Reading Brief Guidelines
Week 13 – IT Adventures Ch. 18 – Brief Guideline
- What are the three choices that Mr. Barton has?
- Why did Goldman and Luce give Barton job offers?
Week 12 – Airbnb – Brief Guidelines
- What happened to EJ?
- Why is an online reputation system needed?
- What is Airbnb’s plan to facilitate safe transactions?
Week 11 – ITC eChoupal – Brief Guidelines
- Why was the supply chain for soybean so inefficient and how does eChoupal change it?
- What kind of information does eChoupal provide to farmers?
- What are the benefits of eChoupal to farmers and ITC?
Your brief may not cover page 11-16, but please DO NOT SKIP to read them.
Week 10 – Business Value of IT (II) – B&K Distributors
- Who are B&K’s customers and how does it categorize them?
- What are the expected changes in the relationship with customers after implementation of the Web Portal?
- What are the cost components of the Web Portal?
Week 9 – IT Adventures Ch. 10 and 11 – Brief Guidelines
- What happened at IVK on Thursday, June 28?
- What are the issues with regard to disclosure?
- What are the three recovery plans? What is Mr. Barton’s recommendation and why did he recommend it?
- What is Mr. Williams decision?
Week 8 – IT Adventures Ch. 7 and 14 – Brief Guideline
Chapter 7
- Why is the Infrastructure Replacement (IR) project failing?
Chapter 14
- What are the differences between three prospective vendors for the IR project?
- What are the differences between two contracting models that IVK is considering?
Your report does not need to include
- “Wednesday, April 28, 10:12 a.m.” (p. 107-109),
- the consultant’s report (p. 120-122),
- “the third major disagreement” (p. 226-228),
- “Monday, October 1, 11:00 a.m.” (p. 228-231), and
- vendor assessment matrices (p. 233).
But please DO NOT SKIP to read them.
Week 7 – IT Adventures Ch. 8 – Brief Guideline
- Why has Mr. John Cho’s request for IT security funding been being denied?
- Why had Mr. Davies, the former IVK CIO, had to set up a slush fund? How?
- By “one neck in the noose”, what does Maggie (Mr. Barton’s girlfriend) mean?
- What’s Mr. Barton’s decision regarding IT funding and what’s his rationale?
Week 6 – IT Adventures Ch. 4 and 5 – Brief Guideline
Read IT Adventures Chapter 4 and 5 and write ONE reading brief (NOT two) up to 200 words that includes both chapters.
- What is the funding mechanism for IT at IVK? What is a chargeback? (Ch. 4)
- How have IT portfolio and spending at IVK evolved for the last several years? (Ch. 4)
- Describe the concepts of “Competes vs. Qualifiers” and IT Strategic Grid (Ch. 5)
Week 5 – San Francisco Airport – Brief Guideline
- Why is San Francisco Airport considering to upgrade its security system?
- What are the problems and risks in SFO’s current security infrastructure and processes?
- How does Ms. Dickie try to justify the investments into the new security system?
Week 4 – IT Adventures Ch. 16 – Brief Guideline
- What has made IVK IT systems so complex?
- Why is Mr. Barton considering to standardize IVK’s IT systems?
- What are his alternatives? What are the pros and cons of each option?
Week 3 – Trinity Health – Reading Brief Guideline
You can download Trinity Health case for free from this site – http://cisr.mit.edu/blog/documents/2011/12/19/mit_cisrwp386_trinityhealthmda_tanriverdidu.pdf/ (registration and login required).
- What are the motivations behind Trinity Health’s growth-through-acquisition strategy?
- What are the benefits from the common digital platform?
- How does the common digital platform support the growth-through-acquisition strategy?
You do not include Page 8-10 in your brief, but do not skip to read them!
Week 2 – Otis Elevator – Reading Brief Guideline
Read Otis Elevator case from the Harvard Business School coursepack and explain the following three points.
- What’s the direction of Otis’s strategic move?
- Why is Otis trying to shift its strategic focus?
- How do Otis’s IT projects (OtisLine, e*Lostistics) support such a move?
Instructions
- Submit via Blackboard (http://learn.temple.edu/).
- Up to 200 words.
- Due by 5:30pm on Monday, Sep 12. A late submission will not be graded.
- For your brief to be considered for a best brief with extra credits, you need to submit by noon, Sep 12.
- DO NOT COPY AND PASTE from the case. Use your own words. Plagiarized work will be graded at 0.