MURDOCH UNIVERSITY
ICT622 INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY STRATEGY
Research Essay
Due: Friday Week 13, 5:00pm
Worth: This assignment is worth 30% of your final grade
This assignment should be carried out in teams of two students.
Submission instructions: Teams should submit their assignment to the ICT622 LMS site (unless alternative arrangements have been made).
Late submissions will be penalised at the rate of 5 marks per day late or part thereof unless prior approval for an extension has been gained.
You should submit your research essay as a Word document. THE FILE YOU SUBMIT MUST BE NAMED USING THE FORM: Unit Number, teaching Period, assessment title, Surname.docx or other appropriate file extension. E.g. ICT622_S2_2021_Research_Essay_ Smith_and_Partner.docx
You must include a completed assignment cover page (you can find it at end of this document – copy and paste it into your document). You must keep a copy of the final version of your submission and be prepared to provide it on request.
The University treats plagiarism, collusion, theft of other students’ work and other forms of dishonesty in assessment seriously. Any instances of dishonesty in this assessment will be reported as academic misconduct. The use of text spinners to hide plagiarism is very serious and will normally incur heavier penalties. For guidelines on honesty in assessment including avoiding plagiarism, see the University website for relevant advice.
Background
The Covid-19 Pandemic has had a devastating impact on our personal lives during the last six months. On top of that, all organizations operations, Government, NGOs and businesses have been heavily disrupted. Organisations with leading edge technology, particularly remote, autonomous, automatic/robotic and AI functions may have been better able to cope with the disruptions. However, all organizations that have survived the initial disruptions have had to amend their business practices to deal with the “New Normal” reality of the ongoing pandemic.
This research essay gives your team the chance to research a topic of interest in some depth. Your team is to write a research essay exploring different technologies and techniques used by organisations in the initial disruption and also how organisations are developing new strategies to operate and compete in the “new normal”. Your focus will be on the use of information technology, be it innovative use of existing technology or the use or intended use of emerging technologies. Also you should focus on other strategies organisations have used such as restructuring of the organisation, changing IT or business processes, outsourcing, or any other strategy used.
It is too early since the beginning of the pandemic for there to be a great deal of main stream research literature on this topic. However, you should find a host of information from other sources such as news outlets, individual organisations and business sources. An example would be https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/risk/our-insights/covid-19-implications-for-business. This site explores aspects of the recovery process and may assist you in understanding the challenges that all organisations face.
The research essay should pull together the significant readings you have identified, and present a critical summary of the nature, state and likely future directions and strategies of organisations during and post the pandemic.
To do:
To successfully complete the assignment, you must begin searching for relevant literature immediately. Find a minimum of 15 relevant sources of information covering between at least 3 and up to 6 separate organisations. The sources may be journal articles (if at all possible), online reports or articles.
After reading each article, you should think about how they all fit together. Your review should be organized by concepts, such as findings, rather than by sources of information. Do not proceed through the articles one-by-one in your research essay. This will make for extremely boring reading. Bring forward the generalised concepts of the technologies or techniques used. E.g. online meetings with Teams and zoom etc. would sit in the area of remote group cooperative working etc.
Your essay should include:
• An introduction that describes the journey the reader will be taken on whilst reading your essay
• The main body that reviews the literature and compares the technologies and the comparative effectiveness of them to assist the organisations continued or renewed competitive advantage.
• A conclusion that compares and highlights what you believe have been the most successful innovations used to support organisations through this unprecedented period of history.
Format Guidelines
• Give your research essay a title that clearly reflects its contents.
• Your review should be around 2500 words in length, but can be longer if you wish.
• Include appropriate citations throughout the review
• Use APA or IEEE referencing style, but be consistent in its use.
• Include an author/date bibliography at the end
• Your submission should include a minimum of 15 references (one for each source)
NOTE: Plagiarism is not acceptable. Your submission will go through URKUND so be aware that plagiarism is easily detected and WILL be reported.
Information Technology Strategy
RESEARCH ESSAY COVER SHEET
ICT622 INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY STRATEGY
Name: _____________
FAMILY NAME (Capital Letters) Given Names Student Number
Name: _____________
FAMILY NAME (Capital Letters) Given Names Student Number
Due Date: Date Submitted:
Your assignment should meet the following requirements.
Please confirm this by ticking the boxes before submitting.
? Above details are fully complete.
? Submitted files do not contain any viruses.
? You have retained a copy of submitted files.
? Declaration below is completed.
All forms of plagiarism, cheating and unauthorized collusion are regarded seriously by the university and could result in penalties including failure in the course and possible exclusion from the University. If you are in doubt, please contact your Unit Coordinator.
Declaration
Except where I/we have indicated, the work I/we am submitting in this assignment is my/our own work and has not been submitted for assessment in another unit. I/we also acknowledge and agree that the assessor of this assignment may, for the purpose of assessing this assignment:
• reproduce this assignment and provide a copy to another member of discipline; and/or
• communicate a copy of this assignment to a plagiarism-checking service. This web-based service will retain a copy of this work for subsequent plagiarism checking of documents submitted from Murdoch, but does not claim any rights on the information submitted and has provided assurances that information submitted will not be used for any purposes other than providing plagiarism detection services to Murdoch.
Sign your names here:
Where you are submitting this declaration electronically, you do not need to sign it. The fact that you have included it with your assignment to the LMS is evidence of your agreement.)
ICT622 IT Strategy
Assignment 2 Research Essay Presentation Slides
Due Friday Week 14 5:00pm
Your team is required to prepare and present a set of PowerPoint slides on the major findings of your Research Essay.
Your presentation should have the following slides:
Slide 1: Title of your research essay, your names and student numbers
Slide 2: Introduction to your research essay
Slides 3, 4 and 5: on these slides list in dot point form, the major findings of your research
Slide 6: Explain the most important lessons learned from your research on the adaptations used by organisations during the initial pandemic.
Slide 7: This slide should discuss future innovations organisations are indicating they will adopt/are already trying to adopt for the longer pandemic period.
Slide 8: List the 5 most influential references you have used during your research and in writing up your research essay.

** MAXIMUM 5 dot points per slide