IMS5052 Enterprise Systems , Unit Information Guide (Semester 1, 2006)

The unit provides students with an understanding of Enterprise Systems (also known as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems) and of their use within the business environment. The unit focuses on issues, problems and strategies of concern to the Systems Analyst in the selection, implementation and management of Enterprise Systems in large organisations. Topics include an outline of what Enterprise Systems are used for, approaches to selecting and implementing Enterprise Systems, their infrastructural and technological architecture requirements, and the strategic opportunities they offer.

It is intended that students will develop attitudes which enable the setting of reasonable expectations for Enterprise Systems performance, that they can value the perspectives of all clients affected by the Enterprise System implementations and value the maintenance of the highest ethical and professional standards by the analyst in evaluating, selecting and deploying Enterprise Systems packages.

The communicative objectives of the unit are for students to be able to work as part of a team retrieving, analysing, evaluating and presenting the findings of an ES/ERP related evaluation, and to be able to communicate ES/ERP related issues to professional work groups in their respective organisations.

24 credit points of IMS 9000-level units, or equivalent; or 24 credit points of graduate level units in the Master of Information Management and Systems, Master of Information Management and Systems (Professional), Master of Information Technology or the Master of Business Systems, or equivalent; or an approved undergraduate degree in information systems (IS) or information management (IM) or equivalent. You should have foundation knowledge in information management and systems fundamentals.

Required text(s)

No specific text is required to be purchased. However the readings in Recommended reading below will prove useful.

Text books are available from the Monash University Book Shops. Availability from other suppliers cannot be assured. The Bookshop orders texts in specifically for this unit. You are advised to purchase your text book early.

Hardware requirements:

On-campus students may use the facilities available in the computing labs. Having your own personal computer capable of running the Microsoft suite of productivity tools will be convenient when preparing assignments. Information about computer use for students is available from the ITS Student Resource Guide in the Monash University Handbook.

Monk, Wagner. (2006). Concepts in Enterprise Resource Planning. 2e. Thompson Learning, Boston.

Sumner. (2005). Enterprise Resource Planning. Pearson Education Inc., New Jersey.

Britton, Bye. (2004). IT Architectures and Middleware. 2e. Addison-Wesley, Boston.

Goldman, Rawles, Mariga. (2001). Client/Server Information Systems: A Business-Oriented Approach. John Wiley & Sons Inc., New York.

Study resources for IMS5052 are:

Lecture slides indicating the topics of discussion each week. Please note, these are outlines only and do not contain all the information necessary to be successful in this unit.

Tutorial activity specifications.

Assignment specifications.

Reading list of a selection of relevent journal articles.

The urls of various relevent web sites.

The timetable for on-campus classes for this unit can be viewed in Allocate+

Assessment for the unit consists of five (5) items of practical work with a total value of 50% and an examination with a value of 50%. Read this section VERY carefully.

An examination of two (2) hours duration will be scheduled in the University's formal mid-year examination period. You must make yourself available for this examination.

Practical work consists of:

Two critiques of relevent peer reviewed journal articles (2 * 7.5 = 15%)

A group-authored research report on a topic to be advised in the tutorial of week 3 (15%)

A group presentation of the findings of your research report (10%)

Contribution to discussions of each presentation, evaluated by the tutor (10%)

To pass this unit you must:

Obtain a minimum of 50% of all available marks.

In addition, hurdle requirements apply to your marks. You must obtain at least 40% of the available examination marks, and you must obtain at least 40% of the available practical marks, taken as a whole,  to be eligible to pass.

If you fail either of the 40% hurdle requirements a final mark of no more than 44% will be returned to the Board of Examiners regardless of your numeric total of marks. 

Your score for the unit will be calculated by:

adding up the scores for all items of assessment.

Assessment Requirements

Assignment specifications will be made available on the IMS5052 unit web site. Information about assignments will be published on the Unit's Notices Newsgroup.

Assignments are to be submitted by paper submission to your tutor. Submit the assignment by 3.00pm Friday of the week in which it falls due, with the appropriate cover sheet correctly filled out and attached. Assignments without a correctly filled out cover sheet will not be assessed.

Be sure to read and understand the undertakings that you will be making in signing the cover sheet.

Late submission of assignments

Assignments received after the due date will be subject to a penalty of 10% of available marks for that item of assessment per calendar day. Submissions made more than one (1) week after the due date, without an approved extension, will not normally be accepted.

This policy is strict because comments or guidance will be given on assignments as they are returned, and sample solutions may also be published and distributed, after assignment marking or with the returned assignment. 

Extensions

It is your responsibility to structure your study program around assignment deadlines, family, work and other commitments. Factors such as normal work pressures, vacations, etc. are seldom regarded as appropriate reasons for granting extensions. 

Requests for extensions must be made in person or by email to the unit lecturer before the due date. You will be asked to forward original medical certificates in cases of illness, and may be asked to provide other forms of documentation where necessary. A copy of the email or other written communication of an extension must be attached to the assignment submission.

Applying for an extension does not guarantee that an extension will be granted.

Grading of assessment

Assignments, and the unit, will be marked and allocated a grade according to the following scale:

We will aim to have assignment results made available to you within two weeks after the assignment due date.

You will receive feedback on your work and progress in this unit. This feedback may be provided through your participation in tutorials and class discussions, as well as through your assignment submissions. It may come in the form of individual advice, marks and comments, or it may be provided as comment or reflection targeted at the group. It may be provided through personal interactions, such as interviews and on-line forums, or through other mechanisms such as on-line self-tests and publication of grade distributions.

You will be asked to provide feedback to the Faculty through a Unit Evaluation survey at the end of the semester. You may also be asked to complete surveys to help teaching staff improve the unit and unit delivery. Your input to such surveys is very important to the faculty and the teaching staff in maintaining relevant and high quality learning experiences for our students.

It is essential that you take action immediately if you realise that you have a problem with your study. The semester is short, so we can help you best if you let us know as soon as problems arise. Regardless of whether the problem is related directly to your progress in the unit, if it is likely to interfere with your progress you should discuss it with your lecturer or a Community Service counsellor as soon as possible.

Plagiarism and cheating are regarded as very serious offences. In cases where cheating  has been confirmed, students have been severely penalised, from losing all marks for an assignment, to facing disciplinary action at the Faculty level. While we would wish that all our students adhere to sound ethical conduct and honesty, I will ask you to acquaint yourself with Student Rights and Responsibilities and the Faculty regulations that apply to students detected cheating as these will be applied in all detected cases.

In this University, cheating means seeking to obtain an unfair advantage in any examination or any other written or practical work to be submitted or completed by a student for assessment. It includes the use, or attempted use, of any means to gain an unfair advantage for any assessable work in the unit, where the means is contrary to the instructions for such work. 

When you submit an individual assessment item, such as a program, a report, an essay, assignment or other piece of work, under your name you are understood to be stating that this is your own work. If a submission is identical with, or similar to, someone else's work, an assumption of cheating may arise. If you are planning on working with another student, it is acceptable to undertake research together, and discuss problems, but it is not acceptable to jointly develop or share solutions unless this is specified by your lecturer. 

Intentionally providing students with your solutions to assignments is classified as "assisting to cheat" and students who do this may be subject to disciplinary action. You should take reasonable care that your solution is not accidentally or deliberately obtained by other students. For example, do not leave copies of your work in progress on the hard drives of shared computers, and do not show your work to other students. If you believe this may have happened, please be sure to contact your lecturer as soon as possible.

Cheating also includes taking into an examination any material contrary to the regulations, including any bilingual dictionary, whether or not with the intention of using it to obtain an advantage.

Plagiarism involves the false representation of another person's ideas, or findings, as your own by either copying material or paraphrasing without citing sources. It is both professional and ethical to reference clearly the ideas and information that you have used from another writer. If the source is not identified, then you have plagiarised work of the other author. Plagiarism is a form of dishonesty that is insulting to the reader and grossly unfair to your student colleagues.

The preferred way of communicating with your lecturer and tutors is through email. A schedule of face-to-face consultation times with the lecturer and the tutors will be published on the unit web site.

To avoid the possibility of your message being filtered out, please send email messages from your Monash student account.

Notices related to the unit during the semester will be placed on the Notices Newsgroup in the Unit Website. Check this regularly. Failure to read the Notices newsgroup is not regarded as grounds for special consideration.

Consultation Times

Please check the IMS5052 unit web site for scheduled times.

If direct communication with your unit adviser/lecturer or tutor outside of consultation periods is needed you may contact the lecturer and/or tutors at:

Mr Andrew Barnden
Senior Lecturer
Phone +61 3 990 32469
Fax +61 3 990 32005

All email communication to you from your lecturer will occur through your Monash student email address. Please ensure that you read it regularly, or forward your email to your main address. Also check that your contact information registered with the University is up to date in My.Monash.