Faculty of Science and Engineering

Department of Computing

COMP8780: Enterprise Management

Group Assignment 2
“ITOs for a Major Australian Enterprise”
Semester 2, 2021

Lecturer: Dr Stephen Smith

Email: [email protected] (also - to make a zoom appointment)
COMP8780 Enterprise Management Group Assignment

Group Assignment
DATE DUE: 11:55pm – Wednesday 20th October – week 11

ONE student is to submit the group report online through the Turnitin Submission
Tool on Learn as a single PDF file.

ONE student is to submit the group presentation online through the iLearn
assignment submission tool.

MARKS: 30% of the course (20% report and 10% presentation)

Introduction:

This is a group assignment consisting of groups of THREE students (Group of 4 can be accepted but you
need to add an extra ITO). I will create a group selection tool on iLearn.

Do not copy and paste from other students’ work as you will be caught by Turnitin!

This group assignment requires students to choose one company for the list of 20 Top (2020) Tech companies
(listed in Appendix A). As the consultants to the CIO (Chief Information Officer) of this enterprise, your role
is to assess technology trends and suggest to the CIO and the other directors ways to strategically leverage IT.
We call these ITOs (IT Opportunities). CIOs can leverage the trends and technologies discussed in Weeks 2,
3 and 4 to propose innovative pilot projects and tactics to improve efficiency. This assignment requires
students to analyse and assess current strategies and use of IT and suggest THREE possible new ITOs for
future investigation.

This Assignment requires students to consider a pull paradigm whereby the ITOs must align with strategy and
be consistent with the context. Do not include ‘chat bots’ as this is tactical today, not strategic. Look towards
future innovative.

Provide your recommendations in a report format. Include an Executive Summary and Table of Contents.
Your report is not to exceed 5,000 words or 15 pages. Include a word count in your cover sheet. You need to
be succinct!

Make sure that you reference your work. Harvard is preferred, Chicago is accepted. Do not cut and paste from
web sites as this will be detected by Turnitin as plagiarism. You can use Chicago Style referencing with
numbers, with a listing at the end of the essay. Microsoft Word has an EndNote plugin that makes this style
very easy and clear to follow.
(http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html).

The Organisation

Our aim is to examine the marketplace and business case for a series of strategic IT initiatives proposed for a
major IT enterprise. These initiatives are designed to gain a strategic advantage. Ideally, your group will have
access to first-hand information about a major enterprise. If not, your group is to choose a real company, preferably
from the Top Tech list. You will have to make assumptions, as you may not have access to all the information
you need. This assignment will be marked on the basis of credibility, depth and knowledge of the proposed ITOs.

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COMP8780 Enterprise Management Group Assignment

The Report
Executive Summary Section 1:

Current Use of IT

 An overview of the company’s market niche (position) and their strategy.

 An assessment as to how effectively the organization has used IT in recent years.
 Include a SWOT analysis based on IT usage

Section 2: The IT Opportunity 1

 What is the business case and expected outcomes?

 What is the estimated ROI and other benefits – tangible and intangible?
 Is this initiative an upgrade of a current capability or a totally new area for the company?
 What is the project process model for proceeding with a pilot (project) investigation?

Section 3: The IT Opportunity 2

 What is the business case and expected outcomes?

 What is the estimated ROI and other benefits – tangible and intangible?
 Is this initiative an upgrade of a current capability or a totally new area for the company?
 What is the project process model for proceeding with a pilot (project) investigation?

Section 4: The IT Opportunity 3

 What is the business case and expected outcomes?

 What is the estimated ROI and other benefits – tangible and intangible?
 Is this initiative an upgrade of a current capability or a totally new area for the company?
 What is the project process model for proceeding with a pilot (project) investigation?

Section 5: The IT Opportunity 4 (if your group has four members)

 What is the business case and expected outcomes?

 What is the estimated ROI and other benefits – tangible and intangible?
 Is this initiative an upgrade of a current capability or a totally new area for the company?
 What is the project process model for proceeding with a pilot (project) investigation?

Conclusion

Deliverables
There are two deliverables for this assignment:

The Report

 Address the questions posed above

 Put any detailed analysis or supporting information in Appendices. Keep to the 5,000 words (or 15
pages) limit for the main report (excluding any Appendices).
 Use in-text referencing to identify sources of information. Hyperlinked where possible. Do not copy
and paste from web sites. It will appear in “Turnitin”
 Provide a consistent and coherent strategic plan. We expect there to be significant collaboration and
ideas amongst team members. No “Free Rides”

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COMP8780 Enterprise Management Group Assignment

The Presentation (will be via Zoom) 1

 Strictly 5 minutes duration per group member. Email your handout of your presentation slides for the
lecturer(s) (prior to your group’s presentation).
 Do not present the Executive Summary
 Outline the organisation, its strategy and recent use of IT to gain a strategic advantage.
 Describe EACH of the THREE proposed ITOs. For each ITO:
o What is the technology?
o What are the expected business benefits? Use cases are very helpful.
o How can the benefits be quantified? ROI?
o What are the major risks, and what is the project process for the proposed pilot study?

Marking Criteria for Report

The distribution of marks for the report is as follows:

Section Marks
Executive Summary + Conclusion Section 1 5
Section 2 5
Section 3 5
Section 4 5
Total 20

To adhere to current MQ policies:

 Please ensure both PowerPoint Presentation and Report identifies the student principally
responsible.
 Students will be marked individually on their presentations, as per the criteria below.
 Group members will be marked on the group report overall, as moderated by the Peer Review Forms,
allowing for both a group effort and an individual mark.

1 A subset of groups will present Wednesday 1-2pm in week 11 and another subset of groups will present Wednesday 11am-2pm in week
12 then wk13. Groups who are not allocated voluntarily in wk 9 will be randomly allocated. So you will only have the choice of
selecting a particular week for your group in Wk 9.

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COMP8780 Enterprise Management Group Assignment

You will be marked according to the following criteria.

Element Excellent to Good Pass (10-14) Incomplete (<10)

(15-20)
Executive Summary  Demonstrates high  Demonstrates some  Demonstrates little
Section 1 – Strategy level of understanding understanding of the understanding of the
and current use of IT of the industry and industry and company industry and company
company  Organises description  Little organisation used to
 Skilfully organises of issues in some cases; describe issues; shows
description of issues shows some application little application of
and application of of references. references.
references.  Use of ‘cut and paste’
from Web based
references

Element Excellent to Good Pass (10-14) Incomplete (<10)

(15-20)
Section 2 – The IT  Addresses all  Addresses some of the  Addresses few elements
Initiative 1 required elements required elements when when considering the IT
when considering considering the IT initiative
the IT initiative initiative  Provides an unclear set of
 Provides a clear  Provides an business benefits
picture of tangible incomplete set of  Use of ‘cut and paste’
and intangible business benefits from Web based
business benefits  Initiative is not references
compelling in this
context
Element Excellent to Good (15-20) Pass (10-14) Incomplete (<10)

Section 3 – The IT  Addresses all  Addresses some of the  Addresses few elements
Initiative 2 required elements required elements when when considering the IT
when considering considering the IT initiative
the IT initiative initiative  Provides an unclear set of
 Provides a clear  Provides an business benefits
picture of tangible incomplete set of  Use of ‘cut and paste’
and intangible business benefits from Web based
business benefits  Initiative is not references
compelling in this
context
Element Excellent to Good (15-20) Pass (10-14) Incomplete (<10)

Section 4 – The IT  Addresses all  Addresses some of the  Addresses few elements
Initiative 3 required elements required elements when when considering the IT
when considering considering the IT initiative
the IT initiative initiative  Provides an unclear set of
 Provides a clear  Provides an business benefits
picture of tangible incomplete set of  Use of ‘cut and paste’
and intangible business benefits from Web based
business benefits  Initiative is not references
compelling in this
context

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COMP8780 Enterprise Management Group Assignment

Marking Criteria for Presentation

 The presentation will be judged on format, information delivery and how convincing it is, as this is the
consultants' presentation to the CEO and Board, outlining their findings and recommendations.
 The presentation is to have enough depth to demonstrate that the group is competent and has thoroughly
assessed the initiatives. Too much detail will distract from the key findings.
 Assume that there are both business and IT executives reviewing the proposal. The business people want
to hear the business benefits and risks, whilst the IT executives are interested in knowing that there are
available and affordable solutions and that the consultants have considered major risks and the process
for piloting the technology.

The presentation will count 10% to the final course mark.

Element Excellent to Good Pass Incomplete

(8-10) (5-7) (<5)
Individual Presentation  Addresses all the  Addresses some of the  Addresses few of the
required elements in a required elements required elements
clear and concise  Some confusion with  Presentation is either
manner regard to the key confused or has a
 Emphasizes the key issues of business significant amount of
issues of business benefits, success irrelevant material
benefits, success metrics and
metrics and technology
technology,
depending on the
component being
presented

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COMP8780 Enterprise Management Group Assignment

Peer Review Forms

 I would like to see a confidential Peer Review Form completed by EACH student, and submitted/emailed
on the same night as the Report submission. (You can email it to me).
 If two members of a group single out an individual with a low rating, that individual will suffer a 20%
penalty… e.g. if the report/presentation scores 60%, this team member will get 40% and fail a major
component of the course.

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COMP8780 Enterprise Management Group Assignment

COMP8780 Peer Evaluation Form

Use this form to rate the members of your assignment group. Your rating is meant to reflect the overall
contribution of the person to your group's work. The BEST is 10 and the WORST is 1. Each member of the group
must complete a rating form.

Write the person's name and your rating. Pdf this form and email it to Dr. Stephen Smith by Monday week 11.

YOUR NAME YOUR YOUR YOUR

STUDENT GROUP RATING OF
NUMBER NUMBER YOURSELF

MEMBER'S NAME YOUR RATING OF THEM

Comments:

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COMP8780 Enterprise Management Group Assignment

Appendix A

List of largest technology companies by revenue (2020)

Ref: Wiki

Revenue
Rank Company Employees[2] Headquarters
($B) USD[2]

1 Apple $260.174 137,000 Cupertino, California, US

Samsung
2 $197.705 287,439 Suwon, South Korea
Electronics

3 Foxconn $178.869 757,404 New Taipei City, Taiwan

4 Alphabet $161.857 118,899 Mountain View, California, US

5 Microsoft $125.843 144,000 Redmond, Washington, US

6 Huawei $124.316 194,000 Shenzhen, China

Dell
7 $92.154 165,000 Round Rock, Texas, US
Technologies

8 Hitachi $80.639 301,056 Tokyo, Japan

9 IBM $77.147 383,056 Armonk, New York, US

10 Sony $75.972 111,700 Tokyo, Japan

11 Intel $71.965 110,800 Santa Clara, California, US

12 Facebook $70.697 44,942 Menlo Park, California, US

13 Panasonic $68.897 259,385 Osaka, Japan

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COMP8780 Enterprise Management Group Assignment

Revenue
Rank Company Employees[2] Headquarters
($B) USD[2]

14 HP Inc. $58.756 56,000 Palo Alto, California, US

15 Tencent $54.613 62,885 Shenzhen, China

16 LG Electronics $53.464 74,000 Seoul, South Korea

17 Cisco $51.904 75,900 San Jose, California, US

Hong Kong, China/ Morrisville,

18 / Lenovo $50.716 63,000
North Carolina US [

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