Mini-Case Study

Upton, Martin, Ulysses, & Clapper (MMCU) 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. MMCU 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, politically neutral, objective, and accurate financial/economic products and services.

You are a Senior IT Specialist & Systems Analyst at MMCU. 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

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.(I HAVE ATTACHED THE TEMPLETE YOU WILL BE USING) 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).

Here is what you need to do:

1. Click on icon to launch the template and save it to your desktop.

2. Please do not deviate from the formatting contained in the report template.

3. Follow the content instructions in the various sections of the document to complete your work.

4. All narrative content must be single spaced, Arial 12 point.

5. All table content must be single spaced, Arial 10 point.

6. Review and use the Evaluation & Scoring Rubric below to ensure the report contains an appropriate level of information.

7. External research and a References page are required.

a. You must use of at least three (3) external sources. This is in addition to any course materials from assigned readings and videos.

b. You should use scholarly, vendor, and industry materials.

c. Do not simply copy and paste information from the Web or copy information from the readings or other sources.

d. Provide the appropriate APA formatted citationson the References page to avoid the perception of plagiarism. This includes citing all external sources including the vendor Web sites, assigned readings and videos, the mini case, and other sources, as appropriate.

e. Wiki sites such as Wikipedia and authorless sites/blogs are NOT acceptable references.

f. If you are not familiar with the APA style and citations, there are also several links under Webliography that can assist you.

g. MS Word has a Citations & Bibliography feature located under the References tab. Select APA in the Style field and use the Manage Sources feature and MS Word will properly format the citations for you. When ready use the Bibliography drop down to insert citations.

h. At all costs, avoid any hint or perception of plagiarism.

8. Be sure to check for spelling, grammar and format errors prior to submitting the report. These are all items that will be evaluated and scored.

Attachment:- hardware_evaluation_report_template.rar