Objective

Provide an opportunity for students to apply a technology solution to a business problem in a specific company or organization that adds value to the organization.

Guidelines

Week 1: Begin thinking of a business problem that could be solved with a technology solution for a company or organization you are familiar with. Use the Q&A Forum to ask questions and discuss your ideas about the project. See the Course Project Technical Areas for ideas.

Week 2: Complete the Course Project Proposal using this format:

Course Project Proposal (1-2 pages, 75 points, due week 2, properly cite any external sources used)

Cover page

1. Subject of Course Project

2. Business problem statement

3. Name of the company or organization

4. Brief description of proposed solution

5. General benefits it will provide the organization

6. Audience to whom you are presenting the recommendation(s)

Weeks 3 -6: Based on the Professor’s feedback to your proposal, develop the Course Project. You are required to use a minimum of five credible sources for research on your proposed solution and to correctly cite all references using APA style. Make sure you do not use more than 20% material from other sources so that 80% of the paper should be your original words. Use the Q&A each week to ask questions about the project. See the suggestions below for ideas on ways to develop your project. Use this format for the project:

Course Project Table of Contents (10-15 pages, 225 points, due week 6)

Cover Page

Table of Contents

1. Abstract

2. Brief Company background

3. Discussion of business problem(s)

4. High level solution

5. Benefits of solving the problem

6. Business/technical approach

7. Business process changes

8. Technology or business practices used to augment the solution

9. Conclusions and overall recommendations

10. High-level implementation plan

11. Summary of project

References

Appendices

Grading Rubrics

• Week 2: Submission of the Course Project Proposal (graded)
• Week 6: Course Project

Grading Rubrics (The Proposal is worth 75 points and the Course Project is worth 225 points)

Course Project Technical Areas

The Course Project’s focus is on the use of technology to solve specific business problems. While the list of technologies that you can choose for your Course Project is vast, the following are some current technical topics that you could consider in solving your business problem.

1. Cloud computing, either cloud storage, and/or cloud applications
2. User involvement in IT projects
3. Mobile devices including phones and tablets
4. B2C and/or B2B and other types of e-commerce
5. Databases required for your project
6. Infrastructure and networking (at a non-technical level)
7. Business and process reengineering to streamline a business, followed by several new business technologies to support the new business model
8. The implementation of a secure business (website, software development, administration)
9. Development of an e-commerce website for a brick and mortar business
10. IS Management (examples: Outsourcing, ASP’s, ERP, CRM, SCM, Website Development, Linux)
11. Corporate Applications (examples: Information Security, EIS, Expert Systems, Artificial Intelligence, DSS, Groupware, Intranets/Extranets)
12. Telecommunications and Networks (Examples: Gigabit and higher networks, SAN’s, Video Conferencing, VoIP, Wireless networking)
13. IS Acquisitions (Examples: Cost Justification Methodology, Total Cost of Ownership, Systems Development Life Cycle, Prototyping, Weighted Criteria Analysis)
14. Miscellaneous (Examples: Computer Ethics, Virtual Reality, Multimedia, Telecommuting, Data Security, International Issues, Computer Based Learning)
15. End User Software/Applications (Examples: Database, Operating System, Office Suite, Project Management)

Course Project Suggestions

The purpose of the Course Project is to describe the solution to a business problem where technology can be of value.

Some ideas to identify a business problem:

· Lack of competiveness and/or profitability

· Inefficient processes

· Slow product development

· Obsolete IT organization and technologies

· Poor corporate communications

· Ongoing personnel issues

Some benefits it will provide the organization could be things like:

· Financial – profitability, revenue, product costs

· Improved competitiveness

· Better marketing positioning

· Efficiency in key processes, e.g., sales, manufacturing, development

· Improved product and/or service quality

· Improved product development

· Better and more accurate support turn-around

· Preparation for the future – how is the organization positioning itself for future growth

Some ideas on how the project could tie together:

· As an example, you could write your paper on some aspect of ecommerce. You might tie it in to targeted advertising. You could then tie the back-end databases that are necessary to support ecommerce. For example, how databases contain information that allows vendors to target their audience and what those databases are.

· Another example might be the functionality of enterprise systems. You might choose a specific enterprise system like ERP, CRM or SCM and detail how the functionality is delivered. This could be how a business person would access this type of information.

· The business problem is high cost of IT and product development and the benefits are profitability, faster development time, or increased sales. The solution might be cloud computing describing the cloud computing approach taken, e.g., SaaS or cloud virtualization.

Possible audiences might be:

· Senior management

· Customers

· Suppliers

· Specific departments

Summary of Course Project Requirements

1. The proposal must be submitted and feedback received from the professor before beginning the project.

2. The project should follow the APA style of citing references in the text and on the bibliography page. No fewer than five references must be used for research and properly cited.

3. Credible reference sources are available through the DeVry Library and other sources.

4. The paper must be 10-15 pages in length, double spaced, using a size 12 standard business font, using 1 inch margins and topic headings listed for the format requirements.

5. The project is due no later than 11:59 pm MT Sunday of week 6.