Project Description: Develop a new e-business (or valued e-process or intranet for an existing organization.) In either case, the enterprise would leverage the power of information technology as well as apply the principles, strategies and practices discussed in the course. The proposed enterprise would offer products, services, or processes via the Internet’s World Wide Web. As part of the project, you or your group will post a well-documented PowerPoint presentation at http://elearning.fgcu.edu. Your presentation (slides with embedded "speaker notes") should succinctly explain your e-business' concept, capabilities, value and strategy to potential partners, colleagues, or investors.  Below are the project objectives; rules and logistics; and tutorials available to facilitate the process. You will work on this project with a team of students in the class (1 to 3 students max per team---please see detailed instructions on the Angel Lesson titled "Discussion Forum for e-Biz Project Process.") Following the business-driven focus of this course, you may even “outsource” (i.e., get assistance for the web development aspects or friend, if needed). But, a web page is completely optional. Please be aware that the project evaluation will be based on on how well you or your team applied the IT business concepts, strategies and models that we have learned in the course as well as the methods and practices that you will be learning while working on the project development process. You will find sample projects from previous semesters on the Angel resource for this course (Sample Final Projects from Previous Semesters.)

Project Objectives:

• Your team will apply business-driven IT principles learned in class to the design of their "own" Internet-based enterprise (e-Business)---including on-line presentation of business plan and resources, as needed.
• Your team will apply e-business strategies, tools, models and frameworks to gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace (refer to the course textbook and course-slides, frameworks and principles).
• Your team will be afforded the opportunity to develop an Internet-based business framed within a multicultural, ethical, secure, and global information-age perspective.
• Your team will explore the aesthetic/ergonomic/sustainability issues involved in e-business design and implementation.

Rules & Logistics: The new enterprise may be a start-up venture (entrepreneurship) or a new initiative within an existing organization (intra-preneuship). Competing teams will consist of one to three students per team. Since this is a team project, students are expected to work collaboratively with other members to design the business concept & IT resource strategy.  Teams will seek the cooperation of faculty and practitioners.

Deadlines: The preliminary idea should be posted on the Discussion Forum for the Final eBiz Project Process as soon as you are able but no later than three weeks before the last day of classes. Please indicate your group members* and project title in the "Final Projects" forum. The final PowerPoint slides & embedded speaker notes are due the first day of finals week by posting the slides on the "Final Project" forum. The first slide will clearly list the group members.] 

Criteria: The project’s report and presentation should address the following:

* What is the enterprise concept? (What is the value-added?) (What are the capabilities?) (What are the revenue, cost and asset models?)
* What is the target market? (Who are the potential customers?)
* What is the enterprise competitive advantage? (current status; prospects; special skills; lead time advantage; barriers to entry)
* What is the business/community merit of the proposed enterprise? (economic impact; environmental, ethical, social issues addressed.)
* How well qualified is your team to start-up the business/organization? How well does the team collaborate via Internet?
* How are you going to produce the product or service? (Why is the Internet the appropriate technology/method to create or deliver the product or service?)
* What are the main operations and processes involved? (How do you intend to deploy the business?)
* How do you intend to finance the enterprise?
* What are the challenges that you will face in establishing this enterprise?
* What are the specific resources needed? In addition to capital, include the human and computer resources needed; physical facilities or layout; and graphical user-interface design.

Check list: Critical analysis and discussion issues to include in the slides and embedded speaker notes:

1. What is your e-business model? Please refer to course discussions on e-business models.

2. What are your basic e-business operations & processes?

3. How has technology and globalization changed your e-business operations?

4. How did you align your IT investment with your strategic plans? [that is, how you are using your limited resources (i.e., money, people, IT infrastructure) effectively and efficiently to meet your strategic goals; and how your are maximizing profits while minimizing IT/operational costs.]

5. What IT strategies have you used to enable business processes and how you can use inter-organizational systems or e-business concepts?

6. How does e-collaboration allows your e-biz to transform the way it delivers its products or services? [Sample e-collaborative solutions: CPFR, VMI, RFID, SCM, CRM, e-market, and so on.])

7. How do your e-biz use business software such as Word, PowerPoint, Excel, FrontPage (web page design), Access (database), browsers, search engines, e-libraries? How can your e-biz use wireless networks, mobile technologies, Hot spots, PDAs, database/warehousing/data mining to simulate consumer decision-making, CRM?

8. What are the socio-economical implications of your e-biz? i.e., computer security, computer crime and IT ethical issues, information economy implications in the Third World, etc.

9. What are the elements of your Supply Chain Management (SCM)? How are your business functions and activities organized and managed? Define your operational, managerial and executive-level processes.

10. What are your e-biz’s model strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (constraints, enabling technologies, etc.)?

Sample products or services that your team may want to consider:

Ways to deliver affordable home-based healthcare. For instance, remote health monitoring systems.
Ways to gain competitive advantage by leveraging information technology. For instance, how a company may improve its efforts to be up-to-date technologically.
Ways to facilitate the transportation, tracking, and delivery of products.
Ways to improve security.
Ways to reduce energy consumption.
Ways to improve nutritional health.
Ways to improve human interfaces for new home or commercial technologies.
Ways to improve the use of natural resources and minimize environmental impact.
Ways to improve the way we work or shop at home.
Ways to create/deliver personalized consumer products.

Optional: Your team may also create a simple Web site; but, never at the expense of well-documented slides and speaker notes. For user-friendly Web design tutorials, see below:

1. Yahoo also points to several sites like: http://dir.yahoo.com/Computers_and_Internet/Internet/Beginner_s_Guides/

2. If you want to build a state-of-the-art page, there are thousands of other on-line tutorials on HTML (Hypertext Markup Language), CGI (Common Gateway Interface) and JAVA.

3. If you are really planning to sell something (B2C) on your own Web site (not the “FGCU-Coop-etition-let’s-pretend-e-business”), check Yahoo!Store at http://store.yahoo.com/

4. You may also check the name of your proposed e-business at http://www.register.com, without registering (you will find that the obvious names are taken, but you could try using the word "And" between two keywords.) Please be aware that it cost $35/year to register a web site, including 3-page web page. There are other registration sites like www.GoDaddy.com that charge less than $10 per year.

When you complete the creation process, please post your final-project PowerPoint (.ppt) slides (with embedded speaker notes) on the "Final Project Post Here" Discussion Forum. We highly encourage you to start forming a group as soon as possible, if you are planning to work with other. How can you may recruit your teammates? The "Roll Call" forum contains the names, background and academic status and e-mail addresses. It's a great recruiting tool to identify and communicate with your peers.  

Best,
Walter Rodriguez