Page 1 of 7 Business Analytics and the Data Driven Organisation INFS 5117 2017 Student's Assignment Guide (Internal) Business Analytics Capability Proposal 40% 2000 words Due: Sunday, 28 May 2017, 11.00pm Late assignments: 20% per day deducted Last updated: Sunday 7.5.17, 8.00am Sections that have been added are marked with # Develop a proposal for management of a nominated organisation to implement Business Analytics capabilities Proposal should include recommendations of which Business Analytics technologies and methodologies should be introduced, why and to which groups of employees in that organisation.Page 2 of 7 About this Assignment This assignment is giving you practice in bringing together the knowledge you have acquired in this course, applying it to a business need and being able to communicate that. Imagine that you are presenting your proposal to the senior management team of your chosen organisation. Assume that the audience know little about business analytics, but they want to make better use of their data which is why you have been invited to submit a proposal. However, the assignment is not just a sales pitch – you must demonstrate that you know what you are talking about, back up your arguments with evidence, communicate new concepts and demonstrate to the audience that you would be worth engaging. You are being assessed on demonstrating your understanding and applying it, not just finding and presenting information of ‘experts’. This assignment requires you to work things out yourself as well as making use of research. It is recommended that you follow the first three steps of the Implementation Approach outlined in the ‘Building Organisational Analytics Capability’ presentation (week 7): 1. What are the business priorities and expected benefits for analytics? 2. Who are the groups/users needing analytics? 3. Which analytics will be delivered to meet these needs? You should also include some high level recommendations related to this step: 7. How will analytics be managed, maintained and governed to ensure it continues to provide value? You are not required to discuss these aspects of implementation: 4. Who will build the analytics? 5. How much will analytics cost compared to savings and other benefits? 6. Which methodologies are needed to plan and develop analytical capability? Nominated Organisations Choose one of these:  Bunnings Hardware  McDonald’s  Salvation Army Or choose your own, but check with the lecturer first. Please do not contact the organisation! See below for how to research them. Business priorities/opportunities/issues and expected benefits Identify the key business priorities of your chosen organisation - this shows the audience you understand how their business needs. For example use their strategic plan or annual report to identify these priorities. Some priorities will be issues or threats the organisation is facing, some will be opportunities or initiatives they are pursuing. Business analytics is useful in both situations – especially to discover opportunities and issues the organisation isn’t currently aware of. If you want you can choose a single strategic opportunity or problem to focus on that’s fine as long as it’s significant enough to impact the organisation as a whole – and would justify why thePage 3 of 7 organisation should invest in business analytics. For example making inventory management more efficient at a national supermarket chain may not have a significant impact on the whole organisation, whereas increasing online ordering could transform the business. The reason a whole of organisation perspective is required is because your proposal should argue that business analytics will be vital to the organisation on an ongoing basis and requires a whole of organisation perspective to be done well. Otherwise the risk is your proposal would be seen as a once off solution to an existing opportunity or problem. Note: this is not a company analysis assignment so don’t spend too much time researching or writing about the opportunity or problem or priority. We have been discussing in class the types of business priority. Examples of business priorities can be found in the ‘Data as an Organisational Asset’ and ‘Building Organisational Analytics Capability’ presentations. Example: for the children’s clothing store Pumpkin Patch, a business priority is keeping up to date with the latest children’s clothing designs. Source of research is this media article: http://www.news.com.au/finance/business/retail/how-pumpkin-patch-went-from-boom-tobust-in-less-than-a-decade/news-story/3cd687219d81fad0cbbadc429c271ebd Also assume that the chosen organisation has no analytics capability currently. So don’t research what they do actually have in place. Groups/Users needing analytics? Since this is a proposal for senior management then you can assume they would be the users. However depending on the business priority/ies you choose there would be other groups as well. In class we have identified these groups as the ‘stakeholders’ using the Identify Data Needs flowchart in the ‘Data Centric Enterprise Architecture’ presentation. You should summarise what types of decisions and questions these stakeholders would need answering relating to the business need. (Usually you would consider external users such as suppliers in a proposal like this, but leave these out for this assignment.) Keep in mind both the strategic and operational analytical needs – for instance what type of questions would senior management have for exploring the opportunity or problem and what questions would operational managers have to be able to implement the decisions of senior management. You don’t have to cover ALL questions or decisions – that would take too much time, just enough to explain to the audience. Make use of the Implementation Approach slides in the ‘Building Organisational Analytics Capability’ presentation. Example: for Pumpkin Patch’s business priority, here are the groups needing analytics and their questions: Senior Management  Which designs to stop selling  What will customers want to buy  What designs are competitors selling  How can we better predict market trends so we act soonerPage 4 of 7 Clothes Buyers  Where do we source the designs for the best price  How do we find reliable suppliers Marketing Team  Which features should we market to different customer types  If the new designs aren’t selling as well as we expected what is the reason Which analytics will be delivered to meet these needs? Refer to the Implementation Approach slides in ‘Building Organisational Analytics Capability’ presentation and the examples in the ‘Business Intelligence and Big Data’ presentation. Consider how the groups/users you identified would actually be using the analytics. Summarise the information users would need, like we have been doing in class. See also the ‘Data Types and Metrics’ presentation as a guide. Since this proposal is about building analytics capability you also need to cover – at a high level – the back end components needed. For instance if you have identified that you would use big data then you should include a recommendation about investing in the cloud. Analytics management, maintenance and governance Include some recommendations for how analytics should be managed and governed on an ongoing basis. Here you would also include recommendations about investing in information quality and master data as well as covering areas in the ‘Data Quality, Security and Governance’ presentation. Practical examples Provide two examples of a dashboard (as screen shots) in the proposal – this would give the audience an idea of what you would be providing them if they accepted your proposal. See the ‘Data Visualisation’ presentation and that topic’s readings for ideas. If you wish, build your own dashboard using PowerBI and include that as one of the screenshots. Business Analytics technologies When you recommend particular technologies (eg: data warehouse) please provide (brief) explanations. This assignment should demonstrate that you know how these different technologies are relevant to the business. If you wish, use the Gartner Hype Cycles to recommend particular types of technologies, but don’t focus on a specific tool or vendor.Page 5 of 7 Marking criteria The assignment will be marked on how well you cover each of the points: Area Weighting Your understanding of the organisations business need(s) 10% Groups/Users needing analytics 10% Which analytics will be delivered 20% Analytics management, maintenance and governance 10% Practical examples 20% Knowledge of business analytics technologies 10% Referencing  Correct referencing as per UniSA guidelines (including use of in-text references)  Quality of references  How recent references are 5% Use of formal business or academic language 5% Correct grammar and spelling 5% Layout and professional presentation 5% Keeping within the word limit 0.5 marks deducted for each 1% over/under For each of these you will be given a rating of ‘Excellent’, ‘Good’, ‘Fair’, ‘Poor’ or ‘None’ (if the section is missing). As a guide, if all ratings are ‘Excellent’ you would receive a High Distinction for the assignment (between 85-100%) or if all ratings are ‘Good’ you would receive a Credit (65-74%). The more you can back up your suggestions with research and examples, the higher mark you will receive. Presentation/structure The structure should be in a logical format that flows well. As a minimum include a title page and section headings. The title page is separate to the assignment cover page. A sample template for the assignment is available on the course website. You don’t have to use this template, you can come with your own structure. For instance, the sample template includes a Table of Contents and Executive Summary, you can leave these out if you want. Since this is proposal for a business audience, it should be presented in a professional format making it easy to read. The use of diagrams and graphs, particularly to show figures will earn more marks. An efficient layout is also important but don’t spend too much time on making it look good and not enough time on the content. Using bullet points are OK occasionally but you'll need sentences for each point (ie. just a bullet point list with no explanation isn’t suitable).Page 6 of 7 Word limit 2000 words +/- 10%. (1800 – 2200 words) Marks will be deducted if the assignment is too short or too long. Keeping to a word limit requires a focus on what the reader most needs to know. These are included in the word count:  The 'body' of the assignment:  Headings  Direct quotes (you will gain more marks by writing using your own words than using lots of direct quotes)  Summary/Executive Summary (if you chose to include one)  Diagram headings and captions These are excluded:  Title page  Table of contents  References  Footnotes  Text within diagrams Referencing Referencing is important for assignments to: (a) expand your knowledge of the assignment topic and (b) provide evidence to the claims you make and (c) demonstrate you know what you are talking about to make a convincing proposal and (d) provide other examples or case studies The general rule is if you are using information or data that is not of your own creation then you need to acknowledge it. Not only is this for academic integrity but to add weight to your recommendations – to show they are just not opinions. This includes the screenshots, data you use and points taken from the presentations. How many references? That depends on how many points you are making. Generally, more is better because you have used more sources to understand the topic and reinforce your points. A minimum of 5 references is required. Just adding as many references as possible without using them in the assignment won't earn maximum marks. If you plagiarise (ie. copy from references and don't include it in quotes or include a reference) you will be penalised – students have fail assignments for doing this! We want your understanding on the topic, not copied words from experts – this only demonstrates that you can research well, not apply your learning. Reference quality The type (quality) of references makes a difference and this is considered in the marks as well. Feel free to use the readers and links from the lectures and Course Outline.Page 7 of 7 Avoid marketing/vendor sites and general websites - the quality is not assured because anyone can get a website up regardless of their expertise and marketing material from software companies is usually biased. The exception would be news sites when you want to report an event or where they are the sole vendor of a technology. Finding references by Googling them is a poor approach – try the library catalogue instead. Reference recency Since this area is a fast-moving area use references from the last 5 years. Consider if you were a senior manager considering a review or proposal – would you trust a report that is using information from 6 years ago? The exception is if the reference is one of the supplied readings/viewings for the course. Referencing style Please use the Harvard style of referencing in-text citations. Refer to section on ‘Harvard Rules’ and ‘Harvard Guide’ here www.unisa.edu.au/referencing. References must be in English. References must be available when the assignment is being marked. Other  Do not write in the first person (“I”)  Use formal language – this is a report intended for business. Good luck!