Topic 2

@warda – well first of all welcome to the OBU site

An interesting choice of topic. Normally a student choosing this topic has a particular organisation already in mind (often one they are working in or worked in recently) and the topic takes the form of looking at the proposals surrounding the implementation of new technology, the effects it is expected it will have and then an evaluation subsequently whether this improved productivity/ reduced costs etc (or some form of cost/benefit analysis) in connection with the organisation’s business objectives. For this reason probably most students choose a company they are already familiar with.

The other thing to remember is that evaluation (rather than merely describing what the company did) is critical for a pass and you need to bring some original analysis to the RAP yourself (this could be in the form of your own graphs and charts based on the figures)

I always feel students do a better RAP if they are enthusiastic about their chosen company and so I will never recommend a particular company to a student as it has to be their choice (it is their RAP after all 🙂 ). However if you can find some that fit in with the requirements for evaluation that I have outlined above, why not discuss it with your mentor, as they may be able to suggest which may be best suited to your situation?

@ellinet Sounds quite an interesting proposal. You need to set out some overarching objectives for your research: what you intend to identify, assess and ascertain from your research analysis . You then break this down into more precise questions that you expect your research to answer in order to achieve these objectives. This will form the basis of your introduction once you add how you are going to go about answering the research questions: the techniques you will use – desk research, interviews, observation, surveys and any relevant literature etc, and how you intend to gather all the information, bringing in all the limitations involved and how you propose to evaluate the results (ratios, comparison data, quantitative measures, cost benefit analysis etc) Re-read pp25-35 of the Info Pack (and jot down a few ideas as they occur to you).

Try to consider at the outset if you intend to do primary research how easy will it be to get actual taxpayers to respond? If that is likely to be difficult then you will have to use other measures to evaluate possibly to look at the costs of the technology implementation and do some form of cost benefit analysis, payback periods and consider how much tax revenue will be recovered. As it says in the Info Pack: good RAP planning and design makes for a good RAP so although it may seem an odd thing to do, try to think about what may be problematic and difficult at this stage so that you can then consider suitable alternatives and ways to get round potential obstacles. Parts 1 & 2 once you have organised your research plan is basically what I call ‘joined up writing’ – the hard thing is the brain storming beforehand and Part 3, the Analysis section, as you will need to show how the introduction of the new technology has helped the revenue authority meet one of its important business objectives, maximizing revenue collection by reducing tax evasion.

One final tip – when thinking about the challenges these make good potential material when it comes to writing your answer to SLS Q2 as you will have done some self-reflection in terms of addressing problems at the outset, so keep a note of them and any other set backs as you go along.

An evaluation of how the introduction of a new technology can assist an organisation in achieving its business objectives.

what business models can I use.

@ellinet You can use company data for part of your evaluation section but as @Hammad Ahmed Qureshi has said above it must be fully referenced (in addition to the reference if you make direct citations, from it the words must be enclosed in quotation marks “like this” to show that the words themselves are not yours (however as @Hammad Ahmed Qureshi has advuised you should not copy and paste excessively, paraphrasing is better). If you use diagrams and charts these must also be referenced (if you have made them yourself from company information then you cite the source you have used)

As for your objectives –the title for Topic 2 is “An evaluation of how the introduction of a new technology can assist an organisation in achieving its business objectives ” so obviously the overarching objective will be to evaluate the effectiveness of the new technology in helping your organisation fulfil its business objectives but then you need to break it down into exactly which of its business objectives it was intended to assist with. @Hammad Ahmed Quershi has given a few ideas what these may be in his answer to @sushmarudy) above. State them as sub-ohjectives that you intend to evaluate and assess.

From these objectives you can then develop some research questions that you will be attempting to answer through your research & analysis e.g. “Has the incidence of tax evasion reduced since implementation?; has the amount of revenue recovered in the period since implementation increased? etc. – depending on what the technology was required or anticipated to achieve. You could also consider whether there have been any unforeseen consequences of the technology – did the implementation create any problems or in fact any extra benefits?. From this you construct a methodology section setting out how you intend to research these (through observation/ collecting relevant data / interviews / survey) and why, and the research techniques you will be using (ratio analysis or any quantitative techniques, questionnaire) and any major sources you will be using and any limitations relating to any of these aspects. This will form basis of the research that you carry out.

You need to think of how you are going to measure or show whether or not the new technology implementation has been effective The findings from the data analysis will be your main evaluation section and should link your findings back to your research questions and the research objectives.

However in the context of evaluation you have to show that you have done something with the data (particularly if you are just using secondary data) not just setting it out and leaving it at that.. I mentioned in a previous post that you could look at some form of cost benefit analysis or possibly payback period. If the organisation has already assessed these things and this is the data you are referring to, then was it estimated? If so could you do a comparison of this with actuals and look at any variances and analyse the differences and their implications? Alternatively (or additionally) has the new technology impacted on staff morale / staff turnover or any other KPIs (like reduced the backlog of dealing with outstanding cases)? You have to demonstrate some analytical skills to satisfy all the requirements – the report as far as OBU is concerned is a ‘Research and ANALYSIS Project’. What that means is that you can’t just research and describe what happened, you also have to ‘add value’ to it by doing some analysis of your own from which you can draw sensible conclusions as well as answering the research questions.

Don’t worry if you find the technology implementation hasn’t achieved any of the organisation’s objectives it was supposed to help with – that is all part of doing research and analysis work – you mission is to establish objectively whether it has or not (and often at the outset of research you don’t know anyway). If it hasn’t you show why it hasn’t in your data analysis etc in the findings and you could consider how the problem(s) could be remedied in your recommendations section at the end.

Include an applied SWOT or PESTLE somewhere in the analysis – you could assess the strengths and weaknesses etc of the new system perhaps. One final thing wherever possible use graphs, charts or other graphics as they not only break up the text into more manageable parts for the reader but usually graphs show trends and data far more effectively than describing movements in words with the reader having to pick out the important numbers.

@ellinet You have to remember that there are 20 different topics for the RAP and some are more theoretical than others. A literature review normally requires looking at work and research that has been conducted in the area that relates to your particular topic. For example Topic 6 would need some commentary on the research work that has been conducted in the field of motivation and Topic 17 on Corporate Governance would require a brief review of the importance of CG and how this has been developed as a consequence of Cadbury, Greenbury and Hempel.

For some topics there is not much material that relates to the theory and probably Topic 2 is one of them. However if appropriate you could try to analyse a little more of the background to the problem that the fiscal authority is experiencing. Presumably there has been a feasibility report of whether the proposed introduction of the new technology was likely to assist in its resolution etc? You should outline some of the considerations and also any specific requirements that were made to the program developers. You will then be able return to these as part of your evaluation to see if the implementation went well and whether training needs etc were properly addressed as well as comparing whether anticipated fiscal receipts and reduced backlogs targets were met.

Remember your RAP is intended to be objective – even if the whole thing failed that does not invalidate your RAP as long as you analyse why things went wrong and make recommendations. Obviously if it goes well you also need to present the evidence and show the basis for your judgments.

@sakinope Can you interview anyone from management and/or is there scope for personal observation? Otherwise you may have to do some sort of evaluation based on facts e.g. is the reporting period now shorter, so that variance reports and management information is available more quickly and if so, is there any way of assessing this impact on decisions? Is there any tangible evidence that the new system is helping in increasing surpluses/ reducing losses, or motivating staff? If there are none you can do the converse if you have sufficient data and actually do a negative evaluation – i.e. that the new system has made things worse. As far as your project is concerned it does not matter either way as long as there is sufficient evaluation

@sakinope. Remember it is how you use the documents and data that it important as you will need to go beyond just reporting it to fulfil the evaluation requirements. You would reference organisation documentation the same way as any other source however as you probably don’t have an actual author or possibly sometimes the date is lacking, you would probably end up by having something along the lines of: Society of Medical Research, n.d (a); or SMR, n.d.(b) etc to distinguish different documents. Wherever possible as these docs will not be in the public domain you should try to have extracts (possibly redacted) from them in the Appendices. If that isn’t possible then you will need to state in the Limitations section that due to confidentiality the documents used are not publicly available and in the reference list against each doc state ‘internal organisation document’

Regarding models. Yes the Business Process Redesign approach sounds a good idea if you can also apply it . Select a suitable diagram / chart ( simple ones are often better when it cones to actually trying to apply it yourself). A brief outline of BPR in your intro would be appropriate if you were lacking on the T2 equivalent of a ‘literature review’.

Hi , would you be able to help. How do I apply DCF techniques in public sector if nearly all benefits are only soft benefits therefore non-cash flow? Do I still add these to calculation? For example manual process of converting PO’s is now Automatic PO Conversion which saved £3,500 p.a as finance staff spend less time on this task.
Thank you very much for your help.

@privythus – we already have a forum for Topic 2 so I have merged the one you opened with it as that way as you will see your question was discussed by me and students in Sep 2014 above.

You will probably find it useful to read all the posts on this forum to help you with Topic 2. (If you have further questions relating to this particular topic please post them here. If your query is more general e.g. on referencing, appendices or mentor please post to the relevant topic forum).

NOTE TO ALL STUDENTS: This illustrates the point I keep making if you use the search facility you will often find the same query was asked previously so you do NOT need to open yet another new forum (Please read my forum “PLEASE HELP KEEP OUR FORUMS TIDY!!!!” as it helps everyone to have similar questions grouped together, avoids repetition and makes life easier for us all 😀 )

@privythus – I am a bit surprised that you failed on models alone. I agree with the marker that Porter’s 5F’s isn’t particularly relevant (I have never been a great fan of this model as it seems to be one that is more from an academic point of view with the benefit of hindsight looking at why a business is successful but its practical applications are fairly limited). I tend to think that the value chain is a bit limited too (nothing personal against Porter!!). If you work for the organisation then the Balanced Scorecard if applied to how the new technology has impacted would probably be appropriate alongside Fitzgerald & Moon. Generally the BSC is badly applied as it needs internal knowledge to apply well (it is intended to be a management strategic tool and not designed for application by RAP students) but if you work for the company this should not be a problem.

The whole idea of having to use models is that they should facilitate the production of the RAP and integrate it – i.e. the models are not supposed to ‘stand alone’ but assist with the analysis. A SWOT if applied to the new technology itself (as opposed to the company generally) should have been OK.

The usual reason for T2 fails is a tendency to relate what went on rather than answering the Topic Title e.g. evaluating and then assessing its usefulness

Hi there

I currently work for a housing association (not for profit charity) and I am looking to do my RAP on the implementation of a purchase ordering system and the upgrade to the financial system. I was closely involved in this implementation and have a lot of information to hand. I intend to interview some key personnel, carry out a SWOT analysis. My aim is to identify why the need for this implementation, what benefits/limitations have come about due to the implementation and what the future holds (development etc). I would like to complete my RAP and submit for the latest timeframe in November 18th 2015. However, it looks like you are averaging 3 months for the completion. My 2 questions are would there be any other models you think would be beneficial to my RAP and also do you think it would be feasible to complete within this timeframe?

Thanks in advance.