Technology Solution – Individual Assignment

Before you begin this assignment, be sure you have read the Case Study and completed at least the first three Sections of the Business Case with your group.

Purpose of this Exercise

This activity allows you to demonstrate your understanding of the components of a technology solution and demonstrate your grasp of the concepts covered in the IFSM curriculum (hardware, software, data, networks, etc.).  This assignment specifically addresses the following course outcomes to enable you to:

• Evaluate, select, and apply appropriate analytical and measurement methods/tools and system development life cycle (SDLC) – methodologies to meet organizational needs.
• Research, assess, recommend/select, and implement information technology that aligns with business needs and meets business objectives.
• Effectively communicate with stakeholders orally, visually, and in writing to determine stakeholders’ business requirements, explain how their requirements will be met, and provide ongoing audience-appropriate information.
• Responsibly protect organizations’ critical information and assets by integrating cybersecurity best practices and risk management throughout global enterprises.

It also addresses the business strategy, project management, risk management, SDLC, and the enterprise themes.

Assignment

Using the Case Study and the technology solution (system) identified by your group in Section III of your business case, you should independently develop the detailed technical description of the system your group is proposing and supporting with its business case. You are to describe the technical components of your proposed solution, provide a graphical representation of your solution and a spreadsheet of costs.  The three parts of this assignment are more fully described below.

1. Begin your paper with a brief (1 paragraph) description of the business need identified by your Group in Section II of the Business Case. Then, describe the overall functionality of the system your group selected and included in Section III. Describe each of the components of your proposed solution, to include:

• Resources required:
  • hardware
  • software
  • network/communications
  • explain how these work together to provide the solution
• How the system will work:
  • people – the people who will use the system and how they will use it
  • data – A discussion of the data needed for the system, where it will come from and how will it get into the system, how it will be used, and how it will, at a high level, flow through the system
  • input – when the system is operational, what data will be input to be processed and/or stored?
  • processing – what processing will be done by the system; what will the system do with the data to create the output?
  • output – what output will the system produce?
  • storage – where will the data be stored?
  • security – what security devices, software, or policies will be needed?

Your paper should explain how these components work together to support the business need identified and how the solution as a whole is appropriate to the business described in the Case Study.  The who, what, when, where and how of the system should all be covered, as you envision it being implemented and used.  From your description, the reader should be able to envision how the IT solution will be setup and used by the organization in the Case Study.  While external resources are not required, you must correctly cite and reference any resources you use in APA format.

The following 2 items, the graphical representation/diagram and the spreadsheet, should be integrated into the narrative description and should be referred to.  The ROI and payback period from the spreadsheet, as well as the one-time investment costs and the annual on-going costs are to be included in the narrative.

2. You should include at least one original graphical representation of your specific technology solution in your paper (not as a separate file). It should include all major components of the solution, all the locations of the business, how each group of users will communicate with the system (on-site and remotely), and, of course, the system solution being proposed. The file “Example Network Diagram” shows the level of detail needed and provides sample icons for use in constructing your drawing, if you choose to use them.  You should include labels as to what the purpose of the component is, e.g. email server, database server, system administration PC, etc.  The make/model/capacity/etc. of the devices does not need to be included – simply their generic device type (router, switch, server, etc.) and their function (email, database, etc.).  For a cloud-based or hosted solution, you are not expected to identify specific hardware items at the hosting site.

3. Using the Excel spreadsheet provided with the assignment, first review the “Instructions for Using the ROI Calculator” document also provided with the assignment. Then, read the

“Instructions” tab, and the “ROI Calculator Example” tab.  Then, complete the tab “Costs and Sources” with a list of all components that need to be acquired (either by purchase, lease, subscription, etc.), the quantity of each required and a unit cost and a total cost associated with each item.  These general cost estimates may be obtained from any source, but the sources should be cited – for this you should complete the “Source of Cost” column in the spreadsheet inserting the URL where you found the cost.  The categories listed are to help you be sure to include everything; you may add rows as needed in the spreadsheet.  Note that one-time implementation costs are separated from on-going repeated costs.  Enter your items in the appropriate area.  For example, software costs that are a one-time startup fee would go in the Implementation Costs, while monthly or annual subscription costs for software would go in the On-Going Costs.  Every item in your description of resources and your graphical representation needs to be included on the cost spreadsheet.  Assumptions that affect cost are also recorded on the spreadsheet.  Your spreadsheet should show the formulas for the Total Item Cost for each item and for Sub-Totals and Totals.

Next, using the “ROI Calculations” tab on the spreadsheet provided with the assignment, transfer the one-time costs to that tab, in item 2.2.  Copy the recurring annual costs for those items and enter the annual cost in item 2.3; enter the annual cost in the columns for years 1-5.  Then, go to item 2.1 and enter estimates for the costs of selecting and documenting the proposed solution; use reasonable cost estimates for each category; note these are entered in the “year 0” column, since they are incurred prior to the acquisition of the system.  Finally, go to section 1 on the spreadsheet tab and enter several areas where the organization in the Case Study will realize savings by implementing the system.  You should refer to Section IV of your group’s business case for areas where savings may be realized.  You can add other areas where savings could be expected to come up with a list of four or five areas.

If you use the spreadsheet as it is and use “Insert Row” to add rows where you need them, the spreadsheet will calculate the total savings and the total costs by year for the first 5 years.  The totals are displayed in blue in bold font.  The last two lines on this tab of the spreadsheet show the calculated Cash Flow (Savings minus Expenditure) and the calculated Cumulative Cash Flow (cumulative cash flow from the previous year plus the current year cash flow).

Scroll to the top of the page on the “ROI Calculations” tab, and you will see 4 charts.  The lower two charts show the categories of costs and the expenditures in pie charts; this shows at a glance where the largest savings or the highest costs are.  The chat in the top left shows the costs and savings by year.  The chart in the upper right is the most important one.  It shows the calculated Return on Investment (ROI) for the project.  The ROI is calculated by computing the Net Savings (Total Savings over the 5 year period minus the costs incurred during the 5 year period) and dividing the Net Savings by the Total Expenditure.  Then the payback period is calculated to determine in which year the accumulated savings exceed the project costs.

Assignment

You should prepare this as a total package that is tied together in a professionally presented and logical manner.  These are not 3 separate deliverables, but a single deliverable with multiple parts.  For a professional submission, the diagram will be included in the Word file.  The Excel spreadsheet will be submitted as a separate file.

Submit your document(s) via your Assignment Folder as Microsoft Word and Excel documents with your last name included in the filename(s).

Use the Grading Rubric below to be sure you have covered all aspects of the assignment.

GRADING RUBRIC: