FIT2090 Business Information Systems and Processes

Assignment 2 (20%)

Submission Deadline: 18 Oct 2021, 5:00 PM (AEDT) </br>Group Assignment (two students from the same tutorial)

Learning Objectives
Successful completion of this assignment will lead to extend your knowledge and skills in the business
information system and processes, including:
● Understanding of BPI and BPR.
● Selecting appropriate technologies to address the given problem.
● Investigating emerging and innovative BIS solutions.
● Critical analysis of a business process.
● Documenting and justifying recommendations for improving business processes.
Group Assignment:
● This assignment promotes students' collaborations working in pairs. Students must form. their paired
grouping within the same tutorial, the latest being Thursday Week 9. You can stay in the same group
from Assignment One. Otherwise, you need to leave the original group, and create/choose your group
via the Assignment Two Groups (see Moodle Assessments page).
● Every student in the group is required to participate and contribute to the assignment actively. These
would be used as a basis for marks adjustment for the assignment's final score (if necessary). At the end
of the assignment, all students must complete their Peer Assessment (to be made available in Moodle)
confidentially and individually. Failure to complete the assignment peer assessment by the due date
might result in a lower mark for the final score.
Submission Requirements
● You are required to submit the assignment via Moodle as Microsoft Word and PowerPoint, or PDF
formatted document. The file names should include the Unit Code, assignment number and your
Group ID number, following either of these formats:
FIT2090A2_GroupID.docx OR FIT2090A2_GroupID.pdf
FIT2090A2_Present_GroupID.pptx OR FIT2090A2_Present_GroupID.pdf
● Only one of the group members will need to upload the assignment file on Moodle for the group, but
all members must click the 'submit' button to accept the student submission statement.
Late Submissions:
Late submissions will be penalised, as stated in the submission link in Moodle.
Task I Business Information Systems and Process (8%)
Choose any one of the topics on business information systems for this task using a published case study. Some
suggested topics/areas are (but not limited to):
a. Business Process Improvement (BPI)
b. Business Process Re-engineering (BPR)
c. Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
d. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
e. Supply Chain Management (SCM)
f. Lean Operation
g. Six Sigma
For example, you could choose the BPR topic and use Qantas as a case study. Summarise the main findings
from the case study to demonstrate your understanding of the philosophies of BPR. You could discuss the
topic at a conceptual level, e.g. what is BPR, some background information, advantages and disadvantages,
use the case study to illustrate how practical BPR is. Then you could discuss the high-level results (fail or
success, how much they save cost), other interesting aspects such as the lessons learned, main challenges, the
critical success factors, etc.
1. You need to choose a topic and/or case such that the information is available and can be easily obtained.
Include at least four significant1 references – cite them in the body of your response and list them at the
end of the report. Use the American Psychological Association (APA) style. of referencing
(https://guides.lib.monash.edu/citing-referencing/apa).
2. You will also require approval from your tutors for the topic you chose. You are advised to finalise the
topic by Week 9’s tutorial.
3. This part (Task I write-up) should be approximately 800 words (+/- 10%) in length.
Oral Presentation – you will present your case study during Week 11 and Week 12 Tutorials. Your tutors will
let you know about your presentation time in advance, e.g. in Week 10. All teams should submit their
presentation slides (pptx or pdf format) to Moodle by the due date, regardless of their presentation being in
Week 11 or Week 12.
1. Each presentation shall be no more than 8 minutes (including Question-and-Answer session). All team
members are expected to participate in the presentation.
2. You will also be required to review and provide feedback on other students’ presentations (peer-review).
Task II Business Process Improvement & Lean Operations (10%)
Find and analyse a business process that can be improved or redesigned. Some suggested business processes
are (but are not limited to):
a. A retailer or a service business – the problematic business processes causing unsatisfactory customer
experience can range from the selection of a product or service to the post-sale services. This could
include businesses selling the products or services in either a physical store or online stores.
Considering customers’ bad experiences, choose one particular business process with the most
potential to improve.
1 These may include websites and newspaper articles and should be as current and substantive as possible – you are expected to
provide at least two published peer-reviewed academic articles, e.g. journal, conference article, book, book chapter. You should
acknowledge all sources of information.
b. A local government services – find some of the business processes designed by local councils, state or
federal government agencies or government authorities that can be improved. For example, which
processes can be improved when a resident is applying for a parking permit or registering a pet in the
local council, registering a car or getting a driver license from the local traffic authority?
c. An insurance provider – find some of insurance claim processes that are inefficient and/or ineffective.
The insurance policies include, but are not limited to, health insurance, car insurance, building and/or
content insurance, travel insurance, and more. The improvement of the process could be similar to the
example in Lecture 4, but your selected policy and process should be more comprehensive and on a
larger scale.
1. You are advised to consult your tutors about the business process you are going to analyse to determine
its suitability for this task. Do not use a case study that has already discussed the detailed improvement
process and results, but find processes that you can demonstrate your high-level analytical skills of
business process improvement.
2. You are required to seek information from various sources, e.g. company website, forums, etc. However,
you are not required to contact the organisation for information. You may make reasonable assumptions,
justify them in the report, and support them with references if appropriate.
3. Describe your selected business process in its current situation (in narration).
4. You could also model the current business process using the graphical tools that are discussed in this unit
(e.g. system flowcharts, process flowcharts, etc).
5. Critique and discuss the aspects that are inefficient and/or ineffective in the current business process.
6. Propose a new business process model, justify how the business process is improved. Discuss what
business process improvement approaches/techniques/principles/philosophies are applied.
7. You should use analytical tools and/or quality tools discussed in this unit (e.g. General Process Charts in
Lecture 4, Cause-Effect Diagrams in Lecture 6b, etc.) to carry out business process performance analysis
for the current and the proposed new business process. State your assumptions as and when necessary.
8. A summary of the roles that Information Technology (IT) /Business Information System (BIS) played in
the proposed new business process.
9. We do not expect groups to present or rephrase the contents of Task I of this assignment in Task II, this
task should be different from your Task I contents.
10. Include at least four significant2 references – cite them in the body of your response and list them at the
end of the report. Use the American Psychological Association (APA) style. of referencing
(https://guides.lib.monash.edu/citing-referencing/apa).
11. This part should be approximately 1500 words (+/- 10%) in length.
2 These may include websites and newspaper articles and should be as current and substantive as possible – you are expected to
provide at least two published peer-reviewed academic articles, e.g. journal, conference article, book, book chapter. You should
acknowledge all sources of information.
Task III Emerging trends in Business Information Systems (2%)
Huge information systems innovations in recent years have impacted various businesses across different
industries. Business information systems (BIS) not only enables, but even triggers business strategies that
transform. the traditional business processes, and enable organisations to achieve competitive advantages.
1. Look for BIS jobs from job advertising sites e.g. Seek.com, Indeed.com, etc, and discuss the nature of the
business, the importance of BIS on these organisations and/or their business processes/activities, and
summarise the skills and knowledge needed for these jobs.
2. Include at least two references – cite them in the body of your response and list them at the end of the
report. Use the American Psychological Association (APA) style. of referencing
(https://guides.lib.monash.edu/citing-referencing/apa).
3. This part should be approximately 400 words (+/- 10%) in length.