World University: IT Management Issues and Business Process Analysis

This report analyzes IT management issues at World University, a provider of online courses. The case study examines the university's business model, including its customer loyalty scheme and provision of laptops. The discussion section highlights the importance of integrating compliance and ri...Read More

Running head: IT MANAGEMENT ISSUES
IT MANAGEMENT ISSUES
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note:

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Executive Summary
In the following report, the case study of World University has been provided and assessed.
World University consists of a number of Private universities from all over the world. The
lectures provided by renowned professors from well-known universities worldwide. The
report discusses the case study in brief and highlights the decisions that were taken by the
management team of the organization. In the discussion section of the report, two business
processes have been highlighted and explained that can enhance the existing business model
of the university. The role of social media to promote the existing business model has been
explained and proper recommendations have been provided.

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Discussion..................................................................................................................................3
Case Study..............................................................................................................................3
Decisions of the Senior Management....................................................................................4
Two Business Processes for Enhancing the business model.................................................4
Role of Social Media to Promote Business Model................................................................5
Recommendations......................................................................................................................8
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................9
References................................................................................................................................10

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Introduction
Information technology (IT) refers to any computer related technology such as
software, internet, hardware and networking that is used to execute or complete a business
process of a particular organization (Dahlstrom, Walker & Dziuban, 2013). The information
technology is implemented by several organisations with the only motive of simplifying the
business operations, controlling the business technical area and managing the organizational
computer networks. For implementing IT in any type of business, IT management is a
significant factor. The IT management helps to control every layer of the information system.
In the following report, a real world scenario of World University has been taken. The
report discusses the decisions taken by the senior management. Business models have been
proposed and the role of social media to promote the business model has been evaluated and
explained.
Discussion
Case Study
In the following case study, a group of private universities collectively known as
World University provides students from all over the world with online courses. The students
get the advantage of availing the online courses form any part of the world anytime. The
interactions as well as the classes are all done through the internet online (Jones et al., 2014).
The lecturers that are involved with the online courses come from renowned universities from
all around the world and the technology has a lot of potential in bringing a major revolution
in the education sector.

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Decisions of the Senior Management
The senior management team of the university took the decision of implementing
Study together (a customer loyalty scheme). Under the scheme, the students will receive a
credit fee for every student they refer (Laudon & Laudon, 2015). Through a credit card or
PayPal, the credit fee is paid to the students. These schemes are implemented to enhance
customer engagement and the applications are much faster than the other universities.
Another decision taken by the management team was to provide every student with a
laptop. This negates the need for buying an E-book or laptop for availing the online courses.
The laptops that are provided by World University are configured beforehand for the
students. The necessary softwares will be pre-installed in the laptop (Bardhan & Thouin,
2013). The price of the laptop is included within the course fees of the online education.
Two Business Processes for Enhancing the business model
Business processes are defined as a particular set of activities that help to achieve the
objectives and goals of a particular organization and helps in the proper delivery of services t
the prospective client. In the following discussion, two business processes have been
mentioned that will enhance the business model of World University:-
i) Integration of Compliance: To enhance the business model of World University,
the first proposed business process is to increase the compliance within the business.
Compliance refers to legal checking and safety audits. These certification is used by
organizations to justify certain requirement that are associated with legislations, standards
and regulations (Wagner, Beimborn & Weitzel, 2014). These regulations and rules are
extremely important and must be adhered to by the students as well as the staffs of the
university. This business process of compliance needs to be incorporated in the business
model of World University as it will reduce the chance of any illegal activities within the

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business (Kellermann & Jones, 2013). With the incorporation of compliance in the business
model, the students will feel safer and secure to avail the online services.
ii) Risk Management process: The risk management process is another business
process that can be integrated within the business model of World University. The process of
properly prioritizing, calculating and recognizing different types of risks is known as risk
management (Bilbao-Osorio, Dutta & Lanvin, 2013). The risk is managed by properly
allocating different resources minimizing the chances of unfortunate events. These enhances
the opportunities and situational utilities (Sun & Jeyaraj, 2013). The best part of risk
management is that it provides an assurance for the uncertain events which helps in
preventing the degradation of services of World University. Hence, adopting the business
process of risk management will enable World University to reduce the threats and risks that
are associated with the business model. Risk management also enables the organization to
prevent errors, loss of information and control the risks.
Thus, adopting both the business process in the business model of World University
will enable the organization to enhance its business operations in the future.
Role of Social Media to Promote Business Model
The social media platform can be perceived as a technology which is computer aided
and helps in the creation and sharing of information, career interests, expressions and
ideologies in a virtualized communication or a virtualized network (Schwalbe, 2015). The
social media provides a number of communication nodes. This is one of the main advantages
of using social media. For promotion of their business model, World University should
incorporate the usage of social media in their business model.
Being a new university with a number of online courses, World University should be
careful with their marketing processes. The students should be able to understand their

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courses promptly and easily. Social media has a number of advantages with business and
World University should use it to promote their business model (Bloom et al., 2014). Some of
the various roles of social media for World University has been mentioned as follows:-
i) Target Audience interaction: Social media can be used in the business model of
World University to interact properly with the target customers (students). For the mentioned
scenario, the target customers are the students who are opting for the online courses. The
students will be able to utilize the social media to comment their feedbacks and posts in the
registered social pages of World University. The responses and feedbacks can be utilized by
World University to assess their business model and improve upon it for enhancing their
brand image (Eason, 2014). Moreover, with the change in business processes the students can
face issues in consulting with the concerned authorities (Schnoll, 2015). These issues can be
addressed with the help of social media as it provides an alternative to contact with the
University directly and address their requirements. This will help World University in
properly resolving their problems.
ii) Enhancing the Responsiveness: Another role that social media can play in
improving the business model of World University is in increasing the responsiveness. The
social media platforms can be utilized to access and provide feedbacks for any type of queries
by prospective students (Holtshouse, 2013). The students will be able to provide their queries
online on the social media platforms about their courses and the University will be able to
promptly reply them back without any extra processes. This will increase the satisfaction rate
of students as well as other customers in the long run.
iii) Market and competitive Position: Third, the inclusion of social media in the
business processes of World University will enable it to understand about its market position
in the current market environment and even assess the position of potential competitors. The

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social media will allow the organization to check the feedbacks of the other potential
Universities who provide online courses just like World University (Lloyd, 2017). This will
allow World University to improve upon their business processes and gain competitive
advantage from their competitors.
iv) Efficient Marketing: Another role of social media in the business processes of
World University is efficient marketing. The social media can be used for generating various
feedbacks and interest groups for World University. These feedbacks are read by other
prospective students which is itself a marketing strategy (Han & Mithas, 2013). The
responses of the followers can be used for blatant marketing and helps to provide other
marketing approaches. Moreover, World University can use the social media to market their
courses as well as other details regarding the University to other customers which will help in
enhancing their brand image in front of other prospective competitors (Mishra, Akman &
Mishra, 2014). The student and lecturer discussions can help in improving the awareness
about the University.
v) Searching process of Students: World University will gain the advantage of
efficiently searching for students worldwide with the usage of social media. The social media
will allow the university to contact any student from all over the world anytime they want.
Moreover, they can share their competitive advantage with the students through the social
media as a common platform (Galegher, Kraut & Egido, 2014). The need for allocating extra
resources to search for prospective students will be negated due to the usage of social media
in the business processes of World University.
vi) Easy affordability: Another advantage that social media can provide for World
University is with its easy affordability. The usage of social media does not come with
significant costs and can be accessed by all. The overall budget of World University is

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significantly lower than traditional universities due to its online nature of business conduit.
As marketing campaigns require a huge capital investment, World University can take the
advantage of social media to promote its marketing strategies (Luftman et al., 2013). The
social media platform will allow World University to operate in a cost effective way.
vii) Database Maintenance: Another way by which social media can help in
promoting the business model of World University is in database maintenance. Every social
media has an inherent database that saves all the activities of the user which can be previewed
later. This in built databases can be utilized by World University for marinating student
activity information in a cost effective way.
Recommendations
Despite providing various online courses, World University has a number of issues.
The following recommendations that will help in addressing the issues are mentioned as
follows in the recommendation section.
First, the risk management process needs to be included in the business process
efficiently. The risk management process will allow World University to potentially identify
the incoming threats and devise a solution for mitigating them. It is highly recommended for
World University to include risk management in their business model.
The second recommendation would be to include law and regulations in the business process.
This will allow World University to properly address the illegal and unscrupulous activities
that occur in their business in the future. This will also increase the sense of security among
the students who avail their online courses.
The third recommendation would be the appropriate incorporation of the IT system
within the business. The IT system will enable the organization to store information

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effectively and maintain its integrity simultaneously. The University can also secure its
confidential data with the proper implantation of the IT system.
Conclusion
Thus, it can be concluded that the certain business processes that are mentioned in the
report need to be included in the business model of World University for better efficiency of
the system. Moreover, the business processes have been evaluated and discussed in the
discussion section of the report. The report also discusses the role of social media that will
allow the University to promote it business model has been discussed and explained
appropriately. Certain recommendations for improving the business model has been assessed
and evaluated. The utilization of IT system in World University will allow it to improve it
business model and reap certain benefits which its competitors cannot. Moreover, the proper
utilization of social media as well as the mentioned business processes will allow the
organization to enjoy certain benefits that will allow the organisation to grow even further.
The online process of conducting its business gives World University an added advantage but
it has its own set of issues. Certain recommendations have been proposed keeping in view the
effectively of the issues. The recommendations need to properly assessed by the University to
properly address the issues and help in its further development and promotion of its business
model.

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References
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quality and cost of healthcare delivery. Decision Support Systems, 55(2), 438-449.
Bilbao-Osorio, B., Dutta, S., & Lanvin, B. (2013, April). The global information technology
report 2013. In World Economic Forum (pp. 1-383).
Bloom, N., Garicano, L., Sadun, R., & Van Reenen, J. (2014). The distinct effects of
information technology and communication technology on firm
organization. Management Science, 60(12), 2859-2885.
Dahlstrom, E., Walker, J. D., & Dziuban, C. (2013). ECAR study of undergraduate students
and information technology. 2013.
Eason, K. D. (2014). Information technology and organisational change. CRC Press.
Galegher, J., Kraut, R. E., & Egido, C. (2014). Intellectual teamwork: Social and
technological foundations of cooperative work. Psychology Press.
Han, K., & Mithas, S. (2013). Information technology outsourcing and non-IT operating
costs: An empirical investigation. Mis Quarterly, 37(1).
Holtshouse, D. K. (2013). Information technology for knowledge management. Springer
Science & Business Media.
Jones, S. S., Rudin, R. S., Perry, T., & Shekelle, P. G. (2014). Health information technology:
an updated systematic review with a focus on meaningful use. Annals of internal
medicine, 160(1), 48-54.

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Kellermann, A. L., & Jones, S. S. (2013). What it will take to achieve the as-yet-unfulfilled
promises of health information technology. Health affairs, 32(1), 63-68.
Laudon, K. C., & Laudon, J. P. (2015). Management Information Systems: Managing the
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Lloyd, I. (2017). Information technology law. Oxford University Press.
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Key information technology and management issues 2012–2013: an international
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Mishra, D., Akman, I., & Mishra, A. (2014). Theory of reasoned action application for green
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Schnoll, H. J. (2015). E-government: Information, technology, and transformation.
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Schwalbe, K. (2015). Information technology project management. Cengage Learning.
Sun, Y., & Jeyaraj, A. (2013). Information technology adoption and continuance: A
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Wagner, H. T., Beimborn, D., & Weitzel, T. (2014). How social capital among information
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