Assignment 2: Individual written
Your Task:
You are the Information Systems Manager of an organization of your choice. One of your key tasks is ‘technological gatekeeping‘, the monitoring of the rapidly changing technological environment for emerging information and
communication technologies (ICTs) which may be of potential benefit to your organization. You are required to write a management brief for your board of directors reporting on ONE of the emerging information technologies from the
attached list from Gartner. DO NOT choose any other technology trend other than the six listed at the end of this coursework brief.
You should outline, in terms understandable to someone not familiar with technology, what the technology is, what it can do, how it might be of value to your organization and how/when it might be implemented in order to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the organisation.
Please Note: This is an individual piece of work. Your organisation must be a real organisation (small or medium it doesn’t matter) but it doesn’t have to be one that you have worked in. Also, it doesn’t have to be a profit-making organisation; you could choose a charity if you so wish. You must, however, be certain that your chosen organisation has not already implemented the technology you have chosen. For that reason, I don’t want you to choose any large-scale organisations (e.g. Apple, Tesco, Dell, Microsoft, etc.).
Your brief should be no more than 1500 words (not including references). You may attach a short description of your chosen organization as an appendix (half a page absolute maximum). This appendix will not count towards the
1500 words.
Learning outcomes:
On completion of this assignment you should be able to:
- Seek relevant information about information systems in organizations using the Internet.
- Research information about emerging technologies using the Internet.
- Conduct an evaluation of the value of an emerging technology to an organization.
- Present findings in a business-style brief.
Assessment criteria:
- Explanation of your chosen ONE emerging technology from the list below.
This part should be aimed at a person who is not familiar with technologies. It
should therefore be free of jargon and written in an easy-to-understand style.
(20%) - Analysis of the potential use of and value of the technology for the chosen organization. Although they need not be discussed in this order, you should be considering issues such as:
Time: how long it will reasonably take to implement such a technology in the organisation.
Change: the likely impact of such an implementation on the stakeholders who are going to have to use it or who will be affected by it.
Costs: You should be able to provide a realistic assessment of how much it will cost to buy, use and maintain such technologies. We’re not expecting you to be exact but we are expecting a realistic cost that gives the reader an idea of what sort of cost you are talking about. There may also be intangible costs, such as reduced morale or deskilling of the workforce.
Value/Benefits: In addition to the tangible benefits of such a technology (increased profit, reduced costs of doing business, etc.), you should also think about intangible benefits (better image, increased flexibility or
customer service, etc.) (70%) - Written brief: structure, presentation and written English. If you are unsure about whether your English is good enough, please use the resources the university makes available for checking English grammar, spelling, etc. You have no excuse for handing in work that is difficult or impossible for us to understand. (5%)
- Research and references. The references should be formatted in the Harvard notation. (5%)
If reassessment is needed, it will be a similar exercise but with a different technology and organisation.
