Assignment 2

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 accounting firm with offices in cities across the nation.  You recently attended a technology seminar on BYOD (Bring Your Own Device).   It occurred to you that this would offer potential benefits to your organisation and would be well-received by 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 BYOD environment. These included upgrading your ICT Data Security System to accommodate BYOD 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 vision for BYOD to your CEO, Board and executives. You are required to research the background for a project to implement and manage BYOD, 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 BYOD.

As Board members and executives are dispersed across the nation you plan to use YouTube for 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.  Your journal must provide all these activity details to be awarded marks.

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.

Before you commence this assignment ensure you have completed Hands-on MIS Project # 1 to 5 in Appendix S.1 in the Study Book.  These exercises are designed to familiarise you with the software, techniques and methods used in the assignment.

Part 1: Research the background for the BYOD project

Conduct an Internet search to gather relevant background information of BYOD.   In particular, you should address the following:

1.      How BYOD is utilised and its associated risks

2.      Experiences of other companies

3.      Advantages and disadvantages

4.      The infrastructure required, and

5.      Best-practice for how BYOD 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. 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.  Use the note in MIS Project #4 – Capital Budgeting Methods for Information System Investmentsto guide you.

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 BYOD 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 BYOD 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.

All projects must submit a recorded audio/visual Presentation of their project. Examples for type of presentation:

1.      MP4 video of live or Skype presentation or

2.      MP4 video of PowerPoint presentation or

3.      Powerpoint 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 to be publically available then you may use options of YouTube such as having your video in a closed group. You are responsible for ensuring the link to your YouTube video will work for the person marking your assignment – you should ask someone to test it.

As a guide, if using PowerPoint your presentation should comprise no more than 15 slides, 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.

Marking criteria

You are strongly advised to read the marking criteria carefully before starting on your assignment.  Note that the journal, the organisation of the PowerPoint presentation and slide design and layout are each worth 10% of the total marks.  Further note that your speaker note or embedded voice recording is worth 15%.