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Course: COMP1647 Information Technology

Planning

Contribution: 100% of
course

97: Information Technology Planning - Term 1 PDF file required

- MAC
Greenwich Course Leader: Mr Richard Johnson Due date: 5th November
2015
This coursework will be marked anonymously
YOU MUST NOT PUT ANY INDICATION OF YOUR IDENTITY IN YOUR
SUBMISSION
This coursework should take an average student who is up-to-date with tutorial
work approximately 50 hours
Learning Outcomes:
Discuss the role and significance of how information technology can aid the
business enterprise.
1. Explain the activities involved in assessing how information technology
systems support the business.
2. Evaluate the methods and techniques used to assess and monitor information
technology systems.
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submitting it as your own work. Suspected plagiarism will be
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internet, books) must be referenced correctly according
to the reference style you are using.
Your work will be submitted for electronic plagiarism
checking. Any attempt to bypass our plagiarism
detection systems will be treated as a severe Assessment
Offence.
Coursework Submission Requirements
An electronic copy of your work for this coursework should be fully
uploaded by midnight (local time) on the Deadline Date.
The last version you upload will be the one that is marked.
For this coursework you must submit a single Acrobat PDF document. In
general, any text in the document must not be an image (ie must not be
scanned) and would normally be generated from other documents (eg MS
Office using "Save As .. PDF").
There are limits on the file size. The current limits are displayed on the
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Make sure that any files you upload are virus-free and not protected by a
password or corrupted otherwise they will be treated as null submissions.

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Comments on your work will be available from the Coursework page on

the Intranet. The grade will be made available in the portal.
You must NOT submit a paper copy of this coursework.

The University website has details of the current Coursework Regulations,

including details of penalties for late submission, procedures for Extenuating
Circumstances, and penalties for Assessment Offences. See
http://www2.gre.ac.uk/current-students/regs for details.

Detailed Specification
This coursework is to be completed individually.
You have been invited as a consultant by Amazing Destinations to analyse their
organisations current strategic position. The Management are also seeking a
thorough investigation into the issues that impact of the organisation and how
they might be solved
The case study source text is in the appendix of this document.

Deliverables
You are required to produce a management report entitled, Strategic Evaluation
Document for Amazing Destinations (maximum of 3000 words).
Structure the report as follows:
Introduction
(15%)
Background describe the issues that are hindering the organisation, and what it
needs to focus on to move forward.
Strategic Evaluation
(10%)
Analyse the organisation's current position with the help of SWOT analysis.
Impact of IS
In order to improve its chances of success describe two major new systems
that Amazing Destinations needs, together with a description of what you will
expect these systems to do. Mention any reporting requirements that you
would expect from these systems and who are the most likely recipients of
those reports.
(20%)

In which areas of the business is data duplication a problem? How will you
ensure that this is NOT a problem in the setting up of the two systems above?
Can you use information from one system to help you better use another
system?
(10%)

What are the biggest organisational changes that you will be faced with your
new business model and how do you suggest that they should be addressed?
Mention in particular any impact this will have in the way that you approach
the development of your new systems.
(20%)

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Do you believe that the IT department should be outsourced? Propose an

argument for why it should be outsourced and how would you go about
outsourcing, and a second argument for keeping the IT department in-house
and how you would ensure that the IT department is fit for purpose?
(20%)

References
Harvard style of referencing
(5%)

Assessment Criteria
The weighting as indicated above.

Grading Criteria:
70+

An excellent attempt demonstrating a clear understanding of the

requirements of the assignment. An impressive demonstration of research,
organisation, initiative, analysis and application.

6069

A good attempt demonstrating a strong understanding of the

requirements of the assignment. A good display of research, organisation,
initiative, analysis and application.

5059

A satisfactory attempt demonstrating an effective understanding of the

assignment. An acceptable display of research, organisation, initiative,
analysis and application

4049

A basic understanding of the assignment and its effect. Research,

organisation, analysis initiative and application limited.

3039

Poor understanding of the requirements of the assignment. Possibly some

confusion and much irrelevant material. A poor display of research,
organisation, initiative, analysis and application.

0-29

Little to no understanding of the requirements of the assignment. Little

effort involved in research, organisation, initiative, analysis or application.

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Appendix:

Amazing Destinations Case Study

Amazing Destinations Ltd are an independently run Travel Agency that specialise in
adventure holidays. The company has been in operation for 12 years organising
tours and independent holidays to destinations such as Greenland, Alaska, Burma,
Borneo and Namibia. Indeed, they are considered to be the number one tourist
company for travel to such destinations and have built up a loyal clientele 40% of
its clients have been on 6 or more holidays with Amazing Destinations. One of the
reasons for its success is the end of holiday feedback forms which the company
gives to all clients. This is filled in by hand and what pleases clients is that they
always receive a hand written letter usually promising to incorporate their
suggestions; even if the agency cant such information is extremely useful in
targeting customers with the type of holiday that they want.
The agency has always specialised in the luxury end of the travel market, with most
customers in the 40 to 60 age group, but the competition for this type of holiday has
increased significantly in recent times. As a result the agency realises that it needs
to reduce its cost base considerably, and this will mean a significant revamp to its IT
systems.
Currently Amazing destinations, in order to provide a holiday, has to deal with
airlines, railways, hotels, taxi and coach companies, restaurants, visitor attractions
and a host of other suppliers to provide a complete holiday package. All of these
links are carried out manually. Even when dealing with the customer use of IT is
limited they have an accounting package to process payments but that is about it;
the information that they keep about their customers in order to target them with
holidays that they want are kept in a hand written ledger.

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Additional research shows that many people are concerned about the impact that
travel to remote destinations may have on the environment and indigenous
populations. It will be important to reassure potential travellers on these points. A
positive finding is that the improvements in worldwide communications means that
travellers are reassured that they can keep in touch even from remote areas.
Amazing destinations Ltd will need to improve its marketing capability if it is to resist
being overwhelmed by increasing competition. The Marketing Department will be
key in achieving this, and given that there is a new television programme about to
launch where the winners of this programme will be awarded a luxury adventure
holiday this is something that Amazing destinations is keen to exploit.
Another way of warding off the threat of new competitors is to expand to other
(possibly even more remote) regions of the world. To start this new initiative all of
the existing Country Specialist staff will be called to a meeting to discuss what will be
involved in this challenge confirmation of adventure travellers requirements;
exploration of new destinations, determining travel and accommodation facilities at
each destination and identifying adventure activities. Preliminary research has shown
that travel within some of the potential destinations can be notoriously troublesome.
Whilst most country specialists love to explore new places there are some who may
not be willing to venture into the more challenging places on the planet. Once the
new destinations have been finalised, the country specialists will be assigned to the
new tours with familiarisation visits where necessary. Additionally, in order to check
the success of the new tours, Country Specialist staff will be expected to fill out
detailed reports about each of the tours that they run.
Customer services staff, who are the first line of contact for customers, will need to
be trained by the Country Specialists in all the new holiday destinations so that they
can effectively deal with enquiries.
The impact on the Information Technology (IT) department (2 members of staff) is
uncertain and management have many concerns. No new IT systems have been
developed for 8 years meaning that IT staff are doing no more than support existing
systems which consist of an access database booking system and an accounting
system that accepts client payments and processes payments to its suppliers. The
organisation currently has no website presence, all bookings are made over the
telephone, and most staff would consider themselves to be technophobes.

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