Business
Individual Assignment #3 (W8IA) Instructions
Basic Instructions:
Each student is to critically analyze the provided information on Apple Computers. In particular, each student updates the information by additional research to include Apple’s newer product lines, its competitors, and recent events, and decides the lessons that have been learned for enterprise information systems managers, in a succinct report that includes a results-filled executive summary.
Each student also researches for evidence, if any, that Apple uses any of the following in its business activities: “business intelligence”, “enterprise resource planning (ERP)”, “customer relationship management (CRM)”, “data mining”, and ”intelligent systems”, and assesses the results in the report
Additional Instructions:
it will be important to:
Extract the lessons of your Apple research for enterprise information systems managers.
Present evidence whether Apple uses any of the topics named in the second “bullet” above
Be succinct, as your readership will likely be busy with other things and can devote only a limited time to reading your ideas, no matter how good they are.
Use good English, so as not to denigrate your worthy thoughts by making spelling or grammatical errors. See http://owl.english.purdue.edu for one source of excellent language usage help, to include help for speakers of English as a second language, source long recommended by the UMUC Europe English Department.
Required Format:
Except as provided above, use A Format for Your Text Assignments
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 in Content/Week 8 above (before) the Assignment Instructions that you are now reading.
They include starter information on Apple and Apple’s supply chain explained.
Further:
Apple, Inc. publishes “hot news” on its products at http://www.apple.com/hotnews/.
A source of news on Samsung’s and competing smartphones is at http://ibnlive.in.com/newstopics/samsung.html.
Lenovo announces its products at http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/portals/communications/