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Due |
Presentations Session (Paper, Presentation and Peer Evaluation) |
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Team
Oral Presentation
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Each team gives a
short presentation on their organizational analysis, RFP, vendor selection and cost benefit analysis in the
Presentations Session (see
weekly topics).
The setting for this
presentation is giving the CIO a dress rehearsal before giving it to
the Executive Board. Therefore, it is a bit less formal and
more interactive.
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Team
Written;
Paper
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The
team prepares a proposal package .
For guidelines please review
paper writing.
For
help in writing a good paper, download
these tips.
See Deliverables and Order
sections below more more details.
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Penalties
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- No late submittals allowed
- Any paper not written using for format and order detailed below
and in the template is penalized
2 point (out of 30).
- Any paper with fewer than 6
complete references is penalized 2 point (out of 30)
- Any incomplete reference has a 1 point penalty. (See below
for specifications on full references)
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Guidelines
for Selection
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Opportunities for process improvement and
reengineering often drive new system procurement. You should
understand the process and workflow in the chosen area. By
starting with a real organization that you know something about provides a context for this
assignment. This helps you to make assumptions about the
business needs, process change, and the information technology
infrastructure.
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The RFP is for an information systems package usually, with an
emphasis on business process and user involvement. ERP
(Enterprise Resource Planning) vendors, such as SAP, PeopleSoft,
provide integrated solutions. It could also be for providing
e-commerce solutions. If you choose the ERP solution,
limit the scope to modules or subsystems to financials,
manufacturing, SCM, CRM, HRM, etc. That is, do not take on the
entire ERP suite because an adequate RFP cannot be done in the
timeframe available in this course..
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Desktop productivity tools (e.g. Microsoft Office),
database (Oracle), Network Operating Systems (NT), or similar types
of procurement are not appropriate subjects for this project because
they lack the complexities of management issues that are the
interest in this course.
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References
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Building
Start a preliminary reference section in a word processing file. Here is
where the complete reference information is stored. Later
when the paper is completed, this section is appended to the end of the
paper in the order of author, date.
Capture for ALL WEB SITES:
author name or names ("anonymous"
if not known),
article name,
web address,
date accessed,
sponsoring organization.
Capture for all interviews you had:
name of the person interviewed,
date of interview,
place or telephone,
subject of the interview.
Capture for all print articles:
author name or names ("anonymous"
if not known),
publication date,
article (or book name)
name of periodical (if relevant)
volume and issue numbers, page numbers
if book, then the publisher name and
city.
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Deliverables |
You group should produce
the following deliverables for this
project in this assignment:
A. Organizational Analysis
The paper analyzes the following aspects of IS in a complex organization, either for-profit or non-profit:
_ The organizational mission, goals and strategy
_ The IS organizational structure and its rationale including org chart
- -
_ The organization of IT operations and rationale:
_ The IS governance for determining strategies and tactics
(IT Steering
Committee, User Committee, Executive Committee, CIO, IS Management
Committee)
_ The IS evaluation and procurement process
(formal or
informal)
Finally the team evaluates how well the IS function fits with the organizational mission, goals and strategy. Namely, do they reinforce one another or do they seem at cross purposes. Does the organization make decisions consciously considering its stated mission, goals and strategy.
An analysis of the appropriateness for outsourcing: the level of
integration with other applications, and the level of technological
maturity.
B) Request for Proposal (RFP)
- rationale for the targeted solution
- functionality to be supported by the solution
- opportunities the solution provides for process improvement
- the criteria used in selection process
- information on the environment in which the targeted solution
must
operate
C) Final Choice -
summary description and the rationale for its selection
D) Cost-Benefit Analysis
of
the selected final choice.
E) Copy of the Presentation Materials used.
Submit all final
deliverables as a single file on COL (use zip if more than 1
file)
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Order |
A. Organizational Analysis Analyze the organization and its IS area by advising the reader of the following in the paper:
1. The organizational mission, goals and strategy -- briefly state the organization's mission then its related goals and the overall strategy the organization is using realize its goals. Also mention how well known the mission, goals, and strategy were to employees before this assignment was done. Mention is none were found, and how the search was made to find them
out.
2. The IS organizational structure and its rationale including org chart - - Does
the structure reflect the mission of the organization?
_3. The organization of IT operations and rationale: centralized, decentralized, distributed or outsourced.
4. The IS governance for determining strategies and tactics--
Who makes the important strategic and tactical decisions? Does the manager make them without
any advice of others? With the advice of others? Who decided that this RFP was
needed?
5. The IS evaluation and procurement process--
Briefly describe how IS evaluates and procures services and products. How formal is the process? Who gets involved? Who decides? Who signs off?
6. The appropriateness for outsourcing -- Briefly
describe:
the level of integration with other technologies --
that is, looking at the number of points for integration with
related information technologies and telling why outsourcing
is the appropriate
course of action.
the level of technological maturity -- that is, looking
at how far down the learning curve is the expertise in
the technology being outsourced and telling why outsourcing
is the appropriate
course of action.
B) Request for Proposal.
The RFP covers
the needs that must be satisfied, business and functional requirements, expected benefits
in process improvements, requests for specific operational costs and proposed selection process and
criteria. Note: the more that the REP reflects the
conscious effort to spread and mitigate the risk of an unsuccessful
outsourcing between the vendor and the organization then the higher
the score
1. Needs Specifications -- the problem for the
organization, the needs that must be filled and what is wanted from vendor
2. Mandatory Features -- what does the solution have to
handle
3. Desired Features -- what would be nice to have in the
vendor's solution
4. Performance data wanted on the vendor's solution: how
fast/accurate/timely is the vendor's solution
5. Cost data needed wanted on the vendor's solution:
(up front costs, development
costs, production costs)
6. Information needed on vendor firm: so the buyer can
evaluate the vendor's viability and experience
7. Documentation required from the vendor: so the buyer can
evaluate the vendor's product.
8. General information for the vendor's use on the buyer (the RFP issuing firm):
which
the vendors need so they can understand the environment in which their product
will
operate, should consist of:
- a. Overview of firm and its services and products
-- (much taken
from assignment 2a)
- b. Projected rates of growth
that will
impact the future volumes the vendor's solution has to handle
- c. Data volumes
-- maximum, minimum, and average for the major
entities when production begins and a year later
- d. File characteristics
- e. Input/Output characteristics
- f. Response time-
maximum, minimum, and average
for the vendor's solution handling of client input.
- g. Any special constraints
9. Request for vendor demonstration: this section covers the request
that the vendor demonstrates the proposed solution in an
appropriate
setting that allows for 6 observers.
10. Procedural details:
How to handle questions: this section tells the vendors
who in the organization they can direct their questions and any restrictions
such as timing of questions (only once or only on a weekly basis, etc.) and
the format of questions (only in writing using email or only
email or
faxes)
. Liaison: Who is the person that the vendor needs to
direct all questions, etc.
11. Schedule:
bidder conference: date, time, duration, of
the conference when all the vendors that are bidding can ask questions
proposal due date:
date when the vendor must
present the proposal
award date: date when the vendor who won the award
is announced.
12. General comments
C. The Final Choice. Provide a description of the
preferred choice of package and discuss the determining factors which
lead to this decision.
Provide documentation on
how the choice was made such as the use of a weighted selection
score card where each attribute of the product/service is given a
weight by each judge and then each product/service is given a raw
score by the same judge. The product/service that gets the
highest total weighted score is the one selected. See
the sample
worksheet on weighted scores where the attributes being
evaluated by three users were the metrics for evaluating progress on
developing a new system offered by three different vendors.
The winner is vendor 3 which had the highest score.
D. Cost/Benefit Projection. Although in practice
this will not occur until the negotiation phase when vendors submitted
bids. This exercise gives your group an opportunity to
identify potential costs and benefits in a five year time frame.
Present these figures based on the final choice. Data may come from
interviews, research, and contact of vendors. It is more important
to identify relevant costs and benefits than to present accurate
numbers.
E. Presentation Materials. Include a printed copy
of the slides or transparencies used in your presentation.
Handouts
to the class are optional. Plan on no more than 7 slides for
10 minute presentation.
1. Title Slide -- team names/
organization name / RFP good or service desired
2. Organization -- size / industry / number employees
3. RFP good or service desired / mandatory features
4. Overview of vendors
5. Vendor Selected and reasons
6. Final ROI
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grading criteria
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Assignment
3 Grading Criteria
is the grading sheet. |
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