SWOT Analysis Report: Queensland University ICT Service Project

This report presents a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis of Queensland University's initiative to implement an interactive mobile application designed to connect students, educators, and staff, enhancing access to resources and services. The analysis identifies the university's strengths, such as its innovative reputation, established mobile infrastructure, and high-speed wireless network. Weaknesses include a lack of dedicated IT experts, potential network overload from increased mobile device usage, and aging information systems. Opportunities include innovative learning activities, data collection capabilities, and the consumerization of workplace technology. Threats encompass competition from other institutions, vendor integration costs, privacy concerns, and the assumption that all students have access to smart devices and high-speed internet. The report provides recommendations for short, mid, and long-term implementation, including strategic planning, pilot projects, and the definition of desired outcomes, aiming to increase enrollment and improve subject pass rates.

Running head: SWOT ANALYSIS 1
SWOT Analysis Queensland University
Name:
Institution Affiliation:

SWOT ANALYSIS 2
Task A:
SWOT Analysis
Organization: Queensland University Date:
29/09/2017
Description of current/new ICT service: The institution aims at adopting a interact site (mobile app)
which will be able to connect both the students, educators as well as the professional workers at
the University to be able to access the various resource and services. This interact site would be
accessed through the use of the mobile devices such as the tablets or even the smartphones
(Abrego-Almazán, Tovar & Quintero, 2017). The use of this interactive site would serve as the
point of entry for the purposes of training, collaboration, as well as the administrative services which
are to be access by the students and the employees in the institution.
STRENGTHS
1. This organization has strong reputation
as the leader of innovation. They have
also blended their learning and they
have a distance learning program. This
has enabled many of the students who
are working to access the education all
across the globe. This is an extension of
the online services which would be
convenient to the students who are
studying through the module of distance
learning.
2. The institution also have an extensive
well established mobile infrastructure
which have incorporated on the portals
for both the students and the staff. This
is to enhance the establishment of the
social networking as well as other digital
services and be able to enhance the
online education programs which the
institution has established. The presence
WEAKNESSES
1. Queensland University does not have
sufficient information technology experts
who are devoted towards the development
as well as the maintenance of this new
information program in the long run.
2. The larger number use of the mobile
devices used in the University could
overwhelm the network rendering it to be
slow which would cost the institution to add
more capacity to be to cater to the large
number of students and the staff who are
accessing it.
3. The mobile devices are accessible to many
of the students but the university does not
have internal infrastructure to be able to
support on the modes of the learning which
is available via the mobile technologies.
Currently they are depending the You Tube
as well as Vimeo to be able to upload their
contents.
4. The gateways and the information system in

SWOT ANALYSIS 3
of this infrastructure has enabled
establishment of experience and this has
also helped in reducing on the
prospective of having to undertake
training which is a burden to the
information technology and the
academic employees. Additionally, there
is a high speed wireless network which
is access all throughout the institution.
3. The students who are geographically
dispersed away from the institution have
seen the web as their main channel of
the communication with the institution
and this has prompted to adopted this
interact site application which would be
useful especially in communication.
4. Queensland University have been able
to develop their own application. This
has put them ahead of the other
institution which are within Australia.
Further, the databases as well as the
other resources which are subscribed to
the library they have an inbuilt
application of mobile and this
functionality could be integrated into this
new interact application. Moreover, other
services such as those used in teaching,
research as well as administrative
departments would be incorporated.
5. Many of the staffs have been engaged to
the researching of the mobile learning
innovations as well as the best practices.
This project on the mobile learning has
been there for a number of years now.
the organization are aging since they have
been operating these system or long and
sometime these systems could overlap on
the system. Sometimes the students could
be confused about the portals.

SWOT ANALYSIS 4
OPPORTUNITIES
1. The use of the mobile could raise on the
prospect of innovative learning as well
as assessment activities for all the
students especially the distance
education students and those who are
engaged in the working learning. Using
the mobile devices one can collect data,
access the data as well as other
activities of research by the employees
when they are travelling away from the
university. The new application would
be helpful since it would offers storage of
the information for the students and the
employees.
2. The computing technology has been
moving toward the development of the
mobile computing as well as the next
wave of netbooks as well as the tablets
which have been marketed to the
students. These technology have
incorporated portability, price saving as
well as functionality as compared to the
use of the traditional devices (Seeholzer,
2015).
3. Both the students and the staff all across
the campuses and locations could
collaborate through the video
conferencing as well as use of the other
collaborate application which may be
included in the platform.
4. There would be consumerisation
especially of the workplace technology
such as the ‘bring your own device’
concept. Many of the employees and the
staff would prefer to bring their own
devices to the institution. The University
would save significantly since they would
THREATS
1. It would be difficult to anticipate the devices
especially with the rate of the innovation
which is taking place at the mobile
computing market.
2. There is increase in the competition
especially to the distance learning education
from various Universities overseas and
those also in Australia. In Australia there are
more than ten institution which are utilizing
have such technology that have integrated
on the LMS models. In the overseas
institution they are offering more
sosphicated mobile learning programs and
some have even been released free of
charge to the MOOC platforms such as the
edX along with (Coursera & Flouris, 2017).
3. There would be a need for the vendor to be
incorporated to these new system, which is
an additional cost since the institution had
already incorporated other vendors in their
previous system.
4. The use of this system does not provide
guarantee to privacy to information of the
users. There is no guarantee to the external
application which are integrated into the
platform of the University. The institution
would have to rely on the employees and
the staff to provide their own accounts as
well as manage their own privacy to
information. Most of these users expect the
support of the institution to offer them
privacy and they may hold them responsible
to any of the damages.
5. The speed of the owning a smart phone has
been accelerating over the year. However,
the university should not assume that all the
students have an access to these devices.
Moreover, it should not be assumed that the

SWOT ANALYSIS 5
not buy additional devices which the
student and the staff would use.
students will have an access to a high
speed wireless networks each time. Most of
the phone users usually depend on the
older network and they have limited data
allowances.
Summary and Recommendations:
The mobility aspect usually causes both challenges and opportunities for the universities globally,
which extend the reach off institution such as Queensland which could transform on the expectation
of the employees and the students who have a relationship with the providers of the education
along with the employers. In a number of years this institution has been exploring on the aspect of
mobility which has influence on the education from various angles through the use of the interact
technology in their mobile learning project (Almazán, Tovar & Quintero, 2017). This institution is
one of the leading providers to the distance learning education in Australia with their unique
disperse of the students population who have been studying wide ranges of different subjects. This
institution has been poised to avail the opportunities which are brought by the aspect of innovation
when it comes to the mobile computing technology (Bull, Jobstvogt, Böhnke-Henrichs,
Mascarenhas, Sitas, Baulcomb & Carter-Silk, 2016). Currently, the institution is utilizing web 1.0
technology in their existing portal and the organization intends to adopt a web 2.0 enabled sites
where the students as well as the staff will be able to access it even if they are not within the
premises of the university. The current system lacks capability of tools for communication as well
as collaborated technology which is available outside the organization. In the program which they
intend to implement would incorporate these aspects.
The adoption of the mobile platform would offer a unique opportunity in promoting wider use of the
Queensland University to their existing mobile application by making them to be accessible as well
as findable a single entry point in the application. This mobile interface project they intend to
implement would demonstrate how an integral enterprise practices architecture would govern the
information technology in the complex organization such as this institution particularly in their
distributed teaching as well as research functions all across various regions.
Short Term (Now)
The enterprise Architecture office will have an oversight for the research and planning aspects
which would be done before commencement of this project. There would be investigation and
survey which will be carried out and it will involve the employees from several divisions as well as
sections of the University especially in the learning student department, library as well as the
information technology services. There would be also support strategic goals which would be
developed to be able to achieve the project. When beginning the project it would be important to
identify on all the generic as well as the functionalities for the teaching along with the learning that
would be priorities in the mobile application as well as the interface.
Mid Term (next 12 months)

SWOT ANALYSIS 6
 In this medium term the following are the things which the organization intends to
accomplish;
 Addressing of the issues which have been brought by both the students and the staff in the
evaluations of the interact, as well as assessment of the possibility to be able to make
appropriate adjustments.
 They would also conduct an analysis for all the possible course which will be offered in the
organization for the online learning and they would involve the adjusting of the practical
elements of the subject.
 They would also need develop an online guide on how to use the interact site which may
comprise of the information for the users who are new and they would need to also
highlights what each tab as well as the toolbar on the subject site means.
 They would also need to undertake research towards the delivery of elements of interact via
the format of the application. The research would also focus on the possible costs, benefits
as well as similar strategies particularly in the current market.
Long Term (next 3 to 5 years)
In the long terms there are various aspects which the Institution will implement the following list
highlights these element;
In the next three to five years there will be integration of the interact to the mobile platform. There
would be a pilot project which would be done especially other university serving as a model. The
pilot would be limited to a number of the subject in the first year of the project and these pilot would
continue.
The institution need to define the output or the end result they want to achieve: This will increase on
the enrolment as well as the subject pass margin by establishing Queensland University as the
Green University and increase the ranges to different courses that are provided by the distance via
the interact (Brooks, Heffner & Henderson, 2014).
Another thing would be for every output, it is important to list all the necessary steps for achieving it.
This would be done through collating the information which is gathered in the competitor’s graduate
comparisons as well as evaluation forms. The institution would design and deploy the marketing
strategies which have been pitched at Queensland University.

SWOT ANALYSIS 7

SWOT ANALYSIS 8
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