Question Case Study, Stage 4: Executive Briefing on Business Benefits and Cons

Before you begin this assignment, be sure you have read the “UMUC Haircuts Case Study,” Case Study Staged Projects 1-3, the “Walmart Example,” and any feedback you have received on your assignments.

Purpose of this Assignment

This assignment gives you the opportunity to demonstrate your ability to communicate effectively with an important stakeholder. This assignment specifically addresses the following course outcomes to enable you to:

analyze business strategy to recognize how technology solutions enable strategic outcomes
· identify and plan IT solutions that meet business objectives

Executive Briefing on Business Benefits and Considerations

For your Stage 2 Project, you proposed a technology solution to improve a business process at UMUC Haircuts. In Stage 3 you evaluated a list of IT considerations. In this Stage 4 Project you are to prepare an Executive Briefing. You are to use Microsoft PowerPoint, or a format that can be read in PowerPoint, to address how the solution you proposed in Stage 2 could support and enhance the UMUC Haircuts business, explaining the business benefits of the solution, and covering the considerations you determined to be most important in Stage 3. You will present this briefing to Myra Morningstar, the owner of UMUC Haircuts to explain and provide the justification for her to implement your technology solution. For purposes of this exercise you do not need to focus on the cost of the proposed solution, but rather focus on convincing her that it will improve the operation of UMUC Haircuts and that you have addressed key issues.

Assignment

Using the technology solution you proposed in Stage 2 and the considerations you analyzed in Stage 3, along with any feedback on your assignments, you should prepare an Executive Briefing that:

Clearly identifies and describes the problem area or process that needs to be improved
Briefly describes the technology solution (listing or showing major components from Stage 2)
Addresses how the solution you propose could support and enhance UMUC Haircuts, explaining the benefits of the solution,
Identifies major risks associated with your proposed solution, and
Addresses the considerations you determined to be most important in Stage 3.
Remember that this presentation is to be designed as an oral presentation to the UMUC Haircuts owner and should not be designed to stand on its own, viewing just the slides, by a reader. Each slide should have a title and a limited number of short bullet points. A presentation should use key bullet points to highlight key factors, (or what you want the audience to remember) and not include complete paragraphs and/or detailed text. The bullet points in your presentation will be supported by relevant details in the Notes section of the slides, which contain the actual words you would say to present each slide. Presentations with limited or no “Notes” will receive much lower grades, because the bullets should not tell the whole story.

While use of external resources (resources other than those provided in the classroom) is not required, your presentation may be strengthened by incorporating research. Remember to correctly cite and reference any sources. Any direct quotes should be indicated within the slide text with appropriate quotation marks and an in-text citation (however direct quotes should be short and used sparingly, if at all). Complete references for all sources should be included in the corresponding Notes section. Paraphrased material can just be referenced within the Notes section of the slides without an in-text citation on the slide. This deviates from APA style but keeps the slides more readable.

General Guidelines:Your presentation format should be professional and use frames, illustrations, color and/or style to make it interesting in appearance to keep your audience’s attention. Use bullet points – 6-8 words per line; 4-7 lines per slide; Font – preferably Arial, Verdana or Calibri (sans serif) size 24; use design templates such as those built into PowerPoint. Use graphics sparingly but to emphasize key points and add interest. Proofread and Spellcheck (including what you write in the Notes section)!

Use the Grading Rubric to be sure you have covered everything. Submit your presentation as a Microsoft PowerPoint (2003, 2007 or 2010) document (or a presentation format that can be read using PowerPoint) with your last name included in the filename.

Your presentation should be at least 10 slides, to include:

· A cover slide with a title, your name and date as a minimum

· 1-2 slides that provide the purpose of the presentation and what you will cover

· 1 slide that describes the problem area or process that needs improvement, including, either on the slide or in the “Notes” (from the end of Stage 1):

· Generic Strategy:

· Strategic Business Area:

· Process to be improved:

· 1-2 slides that summarize the proposed solution and list or show the major components

· 1-3 slides that explain the benefits and risks of the proposed technology solution to UMUC Haircuts, telling how the solution supports the business strategy and what quantifiable (and perhaps non-quantifiable) benefits are expected and what risks there are in the solution and project.

· 4-6 slides on the most important considerations from the list in Stage 3 and the impact on UMUC Haircuts – why you are addressing them, what they mean to the UMUC Haircuts business, and what needs to be done about them.

· Summary/conclusion slide

Concepts:

How to Excel at Briefing Senior Executives:

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:bOsAyAFilmAJ:http://www.melissalewis.com/articles/A-Briefings.pdf%2Bhttp://www.melissalewis.com/articles/A-Briefings.pdf&rls=com.microsoft%3Aen-us%3AIE-SearchBox&oe=UTF-8&rlz=1I7GGLL_en&hl=en&ct=clnk

The Rule of Seven(scroll down to article): http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:d1Ww-9teU0wJ:http://ezinearticles.com/%3FThe-Rule-of-Seven%26id%3D364277%2B%EF%82%A7+http://ezinearticles.com/%3FThe-Rule-of-Seven%26id%3D364277&rls=com.microsoft%3Aen-us%3AIE-SearchBox&oe=UTF-8&rlz=1I7GGLL_en&hl=en&ct=clnk