Assignment
Write a business report on:
“An Analysis of the Current and Future use of Internet Technologies of [the organisation that you have already used for the team work]”
The report must contain:
 Introduction and e-Business background (can be based on the team’s report, improved on the basis of the feedback, shortened and rewritten to fit in the integrated report; please note that we still require it to be based on theories and frameworks (such as Porter’s 5 Forces) (15 marks)
 e-Marketing analysis (15 marks)
 Web design analysis (15 marks)
 Business-to-business (B2B) analysis (15 marks)
 One other topic/aspect of your own choice (worth 15 marks), for example:
o Mobile Commerce
o Social Networking/Web 2.0
o Sales and Customer Service
o Innovation and change management
Please check with your seminar leader if you are unsure about which topic to choose)
 Overall conclusions and recommendations (these should follow from the analysis) (15 marks)
 The final 10 marks are for the overall appearance of the report, including referencing.
Requirements and tips
• Apply academic theories and frameworks and correctly reference those.
• Provide evidence, for example by using screenshots or references to the organisation’s internal publications (including their website) or external publications (newspaper and journal articles, Mintel reports, etc).
• Make good use of the library and online search facilities to find as much information about the organisation as you can. Make sure you distinguish between reliable and unreliable sources, and make sure you reference properly. Don’t just copy sections from your sources, but use the material to support your own analysis.
• Creativity in the form of additional reading, interesting approaches and novel angles are encouraged and rewarded.
• Make sure you concentrate on the e-Business aspects, and don’t write a report that is too generic.
• The report should be analytical rather than descriptive.
Word count and format
– 2,000 words maximum – you must include a word count at the end of your report. (Remember, we can run a word count and check!)
– Use a business report format, numbering your sections (and any subsections). Please use Arial 11 for the main report text, using at least 1.5 spacing
– There is NO 10% rule on the word count. However, if you have many references in your report (and only because of this), you can go slightly over (e.g. by 20-30 words)
– The 2,000 words exclude your contents page and list of references, but…
– It includes any tables or appendices (appendices are best avoided in any case)
– Other diagrams, screenshots or graphics are excluded from the word count – as long as they are ‘graphical’ and not too wordy. In other words, please don’t use diagrams to get around the word count!