An Evaluation of an E-business
You are required to demonstrate that you have learnt and can apply as many of the concepts covered in the course as possible. I am not interested in your knowledge of the business, but rather in the 英國dissertation網way in which you use that knowledge to demonstrate that you have understood the concepts in the course. Please also note that this is a significant piece of work, and its successful completion requires some independent learning; the number of lectures in the course is less than in some modules in order to give you time to undertake the learning and the investigations necessary to complete the coursework.

Choose an organization that offers customer services and/or transactions over the Internet and also interacts with customers through ‘brick’ or other channels. Typical examples are banks, clothing retailers, supermarkets, electrical goods retailers, estate agents, some football clubs, etc. If you are not sure about your choice check with me. For this company you are required to investigate and report on the following:

1. Compare services/transactions available to customers through the e-channel v the offering through one other channel (e.g call centre, in-store) (a table would be good!) (20%)
2. Identify one database that is used by the business – (e.g. a product database.) Identify some of the fields used in that database, and demonstrate your knowledge of databases (e.g. Are fields fixed or variable? Do they need to be searchable? Are they likely to be useful to link to another ‘table’? When will they need updating? etc) (20%)
3. Discuss and evaluate the interface, showing your knowledge of usability heuristics, and concepts of navigation and usability (e.g. What are the search options? When would you use which? Are there any problems in using the interface?) (20%)
4. Give examples of the kinds of IS systems that could be used by the company to support the e-business activities – show your knowledge of some business systems and how they link together (e.g. ordering systems, management information systems) (10%)
5. Discuss any evident measures that the business undertakes to protect users’ or customers’ security and privacy (10%).

You are required to submit this work as a Powerpoint presentation with slides and notes (one slide per page with brief accompanying notes). You will need to think about how to structure your comments. http://www.400190.com/dissertation_writing/Ecommerce/Also, it is expected that it will be necessary to include some screen dumps to illustrate your points. Some of you will have more skills that others in using Powerpoint; this is an IS module, so it this is an opportunity to enhance your PowerPoint presentation skills. So, again, don’t leave this until the last moment; start exploring PowerPoint early in the semester. The quality of your Powerpoint presentation is worth 20% of the marks for the module.#p#分頁標題#e#

Note: Each section does not need to be long, but it does need to demonstrate that you are acquainted with your chosen business, and have thought about how it works; when there are aspects of this list where it is difficult to find out what the business actually does then discuss what it probably does.

And finally, I shall not tightly control your choice of business. If two or more of you do submit assignments based on the same business I shall be comparing them carefully to ensure that you have done the work yourself, and not copied it from friends!
Recommended Reading
There are a lot of useful books that will help you to develop your knowledge of business information systems. You are encouraged to buy books in a group, borrow items from the library, and generally explore one or more text books. The list below is divided into ‘Core’ texts and ‘Recommended texts’. This doesn’t mean that you are expected to buy all of the core texts, just that these are all useful texts for underpinning your study on the course.

Core texts
Laudon, J and Laudon, K (2006) Management information systems: managing the digital firm. (International Edition) 9th Ed. . Prentice Hall.
Chaffey, D and Wood, S (2005) Business information management: improving performance using information systems. FT Prentice Hall
Bocij, P et al (2006) Business information systems: technology, development, and management for the e-business. 3nd edition. FT Prentice Hall
Curtis, G and Cobham, D (2005) Business information systems. 5th Ed. FT Prentice Hall
Whiteley, D (2004) Introduction to information systems: organisations, applications, technology, and design. Palgrave Macmillan.

Recommended texts
Alter, S (2002) Information systems – the foundations of e-business. Prentice Hall
Aron, D and Sampler, J (2003) Understanding IT: a manager’s guide. FT Prentice Hall.
Beynon-Davies, P (2002) Information systems: an introduction to informatics in organisations. Palgrave
Boddy, D et al (2005) Managing information systems: an organisational perspective. 2nd edition. FT Prentice Hall.
Chaffey. D (2002) E-business and E-commerce management; strategy, implementation and practice. FT Prentice Hall
Jessup, L and Valacich, L (2003) Information systems today. Prentice Hall. (Would be a core text but for its price and US-bias – some good stuff in here)
Kroenke, D M (2007) Using MIS. Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ.
英國dissertation網Kendall, J and Kendall, K (2002) Systems analysis & design. 5th Edition. Prentice Hall
Pearlson, K E and Saunders, C (2004) Managing and using information systems: a strategic approach. 2nd edition. Wiley (Very accessible, with some interesting chapters)
Post, G V (2004) Database management systems: designing and building business applications. McGraw Hill
Senn, J A (2004) Information technology: principles, practices, and opportunities. Prentice Hall,#p#分頁標題#e#
Stair, R and Reynolds, G (2003) Principles of information systems. Course Technology.
Turban, E, McLean, E R and Wetherbe, J C. (2003) Information technology for management: transforming business in the digital economy. Wiley