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Assignments
NOTE: All assignments are individual
work. You may NOT collaborate with
your fellow students, share files or results of
any kind. If you need help see your instructor
or TA.
ASSIGNMENT 0:
Student Profile
ASSIGNMENT 1: IT Investment Cost-Benefit
Analysis Using Excel
ASSIGNMENT
2: E-business Site Development
ASSIGNMENT 3: BI/Data Visualization using
Tableau
ASSIGNMENT 4: Data
Management using Salesforce
Notes on Report Writing
Your assignments and project reports should be
written up to contemporary professional business
standards. At a minimum, make sure
that you have a cover page, that you write in
complete sentences and paragraphs (not point
form), single-spaced, and that your spelling
and grammar are
checked.
For your project progress and final reports you
should cover at least the following
points:
- Executive summary: what is the idea
(in a nutshell); what is the bottom line for
the investment; how much money will you
make? What ROI will you provide for your
investors? When will you be profitable?
- Value proposition: what is your idea?
Who does it provide value to?
Based on what evidence?
- Executive team: name, position and
role, relevant experience for each team member
- Competitive advantage: who are your
competitors? How do you distinguish
yourself from them? Can you sustain a
competitive advantage?
- Marketing strategy: how will you get
known? How will you distinguish your
business and target the right customers?
Can you get customers to do marketing
for you?
- Revenue model: what are your
costs? What are your sources of revenue?
How will these change over time?
What facts are your estimates based on?
Group Project
Forming the Group:
Form a team of 6-8 people and elect a leader--your
CEO. Choose a name for your new
company. Start brainstorming business
ideas and researching what is already out there in
this space. Think about the Five Forces.
Project Idea:
Select an online-industry and brainstorm e-business
ideas to work on. Since this is a course
in IT, your business and its competitive advantage
must be strongly tied to information technology
and your IT/data strategy. And the idea
should be innovative: no food delivery; no
selling books! Post your approved on-line
business idea to Laulima.
(No two teams in the class can choose the same
business area; first-come,
first-served.) You need to provide the
following information on Laulima:
1) your team/business/product name
2) each team member's name and role (CEO, CFO, CTO,
etc.)
3) your business idea and value proposition
4) a brief explanation of how this business model
will be enabled/enhanced by IT
5) a brief discussion of your competitors and how
you will differentiate yourself from them
Lightning Talk:
Present your business idea in class to get
feedback. This is a short presentation: 5
minutes/5 slides. In this time you need to
convince us that your business idea has merit and
that you have a plan for success. Focus on
your value proposition and competitive advantage.
Progress Report 1:
Study the business models of the best companies in
your selected industry and understand their
e-business strategies; develop a business model for
your
e-business idea. You have to discuss and
integrate the 5 elements of a business model
in your report: executive team, financial model,
marketing strategy, competitive advantage, value
proposition. Include the design of at least
your homepage for your web site. Talk about your
initial ideas on a data strategy: what data
will you collect (on internal operations, on the
market, on your customers, etc.) and how you will
use it. This report is typically 5-10 pages.
(10% of project grade)
Progress Report 2:
Adding to your Progress report 1, you should refine
and expand your e-business model. Explain and
defend the competitive advantage of your e-business
in greater detail than in the Progress report
1. Present a full financial model with
breakeven year determined. Explain and justify the
anticipated costs and benefits of your marketing
approaches. Outline the business processes you've
designed and software/services that you may develop,
or acquire for your e-business. These should build
upon and enrich your data strategy. Include
the design of at least three additional pages on
your site (for a total of four or more pages). This
report is typically 8-15 pages. (10% of
project grade)
Presentation and Demo:
Present a "sales pitch" for your business,
explaining your complete business model and giving a
demo of your web-site and/or app. This should
include a request for funding, in the style of Shark
Tank. (20% of project grade)
Web-site/App: You should create a
professional-looking web-site and/or app mock-up to
support your business, with a minimum of twelve
pages. This site/app will be used in your
demo. You can use any tool you like to create
it, e.g. Wix, SquareSpace, Google sites, etc. (15%
of project grade)
Final Report:
Full write-up, including references to cited sources
and evidence that back up the claims that you are
making. As with the presentation, this should
include a request for funding. You also need
to include the URL of the web-site you created. This
report is typically 12-20 pages, single-spaced. (45%
of project grade)
Submissions: A single copy of your Progress
Report 1 and Progress Report 2, and Final Report
must be submitted via email to kazman@hawaii.edu by
your group's CEO.
Group Project Peer
Evaluation Form: this must be filled
in by each group member, individually.
Your peer evaluation is strictly confidential. Not
submitting a peer evaluation, or submitting it late,
will negatively affect your project grade.
Grading Notes:
Your group CEO has the responsibility of making
sure tasks and reports are done on time and they
are the primary contact with me for any group
project issues. Good group leaders as well
as outstanding group members will be rewarded with
extra credit points. Poorly performing
group members will face consequences. As a
group, you can fire any member, as long as they
have been given proper warning. Your group
project grade is, in part, based on your peer
evaluations from your group members. Absence from
group project meetings or any other form of
non-participation has serious consequences and
will affect your participation and final grade
adversely.
Useful Links
Business Plans
Competitive Advantage
Valuation
Leadership
How much does IT cost?
Tools :
How much does marketing cost?
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