Assessment  Brief

Submission date, time

The submission deadline is the end of Week 9 – Sunday, December 13 at 23:55 UK time. Submission should be made using the submission point within the CSD3510 module content on MyUniHub’s My Learning.

Submission can be made at any time up until the deadline. Prior to the deadline, resubmission is allowed. On the deadline, the latest submission will be taken as the final submission. No submission is allowed after the deadline.

You should receive a receipt by email for your submission.

If there are issues with access to the submission point, then please email the module leader, Lindsey Brodie (L.Brodie@mdx.ac.uk) attaching your coursework. Your coursework will then be submitted to My Learning at a later date.

If you have a valid reason for delayed submission, such as illness, then please contact UniHelp about submitting for a deferral. You should apply as soon as you realise the situation. If you are granted a deferral and then subsequently submit within the original deadline, the marks for your submitted work will override the deferral.

Feedback type & date

The aim is to provide students with individual feedback within 15 days of their summative coursework submission (January 7). However, this timing will depend on student numbers and in the event of there being a large number of students, more generic feedback shall be provided as an initial response.

Word count

Your assignment should include 1,000 words (+/- 10%). That is roughly 2 pages of A4. Any References section doesn’t count towards the word count (A References section is not expected, but could be given). You should state the word count at the end of your assignment (Use MS Word to generate the word count - this can be found under Tools, which is in the menu at the top of the screen within MS Word).

Your answer must include two diagrams as specified in the set questions below.

Assignment structure, format and details

Case study for Assignment 2

Note, for the purposes of this assignment you are not required to undertake any further research into the situation described in this case study.

New Walgreens Boots Alliance IT network taking shape

BT announced today that it has now connected the first sites as part of its wide scale IT network upgrade for Walgreens Boots Alliance’s European businesses.

The newly connected sites in the UK and Norway represent one of the initial steps in the heath & beauty retailer’s IT transformation programme, and the move is expected to improve the reliability and performance of multiple business systems and applications.

Walgreens and BT recently signed a five-year IT partnership, under which BT is upgrading and expanding the IT infrastructure for many facets of the group, including wholesaler Alliance Healthcare and high street retail business Boots. As part of the arrangement, BT will work with Walgreens Boots Alliance to develop and introduce new digital technologies across its operations which are aimed at boosting employee productivity, improving customer service and fostering innovation.

Once completed, the new BT-managed IT network will serve around 3,500 Boots locations and Alliance Healthcare wholesale and distribution sites across Europe and Thailand.

Erwin van Vroenhoven, vice president, global IT shared services at Walgreens Boots Alliance, commented: ‘Digital innovation is a key area of investment for our company.

‘Our new IT platform, provided by BT, will help us to further improve the customer experience and our colleagues’ productivity, while enabling us to provide innovative services that will help us continue to meet our customers’ ever changing health and beauty needs.’

Connectivity will be provided into Walgreens Boots Alliance’s own data centres and those operated by third parties hosting the company’s business applications and data. Utilising BT’s so-called ‘Cloud of Clouds’ approach to IT, the retailer hopes to gain more control over the performance of its cloud-based applications regardless of where they are hosted, as well as certain security benefits.

BT will also deploy a range of different network access technologies for Boots’ flagship stores in the UK, with these stores set to receive dedicated fibre Ethernet services while other stores will use ‘Ethernet in the First Mile’, superfast broadband and copper-based broadband solutions. These technologies are expected to give stores the bandwidth they require for day-to-day operations and the capacity needed to manage peaks in business demand, such as in the build-up to Christmas and new year.

Emer Timmons, president, strategic deals and customer engagement, BT Global Services, remarked: ‘Our new agreement with Walgreens Boots Alliance is built on our world class service delivery, global reach and a shared appetite for innovation. We will provide seamless connectivity to underpin almost every part of the business, from delivering great retail customer experiences to enabling knowledge sharing and collaboration for new product development.’

Last summer, BT revealed that it had signed up electricals and mobile retailer Dixons Carphone on a five-year network infrastructure deal.

As the project rolls out, BT’s network will carry all of the retailer’s voice and data traffic, supporting its 1,200 stores, offices, data centres, contact centres and supply chain operations across the UK. The arrangement also entails in-store Wi-Fi support, in light of the retailer’s growing reliability on a connected customer service throughout its shops. (Source: Stillitoe, B. (2016) ‘New Walgreens Boots Alliance IT network taking shape’, Essential Retail, 22 Feb [Online]. Accessed 2 September 2016.)

End of Case Study

Questions  (20 marks in total)

1. Consider the IT system described in the case study as a sociotechnical system. Map out the elements of the system using the approach in Activity 1.2 of Block 2 Part 1, by:

 i. drawing a systems map (6 marks)

 ii. developing the systems map into a diagram showing the three components of Technology, Organisation and People. (4 marks)

For each diagram, explain your rationale for the way you have drawn the diagram, for the elements you have included and excluded, and describe the insights you have gained about the system from drawing the diagram (7 marks in total: 6% + 1% for quality of English).

2. In about 150 words, suggest and describe at least three issues of power between at least three of the key stakeholders in this IT system. (3 marks in total: 2% + 1% for quality of English)

To reiterate, your answers to the two questions combined should total no more than 1,000 words, plus in addition there should be two diagrams.

This is an individual coursework.

Please ensure that your student id is given on the first page. Ideally your student id should also be in the header or footer of all subsequent pages.

Providing page numbers in the header or footer of all pages is also helpful.

Please submit your coursework as a single MS Word file as this makes providing feedback easier. Use of the Calibri Body or Arial font, and a fontsize of 12 are recommended.

Use Harvard style referencing where appropriate, however note that referencing is not expected to be required for this assignment.

All submissions must be online within the CSD3510 module area within My Learning. The submission point will  link to Turnitin. A Turnitin report will be generated, which you should examine to check for plagiarism. The Turnitin score should be less than 20%, however this is just a rough guide. You should look at exactly what has been flagged up and use your judgment as to whether it matters (sometimes Turnitin flags things that are not a problem).

As mentioned earlier, you can resubmit your assignment using the submission point as many times as you wish until the deadline. However note that generation of the Turnitin reports will be delayed after the first submission and only be generated after 24 hours. The submission on My Learning at the times of the deadline will be taken as your final submission.

Also please remember to check that you receive an online receipt for your submissions – it will be sent to your University email address.