Milestone: Internship Assignment Rubric
Overview
For the final project in this course, you are being asked to apply the concepts learned throughout the course to assist a small business owner in improving his business through the use of technology. Milestone One will be the first step in creating your report and recommendations to the business owner. The objective of this milestone is to further explore course concepts and incorporate additional perspectives and source material to analyze real world scenarios. Leverage both the textbook and external sources to complete the internship assignment.
Prompt
Harrison Kirby runs a local golf course with a shop of around 150 products. He wants to have a website that will facilitate e-business for his golf course. He wants online scheduling of tee times (including coordination of group play), online shopping, and social network integration. One difficulty of moving a small business from a traditional retail store to an online store is channel complications. Everything must be reconsidered. For example, how will he communicate with his customers? How will they find product information? How will he accept orders? How will he manage payments and shipping? These questions and many more have kept Kirby from making the e-commerce plunge.
Below you will find a letter from Kirby explaining what he would like you to do:
Dear Intern,
I have an interesting project for you. I am interested in an online presence for my golf shop. Specifically, I want to offer a few (less than 150) products online for in-store pickup or delivery. I would also like online scheduling of tee times.
I want you to research the web for companies that provide this type of product. Ultimately, you may recommend a combination of providers to accomplish all that I am trying to do. For example, your final recommendation may include a web hosting solution, logistics provider, and a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tool. Or, perhaps you will find a product that can be customized to provide all the functionality in one piece.
Keep in mind that my shop is a small business, and I do not have resources to manage a complicated system. I need something that is fairly easy to implement, use, and manage. I have heard of online, cloud, as-a-service platforms that do not require local hardware. I think that this type of setup would be most useful to me, but I have no idea what type of software I should use to support my business.
After you complete your research, as the first step in this process, please send me a report with the following critical elements:
1. Overview of the companies you learned about
2. Profile of your selections and the reasons you chose them
3. Summary of why you believe this will help me accomplish my goals I am very excited to see your work!
Sincerely, Harrison Kirby
Note: You should incorporate at least three sources into your report; one source should be the textbook. Use paraphrasing and direct quotations to help demonstrate the concepts and support your perspectives.
Writing Tips:
• Include a cover page with your name, date, course name/number, and title of the assignment.
• In the body, use headings and sub-headings. Do not jump from subject to subject without providing some type of heading beforehand.
• Use correct grammar and punctuation.
• Make the presentation as professional as possible. Sloppy papers may have correct answers, but the message will be lost if the paper is not professional.
• Make sure you understand how to cite reference material within the text of your submission (e.g., according to John Doe, "citing in text is a key concept in this course" (2013)). A guide to using APA citation method can be found at the following SNHU site:
http://libguides.snhu.edu/introduction_to_citationstyles
Example APA-style citation:
Rainer, R. K., Prince, B., & Cegielski, C. G. (2014). Introduction to information systems: supporting and transforming business (5th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley & Sons.