Course Project Problems/Suggestions
The Course Project’s focus is on the use of technology to solve specific business problems. Although the list of technologies that you can choose for your Course Project is vast, the following are some current technical topic suggestions appropriate for specific business sectors that you could consider in solving your business problem.
Healthcare
· New/updated patient registration system
· New/updated system to track research
· New/updated system to ensure that needed supplies are delivered to the right locations on the hospital floor
Financial
· Automated tracking of employee spending when traveling
· New/updated system to take advantage of trading online
· Allows customers to make trades more efficiently
Project Management
· Automated process of choosing projects
· Assist in the process of ranking risks in projects
· Automated the process of managing project documentation
Network Management
· Manages on-call schedules
· Manages the process of vendor selection
· Manages the process of contract negotiation
Entrepreneurship
· Systems to support new business start-up (website, database)
· As a start-up, develop a business model to support both a brick and mortar and e-commerce presence.
· Designs the infrastructure needed to support a brick and mortar or online bookstore
· Designs a business process to complete customer transactions that maintain customer intimacy
Supply Chain Management
· Implements/updates an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system
· Designs the infrastructure to support the product development life cycle of a product that has a global product team
· Implements a supply chain management system (cloud or in-house based)
Healthcare
· Manages/updates the process of scheduling patient visits
· Updates the patient paper file system with medical records system
· Updates/creates the healthcare website
· New system to install voice recognition system to replace transcriptionist positions
Information Security
· Updates database security
· Creates system to address compliance, governance
· Conduct project to ensure cybersecurity
Marketing
· Implements/updates a customer relationship management system
· Implement salesforce (Cloud or corporate based)
· Design a database to handle massive amounts of customer e-mails
Public Administration
· Federal government: NSA security database
· Local: traffic management
· State: human resources system
Some Ideas to Identify a Business Problem
· Lack of competitiveness or profitability
· Inefficient processes
· Slow product development
· Obsolete IT organization and technologies
· Poor corporate communications
· Ongoing personnel issues
Some Benefits it Will Provide the Organization
· Financial—profitability, revenue, product costs
· Improved competitiveness
· Better marketing positioning
· Efficiency in key processes, for example, sales, manufacturing, and development
· Improved product or service quality
· Improved product development
· Better and more accurate support turnaround
· Preparation for the future—how is the organization positioning itself for future growth
Some Ideas on How the Project Could Tie Together
· As an example, you could write your paper on some aspect of e-commerce. You might tie it into targeted advertising. You could then tie the back-end databases that are necessary to support e-commerce. For example, how databases contain information that allows vendors to target their audience and what those databases are.
· Another example might be the functionality of enterprise systems. You might choose a specific enterprise system like ERP, CRM, or SCM and detail how the functionality is delivered. This could be how a business person would access this type of information.
· The business problem is high cost of IT and product development, and the benefits are profitability, faster development time, or increased sales. The solution might be Cloud computing describing the Cloud computing approach taken; for example, SaaS or Cloud virtualization.
Summary of Course Project Requirements
Course Project Proposal
The proposal must be submitted and feedback received from the professor before beginning the project.
The table of contents for the Course Project proposal:
· Subject of Course Project
· Business problem statement
· Name of the company or organization
· Brief description of proposed solution
· General benefits it will provide the organization
· Audience to whom you are presenting the recommendations
The Course Project proposal is due no later than 11:59 p.m. MT of Week 2.
Course Project
The project should follow the APA style of citing references in the text and on the bibliography page. No fewer than five references must be used for research and properly cited in the paper and in the bibliography.
Ensure correct spelling and grammar (use built-in tool with MS Word).
Credible reference sources are available through the DeVry Library and other sources. Please do not use Wikipedia.
The project must be 10–15 pages in length (excluding the cover page, table of contents, bibliography and any attachments which includes images, tables or graphs), double spaced, using Times New Roman font, 12-point, using 1 inch margins and headings for the paper format requirements.
The table of contents for the Course Project:
· Cover page
· Table of contents
· Abstract
· Brief company background
· Discussion of business problem(s)
· High level solution
· Benefits of solving the problem
· Business or technical approach
· Business process changes
· Technology or business practices used to augment the solution
· Conclusions and overall recommendations
· High-level implementation plan
· Summary of project
· References
· Appendices
The project is due no later than 11:59 p.m. MT Sunday of Week 6.
PowerPoint Presentation
In addition to the paper, please include a PowerPoint presentation, including substantive speaker notes for each slide and add an audio track for each slide. Please include references (more than five) in the slides and have a separate bibliography at the end of the presentation.
Course Project Grading Rubrics