COMP8750 Individual Assignment Page 1 Semester 2, 2020
Faculty of Science
Department of Computing
COMP8750: Information Systems
Design and Management
Individual Assignment
Number One
“Justification for IT Capital Projects”
Semester 2, 2020
Lecturer1: Dr. Stephen Smith
Email: XXXXXXXXXX
Lecturer2: Mr. Matt. Mansour
Email: XXXXXXXXXX
mailto: XXXXXXXXXX
mailto: XXXXXXXXXX
COMP8750 Individual Assignment Page 2 Semester 2, 2020
Individual Assignment
DATE DUE:
Two Weeks, 5:00 pm on Week 4, 21 August, 2020
Please submit online through iLearn as a single Word
document (https:
ilearn.mq.edu.au)
MARKS: 10% of course
Background
You work for a large manufacturing company. You have been recently appointed
to the Strategic Investment Review Committee by the CEO. He has been charged
with the mission of turning the company around and sees the use of IT as pivotal.
His priorities are:
• Create a culture where quality of products and services are superior to the
competition
• Attract and hold good people
• Reduce costs as the environment is not conducive to obtaining incremental
evenue or price rises
• Maintain a secure and adaptable IT infrastructure so that the company is not
estrained when market conditions improve
The other members of the review committee have backgrounds in manufacturing
and marketing. They have little understanding of IT related projects, and models
for assessing their relative value.
The attached table describes the proposed projects that need to be ranked from 1
to 8 in order of priority. The finance department has already costed these initiatives.
It is expected that the company will only be able to budget for 2 to 3 of the projects
in the next financial year.
Your Challenge
1. Select appropriate model(s) for evaluating and ranking projects.
2. Provide a rationale as to why you have selected the model(s).
(Full marks can only be obtained if more than one model is considered. It is fine
to get conflicting results from multiple models and then choose the model with
the best fit, explaining your rationale.)
3. Rank the projects set out in the table according to these criteria.
Report
This assignment is not to exceed 3 typed pages (minimum of 10 point), plus
diagrams and tables. Any detailed calculations or supporting data should be
elegated to appendices, which can be additional to the 3 pages. Please accept the
financial numbers given. Do NOT use a financial analysis to rank the projects.
Projects can be referenced by their numbers and titles. A ranking table (from 1 to
8 in order of priority) is required.
This assignment will contribute a maximum of 15% to the final assessment grade, and
is a compulsory component of the course. (Students will not be ranked!) Do not copy
and paste from other students’ work as you will be caught by Turnitin!
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COMP8750 Individual Assignment Page 3 Semester 2, 2020
Projects
Project Description Costs
($1000s)
Benefits
($1000s)
Payback
Period
1.
Notebooks
for Sales
Staff
High end notebooks with 4G modem
cards issued to sales reps to connect
with ERP system. Reduced time in
office, improved customer service.
$3500 +
$350 p.a.
Increased
profit and
lower sales
costs
24 months
2. Order
Entry
Website
Cu
ent website extended to enable
customer stock availability queries,
order entry and order tracking. Major
integration exercise.
$1500 +
$500 p.a.
Reduce staff
and increased
sales
24 months
3. EDI link
to suppliers
Major suppliers require EDI ordering.
Cu
ently emailing orders. Integrate
EDI with ERP system.
$180 +
$80 p.a.
Reduced staff
and inventory
16 months
4. BPMS
study
Study impact of major ERP upgrade
to allow for SOA integration,
improved workflow and business
process management.
6 staff, 6
mths =
$400
Net benefits
could exceed
$20,000
Unclear
5. Security
Upgrade
Upgrade to state of the art firewall,
intrusion detection and access
control systems.
$1200 +
$90 p.a.
Fewer virus
attacks.
Protection of
data.
Unclear
6. Desktop
Publishing
Upgrade PCs and software to enable
company to produce digital artwork
for web, print and training video
media.
$220 +
$20 p.a.
Reduced cost
of contractors
20 months
7.
Business
Intelligence
A COTS BI package to better analyse
ERP sales data and integrate with
external marketing data.
$500 +
$100 p.a.
Increased
sales through
etter sales
and marketing
30 months
8. VOIP
Network
Extend cu
ent WAN to allow for
VOIP telephony and video
conferences with
anch staff
$400 +
$300 p.a.
Reduced
telephony and
travel
expenses
20 months
COMP8750 Individual Assignment Page 4 Semester 2, 2020
Marking Criteria
Students should provide 2 models with an adequate interpretation, and then show how these models
were used to produce a ranking table of the
You will be marked according to the following criteria, with a final mark out of 100:
Element Excellent to Good
(80)
Pass
(40)
Incomplete
(20)
Demonstrates
understanding or
interpretation of
key concepts of
models used to
assess IT capital
projects
Demonstrates high
level of understanding
of key concepts
Skillfully organises
description of issues
and application of
models
Includes 2 relevant
models and compares
and contrasts the
esults
Provides a logical
anking table derived
from the models
Demonstrates some
understanding of key
concepts
Organises description
of issues and
application of models in
some cases
Includes at least one
elevant model and
analyses the results
Provides a reasonably
logical ranking table
derived from the models
Demonstrates little
understanding of key
concepts
Little organisation used to
describe issues; shows
poor application of models
Includes an incomplete
model(s) and an
incomplete analysis of
esult(s)
Provides an incomplete
ranking table derived
from the models
Element Excellent to Good
(20)
Pass
(10)
Incomplete
(5)
Technical Clarity of expression,
co
ect grammar,
sentence structure,
punctuation, spelling –
excellent in all areas
Used consistent
eferencing system
intext and bibliography
Clarity of expression,
co
ect grammar,
sentence structure,
punctuation, spelling -
some difficulties
determining meaning,
some e
ors
Missing some
eferences either in-text
or in bibliography; or
included references in
ibliography that were
not included in text
Poor clarity of expression,
grammar, sentence
structure, punctuation,
spelling – limited
eadability; requires many
co
ections/further
explanation
Very poor use of
eferencing system;
inconsistent style,
incomplete bibliography
Individual Assignment
Individual Assignment
Background
Your Challenge
Report
Projects