ISM 455 – Final Project Guidelines Imagine you are a new Chief Information Officer (CIO) and this is your first, Information Technology (IT) strategic initiative proposal. Your proposal must be presented to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and the Board of Directors (Board). The CEO and Board require a very specific, submission format for the proposal (see detailed outline below). In addition to the section/subsection formatting requirements, the proposal must be written using a formal writing style and follow standards in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA Manual), 2010, 6th edition. A clear, concise, and complete presentation of the material is paramount to the success of the proposal. Therefore, there is no minimum page count, but the proposal’s maximum page count is 15 excluding the title page, reference page(s), and appendices. Please keep in mind shorter proposals not addressing all the criteria in the outline below may be as unsuccessful as wordy, lengthy proposals. The strategic initiative proposal outline contained in this document is for reference only and is not shown with the APA formatting required in your final submission. Your final submission must contain six sections with the heading shown (APA level 1 heading) in the outline along with all the subheadings (APA level 2 through 5) in each section. Each section includes one or more questions, descriptions, or statements as general, assignment completion guidance. The level of detail presented in the paper, based on this guidance, is a key determinant of the assignment’s success. Strategic Initiative Proposal Outline Title Page (APA formatted title page) • Running head • Title • Author’s Name • Date Executive Summary (must be a level 1 APA heading) The executive summary is a synopsis of your strategic initiatives presenting the key points in your report with the purpose of providing executives, and anyone else, a clear and concise overview regarding how the initiatives improve a business’ operational effectiveness and/or efficiency leading to a competitive advantage. • No more than 1 page or 10% of the total number of content pages, whichever is greater Section 2 (must be a level 1 APA heading) Business Overview (must be a level 1 APA heading) • Provide an overview (introduction) of the business o What is the purpose of the business? o Include number of employees, annual revenue, areas of operation ▪ Include a figure of the organization’s management or operational hierarchy • Business Objectives (must be a level 2 APA heading) o Define and explain the business objectives ISM 455 – Final Project Guidelines • • ▪ What are its existing strategies for growing the business? ▪ What are its existing strategies for improving organizational productivity? Market Analysis (must be a level 2 APA heading) o Identify and describe the business’s target market(s), current market share, and market segments o Products and Services (must be a level 3 APA heading) ▪ Provide a brief overview of the business’ products and services related to the proposed strategic initiatives o Competitors (must be a level 3 APA heading) ▪ Provide a brief overview of the business’ competitors related to the products and services discussed in the preceding section • Include a market share and trend discussion Stakeholders (must be a level 2 APA heading) o Identify the stakeholders, by title, strategic business unit (SBU), product line, job function, etc. , associated with each strategic initiative in Section 3 o Explain why each person is a stakeholder in the initiative Section 3 (must be a level 1 APA heading) This section must present a high-level, multiple-year (3 years minimum) plan describing Information Technology (IT) strategic initiatives, at least one initiative in each year, specifically related to improving the effectiveness and/or efficiency of the business. The section must also describe how implementing each initiative improves business operational effectiveness and/or efficiency. Use the outline below as a guide to completing Section 3. Strategic Initiatives (must be a level 1 APA heading) • Prioritization (must be a level 2 APA heading) o Explain why the initiatives are prioritized or ordered the way they are listed in the yearly initiative sections ▪ Identify interdependencies, orders of precedence, relationships, etc. o Explain the total implementation time for each initiative • Year 1 - Strategic Initiatives (must be a level 2 APA heading) o Strategic Initiative 1 (must be a level 3 APA heading) ▪ Describe the initiative • Explain tangible and intangible benefits (this is the value proposition) • Explain how the initiative: ▪ Relates to one or more of the three value disciplines ▪ Improves operational effectiveness and/or ▪ Improves operational efficiency and/or ▪ Provides a competitive advantage and/or ▪ Improves decision-making ▪ May influence the business’ external value chain ▪ Identify who will implement the initiative (in-house resources, contractors, software providers, a combination, etc.) • Explain why your choice is better than, at least, one other option in terms of cost, efficiency, and/or effectiveness ISM 455 – Final Project Guidelines ▪ • • Identify how the initiative will be maintained after implementation (insourcing, out-sourcing, a combination, or something else) • Explain why your choice is better than, at least, one other option in terms of cost, efficiency, and/or effectiveness ▪ Identify the measures of success and explain how these measurements can be used as checkpoints to determine if the strategy is on track o Strategic Initiative 2 ▪ See Strategic Initiative 1’s outline o Strategic Initiative 3 ▪ See Strategic Initiative 1’s outline Year 2 - Strategic Initiatives o See Year 1 - Strategic Initiative outline Year 3 - Strategic Initiatives o See Year 1 - Strategic Initiative outline Section 4 (must be a level 1 APA heading) IT Initiative Funding (must be a level 1 APA heading) • This section will begin with a summary explaining the need for the IT initiatives and the total funding (capital or one-time and operational or ongoing) requested for the overall IT initiative • Cost-Benefit Analysis (must be a level 2 APA heading) o This section presents the IT initiatives in their most fundamental form by examining the cost of each initiative against the monetary benefit each initiative brings to the business o This section must detail all the capital or one-time and operational or ongoing costs Section 5 (must be a level 1 APA heading) Ethical Discussion (must be a level 2 APA heading) • This section discusses the ethical reasoning (real or perceived) associated with your IT initiative decisions. The section may address the general ethical reasoning associated with all decisions or individually address the decisions involved with each initiative. o What ethical considerations (e.g., principles, theories, and concepts) used the decision-making process? ▪ For example, personal ethics, business ethics, social ethics, etc. ▪ For example, care, duty, feelings, benefit, etc. Section 6 (must be a level 1 APA heading) Summary/Conclusions (must be a level 1 APA heading) • This section summarizes the proposed initiatives with respect to how they: o Improve operational effectiveness and/or o Improve operational efficiency and/or o Provide a competitive advantage and/or o Provide improved decision-making • This section reiterates the proposal’s implementation timeline and overall cost ISM 455 – Final Project Guidelines References Appendices (as needed) 
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