Reference no: EM133166741

BSBSMB412 Introduce cloud computing into business operations

Assessment Task: Review business needs and cloud computing services

Task summary
For this assessment task, you are required to determine the current and future needs of a case study company by interviewing the company's owner and writing a report on this. You will then be required to research, and write a report on, cloud computing options that may benefit the business.

Assessment Task 1 Instructions

Carefully read the following:

Accounting Incorporated is a small business that Sally Tan began ten years ago. It specialises in providing accounting document templates for small and medium businesses. These include invoices, order forms, and accounting spreadsheets.

Sally works with three colleagues on most projects. Each contributes a resource, or several, and then edits or proofreads each other's documents.

Currently, Accounting Incorporated has created resources for more than 50 businesses, and the list is growing. Sally keeps a copy of each resource on her computer's hard drive, carefully filed so they are easy to access. Sally distributes these to her colleagues when they need to be written or reviewed as email attachments, and they pass them to each other in the same way when they need assistance.

Sally has found this shuffling of resources to be time consuming and efficient, especially when several people need to be working on one unit at the same time. She feels that they are safe on her hard drive, and she backs them up regularly. But with over 1,000 documents, it is getting unwieldly, and colleagues have suggested to Sally that she look for a cloud-based solution to her filing problems.

You have recently been hired as Accounting Incorporated's Administration Manager, a position that did not exist previously. One of your first jobs will be to determine whether there is a cloud-based solution to the company's resources issues.

Complete the following activities:

Question 1. Meet with Sally Tan (your assessor).
The objective of this meeting is for you to find out all that you need to know about the company's computing needs.

Your assessor will give you the place, date and time of your meeting.

During the meeting, you will be required to do the following:

• Determine the company's current computing resources
• Identify and discuss the company's future computing needs
• Determine what improvements need to be made to business operations

Feel free to discuss the company's future computing needs with Sally, making suggestions and discussing the options. You will be writing a report on this following the meeting, but this exchange gives you the opportunity to discuss some of your ideas with your employer before you begin the report.

During the meeting, you are required to demonstrate effective communication skills including:
• Speaking clearly and concisely
• Using non-verbal communication to assist with understanding
• Asking questions to identify required information
• Responding to questions as required
• Using active listening techniques to confirm understanding
 
Question 2. Write a computing needs report.
Following the meeting with Sally, you are required to develop a report that documents the company's current computing resources and what its computing needs will be in the future.

Your report should be between half a page and one-page long.

Your report should include the following:
• Current computing resources
• Current uses of computing resources
• Anticipated future computing needs (over the next three years).
• What changes should be made to how the business operates.

Use the Computing Needs Report Template to guide your work.

Question 3. Write a cloud computing report.
When you have established what Accounting Incorporated's computing needs are, research cloud computing options to determine whether they could deliver what Accounting Incorporated needs.

Your report should be about three pages long and include the following:
• An explanation of the fundamentals of cloud computing. Sally has a fairly basic level of computer literacy, so ensure that the explanation is aimed at her level.
• The types of services offered that would be useful to Accounting Incorporated.
• Relevant legislation, regulations, standards and codes
• Details of at least three companies that offer services that could be used by Accounting Incorporated.
• The details of three experts (either individuals or companies) that could advise Sally about her company's move to cloud computing. This should include their name, the address of their website and a summary of what services they provide.
• A summary of the business protocols that would need to be followed when using the services of the specialist advisors you have listed.
• Any other sources of information where Sally could learn about cloud computing.
• A basic cost-benefit analysis of the move to cloud computing. You are also required to describe how you undertook the analysis.
• Identifying any potential risks of moving to cloud computing.
• Potential opportunities and risks associated with introducing cloud computing to Accounting Incorporated.
• Your recommendation of what type of cloud computing service would be appropriate for Sally's needs.
• Make a business case for using cloud computing in the future.

Use the Cloud Computing Report Template to guide your work.

Question 4. Send an email to Sally (your assessor).
Although Sally's desk is next to yours, you are required to send the reports that you have written to Sally as email attachments, so she can read (and ponder) them in her own time.

The text of the email should be in grammatically correct English, written in an appropriate (polite, business-like) style.

It should introduce and summarise the contents of the attachments and seek their feedback and approval to move forward with the project.