RECENT ASSIGNMENT

Assignment 2
Description Marks out of Wtg(%) Due date
Assignment 2 (MIS Project) 100 35% 15 September 2014
Activity A is to be electronically submitted through the EASE system in the CIS8000 StudyDesk. Email submission will NOT be accepted.
It should contain a URL link to Activity B – your video presentation on YouTube or any other presentation system of your choice, you must test the link to ensure it works effectively.

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.

Case Study
You are the CIO of a successful insurance firm with offices in cities across the nation. You provide all major categories of insurance to consumers who include companies and individuals. You recently attended a technology seminar on Cloud computing. It occurred to you that this would offer potential benefits to your organisation and would be well-received by management and staff.

At the seminar you learnt there were many issues to consider, policies to be developed or modified, and new investments to be made to manage a Cloud environment. These included upgrading your ICT Data Security System to accommodate Cloud Computing to protect clients’ and your firm’s data; this needs to synchronise and ensure the integrity of data on servers and end-user devices.

You plan to present your Business Case for Cloud to your CEO, Board and executives. You are required to research the background for a project to implement and manage Cloud, determine the scope for the extent to which you recommend use of the Cloud, use Microsoft Excel to model a business plan, perform sensitivity analysis to validate assumptions, and create a presentation to seek funding and authorisation from senior management to implement and manage Cloud Computing.

As Board members and executives are dispersed across the nation you plan to use YouTube or other medium for your presentation. You will also prepare an Executive Handout containing your spreadsheet and will provide this along with the link to the URL which is where the Executives can access your presentation.

Activity A: Journal (maximum 500 words)
Prepare a journal which records your activities and progress related to completing this assignment. In date order, clearly list the following:
? Date of research activity/discussion
? Topic researched or discussed
? Time duration
? Brief description of research activity/discussion.

Submit this journal as a separate report through EASE.
A sample of the journal will be provided in the Study Desk.

Activity B: Presentation to Senior Management

NOTE: If you are unfamiliar with the business case and sensitivity analysis concepts you should make an effort to read appropriate material, including those from the Internet, to learn about them.

Part 1: Research the background for the Cloud project
Conduct an Internet search to gather relevant background information of Cloud. In particular, you should address the following:
1. How Cloud is utilised and its associated risks
2. Experiences of other companies
3. Advantages and disadvantages
4. The scope to which you recommend your Company utilise Cloud services
5. The infrastructure required, and
6. Best-practice for how Cloud should be managed.

Part 2: Develop the Excel model of the business case
Once you have completed Part 1, develop a spread-sheet model of your business costs over a 6 year period. Some of the materials provided in the MIS Projects may help you to come up with a simple modelling. For the purpose of modelling, assume a discount rate of 10 per cent. Your business model should include the following analysis to ascertain the financial viability of the project:
1. Payback period
2. Net present value (NPV)
3. Internal rate of return (IRR), and
4. Profitability index

HINTS: To obtain the payback period you would first need to calculate the cumulative net cash flow. Use the NPV and IRR functions provided in Microsoft Excel. You may need to search the Internet for information if you are not familiar with how to use these functions. Interpret your results.

Part 3: Perform a sensitivity analysis for the business case
Using the results you obtained in Part 2 as the base case, conduct a sensitivity analysis to examine the impact of the critical cost and benefit variables on the viability of the Cloud project. Provide three specific scenarios of consideration. You must clearly specify the basis of the three scenarios i.e. which critical cost variables they are examining in the sensitivity analysis

Carefully analyse your results and make appropriate recommendations to the company’s senior management as to how the critical cost variables should be managed to ensure that the Cloud project is both viable and sustainable in the long term.

Part 4: Create a presentation to senior management
4.1 Consolidate and cross-analyse your results and findings from Part 1, 2 and 3. Then prepare a presentation to the company’s senior management to seek their financial support and authorisation to embark on the project.

You will submit a handout for the Executives containing the Journal and Spreadsheet through EASE along with a link to a URL where you recorded audio/visual presentation

YouTube is the preferred mode for submission; if you are in a country that does not have access to YouTube or there are other issues preventing you from posting to YouTube then you must submit a PowerPoint presentation with embedded autoplaying audio through EASE.

If you do not wish for your video in YouTube or other system to be publically available then you may explore security features or options of YouTube such as having your video in a closed group. You are responsible for ensuring the link to your presentation will work for the Examiner marking your assignment - you should ask someone to test it.

What needs to be submitted to EASE is:
1. Journal
2. your Executive Handouts that contain your spreadsheets and any other material you wish to share
3. the URL link to your presentation addressing all the points in the Assignment 2 instructions and with any further information. The presentation should include lessons learnt in undertaking your research.

Format:
Provided your Examiner can click on the URL and it works then any common video format is OK; for example you can save ppt as wmv and YouTube will accept that.

If you do not feel comfortable with YouTube you may wish to explore the many alternatives (Vimeo, Viddler, Sprout, Vzaar etc); the markers need only to be able to link to a URL to see your presentation. It does not need to be professionally produced and you can use a mobile phone, movie camera, the video tools that are available to download to use your PC, voice capture in Powerpoint or whatever. There is the option of submitting Powerpoint and some people have no alternative but to do that as they are in circumstances where they can't do video - note the file size limits in EASE.

The purpose of the presentation is to present a compelling business case to the executive management team to persuade them to adopt the new initiative (the financial analysis is a key part of the business case)

Lessons learned – there will be many things that you would have learned that you did not know before that you might want to share with your executive management team?

As a guide, your presentation should be around 15 slides and should be no more than 10 minutes, it should be developed and structured according to the following:
• The presentation should be made up of :
­ An introduction: your FIRST slide should show the title of your presentation and details of the author(s); the SECOND slide should provide the agenda i.e. outline of your presentation; the THIRD slide should clearly state the purpose of your presentation and what you want to achieve from it.
­ A body: contains the results and findings from Part 1, 2 and 3.
­ A conclusion: recaps the main points and summarises your recommendations.
­ Lessons learned: Two slides highlighting lessons learned from conducting this project.
• The LAST slide should contain a “List of references”. There should be at least 8 references (including those from Internet sources) and they should be listed according to the Harvard referencing convention as described in Chapter 2 (referencing) of the Communication Skills Handbook 3ed.
• Insert Excel tables and charts and suitable graphics at appropriate places in your presentation to reinforce your argument.
• Search the Internet for information and guidance on how to produce an effective PowerPoint presentation, including the slide design and layout.
• Ensure that your PowerPoint file does not exceed the specified size indicated in EASE otherwise you would not be able to upload your work.