite the course leader approving this. So please attach the approval to this assignment as markers may not have access to delay approvals. If the approval documentation is not found, late penalty, as per university rules, will be levied.
Assignments MUST be submitted in the link provided. If they are not submitted via the link, then it is assumed that submission was not made. If the assignments were submitted in other locations, it is very difficult to track them, as the course team have no access to other locations.
CIS 8011 Major Report 2 (30 % marks)
1.! Email submission will NOT be accepted in any circumstance.
2.! The entire report including appendices will be packaged as one single pdf file and then submitted.
3.! No need to attach plagiarism report. You keep it for any future reference.
Learning objectives
This assignment specifically addresses the following learning objectives of the course:
LO5 Demonstrate effective communication by composing writing that communicates ideas, meaning and/or argument in a format that broadly follows conventions in the information systems field.
LO6 Apply technology and online skills to locate relevant information for the assignments, analyse the presented problems and data, and engage in the use of the resources provided through the course site as well as USQ library.
Submission
This assignment is an individual submission. You are asked to submit the assignment simply though the link provided. This is similar to the submission procedure of Assignment 1.
You are encouraged to discuss the assignment solution path with others to improve your understanding and clarify requirements but you should develop the solution to the assignment on your own.
Critical Analysis
The CIO of the organisation (as specified in Assignment 1) read through your submitted document and felt that there is some merit in pursuing the options suggested by you. Through your report (Assignment 1), the CIO understood that digital transformation for the news paper industry consists of many issues to consider, policies to be developed or modified at organisational level, and new investments to be made to manage data security and other related matters.
The CIO wanted you to explore the options provided by you in depth so that ‘digital transformation for the news paper industry’ can be managed in his organisation, initially as a pilot project. The CIO provided a time total limit of 9 months (in the form of a pilot project) to explore the suggestions provided by you in Assignment 1, and asked you to provide an implementation strategy within 30 days. The 9 months include the 30 days.
The CIO is very interested in three specific aspects, namely – Information technology infrastructure required to implement the pilot project, Technology Integration and achieving operational excellence. Some of these aspects are covered in the course, and you are expected to conduct independent research on other aspects. In addition to these three key aspects, the CIO would like your expert opinion on enhancement to decision making within the organisation. This additional aspect is to look into the future as the business expands beyond the 12 months to a period of an additional 24 months.
The CIO appreciated the contents of the report and made a number of suggestions to improving the report so that it aligns with his organisation. Your markers will give this in the feedback form. You need to provide a one-page document stating how the feedback was addressed in this assignment report. See point 1 below under ‘Submission Components’.
In this assignment component, you are required to research a solution path for:
1.! An implementation strategy for the project as a pilot;
2.! A comprehensive analysis of information technology infrastructure required to conduct the pilot project;
3.! Strategies to achieving operational excellence through the pilot project, and the key measurement criteria to provide evidence to achieving operational excellence through your solution;
4.! A discussion on how your solution would enhance decision making in the organisation within the scope of this project; and
5.! How digital transformation for the newspaper industry can be managed in the future so that the organisation can develop appropriate strategies for expansion.
The scope of this assignment is restricted to the following submission components:
1.! Provide a report as how you addressed the feedback provided for your initial report (Assignment A) – 1 page
2.! With this refinement (as in point 1 immediately above), analyse and discuss your solution path for the 5 points stated above (2 pages)
3.! Provide a cost analysis to implement the pilot project. The cost analysis will have at least three cost models (best, medium, worst case scenarios)
4.! Provide a detailed justification to the costs considered in the cost models and state why you chose those cost elements, and how they align with your solution path for the pilot project (2 page)
The above components are presented to the CIO, therefore need to be precise, succinct and meaningful. The CIO also asked for your initial report and the feedback packaged as an appendix and attached so that s/he can recollect the salient points of the report you submitted and the feedback given to you. This should be in the appendix, in pdf format.
The assignment should be thoroughly researched, with evidence provided through references. The CIO is keen to see a well-argued case, highlighting insights as to the key aspects, and would like to see strong points arguing your case as to the infrastructure requirements and strategies for achieving operational excellence.
The report is provided to the CIO of the organisation and needs to be top class in presentation. You have absolute freedom in all other aspects. Please note that there is no need to attach a plagiarism report. However, the markers will be instructed to verify that the content is original. If discrepancies are found, your work will be marked with zero, and you will be referred to the faculty for ‘academic misconduct’. Therefore, you are encouraged to check your written document for any potential plagiarism or collusion issues.
Any delays in submission MUST be accompanied with proper approval documentation, despite the course leader approving this. So please attach the approval to this assignment as markers may not have access to delay approvals. If the approval documentation is not found, late penalty, as per university rules, will be levied.
Assignments MUST be submitted via the link provided. If they are not submitted via the link, then it is assumed that submission was not made. If the assignments were submitted in other locations, it is very difficult to track them, as the course team have no access to other locations, and the course team can’t assume responsibility.
Marking criteria –
Will be provided through the course website.