See Instructions

1. Download the Term Paper Template from the Term Paper folder under Course Materials.

2. Customize the title page for your own paper, being sure to include the name of the organization you are analyzing in your title.

3. For each major section of the paper, you need to customize the sub-headings. You may add additional sub-headings, as needed, but each section must have a minimum of three sub-headings, except for the Recommended Improvement section, which must have a minimum of five sub-headings. Be sure to be descriptive in your sub-heading names, so that I know what content you intend to cover in each sub-heading. Refer to the “Tips Regarding the Content of Each Section of the Term Paper” on the next page for a general idea about what should be covered in each section.

4. (Optional) Add a brief paragraph after each sub-heading, describing the specific content that you plan to cover in that section of your term paper. This is not a required part of your Term Paper Outline, but would allow me to understand more about what you are intending to cover in each section so that I can provide more specific feedback to you.

5. Rename your Term Paper Template to LastnameFirstnameTermPaper (eg., HandKarenTermPaper) and submit it through the Assignments section of the classroom.

1. Introduction – Your introduction should describe the nature and structure of the organization that you are analyzing, focusing on the different levels of employees in the organization and their IT needs. Other topics to cover in this section could include what business pressures your company is facing and how technology can help them to meet the demands of these pressures, how IT supports people and organizational activities in your company, and an analysis of the organization’s internal operations against Porter's value chain model and Porter’s competitive forces model.

2. Organization’s Current Infrastructure and Use of Information Systems – Topics to cover in this section include your organization’s current network architecture, use of mobile and wireless technologies, use of transaction processing systems and functional information systems, such as production and operations, marketing and sales, accounting and finance, and human resource information systems, use of enterprise applications for supply chain management, enterprise resource management, business process management, product life cycle management, and/or customer relationship management.

3. Organization’s Management of Data and Knowledge – Topics to cover in this section include your organization’s current use of data management systems, problems and difficulties faced by your organization in regards to data management, your organization’s procedures for collecting, storing, managing, and updating data, and types of knowledge management systems currently used by your organization.

4. Organization’s Use of the Internet – Topics to cover in this section include how your organization is affected by the digital economy and what issues they need to consider in regards to doing business in the digital economy, current messaging and collaboration software and Web 2.0 technologies in use by your organization, your organization’s use of e-commerce technologies, your organization’s use of inter-organizational systems for networking with business partners.

5. Organization’s IT Planning and Analysis Processes - Topics to cover in this section include your organization’s IT strategy and planning process, your organization’s use of management decision support and intelligent systems, your organization’s current business intelligence framework, and your organization’s IT security policy, business continuity plan, and disaster recovery plan.

6. Recommended Improvements to Organization’s Use of IT - Make sure you come up with at least 5 recommended improvements to your organization’s use of information technology. Possible recommendations may include changes to your organization’s network architecture, use of mobile and wireless technologies, use of transaction processing systems and functional information systems, such as production and operations, marketing and sales, accounting and finance, and human resource information systems, use of enterprise applications for supply chain management, enterprise resource management, business process management, product life cycle management, and/or customer relationship management, management of data, management of knowledge, messaging and collaboration software and Web 2.0 technologies, use of e-commerce, use of inter-organizational systems for networking with business partners, IT strategy and planning process, use of management decision support and intelligent systems, business intelligence framework, IT security policy, business continuity plan, and disaster recovery plan, and/or a recommendation for how IT can be used in your organization's value chain to increase your organization's efficiency, effectiveness, and competitiveness.

6. Conclusion - In this section, you should summarize the key points you have made in your paper and bring your paper to a close. You can also emphasize the benefits you expect your organization to gain from the improvements you have recommended in the preceding section.