Description

Assessment 3: Report

Summary: In Assignment 3, you will write a report on how business analytics tools and techniques can be used to create value for businesses and organisations.

Word limit: 2,000 words +/- 10%

Weighing: 40% of the course

Output Format: Microsoft Word Document

Submission deadline: 20 October 2024, 11:55pm

1. The purpose of the assignment.

The purpose of this assignment is to evaluate your depth and breadth of your understanding of how business analytics tools and techniques can be used to create value and benefit for organisations/businesses, and also the managerial and ethical issues involved in analytics projects.

2. Context The CEO of an organisation you work for has recently been to a conference about Business Analytics, where several companies shared their fantastic experiences and stories on how analytics helped them to grow business value and enhance competitive advantages. The CEO was amazed to see how datadriven fact-based insights from analytics can improve decision-making in organisations which in turn increase profitability, performance and success.

Upon returning from the conference, he placed a high priority on initiating analytics projects in the organisation. As a graduate/postgraduate student from Massey University who has successfully completed an Analytics course and learnt how to use relevant tools and techniques, you are assigned to the project team and your job is to embark the organisation on the path to Analytics!

3. Your Task Your CEO asks you to prepare a report about the potential uses of data-analytics for the organisation. Your task is to explore and provide suggestions and solutions for using business analytics methods, techniques, and tools to benefit the organisation and to address organisational issues.

Part A: Applications of Analytics (approximately 1500 words)

In your report you should cover two business operation areas, for example:

• Marketing
• Human resource
• Manufacturing
• Competitor analysis.
• Customer analysis
• or any other area that you find useful/interesting.

For each of these two areas, you should investigate and provide at least two suggestions or solutions for how the organisation can use data analytics methods, tools, and techniques to analyse organisational data to benefit the organisation and create business value.

For each suggestion/solution, you are required to describe/discuss the following:

1. The sources of data that are used (what type of data? how to source it? from where? etc)
2. The analytical methods/techniques/tools being used (for example, clustering, classification, etc). Refer to the lecture material for the methods/techniques/tools that we covered in the course from week 5 to 12).
3. What business problem can be answered by this analysis? Be specific – what benefit/value can be created for the organisation when this suggestions/solution is implemented/undertaken?

Thus, your report will describe and evaluate a total of four suggestions/solutions across two areas. Try to demonstrate your good understanding of the analytical methods/techniques and their potential applications and benefits by showing diversity in your four suggestions/solutions. For example, it is not recommended that you form all the four suggestions based on one single analytical method/technique.

Part B: Organisational Issues (approximately 500 words)

In Part B, you should identify:

• one managerial issue
• one ethical issue
• one legal OR security issue

For each issue, describe and discuss the issue, as well as what the organisation should take into consideration when implementing your suggestions/solutions from Part A. How can the organisation mitigate or resolve these issues/concerns?

There should be a clear link between Part A and Part B of the report.

4. The Organisation

For this assignment, you can use any organisation that you are familiar with. The organisation should be a real organisation, or at least closely modelled after a real organisation. It can be in any industry. The organisation may be large or small. It could be a start-up business as well. Make sure to choose an organisation that has realistic potential for using analytics (most organisations do these days, though).

Make sure to adequately describe the organisation in your report (this should be about 10% of the report).

When/if information about the organisation is insufficient, make reasonable assumptions.

 

5. Important Notes

• Any report format and structure is acceptable, as long as it is clear and well organised. it is recommended that, in general, you follow the Massey general guideline for how to write a good business report: https://owll.massey.ac.nz/assignment-types/business-report.php.
• Also watch the very useful videos produced by School of Management English Language & Academic Success (ELAS) advisor, Nick Roelants, about how to write a good “report”: http://webcast.massey.ac.nz/Mediasite/Catalog/Full/3cb456bb518e471e8cd7af055633d37221. Watch those videos related to Report (titled “Report Writing 101”). Others are not relevant to this assignment. HOWEVER, as explained in the report guidelines, it is important that you consider the specific requirements of each assignment and tailor the structure to the needs of the assignment.
• No detailed instruction for font type, size, line space, etc! … As a University student, however, you are expected to deliver a professional piece of work that is clear, neat and well organised. Don’t forget to include page numbers. Figures and tables (if used) should be always numbered and captioned, and you should refer to them at least once in the body of your writing. Using justified text is visually appealing.
• Clarity of language, layout and general presentation is an assessable aspect of the assignment. • Remember that your document must look like a professional piece of work. Remember that you are presenting it to your top managers/CEO in the company. Try to impress them by the quality of your work! Managers always care about the appearance and small details.
• This is an individual assignment. Group work is not allowed, and your report should be your and only your work. The assignment is to be your own analysis and must reflect your own understanding.
• Massey’s provisions regarding plagiarism fully apply. Please refer to the Academic Honesty and Plagiarism section of the Course Guide (available on Stream) for important information.
• Late submission is allowed but will be entitled to penalty as per Massey policy. Refer to the Course Guide for details.
• Unlike Assignment 2, which was primarily a simulation, this is primarily an academic assignment. While there is no minimum number of references, claims made should be referenced appropriately using latest version of APA.

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