Mini-Case Study
Upton, Martin, Ulysses, & Clapper (UMUC) is a medium-sized financial analysis firm specializing in conducting independent economic and market assessments for banks, insurance companies, mortgage lenders, and government regulatory agencies. UMUC also provides independent verification and validation (IV&V) services for assessments and reports that were developed internally by these entities. The firm is highly respected for its unbiased, politics neutral, objective, accurate financial and economic products and services.
You are a Senior IT Specialist & Systems Analyst at UMUC. One of your responsibilities is to identify and recommend computer equipment for technology refreshes and new initiatives. The Senior Manager, Revolving Debt Analysis (RDA) has come to you because it is time for a technology refresh and there is a new initiative to conduct more complex, national-level analysis of credit card fraud, default, and write-off data. Specifically, banks, credit card companies, and some law enforcement entities want to see if this analysis will assist in targeting identity thieves.
The Senior Manager explains that RDA will need to refresh 35 desktop personal computers (PC). The new PCs will need to run complex calculations based on statistical models that use large amounts of data. Due to the unique nature of the datasets, data models, queries, formulas and equations and the individuality of the financial analysts and economists (many hold a PhD), the actual compute power needs to be in the desktop machine. Your task is to assess and identify the hardware needed that will allow the financial analysts and economists (collectively the users) to complete their work. The Senior Manager, RDA provided a table of requirements (see below), which shows the activities and software the PC hardware needs to support.
Table of Requirements
ID Attribute Type Comments
RDA001 Windows 8.1 Professional (64bit) Software Used as standard operating system
RDA002 MS Office Professional Plus 2013 Software Used to create documents, presentations, complex workbooks/spreadsheets, and to develop local datasets and databases. Daily activities involve using:
• Access
• Excel
• Word
• PowerPoint
• Outlook
• OneNote
• Publisher
• Lync
RDA003 Adobe Acrobat X Suite Software Used to create PDF documents; combine audio, video, and presentation slide; develop media from multiple types of input; and create interactive documents and presentations.
RDA004 SAS 9.4 Software Used for financial, fraud, and related data analytics work.
RDA005 MatLab R2014b Software User for programming and algorithm development, data analysis and visualization, and numeric computations.
RDA006 Stata 13 (Stata/MP) for Windows Software Used for forecast, multiple mixed-effect and linear models, linear and non-linear combinations, generalized predictions, and statistical and data tests.
RDA007 R for Windows Software Used for data manipulation, calculation and graphical display.
RDA008 MS Outlook 2013 Software Used to connect with MS Exchange for emails, calendar, contact lists, address books, and reminders.
RDA009 McAfee Endpoint Protection – Advanced Suite Software Used for antivirus, firewall, email and data protection.
RDA010 Connect to network data marts, data warehouse, databases, and datasets Activity Analysts and economists need to conduct data mining, compile and analyze data, and produce complex reports.
RDA011 Participate in online, real time conferences and training Activity Used for professional development and gather information on market trends.
RDA012 Write complex queries to run jobs and calculations on local and server based datasets and databases Activity This is a regular and normal work activity for this organization’s users.
Once started, some jobs may take hours to complete.
RDA013 Create, edit, and manage audio and video files Activity This is a regular and normal work activity for this organization’s users.
RDA014 Import, edit and manage digital photos Activity This is a regular and normal work activity for this organization’s users.
RDA015 Create local datasets and databases Activity This is a regular and normal work activity for this organization’s users.
RDA016 Develop and manage complex multi-media documents, spreadsheets, and presentations Activity This is a regular and normal work activity for this organization’s users.
RDA017 Consolidate complex multi-media documents, spreadsheets, and presentations to develop interactive Web-based reports Activity This is a regular and normal work activity for this organization’s users.
The Assignment & Deliverable
This is an individual assignment. You must work on your own.
The assignment is to analyze the mini-case and table of requirements to assess and identify the hardware needed that will allow the financial analysts and economists (collectively the users) to complete their work. The focus must be on the internal hardware components (motherboard, CPU, RAM, bus, hard drive, connectors & ports, etc.). Do not simply visit a PC/Workstation manufacturer’s site (Dell, HP, etc.) and select a machine. This will not be successful. You must identify each component; determine its size, capacity, speed, etc.; and show how each requirement will be met.
The deliverable is an MS Word document based on the template embedded in this document. The audience for the deliverable is the Senior Manager, RDA; other RDA managers and supervisors; and selected RDA users. The expectation is RDA will be able use the report and work with Procurement to develop a Request for Quotation (RFQ).