“Hi Team,

Just a few hints as to my preferences for
this assignment
I am more interested in quality than
quantity. No-one get penalized for less that 2500 words if they are ‘good’
words
I like the use of illustrations and tables
to bring points clearly to the fore
Keep descriptions clear and concise and
highlight ‘YOUR’ experiences and reasons for your stance an a point
Take time to understand ‘cross-functional’ as it refers to business processes and thinks carefully HOW to present a process
Remember we are focusing on IT strategy in
this course and non-IT folks will not be disadvantaged. I am particularly
interested in IT from a BUSINESS perspective

Assignment
#1: IT’s Strategic and Operational Support in Your Business

My
Business is Project Management Consultancy

Please
tailor answer to this Business market and I will rephrase adaptation.

Assignment #1 is worth 20% of
your final grade. (All assignments are weighted equally.)

Purpose
At the highest level,
information technology and information systems support two important
organizational elementsstrategy and operations. In
this assignment, you will begin an examination of IT in your organization
by focusing on how well IT supports these two basic elements. Ultimately,
in Assignment #3, you will make recommendations that link back to the
content of this assignment.

Requirements
Before beginning your work,
review all three assignments and decide on the appropriate business unit to
consider. For those of you who work in smaller organizations, you can take
on an evaluation of IT for the entire company. For those of you in large
organizations, consider narrowing your scope to a specific business unit;
Assignment 2, especially, can be challenging if you do not narrow
appropriately. If you have any questions, discuss this with your coach
before beginning your work.

Introduction
For this assignment, begin by
briefly describing your business including: sector or industry; scope;
mission; products or services; primary competitors; and market and
clientele. If there is other information that you think is pertinent to the
report (e.g., recent major organizational changes), feel free to include
this as well. This description will serve as your introduction; no further
introductory material (e.g., Executive Summary) is required.

Part 1
The first goal of this
assignment is to explain, at a high level, how information systems support
the business’ competitive strategy and/or create value. To do this, you
will address three important questions:
1. Identify
the primary competitive strategy (or strategies to a maximum of three) that
your business is pursuing, using Table 1.4 in your text (p. 19). Explain
how IT is being used to support that strategy.
2. Analyze
the competitive forces in your industry (following Figure 1.8 on p. 18 in
your text) and explain the extent to which your organization is using IT to
respond to the opportunities or challenges these forces provide.
3. Finally,
state, with justification, which of the Value Models described in Reading
1:””Chains, shops, and networks: The role of IS in new models of
value creation””best fits your organization. Explain the extent to
which IT supports the business model.

Part 2
Having
considered strategy and how well IT supports that strategy, your second
goal is to consider how well IT supports the operations of your business.
To do this, you will focus on three important cross-functional business
processes and ITs support of these.

To
begin, it is important to understand what is meant by a business
process.A business process can be defined as a collection of activities
that takes inputs from one or more different sources and contributes to
achieving a larger organizational goal (Turban and Volonino, 2011; Wysocki,
2007). Business processes have a start and a finish. Order processing, for
example, is a process; it starts when an order has been accepted and ends
when it has been fulfilled or cancelled. Accounting is not a process; it
may fit the first definition but it does not have a specific start and
finish.

When
we talk about cross-functionalprocesses, we are referring to those
business processes that are carried out by multiple people, roles, or
organizational units. These processes are of special interest when we are
talking about information technology and information systems because they
arguably pose the most significant challenges but also the greatest
opportunities.

With
this understanding, provide an overview of three important cross-functional
business processes in your business. Identify the key information that the
process requires and the key information it creates. Provide a brief
summary of how each cross-functional process and its informational needs
are being supported by computer-based information systems. You may find it
helpful to consider the value that such systems do or do not add to the
organization following the possibilities listed in Table 1.2 on p. 10 of
your text. Finally, evaluate IS/ITs support of the process.

You
should format your response for each process with the following headings:

Process
Description
Key information inputs
Key information outputs
ITs role in supporting process
Evaluation of ITs role in supporting process

Part 3
So
far, this assignment has asked you to consider separately the strategic and
operational
uses of information technology and information systems in your
organization. In this final
part of the assignment, you will evaluatethe level of this support
using the following grid to illustrate the current (C) and desired (D)
positions of information technology support in your organization.

.0/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image001.png””>
This grid is based on a
variation of McFarlans Strategic Grid (Nolan and McFarlan, 2005), which
you may read about in an elective reading in Lesson 6. In this variation,
the Y-axis captures the extent to which information technology and
information systems support theoperationsof the
organization. The X-axis captures the extent to which they support the strategic
goalsof the organization.
Use the information in Parts 1
and 2, and any other information you believe relevant, to determine where
you think your organization currently lies on the grid
(“”Current””). Briefly justify your assessment. Also, indicate
where you think your organization ought to lie(“”Desired””)
on the grid, and briefly justify.

To
score as highly as possible on each component of this assignment please
review the Written Assignment Grading Criteria.Notes Link

Your
paper should be no more than 2,500 words. Note that the word count does not
include words in the title, executive summary, table of contents, or
appendices.

When
completed, please post your assignment in the Assignment Dropboxby
the due date noted in the Workplan.Notes Link

Marking Template
Your coach will use the
following template to evaluate your work on this assignment.

Assignment #1:
Identification of Strategies and Information Processes

Component
Weight

Component

Score

Comments

10%

Describe your organization: type (sector or
industry), scope, mission, products or services, market and clientele.

30%

Define your company’s competitive strategy, the
competitive forces at play and your value model; explain how information
systems and technology are used to create strategic advantage in EACH
area.

30%

Identify and describe three cross-functional
processes and their information flows in your organization, indicating in
each case how, and how effectively, the information flows are supported
by computer-based information technology.

15%

Evaluate the operational and strategic support of
IT in your organization, as described in the assignment.

15%

Report quality: organization, writing,
presentation, etc.

100%

Total
Score:

Hi Team,Just a few hints as to my preferences for
this assignmentI am more interested in quality than
quantity. No-one get penalized for less that 2500 words if they are ‘good’
wordsI like the use of illustrations and tables
to bring points clearly to the foreKeep descriptions clear and concise and
highlight ‘YOUR’ experiences and reasons for your stance an a pointTake time to understand ‘cross-functional’
as it refers to business processes and think carefully HOW to present a processRemember we are focusing on IT strategy in
this course and non-IT folks will not be disadvantaged. I am particularly
interested in IT from a BUSINESS perspectiveAssignment
#1: IT’s Strategic and Operational Support in Your BusinessMy
Business is Project Management ConsultancyPlease
tailor answer to this Business market and I will rephrase adaptation. Assignment #1 is worth 20% of
your final grade. (All assignments are weighted equally.)PurposeAt the highest level,
information technology and information systems support two important
organizational elementsstrategy and operations. In
this assignment, you will begin an examination of IT in your organization
by focusing on how well IT supports these two basic elements. Ultimately,
in Assignment #3, you will make recommendations that link back to the
content of this assignment.RequirementsBefore beginning your work,
review all three assignments and decide on the appropriate business unit to
consider. For those of you who work in smaller organizations, you can take
on an evaluation of IT for the entire company. For those of you in large
organizations, consider narrowing your scope to a specific business unit;
Assignment 2, especially, can be challenging if you do not narrow
appropriately. If you have any questions, discuss this with your coach
before beginning your work.IntroductionFor this assignment, begin by
briefly describing your business including: sector or industry; scope;
mission; products or services; primary competitors; and market and
clientele. If there is other information that you think is pertinent to the
report (e.g., recent major organizational changes), feel free to include
this as well. This description will serve as your introduction; no further
introductory material (e.g., Executive Summary) is required.Part 1The first goal of this
assignment is to explain, at a high level, how information systems support
the business’ competitive strategy and/or create value. To do this, you
will address three important questions:1. Identify
the primary competitive strategy (or strategies to a maximum of three) that
your business is pursuing, using Table 1.4 in your text (p. 19). Explain
how IT is being used to support that strategy.2. Analyze
the competitive forces in your industry (following Figure 1.8 on p. 18 in
your text) and explain the extent to which your organization is using IT to
respond to the opportunities or challenges these forces provide.3. Finally,
state, with justification, which of the Value Models described in Reading
1:””Chains, shops, and networks: The role of IS in new models of
value creation””best fits your organization. Explain the extent to
which IT supports the business model.Part 2Having
considered strategy and how well IT supports that strategy, your second
goal is to consider how well IT supports the operations of your business.
To do this, you will focus on three important cross-functional business
processes and ITs support of these.To
begin, it is important to understand what is meant by a business
process.A business process can be defined as a collection of activities
that takes inputs from one or more different sources and contributes to
achieving a larger organizational goal (Turban and Volonino, 2011; Wysocki,
2007). Business processes have a start and a finish. Order processing, for
example, is a process; it starts when an order has been accepted and ends
when it has been fulfilled or cancelled. Accounting is not a process; it
may fit the first definition but it does not have a specific start and
finish. When
we talk about cross-functionalprocesses, we are referring to those
business processes that are carried out by multiple people, roles, or
organizational units. These processes are of special interest when we are
talking about information technology and information systems because they
arguably pose the most significant challenges but also the greatest
opportunities.With
this understanding, provide an overview of three important cross-functional
business processes in your business. Identify the key information that the
process requires and the key information it creates. Provide a brief
summary of how each cross-functional process and its informational needs
are being supported by computer-based information systems. You may find it
helpful to consider the value that such systems do or do not add to the
organization following the possibilities listed in Table 1.2 on p. 10 of
your text. Finally, evaluate IS/ITs support of the process.You
should format your response for each process with the following headings:ProcessDescriptionKey information inputsKey information outputsITs role in supporting processEvaluation of ITs role in supporting processPart 3So
far, this assignment has asked you to consider separately the strategic andoperational
uses of information technology and information systems in yourorganization. In this final
part of the assignment, you will evaluatethe level of this support
using the following grid to illustrate the current (C) and desired (D)
positions of information technology support in your organization. .0/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image001.png””>This grid is based on a
variation of McFarlans Strategic Grid (Nolan and McFarlan, 2005), which
you may read about in an elective reading in Lesson 6. In this variation,
the Y-axis captures the extent to which information technology and
information systems support theoperationsof the
organization. The X-axis captures the extent to which they support the strategic
goalsof the organization. Use the information in Parts 1
and 2, and any other information you believe relevant, to determine where
you think your organization currently lies on the grid
(“”Current””). Briefly justify your assessment. Also, indicate
where you think your organization ought to lie(“”Desired””)
on the grid, and briefly justify.
To
score as highly as possible on each component of this assignment please
review the Written Assignment Grading Criteria.Notes Link
Your
paper should be no more than 2,500 words. Note that the word count does not
include words in the title, executive summary, table of contents, or
appendices.
When
completed, please post your assignment in the Assignment Dropboxby
the due date noted in the Workplan.Notes Link Marking TemplateYour coach will use the
following template to evaluate your work on this assignment.Assignment #1:
Identification of Strategies and Information Processes ComponentWeightComponentScoreComments10%Describe your organization: type (sector or
industry), scope, mission, products or services, market and clientele. 30%Define your company’s competitive strategy, the
competitive forces at play and your value model; explain how information
systems and technology are used to create strategic advantage in EACH
area. 30%Identify and describe three cross-functional
processes and their information flows in your organization, indicating in
each case how, and how effectively, the information flows are supported
by computer-based information technology.15%Evaluate the operational and strategic support of
IT in your organization, as described in the assignment.15%Report quality: organization, writing,
presentation, etc. 100% Total
Score: “