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ASSESSMENT BRIEF
Course Task: Business Information Systems Analysis Report (BAR)
Format/Size Limit: MS Word Document / 2500 Words (+/- 10%) excluding figures, tables, appendices etc.
Due: Monday of Week 7 (18/04/22) at 23:59.
Submission: Via Turnitin on Wattle.
Collaboration: None. This individual submission must be entirely your own work.
Weight: 30% of the course grade.
Description: This task requires you to provide a response to questions and activities related to topics in information systems.
Return of feedback: Up to 10 working days after submission, excluding semester breaks.
Requirements:
Read the assessment description carefully to ensure you understand the expectations. In your response make sure you are directly addressing the topics raised in the case study. Be specific and make sure you are leveraging course concepts, frameworks, discussions, etc. You are also expected to leverage good quality, academic literature. Note that generic content will be marked down.
Task required
In this scenario, you have been hired as a consultant to write a report for the CEO of a medium size manufacturing company with advice on how they should improve the way in which they use technology to provide support for the business. Your report is the first step in the company’s effort to build an Information Systems Strategy. Your report is expected to be professional, relevant, clear and succinct.
Your job is to leverage the frameworks and tools that we have discussed in class as well as do some independent research that adds value to your understanding and analysis. Use the following statements as guidance in your approach to writing the report. However, note that these points are for guidance only and don’t represent section or sub-section headings.
Good luck!!
1. You must convince the CEO that you understand the current and possible future state of the organisations usage of technology.
2. Think about the types of technology that will help the CEO simplify the company’s technology and enable her IT folks to focus on strategic applications.
3. Your advice should include consideration of how e-Commerce and Social Media might play a role and any related technologies/models.
4. Are there any cutting edge technologies that are being used in the industry, or elsewhere, that you
think might give this organisation a competitive advantage?
5. Are there any organisational issues that need to be considered?
6. Should the CEO have any ethical concerns?
7. Add anything else that you think may be of value to the CEO.
Future Vision Case Study:
The CEO of Future Vision, Helen Harrison, is an engineer, entrepreneur and has many years of experience working in the manufacturing industry. Ten years ago she started a business manufacturing electronic components such as lenses, cameras, microphones and other components for drones and other devices.
Future Vision (FV) is very successful and she now supplies many of the major drone manufacturers, all of whom are based overseas. The company has just over 50 employees most of whom work in the manufacturing plants and central office. There are a few salespeople who call on existing and prospective customers. Product quality and brand reputation has always been important and Helen believes it’s been a big part of their success. However, the component industry is becoming more competitive and she has decided to diversify the company’s product offerings and expand the business.
One option is to become an Australian based VR headset manufacturer. Expansion into headsets is fairly straight forward, given her background, and should take no more than 6 months to integrate into current manufacturing operations but she is concerned that her reputation is in the component industry and existing/prospective customers won’t be aware of the expanded product line. The company has little online presence and she knows that online sales will be critical to increasing revenue. While Helen is very keen to pursue individual headset customers she also knows that companies and maybe even government departments offer the opportunity to expand quickly.
Helen also wonders if there are other markets and products that she should consider. She is confident that her company can leverage its strengths but recognises that there are other factors she should consider.
FV operates two small manufacturing plants, one of which has a showroom where prospective customers can view products and tour the plant. A challenge facing FV is supply chain management. Managing the supply chain to support manufacturing and keep costs down, without sacrificing quality, is key to the success of the business. As she expands, Helen knows that other processes that support the business such as customer management and company functions like finance, payroll and HR need to become more robust and sustainable.
Helen credits her team and positive team culture for their success. However, the expansion of the business means a lot of change and she is concerned that this may impact staff morale and retention. The FV Information Technology needs are provided by four Information Technology employees who are very talented but overworked and complain about not having the time to focus on interesting technology that will help Helen support the business. Working on IT crises and a lack of enterprise wide systems integration takes up a lot of time.
Helen is a forward thinker. She knows that she needs to embrace technology to grow the business and strengthen the brand. She is very interested in understanding how she can use social media to her advantage and would like to see how other companies market are using social media with positive impact.
Finally, she knows that, to be competitive, she needs reliable information from internal and external sources to optimise the business and make good decisions.
FV Information Technology (Current State)
. The company’s back office systems are a mix of simple accounting packages and some home grown development. The IT team pulls together management reports that are appreciated by the management group but they need more and better information.
. Being able to easily exchange ordering, inventory and financial information will streamline related processes. But Helen also wants to work on strengthening customer relationships. The salespeople complain that they rely too much on manual processes.