CIS8000 Assignment

CIS8000 Assignment 4 Instructions

This written assignment is to be electronically submitted through the EASE system in
the CIS8000 Study Desk. Hardcopy or email submission will NOT be accepted.
Length: The total word limit for the assignment is 4500 words.
Learning objectives
This assignment specifically addresses the following learning objectives of the course:
LO2 Identify and explore contemporary challenges and opportunities in information systems
and to formulate an opinion or judgement and offer possible solutions.
LO3 Demonstrate ability to identify potential opportunities for creative and sustainable use
of information technologies to achieve corporate objectives.
LO4 Demonstrate ability to collaborate with peers to analyse and solve business problems
with information technologies, and present the solution in a report.
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 are encouraged to work with other students in researching and developing their
reports but each student’s submission should be their own individual effort and be
differentiated from the submission of others.
Plagiarism check
You must subject your written assignment to plagiarism check by the Turnitin software
prior to its submission in the EASE system. The Turnitin software can be indirectly accessed
through the Study Desk without the need to provide any login-id or password. Further
details on how you should interpret the Turnitin results will be posted in the Study Desk. No
assignment will be marked if it is not accompanied by the Turnitin report.
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/meeting
● Topic researched or discussed
● Time duration
● Brief description of research activity/discussion.
Submit this journal as an appendix to activity B.
Activity B: Report to CEO (maximum 4000 words)
Select an organisation to analyse for this assignment. The organisation may be a commercial,
government or not-for-profit organisation but it should have at least 50 employees, a web
site and be a user of e-business/e-commerce. Use the web, newspapers and/or personal
contacts to gain information about the organisation and its management of IT. When selecting
the organisation, you should take into account the nature of the organisation’s business
environment and the extent to which the organisation is dependent on IT to run its operations.
If you are employed, you are encouraged to base this assignment on the organisation that
you are currently working with, if it meets the above criteria.
Complete the requirements below by producing a written report to the CEO.
Part 1: Introduction: background of selected organisation
1.1 Describe the background of the selected organisation in terms of the following: the
industry sector (e.g. banking, healthcare, travel, airline etc.) it operates within, its key
products/services, corporate mission, corporate structure, major business processes, business
strategy and relationship with external entities e.g. other organisations, government etc.
Provide its homepage URL.
Part 2: IT infrastructure – management issues and Cloud Computing
2.1 Using Figure 5-9 ‘The IT Infrastructure Ecosystem’ in Laudon and Laudon 12th edn p.
206 as a guide describe the organisation’s current IT infrastructure.
2.2 Identify the issues and challenges that the organisation faces in the management of its IT
infrastructure. Use the information provided in Section 5.5: Management Issues on pp. 224-
227 of the textbook as a guide.
2.3 Search the Internet for articles about Cloud Computing.
Ascertain whether the organisation already has a strategy to take advantage of Cloud
Computing in place or intends to establish one. Then, describe, analyse and discuss any
current or planned Cloud Computing Strategy or otherwise the Strategy you would
recommend, explain why it is important for the organisation to have one. You are required to
justify your reasons.
Start your research using the prescribed text first. According to L&L ‘cloud computing
provides access to shared pool of computing resources..’ (page 200). Review the material on
page 213 and the case on page 233 based on salesforce.com. Acquire more information on
the Internet about cloud computing and explain to CEO what cloud computing is and its
current trends.
Part 3: Big Data – background and recommended strategy
3.1 One of the emerging innovations is around the concept of Big Data; this involves the
advent of tools to analyse massive quantities of data that up to now would have been difficult
or impossible. This has a number of potential benefits including identifying trends, needs,
consumer perceptions and many more.
Search the Internet to find out about Big Data eg:
What is big data?
Every day, we create 2.5 quintillion bytes of data — so much that 90% of the data in
the world today has been created in the last two years alone. This data comes from
everywhere: sensors used to gather climate information, posts to social media sites,
digital pictures and videos, purchase transaction records, and cell phone GPS signals
to name a few. This data is big data. (source: IBM http://www-
01.ibm.com/software/data/bigdata/)
Write a summary to the CEO and other senior managers in the organisation addressing the
following:
● What Big Data is about
 The potential of Big Data
● How businesses are using Big Data
● Business opportunities and benefits from Big Data
● Problems and drawbacks of Big Data
● The future of Big Data and the next steps for taking advantage of Big Data
3.2 Recommend a strategy to help the organisation plan to leverage Big Data to achieve its
business objectives. If the organisation already has such a strategy in place, recommend how
it could further avail itself of new opportunities provided by recent advancements in Big Data
technologies. Before you commence your search for material to help you formulate the
strategy you should first review ‘Chapter 3: Information systems, organisations and strategy’
in the textbook. Your recommended strategy should be sufficiently detailed to help the CEO
in its implementation. The following are some of the areas and issues which your strategy
must factor in:
● The reasons why the organisation should consider investing in Big Data
● The key areas where Big Data is likely to have an impact on its business e.g.
customer and supplier intimacy, business intelligence, knowledge
management, future planning
● The risks the organisation should consider and how these can be mitigated
● The supporting tools, solutions and skills the organisation need to have,
● How the organisation can measure the success of its Big Data initiative
Part 4: Conclusions: key findings and recommendations
4.1 Summarise your key findings and recommendations to the CEO related to your analysis.
Clearly state your conclusions.
General guidelines for Activity B
● Your submission must be submitted to the CEO as a report in a single document, not
an essay. The format must comply with the report structure detailed in chapter 3 (‘Report
Writing’) of the Communication skills handbook 3edn, except that you would not need a
glossary. Please note from the handbook that reports do have subheadings and an
appropriate letter of transmittal is required.
● The word count does not include the following: executive summary, letter of transmittal,
table of contents, figures, tables, references or appendices.
● The body of the report should be about 4,000 words in length and you may lose marks if
it varies by more than 10%. Additional relevant material may be included in the
Appendices.
● You must demonstrate additional research from outside the text. Suggestions for
other references include other general texts on information systems management,
industry journals, periodicals, electronic databases etc. (many of which are available
online from the USQ Library at: <http://www.usq.edu.au/library/ >.
● Use the Harvard referencing format for in-text references and the reference list. Your
references should include at least one web/electronic link but all the references should not be
from the web. Refer to chapter 2 (referencing) of the Communication skills handbook 3edn
for further details.
● Inappropriate referencing or excessive grammar/spelling errors will incur a penalty.
You should refrain from cutting and pasting chunks of materials from the Internet as this will
be treated as plagiarism. To avoid any allegation of academic misconduct from unintentional
plagiarism from Internet sources you should use the Turnitin software to check your work
before submitting it.
Report formatting instructions
● Major headings should be in upper case, 14 point Times New Roman Bold.
● Minor headings should be in lower-case, 12 point Times New Roman Bold.
● Body text should be formatted to 12 point, Times New Roman.
● Page size should be A4. Allow for a 25 mm margin on both sides of each page, a 25
mm margin at the top of each page and a 25 mm margin at the bottom of each page.
● Use single line spacing.
● Your assignment should be submitted in one of the following formats:
o Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx)
o Rich Text Format (.rtf)
o Portable Document Format (.pdf).
Marking criteria
You are strongly advised to read the marking criteria carefully before starting on your
assignment. Note the marks allocation for each part and sub-part in Activity B.
Ensure that the length of your solution should be commensurate with the allocated marks.
Also, note that the journal is worth 10% and the report presentation 10% of the total marks.

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