INTRODUCTION

During your career as an IT manager, you will be asked to conduct analyses to make well-reasoned financial decisions. It is important that you are able to not only complete an analysis but also communicate the support for your decisions to a CEO and board of directors. Your financial decisions will need to align with the mission and strategic goals of the company. Your responsibilities will likely include determining the budgets for an IT department, making financial decisions about IT projects and enhancements, and managing the procurement of technology resources.

For Task 1 of this assessment, you will choose a publicly traded company from the list provided in the scenario. Once you have chosen a company, you will download the company’s recent quarterly financials (10-Q) from the SEC.gov web link. You will also need to read the attached “Financial Fact Sheet” for the company you choose. This fact sheet will provide you with the company’s strategic goals and the information you will need to determine any project budgets. You will select one strategic goal for your chosen company and decide on an IT project that aligns with that goal. Your IT investment project idea must include a software component or a software as a service (SaaS) solution and be based on the information provided in the company’s “Financial Fact Sheet” regarding the initial cost of the project.

At this point, you will be able to create an IT project analysis and proposal report that describes the company’s financial position, determines the budgets related to the project, and outlines how you will fund your idea for the IT investment project.  

The skills you showcase in completing this report will be useful in your career when conducting analyses and making financial decisions. This report may also be added to your portfolio to show to future employers.

SCENARIO

You are the chief information officer (CIO) of the following publicly-traded companies:

•  Walmart Inc. (ticker symbol: WMT)  

As part of your responsibilities, the CEO has asked you to review the company’s financial statements and determine the budget and cash flow for the IT department. The CEO would also like you to propose an IT project that includes a software component. In your project idea proposal, you will need to include how you will be funding this project idea and how it aligns with the company’s strategic goals and budgets. At the end of the IT project analysis and proposal report, you will provide a summary of the report’s key points.

REQUIREMENTS

Your submission must be your original work. No more than a combined total of 30% of the submission and no more than a 10% match to any one individual source can be directly quoted or closely paraphrased from sources, even if cited correctly. The originality report that is provided when you submit your task can be used as a guide. 

You must use the rubric to direct the creation of your submission because it provides detailed criteria that will be used to evaluate your work. Each requirement below may be evaluated by more than one rubric aspect. The rubric aspect titles may contain hyperlinks to relevant portions of the course. 

Tasks may not be submitted as cloud links, such as links to Google Docs, Google Slides, OneDrive, etc., unless specified in the task requirements. All other submissions must be file types that are uploaded and submitted as attachments (e.g., .docx, .pdf, .ppt). 

Create an IT project analysis and proposal report that will be presented to the CEO and board of directors for your chosen company by responding to prompts A–E.  

A.  Describe your idea for an IT investment project, referencing one of the strategic goals for your chosen company. The project must align with this strategic goal and include a software component or a SaaS solution.  

Note: Your project should be focused on an operational IT solution, not a consumer product or service. This description could include the technologies involved and desired outcomes of the project. The project should be in alignment with the initial project costs outlined in the company’s “Financial Fact Sheet.”  

Download the most recent quarterly financial statements (10-Q) for your chosen company, and review the attached “Financial Formula Sheet” and the chosen company’s “Financial Fact Sheet.” 

B.  Describe the current financial position of your chosen company. The description must align with the company’s 10-Q financial statements and include the following components, along with a justification for each of the ratios used:

•  net profit

•  retained earnings

•  liquidity ratios

•  solvency ratios

•  profitability ratios  

Note: You can use the attached “Financial Formula Sheet” to determine which ratios to use for liquidity, solvency, and profitability. Choose no fewer than two ratios for each component. 

1. Attach the company’s 10-Q financial statements obtained from the SEC.gov web link to your submission as a spreadsheet.  

Note: Quarterly statements should be from within the last calendar year. After searching for the company on SEC.gov, you can download the 10-Q statements by clicking “Interactive Data” and then “View Excel Document.” You can then save the spreadsheet to submit with your report. 

C.  Compile the budgeted income statement using the attached “Financial Fact Sheet” for your company.  

D.  Describe your IT procurement plan based on your company’s “Financial Fact Sheet,” budgeted income statement, and IT investment project idea. Include a description of the decisions you made regarding the following points:

•  resources (e.g., software, personnel, hardware)

•  leasing versus buying components  

Note: You may need to adjust the description of your IT procurement plan after you have completed part E.  

1.  Justify the decisions you made regarding resources and lease versus buy components in your IT procurement plan, including a financial and technical benefit of each decision.  

E.  Explain how your IT investment project idea will be funded, including a detailed discussion of marginal cost of capital (MCC) that supports your project proposal, and based on the company’s “Financial Fact Sheet.” Include the following calculations in your explanation:

•  weighted average cost of capital (WACC)

•  average rate of return (ARR)

•  net present value (NPV)  

F.  Provide a brief summary of your findings and recommendations using the key points from parts A–E.  

G.  Acknowledge sources, using in-text citations and references, for content that is quoted, paraphrased, or summarized.  

H.  Demonstrate professional communication in the content and presentation of your submission.