AMBA/640 AMBA640 AMBA 640 WEEK 8 DISCUSSION ACTIVITY #4

AMBA 640 WEEK 8 DISCUSSION ACTIVITY #4

DA #4 Instructions
Discussion Activity in Teams: Preparing an International Information Systems Management Plan
Overview
The section, working as a team under the leadership of a student Acme CIO and Acme Assistant CIO, will demonstrate competency in information systems management by preparing a draft information systems management
plan for the Acme Mexico City store.
The plan will be submitted in pdf format except for budgeting, which may be in xlsx format
The students will also prepare and present in class a 15- to 20-minute business- and technically-focused presentation of their plan.
Critical thinking, managerial decision-making, cultural understanding, information literacy, problem solving, systems thinking, and technology fluency are required.
Assignment
The draft information systems management plan will include at least the following topics:
 An executive summary
 Stakeholder groups
 Objectives of the facility's information systems in terms of how they should support the needs of each stakeholder group
 How the specific information requirements of each stakeholder group will be met by information systems proposed for the store including their hardware, software, procedures in use, security, and staffing.
 Training needed by store staff
 Maintenance of the systems
 Anticipated future improvements to the systems
 A planning budget for initial investment and annual maintenance
Your section professor may amplify your specific taskings in his or her instructions for this assignment.
Your section professor will function as Acme CEO. The student CIO reports directly to the CEO.
Additional Instructions:
 In view of our time constraints, this will be a draft ISM plan.
 Acme corporate headquarters will have standards, policies, and expectations with which Acme Mexico City (AMC) must comply. These may be hypothesized.
 Acme Mexico City will need to support both store-internal and -external IS needs
o Internal needs will include support of at least store
 Business processes and operations
 Decision making by employees and managers
 Strategies to gain competitive advantage
 Human resource needs
o External needs will include at least:
 Reporting to Acme corporate
 Meeting Mexican and US government regulatory requirements
 Fulfilling supplier and customer expectations in this business sector in Mexico City
o Any format that logically and succinctly addresses that above needs may be used
Required Format:
Use A Format for Our Text Assignments found in Content/General Information.
Use good English in all your postings.
If replying to another posting, include enough of it to give the context for your reply.
Required Readings:
 Benson, R.J., Ribbers, P.M., and Blitstein, R.B. (2014) Trust and Partnership: Strategic IT: Management for Turbulent Times. Preface and Chapter 1. Reread as necessary
 High, P.A. (2014) Implementing World Class IT Strategy: How IT Can Drive Organizational Innovation. Foreword and Chapter 1. Reread as necessary
Multimedia:
 McFarlan, F. W. (n.d.) The new strategic weapon: Information technology. Cambridge: Harvard Business School Publishing. To be found in Content/Week 7. Review as necessary
Additional Readings:
Find them first in Content/Week 8 above (before) the Assignment Instructions that you are now reading.
See there the draft ISM plan prepared by a previous AMBA 640 section.
In Content/Week 9 there is a optional video on the business possibilities of social networking.
In addition, there is an optional article on the challenges of bringing operations and marketing (AMBA 650) together.
Grading Rubric:
Posted below
Assignment Weighting:
12.5% of the course grade
As always, let your professor (acting as Acme CEO), and/or our student volunteer Acme corporate CIO/Assistant CIO, who will be managing development of the plan, have any questions.