research proposal
This Proposal is not only the culmination of the work in this course, it is also the official proposal that will be used to shape the required research in the 6 unit Research Project for most degree programs (or the equivalent for students in other disciplines).
(as above) In order to pass this course, students must achieve at least 50% overall, and achieve a passing mark of at least 50% for their final research proposal.
This document will be assessed on:
Short restatement and justification of the research problem
Relevance of objectives to the stated problem
Adequate assessment of the relevant secondary data
Justification of the research design and proposed methodology, including data collection and sampling methods. Questions to be answered include:
can it be done this way?
is it an appropriate design – is there a precedent for this design/approach?
will it provide the right kind of data and enough of it?
will analysis of the data provide the insights required?
are projected costs defendable?
Proposed analytical methods
Research budget and timelines for completion of the project
Quality of written presentation (referencing, grammar, punctuation and clarity).
For the purposes of this course, this document is expected to be no more than 15 pages (not including references and appendices), and follow the “Document Guidelines”.
Assessment Cover Sheet
Student Name
Ali Hassan
Raqib Hasan
Student ID
1684794
1682758
Assessment Title
A Marketing Plan for Biz Hub
Course/Program
Research for decision makers (MANAGEMENT 7250)
Lecturer/Tutor
Cullen Habel
Date Submitted
16 December 2016
OFFICE USE ONLY
Date Received
KEEP A COPY
Please be sure to make a copy of your work. If you have submitted assessment work electronically make sure you have a backup copy.
PLAGIARISM AND COLLUSION
Plagiarism: using another persons ideas, designs, words or works without appropriate acknowledgement.
Collusion: another person assisting in the production of an assessment submission without the express requirement, or consent or knowledge of the assessor.
CONSEQUENCES OF PLAGIARISM AND COLLUSION
The penalties associated with plagiarism and collusion are designed to impose sanctions on offenders that reflect the seriousness of the Universitys commitment to academic integrity. Penalties may include: the requirement to revise and resubmit assessment work, receiving a result of zero for the assessment work, failing the course, expulsion and/or receiving a financial penalty.
I declare that all material in this assessment is my own work except where there is clear acknowledgement and reference to the work of others. I have read the University Policy Statement on Academic Honesty & Assessment Obligations (http://www.adelaide.edu.au/policies/230).
I give permission for my assessment work to be reproduced and submitted to other academic staff for the purposes of assessment and to be copied, submitted to and retained by the University’s plagiarism detection software provider for the purposes of electronic checking of plagiarism.
Signed Date 3/04/2016
Contents
Company overview 4
Background of Problem 4
Business Problem 4
Literature Review 5
Awareness of Technology as a key to survival 5
Awareness of alignment of technology with strategy 5
Customer pain points 5
Awareness of Cost of Quality 6
Considerations of available options and concerns to switch 6
Awareness of risks 6
Awareness of True needs 7
Awareness of Vendor Lock-in 7
Differences in Vendor lock-in based on sizes 7
Where do Niche suppliers fit in 8
Conclusion from literature review 8
Research Problem 8
Research Questions 8
Research Methodology 9
Sample Qualitative Questions 9
Sample Deliverables 9
Analysis 9
Time and Budget 10
Possible Limitation 11
Conclusion 11
Bibliography 11
Company overview
Bizhuub is a South Australian based IT solutions provider that provides end to end technology solutions including consulting, data management and information handling services. Bizhub specialises in upgrading legacy systems through unique technology (skyve) as well as offering custom solutions to suit individual needs of the customers. Though small in size, Bizhub has been around for over 10 years and has worked on several small and medium sized IT projects. The main customers of Bizhub have been government sector, both local and federal (Biz Hub Australia Pty Ltd). Some of the customers that Bizhub has worked with include:
New Royal Adelaide Hospital
Department of Treasury and Finance, SA
Department of Primary Industries and Regions, SA (PIRSA)
Vinehealth Australia
Australian Research Council (ARC)
SA Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources (DEWNR)
Chatterbox
Living Choice Retirement Villages
Background of Problem
Many government and private organizations are constrained in different ways and are forced to use outdated technology that no longer aligns with their business direction and requirements. Some Organizations are unaware of the importance of keeping up with technologies. Others are aware but are constrained by time, resources, costs or operational requirements. Some organizations are vendor locked-in or are sceptical to reach out to other suppliers for better options. Others are bound by organizational policies, personal agendas and organizational hierarchies. When using technology not fit for business organisations incur losses due to cost of quality and risk losing their competitive position in the market. Losses of revenues in service sector due to cost of quality make up 20-30% of total revenues of an organisation operating on 3 sigma level and a lot higher for organisations operating at lower sigma levels (Prashar, 2014). This represents a huge potential for organisations to get their IT needs fulfilled and for technology suppliers to benefit from while fulfilling those needs.
Business Problem
Bizhub is looking for ways to persuade government and private organizations on the importance of having the latest technology that fulfils their true needs. Their purpose is to convince organisations to use Bizhubs services to ensure that their IT is up to date and risk free while keeping-up in a competitive market. Bizhub has asked external researchers to look into the following business problems:
Is Bizhub targeting the correct customers?
Is Bizhub aware of what customers needs and their pain points are?
Is Bizhub aware of customer’s constraints that prevent them to change?
Is Bizhub addressing those pain points and constraints when approaching customers?
Bizhub requires this information in order to explore and identify true needs of the customers (K. Ferlic, 2008) and the factors that constrain them from addressing those needs. This will help Bizhub in formulating their business model to be able to address those needs. As a result it hopes to penetrate the existing market more efficiently as well as develop a new market for their existing product. If this is not done, Bizhub will continue to be a small player and miss out on the opportunities to grow and organisations will be left with unfilled needs and keep incurring losses due to cost of quality.
Literature Review
The purpose of the research is to identify if it is a lack of awareness of technology that keeps decision makers from adapting and utilising latest technology or are there other factors influencing their decisions. The purpose is also to identify where niche suppliers fit into the market. Literature review was done using Nvivo to collate articles in order to gain a better understanding of known knowledge and to identify knowledge gaps to explore further.
Awareness of Technology as a key to survival
In the past decade, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has had a widespread impact in every industry (Rebecca Jean Chedid, 2013). It has brought the world to Globalisation and task automation causing an increase in yield of output several times over. Many Organizations see IT as the facilitating factor for growth, sustainability and innovation (Giakatis, Enkawa, & Washitani, 2001). This has motivated Organizations to invest in IT not only to increase productivity and increase profitability, but to increase their advantage over their competitors (Dosi, 1993). New technologies offer immense cost savings capability and labour saving potential (Dosi, 1993). For Organizations, IT has become the very source for generating sustainable competitive advantage (Sena & Sena, 2012).71 percent of senior decision-makers at large enterprises see IT as a strategic, competitive asset (Newswire, 2015).
Technology in todays world plays a major role in driving or undermining productivity and progress of an Organization. The focus on technology becomes imperative for organizations, particularly when there is a downturn in economic growth (TheGuardian; Marc Ambasna-Jones, 2016). While technology allows productive and cost benefits for Organizations, it also enables customers to look at other options and switch easily. Therefore Organizations have to innovate in order to keep up with and take advantage of global trends or risk jeopardizing their core business (M., 2007). Still some decision makers regard technology to be an Important differentiator and others dont (Sena & Sena, 2012).
It is interesting to see if Organizations see technology as a tool to move forward or an anchor that holds them back (Dosi, 1993).
Awareness of alignment of technology with strategy
While working with technology, Organization needs to consider internal technology capability and how it integrates with organizations strategy (Dosi, 1993). Organizations need to have a holistic view of different parts of the organization and how technology can serve to bring different parts together as one. For companies to emerge, digital transformations need a business case. If spearheaded by IT departments alone and without the input of other stakeholders, these leave a gap between technology and business aspirations (TheGuardian; Marc Ambasna-Jones, 2016). Decision makers need to agree on where and how IT adds value to the business and what are the priorities and focus areas for IT (Sena & Sena, 2012). This agreement on IT decisions entails merging business and technology aspirations and expectations and determining where IT fits from strategic, budget and operations stand-point. This alignment represents a strategic opportunity for businesses, and is particularly useful where seizing an early advantage is a key differentiator from competition (Sena & Sena, 2012). Examples of the likes of Kodak declaring bankruptcy makes one realise the devastating effects of technology on businesses that were slow to change (TheGuardian; Marc Ambasna-Jones, 2016).
It remains to be seen how decision makers view alignment of technology with business and the level of agreement amongst stakeholders of the place and position of IT in their Organizations.
Customer pain points
Imagine the experience of calling a customer service only to be told that you cannot not be assisted nor transferred to correct department but that you have to call a different number. Or trying to get data that is tied in another department highlights hierarchal structures and limitations of organizations. This highlights waste of time, money and resources to inefficient systems due to hierarchal and bureaucratic structures present in many organisations (Newswire, 2015). From IT perspective, this complicates communications and on boarding of stakeholders when deciding to undergo digital transformations.
Large organizations are under constant pressure to keep up with evolving customer or employee demands to launch new applications in order to keep the business moving (Newswire, 2015). Given that the costs of not transforming IT mean that an organization is not only risking not meeting customer and employees demands but also risking downtimes. Is this a knowledge gap or communication gap amongst technology officers and chief executives (TheGuardian; Marc Ambasna-Jones, 2016)? Does organizational hierarchy play any role in this?
This research aims to identify such constraints of decision makers that limit their options to upgrade in-house technology. Aim is also to identify if there are any differences in decision criteria of decision makers based on their organizational structure.
Awareness of Cost of Quality
Cost of quality is Toyotas idea of doing things right first time every time. For a manufacturing industry, the Cost of Quality is the total cost of rework, scrap, service calls, warranty claims and write-offs from wasted finished goods. Similarly the cost of quality in service industry represents the cost of rework and waste of resources to deliver services as per customers requirements. Stats indicate that Cost of Quality is 10 percent of sales for companies who are at Six Sigma level, about 15 to 20 percent of sales for companies who are at four sigma level and about 20 to 30 percent of sales for companies who are at three sigma. This represents a significant loss of revenue due to rework (Prashar, 2014).
Any effort to reduce cost of quality has to focus on customer-supplier relationship.
The idea of customer-supplier relationships states that everyone in a process is at some stage a customer or supplier of someone else, wherever they sit in an Organization. Focus on this relationship allows an Organization to identify and meet customer needs rather than meeting specifications and is an important step to deliver reduction in cost of quality. (Krishnan, Agus, & Husain, 2000). It remains to be seen how aware are decision makers of the cost of quality and how they view their suppliers from customer-supplier view point. Technology is imperative to action on any efforts to implement cost of quality reduction measures but how aware are decision makers of the power of IT in delivering results.
Considerations of available options and concerns to switch
Not all businesses are a good fit for latest technologies like cloud based solutions because of their Organizational structure or nature of operations. Transitioning to cloud comes at a high price when factors like preparation time, assessment of their internal network, security concerns, business flows and human aspects are factored in. Not only the cost, transitioning to cloud involves detailed planning and preparation (Rajan, 2014).
From data collected from U.S enterprises, 43 percent of a company’s cloud applications and infrastructure is currently automated.16 percent indicated automation of the majority (75 – 100 percent) of their company’s total cloud infrastructure and applications. The factors that hold respondents back are security concerns (51 percent), cost concerns (43 percent) and lack of expertise among staff (37 percent) (Newswire P. , 2016).
This research aims to identify if Organizations are aware of their current technology potential or are jumping the band wagon to switch to newer technologies too quickly. What concerns factor in decisions to switch to newer technologies such as the Cloud?
Awareness of risks
Rising frequency of cyber attacks means that cyber security and risk management are now one of the most important functions of an Organization (Parakala, 2015). Many organisations still tend to use old legacy systems that not only impact cost of quality and performance; they leave organisations at the risk of being attacked by other entities. This research aims to identify how much are the decision makers aware of risks of legacy systems and how much does the risk factor into when they consider switching to newer technologies.
Where productivity and security should be at the heart of digital transformation, dealing with legacy IT, the demands of regulation and changing culture have proved challenging (TheGuardian; Marc Ambasna-Jones, 2016).
Awareness of True needs
An organization is like a living being that ceases to exist if its needs are not met. True needs of an organization are those that keep it alive and capable of growth and expansion. If true needs are not met, an Organization dies like any other living being. Because of Mind-Bias, some decision makers do not identify true needs of an Organization and assume needs based on their past experience. Understanding the difference in intellectual knowledge, past experiences and experimentation is important to identify true needs of an Organization (K. Ferlic, 2008).
Decision makers tend to defend their decisions for egoistic reasons of not being wrong. Observations indicate that decision makers respond to life in childhood patterns which are designed to protect themselves and their creative spirit. Even when evidence says otherwise, personal agendas and decisions based on childhood patters may prevent an Organization from identifying and pursuing true needs (K. Ferlic, 2008).
This research aims to identify how big a part personal reasons play in IT decision makers minds when it comes to making decisions to choosing suppliers that enable them to meet true needs.
Awareness of Vendor Lock-in
Many decision makers have begun to realise the challenges that come with being tied to a single supplier. Operational pressures of tighter budgets, shorter turnaround times and the pressure to try new technologies make working with single suppliers more pronounced. Though good in theory because of single support centre, relying on a single supplier means paying higher prices for lower performing solutions. Decision makers need to be able to chose suppliers based on the functionality they offer allowing a balance of agility and affordability (Newswire E. , 2015).
Organizations increasingly expect their suppliers to educate them proactively of emerging technologies and help them grow, not just reduce costs. Suppliers with business relationships and knowledge tend to be at advantage of gaining more projects (Parakala, 2015). Once relationships develop, dependencies follow and it becomes difficult for Organizations to switch and become Vendor locked-in.
Vendor locked-in means being dependent on a single technology supplier and not being easily able to move to a different supplier without substantial costs, legal constraints, or technical incompatibilities. Limited resources and operational pressures prevent the Organization from switching suppliers. Technical incompatibility of deploying technologies from different suppliers leads to interoperability and portability challenges. This makes interoperation, collaboration, portability and manageability of data difficult. Based on interviews conducted with IT practitioners, only 44 % of respondents indicated to have a basic understanding of the term Vendor locked-in. As a result, only a few (3 %) have exceptional knowledge of cloud based solutions. This means there exist a lack of clarity on the problem of vendor lock-in amongst Organizations (Opara-Martins, Sahandi, & Tian, 2016).
To maximize profits using advantages of locked-in Organizations, suppliers do not introduce newer technologies without charging excessive charges (Hirschheim & Lacity, 2000).
Vendor lock-in problem is mostly seen in technology suppliers. Limited studies exist to analyse and highlight the complex relations between suppliers and organizations. This research aims to identify the awareness and impact of vendor lock-in amongst organizations and the impact of this knowledge on decisions to choose and switch amongst suppliers.
Differences in Vendor lock-in based on sizes
Seventy-eight percent of decision makers believe concerns about vendor lock-in prevent their organizations from maximizing the benefits of cloud resources. Respondents at companies with less than $1 billion in revenue are more likely (81%) than respondents at companies with $1 billion or more in revenue (72%) to think this way (Newswire P. , 2016).
This research aims to identify if size of organizations impacts their views on suppliers and affects their ability to switch amongst suppliers.
Where do Niche suppliers fit in
From supplier side, niche players are winning more deals at the expense of mid-range service providers. Larger service providers can protect their earnings by off-shoring models. This leaves the likely potential losers to be mid-level service providers who have not come up with a good strategy as yet. As a result, larger suppliers are changing their focus by trying to win smaller deals. This has also caused traditional offshore service providers to make their onshore presence. Though at an advantage from medium suppliers, niche players are beginning to face competition from big suppliers as well as potential future competition from traditional off-shore suppliers present on-shore (Alistair Maughan, Morrison & Foerster’s Global Sourcing Group).
This research aims to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that niche players like Bizhub have and how decision makers perceive niche suppliers versus larger ones. The research also aims to give explore how niche players should capture and cement their presence.
Conclusion from literature review
IT is a very strong and integral part of organisations but is often the most neglected. Currently most organisations tend to retain outdated legacy systems rather than keeping up with the evolving technology. The seams counter intuitive while dealing with global competition where the use of latest technology is seen as a tool to gain competitive advantage for sustainable growth. Current research shows factors behind organisations reluctance to keeping up with new technology. The factors identified include:
Awareness of strengths of IT in decision makers
Organisations link of IT with business and strategy
Vendor lock-in factors and awareness
Awareness of risks of legacy systems
Size and structure of organisations
Personal and organisational biases
Perception of niche suppliers
All of these lead to several research gaps and opportunities to further study as to how much these factors are impacting organisations adapting new technology and what other factors might influence decision makers. The research proposed hopes to answer this by exploring the research questions.
Research Problem
The objective of this research is to explore the awareness and perception of Organizations about their IT systems and the factors that influence their decision to switch to the latest technologies. This will be achieved by answering the following research questions.
Research Questions
Do decision makers in organizations see IT as an important differentiator and a tool to move forward or an anchor that holds them back?
Are decision makers aware of the place and position of IT and the importance of alignment of technology with business?
Is Organizational structure forming a communications gap amongst technology officers and senior executives or is there a knowledge gap?
Are decision makers aware of the cost of quality in their organisation and what IT can do to improve it?
Are organizations aware of their current technology potential or are they jumping on the band wagon to switch too quickly.
Are the decision makers aware of the risks of legacy systems?
Are decision makers aware of true needs? Do personal biases and organisational structures limit in identifying and fulfilling those needs?
Are decision makers aware of the problem and impact of Vendor lock-in problem
What are the pain points of organizations with their current technology and suppliers?
Does the size of organizations impact their views on suppliers ?
How do organisations view niche suppliers?
Research Methodology
The research questions will be examined further by qualitative means. Qualitative research using inductive approach will be required to gather respondents perceptions about IT which will be done via focus groups, individual interviews, and observations. The main methodology will be in depth interviews with open ended questions to gather feelings and motivators, thoughts and reasons.
The target respondents will be IT managers or people who make technological decisions in small and medium organizations. Since Bizhub is based in SA, local organizations will be targeted for interviews. A sample of 10 interviews should be sufficient to gauge the underlying factors. Depending on similarities and differences in the responses, conclusions will be drawn to reflect wider population. It will be interesting to compare such differences in small and medium organizations.
Sample Qualitative Questions
How important do you think is IT department in your organisation? Why is that? Do other stakeholders share your views?
These questions will allow respondents to express their feelings and perceptions with reasons and depending on how they answer, further questions can lead to new explorations.
Sample Deliverables
IT decision makers may know the importance of IT and see it as a tool to take the organisation forward. Their thoughts may not be shared by other stakeholders due to lack of awareness and previous unpleasant transformation experiences. Some may view vendor lock-in causing cost constraints and a hurdle of moving forward and not aware of cheaper options available such as Bizhub.
Analysis
Once data has been acquired, Inductive research analysis will be done to observe the data available that will lead to an insight about the knowledge and perceptions of IT decision makers. The intent is to fill the knowledge gap using inductive approach.
The variables will likely be:
Independent variable: perceptions of new and existing technology
Dependent variable:
Satisfaction with current state of technology
Awareness of cost of quality and its link to technological needs?
Awareness of technological problems and associated risks?
Ease of admittance of problems
Commitment and prioritisation to finding solutions to technological problems
Dominant factors influencing decision
SWOT analysis and Ansoffs Matrix
We will do the SWOT analysis of Biz Hub in order to understand the strength and weakness and also identify the opportunities and threats. This will be done by the following way
Strengths
What advantages does the company is currently offering?
Why are they unique in comparison to others?
What low cost service /product they are offering that others are not?
What do people in your market see as your strengths?
What factors mean that you “get the sale”?
Weakness
How could they improve and what should they avoid?
What are weak point which is unknown to BizHub ?
Opportunities
What interesting things on the market that it found as others have not?
Is there any trend that identified by Biz Hub that others do not?
Threat
What restrictions are they facing on the market?
Do they have enough knowledge regarding their competitors systems?
Is the change of technology threatening its business policy and thinking ?
The strength and weakness factors are the internal factors and opportunities and threats are external. So the SWOT matrix will give a clear idea about the inner and outer insight about the business pattern of the company and help to obtain a proper marketing plan.
An Ansoffs matrix will be used as a strategic planning tool to gauge future market growth.
Time and Budget
Data will be gathered by myself and another partner and time lines will be:
Define problem 1 week
Define research 2 weeks
Collect Data 6 weeks
Analyse Data 2 weeks
Conclude 1 week
Week-1
Week-2
Week-3
Week-4
Week-5
Week-6
Week-7
Week-8
Week-9
Week-10
Week-11
Week-12
Define problem
Define research
Collect Data
Analyse Data
Conclude
Gantt Chart for time schedule for the research
Budget estimate will be 250$ per interview to arrange for venue and refreshments i.e 2500$ for 10 interviews over 6 weeks period.
Possible Limitation
The possible limitations for this research are:
Getting enough interviews from appropriate decision makers. It may be difficult to get a hold of top decision makers for interviews so middle managers may have to be relied upon.
Getting relevant information about possible competitors. It will be challenging to get enough information about competitors from respondents as they may see it as conflict of interests and confidential.
Co-relating outcomes of different interviews to common trends. Respondents may all have different factors influencing their decisions. In this case, more interviews may be required as it may be challenging to co-relate trends and findings to common conclusions.
Comparing the outcome of organisations of different sizes and nature. Respondents may be from different industries and different sizes and it will be channelling to come up with generalised conclusions for all industries.
Conclusion
The aim behind the proposed research is to overcome the gaps in knowledge present in the understanding of how decision makers perceive IT in their organisations and with their business direction. We will examine what factors influence their decisions to switch to new technologies or stick with existing technologies. This will be done by exploring IT decision makers awareness of the importance and position of IT through a collection of in depth interviews and the awareness of how IT is linked to an organisations strategy. Factors like awareness of risks of legacy systems, vendor lock-in, size, organisational structure, personal biases and other constraints will be explored in these interviews. This research also aims to understand IT suppliers complex relations with organisations and how organisations view niche suppliers in changing times of evolving requirements. This will also be explored through the interviews and other methodologies.
Bibliography
Alistair Maughan, Morrison & Foerster’s Global Sourcing Group. (n.d.). Trends in technology outsourcing. Retrieved 12 14, 2016, from http://www.bcs.org/content/conWebDoc/15809
Dosi, G. (1993). Technological paradigms and technological trajectories: A suggested interpretation of the determinants and directions of technical change. Research Policy .
Giakatis, G., Enkawa, T., & Washitani, K. (2001). Hidden quality costs and the distinction between quality cost and quality loss. Total Quality Management .
Hirschheim, R., & Lacity, M. (2000). The myths and realities of information technology insourcing. Communications of the ACM .
K. Ferlic. (2008). The issue of identifying and meeting true organizational needs. Retrieved 12 2016, 14, from A Releasing Your Unlimited Creativity discussion topic: http://www.organizationalcreativity.info/issue_true_org_needs.htm
Krishnan, S. K., Agus, A., & Husain, N. (2000). Cost of quality: The hidden costs. Total Quality Management .
M., S. (2007). SYMPHONYA Emerging Issues in Management. Management Consulting, Global Markets and Corporate Networking .
Newswire, E. (2015, Sept 25). Alcatel-Lucent-The five issues CIOs face.
Newswire, P. (2016, August 17). 80 Percent of IT Decision Makers Believe Leadership Underestimates Time and Cost of Cloud Services.
Opara-Martins, J., Sahandi, R., & Tian, F. (2016). Critical analysis of vendor lock-in and its impact on cloud computing migration: a business perspective. Journal of Cloud Computing .
Parakala, K. (2015). Global Consulting and IT Service Providers Trends An Industry Perspective. technova.
Prashar, A. (2014). Adoption of Six Sigma DMAIC to reduce cost of poor quality. International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management .
Rajan, S. F. (2014). Critical Success Factors for Small-Medium Businesses to Adopt Cloud Infrastructure as a Service. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses.
Rebecca Jean Chedid, A. D. (2013). Barriers to the use of Information and Communication Technology by occupational therapists working in a rural area of New South Wales, Australia. Australian Occupational Therapy Journal .
Sena, J., & Sena, M. (2012). ‘IT Doesn’t Matter’ Revisited: Comparing the Perspectives of Executives in Organizations Who Regard Information Technology to Be an Important Differentiator versus Those Who Do Not. International Journal of Technology, Knowledge and Society .
TheGuardian; Marc Ambasna-Jones. (2016, June 2). CEOs need to entrust digital transformation to their IT leaders. BBUSINESS SCHOOL
Cover Sheet for Indivi
