General Business and IT Consulting

XBIT 4500
Closed
Ontario Tech University
Oshawa, Ontario, Canada
CM
Capstone and Internship Coordinator
(11)
4
General
  • Undergraduate; 4th year
  • 40 learners; teams of 3
  • 80 hours per learner
  • Dates set by experience
  • Learners self-assign
Preferred companies
  • 1/5 project matches
  • Anywhere
  • Academic experience
  • Any
  • Any
Categories
General Market research Financial services Digital marketing Change management Information technology
Skills
organizational theories consulting
Project timeline
  • May 8, 2023
    Experience start
  • May 9, 2023
    Project Scope Meeting
  • August 8, 2023
    Experience end
Overview
Details

This unique program offers students an opportunity to provide real-world consulting services to a host business or organization. Theory and concepts learned in class will be applied to actual business issues and provide critical analyses that deliver sound strategies and recommendations.

Learner skills
Organizational theories, Consulting
Deliverables
  • Project plan and weekly status reports
  • Final project report with recommendations and an executive summary
  • Presentation of recommendations from top one or two teams (via a virtual webinar format)
Project Examples

Accounting and Finance:

Statistical Analysis

The appropriate model will be developed to predict how much a customer will spend at your business. This development will include the following:

  1. Performing the appropriate statistical regression modelling techniques—in this case, a multiple regression statistical model.
  2. Determining which data attributes provided are predictive.
  3. Interpreting the model output.
  4. Providing the formula from the statistical model that can be used to predict what a customer will spend.
  5. Students will design, interpret, and provide the statistical regression model for your business to predict customer spend.

Financial Business Plan

  1. Sales forecasting
  2. Expense budget
  3. Income projections (conservative and aggressive)
  4. Assets and liabilities
  5. Break-even analysis
  6. Future recommendations

Financial Risk Analysis

  1. Application of mathematical/statistical analysis and computing methods to analyze data.
  2. Estimation of the volatility, correlation for returns, forward contracts, and industry-specific futures.
  3. Presenting findings on market risk exposure and provide recommendations.
  4. By using private (provided by your organization) and publicly available data on industry-specific derivatives, students will also perform a sensitivity analysis to identify the reliability of risk estimates.

Technology Management:

Software Lifecycle Analysis

  1. Recommendations to improving your existing software development lifecycle methodologies.
  2. Determining if you should use a waterfall approach or an agile approach.
  3. Researching tools for continuous delivery or integration.

CRM Evaluation

  1. Mapping your needs to core features.
  2. Researching pricing.
  3. Evaluating implementation costs.
  4. Defining user adoption and training requirements.
  5. Assessing compatibility with existing systems.
  6. Outlining reporting capabilities.
  7. Evaluating Scalability.
  8. Evaluating ROI.
  9. Developing an implementation plan and timelines.

Networking and IT Security:

Real-Time Data Visualization

  1. A charting system with basic querying functionality.
  2. A dashboard to visualize key performance metrics of your organization or tool.
  3. Outcomes
  4. The original documentation for the architectural design of the system.
  5. The source code for the system implemented.

Database Analysis

  1. Finding an improved data storage solution.
  2. Decreasing query execution time.
  3. Improving and normalizing table schema.
  4. A report detailing the problem, recommended solutions, and concrete action plan including code/sql/scheme to put the solution into place.
  5. All source code used throughout the project, in the form of an online repository (github, gitlabetc.) or a compressed folder (zip, tar). Please ensure we have sufficient privileges to view any online source code.

IT Security Analysis

  1. Analyze data from cybersecurity incidents
  2. Implement/Deploy new cybersecurity applications
  3. Penetration testing of new applications
  4. Assist with reviewing and creating cybersecurity policies
  5. Design & deliver cybersecurity awareness training
  6. Research & deliver a risk assessment for the organization
  7. Review technology architecture of an organization and deliver a report on how to improve
  8. Vulnerability analysis report

Organizational Behaviour and Human Resources:

Health and Wellness Program Development

  1. A review of your current Health and Wellness Program (if applicable).
  2. An analysis of your industry benchmarks and trends in corporate health and wellness.
  3. Conducting a survey of your employees to determine which health and wellness initiatives would be valued.
  4. Developing recommendations and creative ideas to incorporate health and wellness into the workplace with the intent of lowering illness, injury, and absenteeism.
  5. Developing a Health and Wellness Program that is tailored to your organization’s budget and culture.
  6. Providing benchmark metrics on the ROI of Health and Wellness Programs.

Compensation Recommendations

  1. A review of your current rewards and total compensation.
  2. An analysis of your industry benchmarks around rewards and compensation.
  3. Helping you to establish rewards that are aligned with your corporate culture.
  4. Determining how your total compensation package is perceived internally and externally.
  5. Providing recommendations to enhance the perceived value of your current rewards and total compensation plan.
  6. Providing strategic recommendations to improve your organization’s rewards and total compensation plan.

Onboarding Plan

  1. A review of your current onboarding plan.
  2. An analysis of your industry benchmarks around onboarding.
  3. Helping you to establish an onboarding plan that is aligned with your corporate culture.
  4. Determining how your onboarding plan is perceived by current and new employees.
  5. Providing recommendations to enhance the effectiveness of your onboarding plan.

Diversity and Inclusion Recommendations

  1. Developing a roll out plan for incorporating diverse practices into your workforce and explaining its positive benefits
  2. Developing a plan to re-imagine your mission, vision, and purpose and roll it out to employees.
  3. Creating a strategy for attracting more diverse talent
  4. A comparison of how your organization’s equitable practices stack up with similar companies
  5. Suggestions for incorporating diversity training

Employee Motivation Assessment

  1. Developing extrinsic motivational strategies such as rewards, bonuses, time-off, etc.
  2. Developing intrinsic motivational strategies such as viewpoints and perspectives
  3. Developing language guides to help supervisors and management teams maintain motivation

Organizational Behaviour Consultancy

  1. Manage a significant organizational change or restructuring.
  2. Reduce employee turnover or absenteeism or increase workplace safety.
  3. Integrate cultures in a merger or acquisition.
  4. Develop an environmental sustainability plan.
  5. Redesign an internal system or process including hiring, socialization, compensation, motivation, team management, learning, and training.
  6. Develop a plan to re-imagine your mission, vision, and purpose and roll it out to employees.
  7. Assess your organizational structure's fit with your organization's strategy.
  8. Develop a plan to increase diversity and its' positive effects in your organization

Marketing:

Marketing Consultancy Review

  1. Marketing strategy review: Providing recommendations on what methods you can use to leverage and improve your marketing strategy, based on your organization's budget and current marketing strategy.
  2. Marketing Mix strategy: Providing insight and recommending sustainable strategies related to the Marketing Mix (Product, Place, Price and Promotion).
  3. Social Media: An analysis of how to leverage social media channels to reach different customer groups
  4. Conduct external analysis (including customer, competitor, market and environment) as well as marketing mix performance.
  5. Developing an integrated online/offline communication strategy with pop-up stores, outdoor display ads, and app features recommendations for a large fashion retailer promoting an app that encourages online shopping.

Social Media Inventory & Assessment

Assessment of essential elements such as

  1. Contact links
  2. History and “about us” sections
  3. Products and services offered
  4. Photos and videos of past projects
  5. Advancements in the industry
  6. Client testimonials
  7. Collection and integration of media and press coverage
  8. Collection and integration of industry certifications
  9. Students can help you leverage your social media platforms to drive traffic to your site and win clients.

Social Media Marketing Plan

  1. Conducting an audit of your current social media presence.
  2. Developing strategies for improving your online presence by recommending programs, tools, methods of engagement, social channels, or communication pieces.
  3. Developing strategies for increasing engagement on your various public accounts, blogs, or other marketing assets.
  4. Conducting an assessment of the effectiveness of your current communication channel(s).
  5. Identifying best practices to reach a new target audience.
  6. Identifying best practices within your current market segment to achieve a larger market share.
  7. Developing a 6-month roll out plan.
  8. Creating example social media posts.

Marketing Communications Plan

  1. Recommending changes to advertising and PR materials for improved the consistency across your organization’s existing marketing campaign.
  2. Creating an integrated marketing campaign for a new product service.
  3. Creating a rebranding campaign for an existing product.
  4. Creating a social media or new media campaign to complement existing marketing communications.
  5. A SWOT Analysis and PESTLE Analysis.
  6. A qualitative and quantitative research summary.
  7. A media plan for each communication channel.
  8. An implementation schedule and feasibility study.
  9. KPI Measurements.

SEO Strategy & Recommendations

  1. Developing a plan that outlines your SEO strategy and provides general recommendations.
  2. Providing content suggestions and recommendations to increase search visibility.
  3. Increasing inbound traffic and optimizing the customer journey.
  4. Increasing inbound leads and delivering ongoing content.

Sustainability Initiative Marketing Plan

  1. Developing and prioritizing potential marketing strategies for a new sustainability initiative.
  2. Auditing your existing marketing strategy for a sustainability initiative, its alignment with your mission and values, and its effectiveness in communicating your message to the target audience.

General Business:

Strategy Evaluation

  1. Opportunities to streamline costs
  2. Improved accounting procedures
  3. Changes to supply chain management processes
  4. Go-to-market strategy for new products or services
  5. Changes to your digital marketing strategy
  6. Overhaul of branding or communication strategy
  7. Pricing or service structure changes

Regulatory and Policy Analysis

  1. Analyzing how new government policies or regulations will affect on your business (ex. higher minimum wage, carbon emission standards)
  2. Examining how the potential policies of a newly elected/appointed international government will affect your business standing in that country
  3. Analyzing the feasibility of implementing proposed policies for your workspace (related to workplace safety, confidentiality, discrimination etc.)
  4. Proposing business changes that will help you adjust to new policies
  5. Developing an official response to a proposed law or policy

Market Research for Decision Making

  1. Investigating the competitive landscape to identify key messaging for promotion.
  2. Market segmentation to identify the ideal target market for a new or existing product or service.
  3. Develop a pricing strategy based on industry research and customer surveys.
  4. Identify business expansion opportunities through location analysis and customer surveys.
  5. Identify key messaging via customer focus groups that investigate the competitive landscape for a new product or service.
  6. Recommended solutions and action plan

Brand Competitor Analysis

  1. An analysis of your competitive landscape to identify top competitors in your space.
  2. Developing a plan to accurately define your organization's brand.
  3. Helping you define the core proposition of your brand.
  4. Determining how your brand is perceived by different market segments.
  5. Understanding the opportunities and threats currently facing your brand.
  6. Assessing where and how to improve your brand presence.
  7. Strategizing how to differentiate your brand from competitors

Small Business Analysis

  1. Recommendations on restructuring your organization based on an organizational challenge.
  2. Identifying areas of your organization to focus hiring efforts.
  3. Suggesting incentives packages improve employee retention and morale.
  4. Developing strategies to improve employee productivity and satisfaction.
  5. Developing recommendations for your organization to meet a goal or solve a challenge.

Developing Effective Sales Forecasting

  1. Developing your sales run date.
  2. Tracking historical trends.
  3. Establishing seasonality.
  4. Including projectable market-shifting events.
  5. Monitoring competitor activities.
  6. Adjusting pricing and promotions in your sales forecast.

Pricing Model

Students working in cross-disciplinary teams will develop and test a series of pricing model hypotheses. They will work to develop a data-based recommendation that is effective for your business and accepted by your target customer segment. Based on your costs, target customer, revenue targets, and business goals, students will develop and test a series of hypotheses through real experiments in the marketplace. Their findings will help inform a recommendation on the ideal pricing model for your customer base.

Game Development:

Character and Asset Design

  1. work closely with the game design team and use their characters to do the 3D character
  2. ensure that the character’s or assets features are true to what the designers have created
  3. use their knowledge of design to produce character animations

Application and Development Including VR

Prototyping

  1. Students under your guidance will prototype a specific design concept or game mechanic to prove whether it is a concept worthy of including in a future title.

System Prototyping

  1. Students under your guidance will prototype a specific system in the engine of your choice to concept a particular algorithm or interaction component that you have not had the opportunity to put resources towards.

XR application prototyping

  1. Students under your guidance will take an existing design concept and demonstrate a prototype of this concept in XR (pick one of AR/VR/MR)

Volumetric Asset Creation

  1. Students under your guidance will work to create prototype volumetric assets for use in your mobile, VR, or PC game using our labs' volumetric and photogrammetry capabilities.
Additional company criteria

Companies must answer the following questions to submit a match request to this experience:

Be available to attend a single kick-off/project scope meeting with all teams during second week of term. The kick-off will be a Q & A opportunity for all teams to solidify understanding of scope and requirements.

Be available for a quick phone call with the instructor to initiate your relationship and confirm your scope is an appropriate fit for the course.

Provide team feedback twice over the semester and complete a post course survey.

Provide a dedicated contact to answer periodic emails or take phone calls as needed to address student questions in a timely manner. Students will be coached to make judicious use of your time. These contacts are likely to be question/answer sessions or requests for additional information or clarification.