Assignment title: Information
CIS8100 Assignment 2
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CIS8100 Assignment 2
E-commerce Business Strategy Report
& Prototype Website
Description Marks out of Wtg(%) Word limit Due date
Assignment 2 100 20 2500 (±10%) 31 March 2017
This assignment must be your own work. It is acceptable to discuss course content
with others to improve your understanding and clarify requirements, but solutions to
assignment specification must be done on your own. You must not copy from
anyone, including tutors and fellow students, nor allow others to copy your work.
All Assignments will be checked using collusion monitoring tools to ensure that each
assignment is the original work of the submitting student. Assignments that do not
adhere to this requirement will be deemed as being the result of collusion or
plagiarism. This may lead to severe academic penalties as outlined in USQ Policy
Library: Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure. It is your own responsibility to
ensure the integrity of your work. Refer to the USQ Policy Library for more details:
• Academic Integrity Policy
• Academic Integrity Procedure
Learning objectives and graduate skills tested
1. demonstrate an understanding of the key drivers and challenges faced by digital
enterprises that include technology infrastructure, business processes, social media,
consumer behaviour and global markets (Problem solving)
2. demonstrate the ability to research and critically evaluate e-commerce business
models to gain an understanding of their business application for transforming digital
enterprises (Academic, professional and digital literacy)
3. demonstrate the practical skills required to formulate and evaluate a coherent plan for
a digital enterprise, develop a prototype business website based on this plan and
document and critically evaluate the end-product (Problem solving).
4. demonstrate the ability to write effectively in a clear and concise manner in report
style for senior management (Written and oral communication)
In completing this assignment, you are expected to use available resources such as the Joomla
workshop resources and lecture slides in the study modules, the Course Study Desk –
especially the Discussion Forums (click the Study Desk link on UConnect
– ), as well as exploring and experimenting on your own.CIS8100 Assignment 2
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Referencing Requirements
References are required and the Harvard AGPS standard of referencing must be used. This
standard is detailed on USQ Library Site .
Plagiarism, collusion and cheating will be severely penalised. Refer to the USQ Policy
Library for more details:
• Academic Integrity Policy
• Academic Integrity Procedure
Ensure that your reports are fully referenced, including any reference to the text book. Your
report should include in-text references and a List of References.
Do not repeat verbatim large slabs of information from other sources such as the text – you
must put the ideas/information in your own words.
You must use at least ten (10) academically sound sources other than the textbook in
completing this report.
Assignment 2 Specification
Assignment 2 requires you to plan and develop an e-commerce business strategy report
including building a prototype website using Joomla! based on the online business category
assigned to you. Your online business category will be emailed to you during the second
week.
You will be required to develop your prototype website using the Joomla! content
management system in cloudaccess.net. Details about setting up your website at
CloudAccess.net is provided in Joomla Workshop 1 (Joomla Workshop 1 PDF is available
on your Study Desk under Module 1 in Week 1).
Your business model and prototype website must be related to the online business category
assigned to you. Failure to do so will result in your assignments being rejected and no
marks will be allocated.
Report: E-commerce Business Strategy 70 marks
Report Structure and Presentation 5
Your report should include a title page, Table of Contents (including List of Tables and List
of Figures if applicable) and Appendices.
Note: Make sure to state your name and student number in the report on the title page. State
the word count of the report (Introduction to Conclusions & Recommendations)
Report Letter of Transmittal, Executive Summary and Introduction 5
(Introduction – approx. 250 words)
Your report should include a letter of transmittal, executive summary, and introduction to the
report.
Note: Make sure to nominate a name for your prototype website and provide a brief rationale
why you used this name in the Introduction to the report.CIS8100 Assignment 2
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Report Section 1 – E-commerce Business Strategy (approx. 500 words) 10
A business strategy is a set of plans for achieving superior long-term returns on the capital
invested in an organisation. Your e-commerce business must be able to offer economic value.
Economic value is created anytime customers are willing to pay more for a product or service
than it costs to produce/ offer.
There may be several sources of economic value that defines your online business strategy.
Successful e-commerce business strategies use the online world (Internet and mobile
platform) to leverage and strengthen economic value. There are five basic business strategies
– Table 5.9 (pg. 360) in your textbook illustrates those strategies.
Select a business strategy that you think is relevant to your proposed online business and
assigned business category.
When you consider your business strategy, you have to discuss the nature of competition in
your market, types of products and services that you may be providing, unique value that you
may be offering, distinguishing processes that you may be following, and level of
personalisation and customisation that you may be able to offer. These ideas must be relevant
to your online business, and also subsequently reflected in the rest of the report.
Report Section 2 – E-commerce Business Model (approx. 1000 words) 20
Simply put, a business model is a plan for making money. The textbook explains eight
components of a business model. Discuss the following four components of the e-commerce
business model for your online business:
• Value Proposition – how does your online business fulfil customer needs?
• Revenue Model – how does your online business earn revenue and have a positive
return on investment?
• Competitive Advantage – what special advantages does your business bring to the
market?
• Organisational Development – what types of organisational structures within your
business are necessary to carry out your e-commerce business plan?
Report Section 3 – Clickstream Behaviour (approx. 500 words) 10
Clickstream behaviour refers to the transaction log that consumers establish as they browse
the Internet for shopping and buying: search for a product or service > interact in social
media > view offers in different websites > land on your website > view specific pages on
your website > finally purchase what you have offered online.
How can you as a marketer use such data of clickstream behaviour for your business?
Report: Conclusions and Recommendations to the Business (approx. 250 words) 5
Your report should include a separate conclusions and recommendations section.
• Conclusions provide a summary of your key findings from the body of the report.
• Recommendations provide a summary of the recommendations to your online
business based on the research conducted in the report.CIS8100 Assignment 2
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Report: Referencing and Appropriateness of Sources 5
References are required and the Harvard AGPS standard of referencing must be used. This
standard is detailed on USQ Library Site .
Ensure that your reports are fully referenced, including any reference to the text book. Your
report should include in-text references and a List of References.
Do not repeat verbatim large slabs of information from other sources such as the text – you
must put the ideas/information in your own words.
You must use at least ten (10) academically sound sources other than the textbook in
completing this report.
Note: the word count does not include letter of transmittal, executive summary, references or
appendices.
Report: Appendix 1 Journal 10
Prepare a journal that records your activities and research related to completing this
assignment. In date order, clearly list the following:
• Date of research & project activity
• Full description of activity / discussion
• Time duration of the activity
Submit this journal as Appendix 1 in the Report.
Checklist: Prototype Joomla! Website 30 marks
Ensure you setup your Joomla! website and complete the activities as listed in the checklist
document. Your Joomla! Website URL should be accessible for the marker to assess the
activities undertaken as per the checklist document.
1. Valid setup of Joomla! Website (5)
2. Template and layout is accessible and user friendly (10)
3. Content – key articles: Home, About, Contact (10)
4. Menu & Links (5)CIS8100 Assignment 2
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Submission Guidelines
Attach the two documents (Report & Checklist document) in Microsoft Word or PDF file
format using the naming convention below, to your online assignment submission in the
Assignment 2 area on the CIS8100 StudyDesk before midnight Australian Eastern Standard
Time (AEST) on the day the assignment is due.
[lastname].[initial] _ [student number] _ [course code] _ assign2.docx or .pdf
(eg. shrestha.a_0050051005_cis8100_assign2.docx).
Upon completion of the submission process, check your UMail email account for an
automatically generated confirmation email (if you do not have an email account, print out
the Submission Complete screen before exiting the Submission System). You must check
that the file name and file size are listed correctly - if there is a problem with either, please
email the course leader immediately.
If you have difficulties submitting through the StudyDesk Assignments submission tool,
email the course leader immediately for instructions on an alternative course of action. Any
submissions after the due date is considered Late Submission and will be dealt accordingly.
Please note that:
• The following is the USQ Assessment – Assignment (Late Submission) and
Compassionate and Compelling Circumstances procedure that relate to Extensions
and Late Assignments. They can be found under the following links:
Assessment – Assignment (Late Submission) Procedure:
http://policy.usq.edu.au/documents.php?id=14749PL#4.2_Assignments
Assessment of Compassionate and Compelling Circumstances Procedures:
http://policy.usq.edu.au/documents.php?id=131150PL
• Students seeking extensions for any Assignment work must provide appropriate
documentation to support their request before the due date of the assignment (see
points 4.3 and 4.4 in the Assessment of Compassionate and Compelling
Circumstances Procedures above to see what is considered as Compassionate and
Compelling reason for an extension and the level of documentation that will be
needed).
• An Assignment submitted after the due date without an approved extension of time
will be penalised. The penalty for late submission is a reduction by five percent
(5%) of the maximum Mark applicable for the Assignment, for each University
Business Day or part Business Day that the Assignment is late. An Assignment
submitted more than ten (10) University Business Days after the due date will have a
Mark of zero recorded for that Assignment.
The StudyDesk Assignments submission tool will accept late assignments up
until 23:55pm on the 10th University Business Day after the due date.