You are to create a project proposal for an organisation that wishes to enhance its communications with technology. We would like you to present your proposal and support it with a business report.
The description of the organisation is provided below. You may choose another appropriate case study, e.g., related to your work. Approval for an alternative organisation must be obtained from the unit coordinator.
Case Study: Overview of Tracksuits-N-Sportswear
Tracksuits-N-Sportswear Company Limited is a business located in Brisbane that sells T-shirts and tracksuit tops and pants. Their mission is to be a provider of high-quality T-shirt and tracksuit apparel using simple designs. They purchase the right to use the name/logo of institutions (e.g., universities) and sports franchises for their designs. For the first two years of operation, Tracksuits-N-Sportswear operated out of a garage office where all employees worked within earshot and orders were passed around the garage. However, a rapid increase in demand for their products led to the owners leasing commercial premises to house their operations: sales/marketing, production, distribution, billing, and administration. To increase business, they have also started an additional sales and marketing operation in Beijing, China.
Business documents such as orders and invoices are passed between departments via email. Employees call each other on landlines and mobile phones. The owners distribute general news to the employees using email newsletters.
The time taken between when a customer orders until the order is shipped has doubled since the move to the commercial premises. The owners feel that the lack of effective communications is the cause of the increase in order-to-ship time.
The owners have hired you as a consultant. Their idea is to implement a social media based communication system. They would like an existing system or a collection of existing systems that that supports:
- Sending messages to individuals and groups.
- Is able to track the location of each employee in the distribution department - for safety reasons.
- Supports online meetings.
Your task is to identify a system or collection of systems that support the owners' requirements.
Business Report
Please write a business report to report your findings.
Summary and Evaluation (400-800 words)
Summarise the organisation's proposal, perhaps including aspects such as:
- Any relevant business requirements of the organisation, and
- The context of the organisation, e.g., the existing flow of information within the organisation and the types of information that currently flow.
Evaluate the organisation's idea based on how it will affect communication within their organisation. While your report may draw on the material covered in this unit, you are expected to find and use references beyond those provided by this unit. You could consider:
- How the communication model applies to the organisation, and
- How the organisation's proposal would affect the communication in terms of the model's application.
Ethical and Intercultural Implications (200-400 words)
Discuss the ethical and intercultural implications of using the systems within the organisation's context. You could consider aspects such as:
- Employee, employer or customer privacy when using the technologies, and
- How the technologies, or the structure of the organisation and its information flows impact any intercultural communication.
Recommendations (200-400 words)
Please include three to six recommendations to the owner as to how they should proceed. Provide convincing, well-structured recommendations that are supported with evidence. Apply logos, ethos and pathos to persuade the reader. In particular, you should
build a structured argument using Toulmin's model for each of your recommendations.
Having investigated the social media options as per the owners' request, make recommendations as to how the owners of Tracksuits- N-Sportswear could most effectively improve their communications and consequently reduce their order-to-ship times.