E-BUSINESS AND E-COMMERCE report

INF6003 Assessment Outline 2015-16
This individual assessment consists of (1) a business plan (75%), and (2) a peer evaluation and self reflection (25%). To pass the module students are required to pass both components. The deadline for the coursework submission is no later than 10am Wednesday 1st June 2016. The two components should be submitted together as one single document through Turnitin. A hard copy of the assignment is not required.
I. A BUSINESS PLAN 75% (2,250 WORDS)
You will develop a business plan for your own ecommerce start-up company. Your business idea should (1) reflect the current trends in the digital economy (2) be creative and innovative.
Learning Objectives:
• to make a link between concepts and practice
• to develop a better understanding of e-Commerce through developing a business
plan
• to acquires skills of developing a business model
• to appreciate creative/innovative thinking.
The Contents of the Business Model Report
Your business plan should include the following components:
1. Executive Summary (not included in the words count)
The Executive Summary should summarise your business model in a nutshell. The summary should explain what your business is, describe the products and services that you are offering to the target customers/clients, highlight your value propositions, outline revenue streams and identify target customers. The Executive Summary should be a page long. It is critical because, if done well, it will convince potential investors to continue reading your business plan.
2. Vision and Mission Statement
The vision statement is a company’s road map. It indicates what the company wants to become in the future and sets its direction.
The mission statement indicates what company the does and what its purpose is.
3. Business model (You must read the key textbook, ‘Business Model Generation’ in order to know what is to be included in each subsection)
3.1. Value propositions
3.2. Customer segments 3.3. Channels
3.4. Customer relationships 3.5. Revenue streams
3.6. Key resources 3.7. Key activities 3.8. Key partnerships 3.9. Cost structure
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4. Market Analysis
This section is for you to justify your choice of market segmentation(s). You need to identify market trends relevant to your offerings in order to convince people that there is a growing market/demand for your products/service. You also need to identify existing competitors who offer the same or similar products to yours, then compare and contrast your competitors’ offerings with your own.
5. Appendix (not included in the word count)
5.1. Business model canvas: you need to include different versions of your
business model canvas
**** You must first read and understand Business Model Generation by Osterwalder Pigneur (2010) before you write up the plan. This is a core text for the module and is listed in the module outline.
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II. PEER AND SELF EVALUATION, 25% (750 WORDS) Learning objectives:
• to develop your communication skill through interaction with peers
• to enhance your understanding of business model generation through giving
constructive feedback to your peers
• to develop critical analytical skill through evaluating others’ work.
This peer evaluation and self reflection will detail your work on tasks 6 & 7. 1) Complete peer evaluation forms (5%)
• Using the peer evaluation form, write comments on the quality of feedback received from each member of your group (e.g. did he/she give you good quality feedback? Why do you think it was good/bad?); and on the quality of your peers’ involvement (e.g. was he/she active in giving feedback? Did he/she respond well to your feedback?)
• Also include a reflection on the quality of your feedback to others in your group (e.g. did you think that your feedback was constructive and fair? What evidence do you have which makes you believe that your feedback was good/bad?)
2) Self reflection (20%)
• List the at least three most helpful comments that were made about your business idea.
• For each of these comments, detail what you did to address the comment and to improve your proposal.
• Link your improvements to insights that have come from the lecture material including references to sources that have been useful.