ITECH3301: Electronic Commerce Systems and Technologies Assignment 2: e-Business Proposal Report Due Date Week 10, Friday 19th May 4 pm Worth 25% (25 marks) Objectives This assessment task relates to the following course objectives: • discuss the meaning of e-Commerce from a business and technical perspective • appreciate the business environments conducive to the use of successful e-business applications • compare and report on the types of e-Commerce and their application to business • review the technologies used to deploy an e-business solution • apply an understanding of the development needs of a basic e-business website • illustrate understanding of the design, maintenance, business principles and administration of an e-Commerce site • discuss ethical, social and political issues in e-business Overview You have the task of developing an e-business plan for the client described in the case study below. Your planning document must meet the needs of the client and you may NOT choose to develop a plan for any other client (i.e. business or website). However, this case study is not intended to limit your creativity or the scope of your e-commerce business proposal. You must submit a report (as an MSWord format document) for the client. You may/will need to research a number of different aspects of your proposal, but some of these aspects will not be covered in lectures until Week 10 of semester – however, do not wait until that time to begin this assignment as it will take considerable time, thought and work to be successfully completed. You may refer to any authentic source in conducting your research and all references must be included in your report. You may also employ any analysis or design tool in the preparation of your report – so long as the results are suitable for presentation in the required Word document and are your own work. Remember: this is a report intended to convince a company to adopt your proposal. Your report must therefore be complete, yet concise; be clear and convincing, and professionally presented. Above all, the report must be specific to the needs of the business! Case Study: Events Management T &T Edu is a small educational institute based in Melbourne, Victoria, with a web-based operation that assists Australian educational institutions companies in promoting their programs locally and internationally at overseas educational fairs. T&T Edu arranges floor space at the educational fairs, as an agent for the fair managers, and also assists the educational organisations in organising the construction of a stand for their space at the fair, if required. T &T Edu provides further value-added services, for fees, to the exhibiting educational companies by arranging their travel and accommodation for fairs, organising marketing material for the fair (or for distribution to current and potential clients before a fair), and can arrange hospitality (food, drinks and staff) for the exhibitors to offer visitors to the fair. T&T Edu also organises tickets for exhibitors and clients to the trade fairs and are paid a commission for each ticket sold. T&T Edu are a small owner-operator business with annual revenue of $A100, 000, increasing at 10 percent per annum, and net profits of 40 percent of total sales. The owner, Dr. Shaun, is a lecturer in Business Management with 15 years teaching and leadership experience. However, with the ever-changing education industry and global business environments, the future of T&T Edu is uncertain. The main business activities of T&T Ed relate to marketing higher degree educational programs to secondary colleges in Australia as well as overseas. The activities include organising details of contracts with education institutions that would like to exhibit and showcase their programs, and employees who are interested in grooming students. Selling tickets for each trade fair and co-ordinating all these activities with the educational institutions, prospective students, and employers in Europe and South-East Asia are also included in T&T Edu’s business activities. The company has a broad network of government, industry and business-level contacts and engage in extensive marketing campaigns mainly by letters, brochures/flyers and phone calls. All contracts must be signed by the management of the exhibiting educational institutes and T&T Edu is responsible for ensuring all details are complete and correct before being sent to the participating employers and prospective students before deadlines. T&T Edu knows that many of their contacts and many of the employers they target for marketing purposes are already online. T&T Edu receive payment directly from the educational exhibitors: a deposit to exhibit at a fair is taken when a contract made, and payment for the balance of fees to exhibit and for other value-added services made before a fair begins. T&T Edu also receives direct payment of commissions from the education fair managers for visitor ticket and exhibitor floor space sales. To promote the business, T&T Edu also advertise some bridging and English courses to students to facilitate their ability to be admitted by the educational institutes ad taken up to be groomed by employers. T&T Edu has very close working relations with graphic designers, printers and mail-out companies, and with merchandising companies, who each support the marketing activities of T&T Edu. Supplier relations are all by word-of-mouth (which has led to some confusion and delivery of incorrect designs, printing or products), while exhibitor contracts are managed using traditional post, email and facsimile transmission of documents. Dr Shaun is keen to improve efficiency in marketing and communications, to expand ticket and merchandise sales, which are potentially very profitable for T&T Edu, and to improve relations with educational fair managers, secondary schools, prospective students, higher education institutions, and employers. To achieve this, Dr Shaun is considering new online channels for marketing, sales, and for improved communication and collaboration with exhibitors and prospective clients. You have been called in as an Internet and management consultant for T&T Edu. Dr Shaun wants to know how e-business technologies could be used to improve the company’s operations. The company is keen to leave as much open as possible – you have been told that it is a ‘clean sheet’ strategy but cannot consume more than half the profits of next year’s business. You are required to deliver a report with a specific brief, and a mock-up of the general design and functionality of a proposed e-business system for T&T Edu. Requirements Your e-business proposal should address: 1. clearly identified e-commerce business model(s) 2. how the e-commerce business will derive revenue (i.e. revenue models) 3. what network and communications infrastructure will be required 4. what applications (hardware and software) will be required to meet specific e-commerce business goals 5. how you will address security issues 6. how you will address e-marketing requirements 7. what choice of payment systems will be used 8. how you will address privacy and other relevant ethical concerns 9. how you will address legal issues connected with the e-commerce business 10. how you will address customer service issues 11. how you will measure the success of your proposal (metrics, tools) Presentation Please refer to the General guide for the presentation of academic work, available electronically on the universities website. URL: http://www.federation.edu.au Present your evaluation in a business or management style report, as outlined in the guide. Submission Please submit an ELECTRONIC copy only via Moodle. Submit a single Microsoft Word document (i.e. .doc or .docx formats) that will include your report, and images of your mock-up proposal for an e-business system (as an appendix to the report). Name the submission file according to the following format: ‘itech3301_yourSurname_yourStudentID_assign2.doc’. Please refer to the “Course Description” for information regarding late assignments, extensions, special consideration, and plagiarism. A reminder all academic regulations can be accessed via the university’s website: URL: http://www.federation.edu.au Assessment Criteria Students work will be assessed upon: • evidence of completion of all proposal tasks comprising a solution based on theoretical concepts outlined in the literature, with practical supporting examples from industry, and your own ideas. • an accurate business report including elements, such as an executive summary, a table of contents, appropriate use of headings, captioning for all included figures/tables, etc. The report will evince quality written expression, including good grammar, spelling, punctuation, sentence construction, etc. Reports should adhere to the university style guide including formatting, layout and structure, and should not exceed a word limit of 2500 words (not including the appendices of the mock-up of the proposed system). • evidence of formatted reference list and in-text citations that comply with the APA style guide. A quality piece of work will provide a range of references for example books, journals, reputable websites, podcasts, etc.. In-text citations should be used in such a way as to provide support for the work. Assessment Feedback e-Business Planning Report Tasks Marks Award Proposal – e-commerce business model 1 – revenue model 1 – applications 3 – security 2 – e-marketing requirements 3 – payment system 2 – privacy 1 – legal issues 1 – customer service issues 2 – analytics 2 Mock-up of the general design and functionality of proposed e-business system 5 Business report elements and academic writing 2 Total Mark [25 marks = 25% assessment] 25 Comments Marked by Date