Questions

For this assignment, you must post your initial post (minimum of 1000 words), addressing the questions below.
 Before answering questions 1-5, please note the following: the weekly forum assignments will guide you through the writing of your research paper, planning to open your own business within the next year, and that you are writing your business plan. For your research paper, you will analyze the IT requirements for your proposed business and write a proposal for how you plan to meet the IT needs of your new company. Each week on the discussion board, you will have an activity related to your research paper. This is an opportunity for you to begin formulating ideas for your research paper and for you to receive constructive feedback from your peers and your instructor, as you develop your ideas.

 For this week’s discussion, I would like everyone to decide what type of business you would like to open (the possibilities are endless, as long as it is legal, ethical, and non-offensive!) and tell us about your proposed business. You can choose any type of business, but you must have a minimum of 20 employees. After giving us a short description of your proposed business, you will begin analyzing the IT requirements of your business in light of what you have learned in your textbook readings this week, and you will begin to explore the role that IT will play in your business.

 1) Write a short description of your proposed business. What is the nature of your business? What type of product(s) or service(s) will your business offer? Be sure to give your business a name, so that I can list it in the list of approved topics!

 2) In what ways will the information technology needs be different for upper management, middle management, operational management, and lower level employees (such as production and service workers, and data workers)?

 3) Identify the main business processes in your business. What types of business information systems will you need to efficiently run the various business processes of your business?

 4) What kinds of enterprise applications will your business require in order to coordinate and integrate the various business processes?

 5) How will you organize the information systems function of your business? Will you have one IT expert on staff, will you have an information systems department, or will you outsource the IT function? What will be the primary responsibilities of your IT expert or department?