MIS 303 – Strategic IT Analysis Project Instructions

0. Introduction
This project intends to give you exposure to discerning the impact of strategic information
technology (IT) and information systems on a given firm, how they use IT/IS to support business
processes, to transform business, and to create a strategic advantage, and potentially where they
are vulnerable to competitors who might have better and more efficient IT.
1. Team Formation
You may work individually but are encouraged to form groups of up to 3 people. Given the
intensive pace of the summer semester, I strongly recommend the following rough timeline:
complete company selection and do the initial research by the end of next week (week 3), and
submit your progress report (mandatory), then finalize your research and, at the same time,
prepare your final presentation slides.
2. Company Selection
You can select ANY company/firm that you are interested in and/or familiar with for this project.
When selecting a company, you can look for a company that is known as a leading-edge user of
IT. Make sure you can find sufficient information on their IT strategies and applications. You
should know that publicly traded companies usually have more information available to the
public than private companies do. Thus, unless you have special sources to find out more about a
private company, it will be much easier if you select a publicly traded company for this project.
Below is a list of companies as examples. Your choices are not limited to this list, though.
Note: Duplicates are not allowed in this course project, so the company selection will be
approved on a first-come, first-served basis. I will open a discussion thread on Canvas where you
can post your chosen company as well as your potential teammates. Please check existing posts
before considering a company.
1. Wal-Mart 8. Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), LinkedIn or
any social media
2. Target
9. Starbucks
3. Giant, Safeway, other groceries
10. [Link]
4. FedEx
11. Netflix, Disney+, or any other video
5. UPS
streaming business
6. Intel
12. Tesla
7. Google
13. McDonalds, Chick-Fil-A, Pizza Hut, etc.
14. Apple 21. Deloitte

15. Microsoft 22. [Link]

16. eBay 23. [Link]

17. Insurance company such as Allstate or 24. NASDAQ or NYSE/ICE

Progressive
25. AT&T or Verizon
18. Zoom
26. Capital One Financial
19. SAS
27. Any foreign companies
20. Hilton, Marriott, etc.

Note: Technology providing companies like Google, Apple, Microsoft, IBM, Intel, etc. are good
choices for this project as they are not only technology products and/or services producers, but
for sure are good IT/IS users themselves. But a team working on one of these technology
companies should know that our research focus should be how successful these companies use
IT/IS to support their operations, to improve their processes and to transform their business or to
gain competitive advantages. If your research is all about how great and innovative their
products or services are, that might lead to a weak project. Instead, a non-technology-providing
company, e.g., a grocery store, a hotel, an automobile manufacturer, etc. might be an easy choice
for you to focus on their technology use and strategy, instead of their products or services.
What You Should Look for in a Company
The nature of strategic IT/IS is always different in each company. Thus, there is no way to
suggest a specific focus or content in your research. In general, think about the competitive
strategy focus of this company. You should also look for innovative uses of IT that rivals will
have a tough time duplicating.
Specifically, look for instances of (or attempts at):

• New products or services

• Creative ways to deliver traditional products/services
• Ways to identify and to lock in customers
• Ways to work with or to lock in suppliers
• Ways to raise barriers to competitors’ responses
• Use of existing data in new and creative ways
Not all IT stories are successful. Also, pay attention to instances where IT failed in these
companies, or the vulnerable links in their IT usage. You can also make a lesson-learned type of
research in this project.
3. Information Sources – where do you get information on your companies?
The companies in the above list are well-known. Many are leading-edge users of IT. For that
reason, you should not have a difficult time finding information on how each is using technology
in a strategic way; you just need to know where to look. The following sources are just some
places to consider:

• ABI-inform, Business Source Complete, Mergent Online, Nexis Uni, or other library
databases of news and magazine articles.
• The company’s website and social media, such as the Facebook page, X (formerly
Twitter), etc.
• IT magazines: InformationWeek ([Link]), CIO Magazine
([Link]).
• ComputerWorld ([Link]), etc.
• Speak with someone working at one of these companies*.
• Google and Wikipedia, with caution about the source validation, of course.
• Make use of the business librarian – they are often a treasure trove of information
* You can learn a lot by speaking to someone who works at the chosen company: a Starbucks
manager, an Apple Geek, a FedEx driver, a Wal-Mart manager, a McDonald’s employee, etc.
What may not be good information sources:

• Your company study project from other courses: the other professors may have different
foci, requirements, or research methods than ours.
• Others’ company study projects: Do not simply take documents and files from your
friends who were in my previous semesters. They could be outdated, biased, or not as
good as your own work.
• Personal blogs, presentations, etc., that you found on the Internet, but you don’t know
who the authors are.

4. Progress Report (Due Sunday 6/7 11:59 PM)

The progress report should be no more than one page and submitted as a PDF on Canvas. The
questions below are meant to guide your initial research. Use them as a framework to gather
relevant information about your selected company. You do not need to address every question;
focus on those most applicable to your case. Do not include the questions themselves in your
submission.
1. Ask ChatGPT (or any other AI tool) about the company you selected. For example, you can
prompt with “Tell me about Apple inc.” or “What technologies does Target use?” From its
answer to one question, you could ask it to specify more, or ask follow-up questions, etc. Please
note that we should not directly take any data, information or write-up from ChatGPT in research
or in a project. You and your team should:
a. Always check the other resources (like those recommended below) to verify the information
ChatGPT provides to you.

b. Read from ChatGPT responses to build your understanding, but do not rely on ChatGPT to
come up with the write-up. Do not simply copy the ChatGPT results and paste them as part of
your project/research.
c. Never take ChatGPT as your only source in research. Always use as many resources as you
can get for more comprehensive, well-supported, and unbiased research.
2. Find and visit the websites of your selected company.

a. What industries does this company's business span across? (Industries in which this company
operates. Not those that the company provides products and services to)
Please note that many companies could play in multiple industries. You can provide them all or
choose to focus on one major industry or business section for your research.
b. Provide the company's official website URLs. There could be multiple websites if this
company is across multiple industries.
c. List findings from their websites that are relevant to your project.
* Please note that many companies have transaction-based websites that they use mostly to
display products or take orders (e.g., the Amazon website or Target website). You should drag to
the very end of the home page and find links to other pages and information, like their company
introduction, press center, organization and management information, etc. These pages will
provide more interesting and valuable information for your project.
3. Use the GMU library databases and locate the databases that can provide the following
information. Provide the database names (could be multiple databases for each item below).
a. Company information: What is this company doing? A brief history, Current financial, Major
competitors***, etc.
b. SWOT analysis. Some companies officially publish their SWOT analysis, but many don’t.
However, third-party market research firms create and publish such SWOT analyses, which you
can find using the university library’s databases such as EBSCO and Nexis Uni. What are the
sources (e.g., authors, affiliate institutions, etc.) for these publications?
c. List three relevant articles or news you can find from these databases. Provide database names,
and article/news titles, as well as the published dates.
*** Use your judgment to select the proper competitors. Some companies are across multiple
industries. You may want to pick the competitors in the primary industries in which this company
is.
4. Do a Google search, using the company's name with keywords like IT, IS, Strategy,
Competitive Advantages, Porter’s Five Forces, SWOT analysis, Competitors, etc. (Be creative,
and try more relevant keywords, and try different combinations of these keywords). List relevant
and interesting findings by providing:
a. The web page URLs,
b. Published dates,
c. A quick assessment of source validity: what do you think the information/website sources are
(e.g., individual blogs, publicly shared discussion forums, research institutions, research
publications, official news channels/websites, independent reporters, etc.)? How do you rate this
source as a good quality source to be used for your project (e.g., using a 1 to 10 scale)?

5. Search this company and/or its major products, services, etc., on Wikipedia. Read it and
related Wikipedia pages carefully, using your judgment. Is there anything relevant, interesting,
complementary, or even controversial with what you have found in the other sources above? List
and describe them with a bit more detail.
6. Does this company use any social media? Which social media sites do they use (Facebook,
Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube, Snapchat, Tumblr, etc.)?
a. Provide the major social media platforms on which the company has a presence. Have at least
one of your team members follow this company on these social media through your research
weeks. Watch out for how this company posts and updates on each social media site, and how the
company interacts or responds to their followers/likers.
b. Which social media platform does this company use for advertising, public relations, customer
relationship, sales, or other business purposes?

5. Research
Here is a suggested research topic or sections guideline for your final presentation. Feel free to
adjust based on your case and the information you found:

• Introduction: who is the company, what does it do, major products and services, brief
company history, current financials, fun facts, etc.

• SWOT analysis on IT: what are this company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and
threats that are related to or provided by technologies? You can start your research from a
published SWOT analysis document that you found in a library database or from other sources.
But only collect, report, and present the technology-related strengths, weaknesses, opportunities,
and threats in your project.
• Strategy: What is the company’s strategy focus? (using the three generic ones we talked about
in class) And why? What are the resources and capabilities of the company that allowed it to
maintain that strategy? Provide facts and observations to support your argument. If the
company has multiple strategy foci, you should identify one primary focus and then include the
other foci. Based on your analysis of their current strategy, will you suggest a different focus for
their strategy? And why?

(You are encouraged to apply analytical frameworks you learned from other courses where
relevant, such as Treacy & Wiersema's value disciplines, Porter's value chain, or any other
framework you find applicable.)

• *** IT exemplars and benefits: what are the major and extraordinary examples of ways that
this company uses IT to make a difference or earn competitive advantages in its industry? What
do you think have been the primary value(s) and benefit(s) realized by the company from its IT
use and applications? This should be the most important and interesting part of your entire
company study. Our class and all your audience would love to hear some innovative, bold,
extraordinary (or even bizarre in some cases) transforming technologies used in different
companies. You may want to give more focus and effort to this section.

Alternatively, if you found that this company doesn’t have any significant technologies or is
even behind its competitors in terms of technology advantages, you can use this section to study
the innovative technologies that you want to recommend to this company, to help them increase
their competitive ability and/or achieve their strategic goals, etc. In this case, you can title this
section as IT Suggestions and Benefits.

• Competitors: Who are the major competitors of this company? How do you compare your
selected company with its competitors in terms of the IT applications and strategy? Does this
company have sustainable IT strategy/applications that their competitors cannot easily
duplicate? Do they have any vulnerable points in their IT strategy and applications compared to
their competitors?

• Recent events and future initiatives: Are there any recent IT happenings and changes in this
company? Are there any news and events in the global or nationwide environment (business
pressures) that would impact this company’s IT use and strategy in the near future? What are
the future IT plans of this company? How do you think these events and plans will impact
this company, impact their customers/users, or impact the whole market/industry?

• Conclusion: Overall, do you think this company has a successful IT strategy? How do you
think that the company has benefited from IT? Or is there anything / any change you could
suggest to this company?

Tip: In your research, you should first collect information from various sources about your
company, read and use the information that you find meaningful or valuable to build your
understanding of this company’s IT strategy. You want to find sufficient, updated, and relevant
information that you can use for your project. For example, for each of the topics above, make
sure the information you found and use in your research is IT-related and IT-focused. The
general business strategy in this company may not be a good focus in your research. Limited
information sources, outdated, too general, or less relevant information will not contribute much
to solid and clear research.

Based on the collected information and the understanding you developed, you should also have
your own opinions formed on the above topics. In many items above, the underlined questions
are those in which you can show your own thoughts and opinions. Make sure your research
contains your opinions, instead of just being a summary of the other information and sources.
By nature, business strategies or IT strategies are usually quite different across companies. I hope
the above content guideline will fit or be helpful in most of your research projects.

6. Presentation (Slides due one day before the presentations)

You will prepare a presentation slide file to support your oral speech part. You will have around
15 minutes for the oral presentation, depending on the number of individuals and teams. Thus,
you may need to prepare about 10-15 slides. Too many slides in such a short presentation may
cause a loss of focus.
- Each slide should have a meaningful title
- In each slide, keep the content brief and neat. Use bullet points instead of long paragraphs of
text.
- Be creative in using slide themes, backgrounds, or adding pictures and other objects. But be
careful that 1) do not let your format and decoration outweigh your contents, and 2) always test
and make sure the format and other objects will show neatly and consistently when you run the
presentation.
- If you can find interesting and relevant videos or other interactive elements, feel free to include
them in your presentation. This external content must be relevant and supportive of your project.
The general commercial type of videos may not be a good choice, though. You can add a video
clip (YouTube allows you to embed and play part of the video) or interactive elements to your
presentation. But the total time allowed for these external contents should be controlled to below
2 minutes. They should not overweigh your own contents in this presentation.

Here are some tips for you to prepare for the oral presentation:
- Each member should play a significant part in your presentation.
- Feel free to make and use hand cards if that helps. But please note that the hand cards are
supposed to hint at the headlines or key data. You should be very familiar with your slides and
ready to talk about the detailed contents freely. Reading off from the hand cards or slides may
not work well in such an in-person presentation.
- Be prepared for audience questions. If time allows, I will give some Q&A time at the end of
your presentation.

Submissions:
-Progress Report
- Presentation slides