Corporate Communication Systems Management Assignment Spring 2020

Assignment Guidance

The learning outcomes assessed in this assignment are as follows:

•   It is the student’s responsibility to familiarise themselves with the Academic Dishonesty and Plagiarism policy contained in the Programme Handbook.

•   Any assignment submitted after the submission deadline, without prior approval, will be given 0% and the student will be referred.

•   The late assignment submission may be marked as a referral attempt, but only a maximum mark of 40% can be awarded for that particular assessment.

•   If a student requests an extension to the official submission date this must be done in writing to the Course Director at least five full UK working days before the official submission date. This request must be accompanied by supporting evidence.

•   This assignment is worth 40% of the overall final mark for the module.

•   Students should write no more than 1600 words (+/- 10%) for this assignment. Additional words may not be marked.

•   Students are encouraged to read widely in preparing for the assignment, making reference to articles in academic journals and other relevant sources.

•   All references should be cited in text and included in a reference section at the end of the report using the Harvard Referencing Scheme.

•   The Statement and Confirmation of Own Work must be completed and submitted with the assignment.

•   This assignment must be submitted by the due date and time as given on the front of this assignment.

•   Please refer to the Assessment Criteria contained in the Programme Handbook which shows how the level of marking relates to your standard of work.

Submission Requirements

You must  read and understand  NCC  Education’s  policy  on  ‘Academic  Dishonesty and Plagiarism’ . You must complete the attached form ‘Statement and Confirmation of Own Work’ and attach your completed form to your assignment.

Scenario

You are a Computer Network & Telecommunications Consultant, contracted to work for the following organisation. Your job is to advise the company on how best to design, install and operate  a  state-of-the-art networking  and  communications  system  that  supports  the organisation and all the following locations, services and requirements. This system must support  voice,  data,   images,  video and audio streaming and associated computing platforms. It must be fully costed.

“ Publishing Unlimited” are an internet-based publishing organisation aimed specifically at self-publishing authors who cannot or do  not wish to go down the traditional  route of publishing their work via a mainstream publishing house.  This  allows  authors to  have maximum control of their work, save time and money plus have in-depth monitoring and management of their publishing and sales channels. Here is how it works …

The content to be published can cover any genre (history, romance, comedy, science, nature etc.) and be factual or fiction. Any author over the age of 16 can set up an online account with the company via its website and there are no limits to the number of titles published nor the number of copies per title. The only restriction is that each author must submit a signed statement confirming that the work  is  all their own and no  copyright infringement has occurred. Setting up an account is free and as part of that process the author must link a payment method to their account – such as a PayPal account or bank account. Once this is done, self-publishing can commence.

There are no fixed fees but instead the author pays on a ‘per copy’ basis. This ‘per copy’ model has two dimensions. Most authors are happy to publish entirely in digital format and as they are providing all the content and doing all the layout and formatting, there is no cost to them for hosting the e-book. However, once uploaded to the company’s own e-bookstore (www.from-me-to-you.com) and associated partner sites, including the beast known as Amazon, the author is charged ‘per copy downloaded’ . This figure is based on 15% of the retail cost of the e-book. So if an author sells 100 digital copies of their latest book at £10 each, then the company takes £1.50 x 100 = £150.00 and the author gets £8.50 x 100 = £850.00 – paid directly into their nominated PayPal or bank account.

A smaller number of (more experienced and better known) authors also like to offer their readers a hardcopy version of their books, alongside the digital offering. This is because they can confidently  predict substantial sales volumes.  In  this case, the company can arrange in-house printing of the book (details below) and the author is then charged on a ‘per copy printed’ basis. The fee is a flat £3.00 per book up to 200 pages and £5 per book over 200 pages. There is no charge for actual sales or distribution. Like the e-book model, sales proceeds are passed automatically to the author at the end of each month. The company deals with all accounting issues and these can be tracked by the author through their account.

A very small number of authors are actually quite famous and have a substantial fan-base with book sales that compare very well with even the largest mainstream publishers. These high-profile authors can opt to have the company build them a customised author micro-site hosted alongside the main e-book store so that fans and readers can follow their favourite author, as well as read their books. This obviously demands substantial IT involvement and as such is reserved only for the company’s premier sales authors. The fee for setting the author website up and maintaining it is negotiable with each author and fees are confidential.

The core content is obviously supplied by individual authors – from around the world - who write their work locally at home or at their own place of work and then submit this work in various  electronic formats such as  PDF,  MOBI,  EPUB  etc.  to  the  online  portal.  Once uploaded, it can be self-edited and laid-out using the company’s platform software.

Eventhough the company is focussed on self-publishing, many new (and some not-so-new) authors value the input of professional editors and graphic designers and for an additional fee can engage the services of these publishing professionals. In this case, draft work may be emailed into the company for review and feedback. There are currently over fifty editors, each with a genre specialism (such as computer science, mathematics, nature, comedy, romance etc.) managed by the Editor-in-Chief. Some editors are freelance themselves and work remotely from home, but most editors and their lead editor are based at the company’s headquarters (HQ) in Reading, UK where each has their own workstation running standard office software and specialised publishing packages. They all work in a single large open- plan office on the first floor of the HQ building known as Vanity Towers. All the core services like HR, Legal, Accounts etc. are also based here but in different rooms on the third floor. The CEO and board, plus their personal assistants, work on the fourth (top) floor of Vanity Towers.

Once the content and layout is finalised and agreed, the next stage is for the in-house publishing and graphic design experts to use specialised desktop publishing software to get the electronic files ready for either hardcopy printing using a traditional printing press or to upload the electronic versions to a central secure server where the public can access them via the company e-book store. They are also copied over to partner websites and uploaded to Amazon. These staff (ten of them) work in another room on the second floor of Vanity Towers.

The dedicated author websites are developed mainly by the central in-house IT team which comprises a team of twelve IT professionals housed in the CITS (Central IT Services) Building which is located two hundred meters away from Vanity Towers. CITS is also responsible for running all the internal IT platforms, including the main e-book store. Some specialised work (such as computer animations) is outsourced to freelance web developers who work from home.

The actual physical printing of the hardcopy books demands large, heavy printing presses and these can be found in the company’s modern, purpose-built printing facility (Print Point) on the outskirts of the city – about 10 miles from Vanity Towers.

The company is also considering more advanced features such as ‘ Keynote Webinars’ where high-profile self-publishing authors will give live presentations to discuss and promote their latest book and also to give self-publishing advice to newer authors. It is also desirable to maintain contact - via voice, data and video - with all the off-site players in this enterprise as well as the on-site core staff. This will demand high-performance communications links to support real-time streaming of audio and video content.

Final Point

The above  is simply an outline of the company and you will  need to  make your own assumptions and interpret or even extend the scenario as you go. Use your imagination as you see fit, but you must clearly document all assumptions and extensions.

Assignment

General                                                                                                           (20 marks)

Research, referencing and presentation skills.

Task 1                                                                                                              (20 marks)

The above scenario is what the managing director has told you over the phone in the initial discussion, but some aspects may not have been mentioned at all or may need further clarification. This is what reality is like - grey, not black and white. To provide a solution to a problem you must first fully understand the problem. Consequently, your first task is to resolve this ambiguity by:

a)  Drawing  a  schematic  (not  a  networking)  diagram  of  your  understanding  of  the physical layout of the company, focussing on the number of staff, current IT resources and business functions at each site, using arrows to indicate the type (basic data, voice, multi-media data, video etc), volume (call duration, file sizes etc) and direction (source and destination) of traffic flow for each site. You will undoubtedly have to make assumptions regarding the volume criteria so be sure to fully document these. HINT: Research real-world data traffic statistics.

b)  Draw up a list of additional products, features and services that could be added to those above that will enable the company to function more efficiently. Provide a business rationale for each suggestion. Decide who needs access to these additional features and where they should be physically placed. Add them to your existing diagram but denote them by drawing them in red.

Task 2                                                                                                              (20 marks)

Now that you have a full understanding of the business, its operations and the traffic flows around it, you should draw up a detailed network design for the whole enterprise. This may seem a daunting task so, like any complex task, break it down into the following steps:

a)  For each of the various sites; research, document and discuss the various technical options available for local (on-site) communication, considering the number of users, the type and volume of data and any physical restrictions dictated by that location. Support your narrative with suitable diagrams.

b)  Investigate and explain the various technical options available to link the different sites  (inter-site)  together,  considering  any physical restrictions dictated by the distances between sites. Support your narrative with suitable diagrams.

c)  Research the technical options available to support easy communication between the company and the remote workers - staff, contractors and authors. Again, support your discussion with suitable diagrams.

General advice: For each of the above three sub-tasks, as well as discussing each technical option and its strengths/limitations, be sure  to provide suitable supporting topology diagrams, a list of requisite hardware, firm evidence that you have  researched  those technical options (fully cited using the Harvard referencing system) and, most important of all, provided a sound rationale and business justification for/against each option. Do not just focus purely on technical points but also pay close attention to the background business within which that technology will operate.

Task 3                                                                                                              (20 marks)

Having drawn up a set of possible technical solutions, you must now recommend a single, unified  networking architecture for the  company,  based on the technical and  business criteria outlined  in task 2.  Draw  a  single  network  diagram showing this  recommended solution, including all hardware, networking devices, cabling and software. Then provide a detailed breakdown of all costs to implement and operate that solution. Again, provide fully referenced evidence that you have researched current commercial options. You should aim to provide at least two TCO figures (Total Cost of Ownership).

HINT: Present your two budgets in a table for easy comparison. The two budgets should be different ways of implementing the same networking solution you have put forward and should include hardware, software, networking and staffing costs, including any recruitment or training deemed necessary. Research real-world costs for all items and provide a web link to the sources used.

Task 4                                                                                                              (20 marks)

Your final task is to advise the company on both the benefits and the risks that your proposed solution may bring. On the positive  side, you should aim to ‘sell’ your solution by emphasising the ROI (Return on Investment) angle. Research this concept  if  needed. Likewise, on the negative side, you have a duty to inform the company of potential threats and problems that may occur going forward – technical or otherwise.

Total marks for the assignment = 100 marks.

Your report should be 1600 words (+/- 10%) plus diagrams.