Question 2 (30 marks)
You work as a business analyst for a fast-growing biotechnology company focused on reducing the need for pesticides in agriculture. The company is in the middle of implementing a new system for billing and customer management. The project has been challenging from the start: the business case met the initial hurdles for the company to invest, but costs have escalated as the project has evolved. The initial specifications for the project omitted some key functionality and thus the development costs increased by about 50% to accommodate the missing functionality. Application development also took longer than expected because of staffing problems with the outsourcing firm that was hired to do the work. This meant renewing some software licenses for the old system, at an additional cost of $10,000.
The project is finally coming to a close. The application has passed the user acceptance testing stage, and the hardware is in place. But a conversation with the lead developer has just alerted you to the possibility of an added $25,000 expense for the project. During the development of the system, the team decided that the existing database platform was inadequate to the needs of the system and that it would be beneficial to develop the application in a more modern database environment – MS SQL Server. What they did not realize was that the license cost of the new software was nearly $25,000.
This is particularly challenging, because the company is about to release a brand new product. The new product results from about eight years of R&D effort and will simultaneously reduce the need for pesticides by 70% and increase crop yield rates by 35%. Such a product will be beneficial both locally, where concern over the environmental impact of pesticide use is high, and abroad, where the increased yield rates could be a tremendous benefit to farmers in developing countries. But the commercialization costs for this new product have also been higher than expected, and the company’s cash flow is squeezed. Paying the additional $25,000 will result in a delay in getting the new product to market.
The developer has offered a temporary solution. He has suggested that he could install the SQL Server software on the company’s network from his own company’s licensed copy. “Or,” he says, “I can just virtualize another SQL environment on my server and you can connect to that.” While, technically, this violates the licensing rules from Microsoft, the developer believes it would be okay to do because it would be for a short period of time — just to avoid the cash flow issues — and thus Microsoft would still get the sale at the end of the day. “It’s not like pirating software,” he says, “and Microsoft can surely afford to wait a couple of months for licensing without any impact on its business.”
Required
Write a memo to your manager explaining the situation, and outlining your position on the following:
The memo should be one or two pages in length with proper headings and format. You will be evaluated on the content, format, and professionalism of the memo.
Question 3 (50 marks)
Read the case, “Too Far Ahead of the IT Curve” in the casebook. Peachtree Healthcare is an organization facing a choice in its IT standardization future: buy a tried-and-true modular enterprise system, or put its trust in a newer SOA (service-oriented architecture) framework. Max Berndt is the CEO of Peachtree Healthcare, and would like his CIO, Candace Markovich, and his CFO, Tom Drane, to help him with this question.
Required
Analyze the case and prepare a report for Max Berndt. Use the following suggested case-analysis format and section headings to address the requirements listed within each section.
You should provide clear justification for your arguments in the alternatives and recommendation section.
Note: Two marks are allocated for using the proper case format, and for clarity, coherence, and professionalism in writing. For an example of case writing and analysis, review the two practice exams (found under Exam Preparation).
Also note that pasting pictures (for example, GIF files, copies of PowerPoint slides, and so on) into your assignment files can result in very large files, and may cause problems in delivering your assignments to the marker. To ensure your assignment reaches your marker, please keep the file size below 1MB.
Due May 15 before 12 morning
Question 4 (50 marks)
Read the case “Zuora Inc. Venturing into Cloud Computing” in the casebook. This case addresses issues related to the business choices facing a software-as-a-service (SaaS) business, as it determines its future with the choice of three possible scenarios: (1) continue to focus on billing for the SaaS industry, (2) expand to capture the broader cloud-computing trend, or (3) grow big fast and try to capture the broader subscription opportunity.
Required
Draft a report on the case using the following suggested case analysis format and section headings, addressing the issues listed within each section.
Provide clear justification for your arguments in the alternatives and recommendation section.
Note: Two marks are allocated for using the proper case format, and for clarity, coherence, and professionalism in writing. For an example of case writing and analysis, review the two practice exams (found under Exam Preparation).
Also note that pasting pictures (for example, GIF files, copies of PowerPoint slides, and so on) into your assignment files can result in very large files, and may cause problems in delivering your assignments to the marker. To ensure your assignment reaches your marker, please keep the file size below 1MB.
Due May 22 before 12 morning
Question 4 (30 marks)
Graphic Designers’ Studio provides graphics services to a variety of organizations. The company has grown tremendously over that last few years, and now has around 20 employees who have just moved to a new office. GDS has just signed a contract with a company that has locations all around North America. Part of the contract stipulates that Graphic Designers’ Studio must provide a secure online location that will store all work in process and archive all past material. The client will want remote Internet access to work in process and archives from anywhere in North America. Graphic Designers’ Studio does not have the internal expertise to make this happen and will need to outsource this task. In addition, one of the GDS partners wants to post copies of the work for this client to the GDS web page as a marketing tool. The other partner feels that GDS will need permission to post examples of that work. Both partners have concerns about the quality of material electronically posted to a website. In the past, they have always provided clients with printed copies of material.
As a business consultant, you have been asked to make a presentation to the senior partners of GDS. The objective of your presentation is to discuss possible outsourcing approaches that will allow GDS to meet the new client’s needs. Include advantages and disadvantages of the different approaches, and recommend criteria and a process by which a decision about the approach can be made.
Required
Prepare an outline of your presentation (please use MS Word for this outline):
Marks will be allocated based on clarity of content, coherence, and professionalism in writing.
Question 5 (50 marks)
Read the case “Security breach at TJX.” This case addresses issues related to systems security, information privacy, and ethical concerns. Ask yourself this question while reading this case: Is information security an IS concern or a company concern?
Note: Appendix 1 of the case contains multiple errors. This PDF copy of Appendix 1 is in good order: PDF copy of Appendix 1.
Required
Draft a report on the case, using the following suggested case analysis format and section headings and addressing the issues listed within each section. Focus your discussion on implementation issues from the managerial point of view.
Provide clear justification for your arguments in the alternatives and recommendation section.
Note: Two marks are allocated for using the proper case format, and for clarity, coherence, and professionalism in writing. For an example of case writing and analysis, review the two practice exams (found under Exam Preparation).
Also note that pasting pictures (for example, GIF files, copies of PowerPoint slides, and so on) into your assignment files can result in very large files, and may cause problems in delivering your assignments to the marker. To ensure your assignment reaches your marker, please keep the file size below 1MB.