ITEC 002 003 Thriving In The Tech Age Spring 2018

ITEC ; -002; -003 Thriving in the Tech Age Spring 2018 i ntegrated Information Technology Department

Over the course of the semester, you have been exploring an industry in depth that you may consider working in. As you learn more about the industry, you may decide that this is a very good industry to work in or you may not enjoy working in it. In your first posting, you wrote a short paragraph or two about the industry and described a specific job you are targeting within that industry. Hopefully, you thought big and targeted an executive level position. Over the course of the semester, you posted four additional articles about how your industry related to topics we were covering in the various modules.

Your five total articles included:

  • Industries & Careers (IC) #1. Selecting your Industry and Career (5 pts)
  • IC #2. Disruptive Technologies (5 pts)
  • IC #3. Emerging Technology – Internet of Things (IoT) (5 pts)
  • IC #4. Emerging Technology – Geographic Information Systems (GIS) (5 pts)
  • IC #5. IT Management – CIOs (10 pts)

Total points available to-date = 30 pts

The Purpose of this Assignment (70 pts): (Background) Pretend that you have been working in your industry for six months. (You may pick a particular company within your industry to work for.) Your supervisor has recently been assigned by the CIO to prepare a technical report about an emerging technology that is disrupting your industry. The IT executives want to learn more about the technology so that they can develop a strategy and plan for the disruptive technology’s impact on your business. As often happens in the real world, your supervisor assigned the task to you. You have four weeks to finish the research and write the report.

Using the information from the articles you collected and doing some additional research to collect more information about your industry, you should first pick a disruptive technology to study and report on. Pick a technology that you are interested in learning more about. Then you should prepare a written report which describes your industry / business, why IT in general is critical to organization or business success, and how IT is managed within the organizations or businesses in your industry. Then, you should describe the Disruptive Technology you selected, how will it impact your industry / company / organization. Finally, you should include recommendations about how your company should or should not use the technology.

The Benefits of this Assignment: 1. Gives you the opportunity to understand a particular industry / business situation in more detail and how disruptive technologies impact the business. 2. Enables you to start a life-long IT practice for “continuous learning” to stay up-to-date with the ever changing world of information technology within your industry and your IT career.

Report Specifications: The Industry Semester Report should be a written report of 5-6 pages, double-spaced, 11 point type, using MS Word. (Note: In the real world, this report would probably be 15-18 pages.) The written report should include a Title Page (not counted in page total) and a list of all references used.

You should have a minimum of 10 references / articles. You do not have to cite the articles within your report. You may use other articles from those who are reporting on your same industry. Use “headings” to make the report more readable and easy to understand. Include diagrams, figures, and tables that add interesting information to your report.

The Title Page should include a report title, your name, the course number and title, and the date. The references should be in APA format. Due Date – Sunday, 4/15/18: The Industry Semester Report should be posted under BLACKBOARD / ASSIGNMENTS / INDUSTRY & CAREERS / Semester Report , no later than 11:00 pm, on Sunday, 4/15/18. Since this is near the end of the semester, no late assignments will be accepted unless previous arrangements have been made. Your Industry Semester Report should include the following sections:

Paper For Above instruction

Introduction

The Introduction of your Industry Semester Report should provide a brief overview of your entire report. What is the industry / company you are discussing? How has IT supported and contributed to the success of the company? What disruptive technology(ies) did you pick and why? Briefly, what do you think the future impact would be? The Introduction should be at least 2-3 paragraphs.

Industry / Business Description

Provide a complete overview of your industry / business. What did you learn about the industry from your first article and your additional research? How large is the industry? Who are some of the well-known businesses within your industry? What are the products or services from your industry? Who are the major customers / clients of the industry? Why are you interested in working in this industry? This section should be ¾ of page to one page.

Information Technologies Currently Used

Through your research and articles you found, you should be able to identify some of the major information technologies used in your industry. Think about technologies that provide a competitive advantage. What type of social media is used in your industry / business? What type of networks are used? Are mobile apps used? Who are the vendors or suppliers of IT within your industry / business? This may be a hard section to write, but do the best you can. Look for case studies to learn about technologies used within the business. Remember in Module 5, we studied “Enterprise Business Systems,” that almost all industries have in common. Identify, if possible, any unique to your industry “software systems” that are necessary. This section should be ¾ to one page.

Current Enterprise IT Organization Management

Look for any articles about the enterprise IT organizations (internal IT organization) within your industry. If you cannot find specifics about your own industry / business, describe a generic IT business strategy. As an IT executive, how would you support the executives of your industry / business? What do you need to know about the business of your industry?

Disruptive Technology Description

Use information from your disruptive technology article. Provide as much detail as you can about the technology. What technologies are being replaced? Who are the vendors / suppliers for this technology? Will this disruptive technology be positive or negative? What are the advantages and disadvantages of the technology? What are the costs of purchase or lease of the technology? Are there any alternatives to the disruptive technology? Were they considered in your situation? Hint: One way to show this efficiently is to include a table showing the comparisons. You may find that technology consultants have already completed technology comparisons, which may be published within the trade press for your industry or for your organization’s associations.

Potential Impact on Industry / Business

What do you think will be the impact of your selected disruptive technology? What will be the impact on the sales of products and services within your industry, if any? What about the employees within your industry / business? The customers? Remember, the impact may not be immediate. It may take several years.

Recommendations & Conclusion

Finally, you should include your recommendation about how your industry / business should proceed. In your conclusion, include what you learned from this research as you prepared your report.

References

Always provide at least 10 credible references, formatted in APA style, to support your report.

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