BSNS5004 Assessment 2 Brief 

Weighting 

25%

Learning outcome

2 Discuss how organisational change and innovation can contribute to enhanced business performance.

Instructions

Complete and submit your assessment according to the Open Polytechnic’s Assessments webpage. This includes information on academic integrity, formatting, word limits and referencing.

• Include your name, student number and the assessment number.
• Number your pages.

Submission

• Submit your assessment in one file.
• Submit your work through your iQualify course.
• Emailed assessments will not be accepted.
• You will receive an automated notice advising you of your successful submission.

By submitting your assessment, you confirm that it is your own original work.

Overview

In this assessment, you will discuss how organisational change and innovation can contribute to enhanced business performance using the information in the following scenario.

Countrywide Farm Solutions (CFS) is a well-established company that specialises in the sales and supply of a wide range of farming equipment and supplies to commercial farms. CFS also employs sales consultants (usually former farmers and farm workers) who want to use their background and knowledge to help new farms get established.

The company directors are two brothers, Shaun and Rangi, whose families are still involved in farming as a way of life. The company’s main office is in Hamilton, but it employs several experienced consultants across the North Island who have the ability to deliver farming solutions and projects of any scale. In addition, the company subcontracts a number of qualified tradespeople as required. The Hamilton office also has a number of admin support staff. In total, the company has about 60 employees, but this can increase to over 200 when subcontractors are factored in.

Anyone completing work for CFS is required to record their hours worked on a timesheet on a weekly basis. The administrator at the office then reviews the hours, forwards them to the directors for sign-off and forwards the hours to the payroll manager and Chief Accounts Office to ensure employees are paid and clients are invoiced correctly. All timesheets are scanned and sent to the administrator via email at the end of the week. The company currently commissions an external accounting firm to do its annual accounts and auditing.

The current system lacks real-time information and is heavily admin-based and errorprone. CFS would like to implement a new online application-based time recording system to save time and link the hours worked with their payroll and account system. The new system will also need to be a simple system so that staff and contractors will be able to use it easily. Shaun and Rangi have also become more concerned at the increasing cost of having their annual accounts prepared and want more oversight of the financial position and performance to assess the merits of the company expanding into the South Island in the future.

CFS employs a diverse workforce of people of different ethnicities, ages and levels of IT abilities. CFS has conducted a feasibility analysis and determined that a change from paper-based timesheet recording to an application-based timesheet will benefit the company. Based on the findings of the analysis, the following will be considered in the new time recording system:

• The new timesheet application must be simple to use.
• Reporting using aggregated data must be available.
• Employees can view their hours worked over a specified timeframe.
• Information about hours worked must be able to be migrated into the company’s payroll and accounting system.
• The timesheet can be accessed from any device, including via an app on mobile phones or tablets.
• Some staff in remote areas can complete an offline timesheet that can be uploaded to the application at a later stage.
• The application should include alerts to staff to complete their timesheets.

After reviewing a number of options, CFS signs up for a one-year trial of the Harvest Time Recording System for the company’s Waikato-based workforce, where the trial can be monitored from the head office. The trial comes at a large cost of $90,000 or $7,500 per month, will cover 15 employed consultants and includes system support via the Harvest helpdesk. If the trial is successful, Shaun and Rangi will decide whether or not to move CFS’s entire time recording over to Harvest, which will comprise the other three regions.

At the end of the trial, the following information is available:

• Total pre-trial sales: $254,000
• Total post-trial sales: $425,000
• Cost of Harvest trial: $90,000
• Change in revenue: $425,000 – $254,000 / $254,000 = 67.32%
• Total pre-trial profit: $110,000
• Total post-trial profit: $215,000
• Change in profit: $215,000 – $110,000 / $110,000 = 95.45%
• Return on Investment (ROI) post-trial: $215,000 / $90,000 x 100 = 238% ROI.

At the end of the trial, there are two options: (1) roll out the Harvest system or (2) keep the current manual-based system. Following an analysis of the trial, Rangi produces a report that provides the following information:

• Option 1: Roll out the Harvest system
  o The estimated total benefit (increased revenue) of Option 1 is $1,500,000.00, with a probability of 75%.
  o The estimated cost of Option 1 is $290,000.00, with a probability of 90%.
• Option 2: Keep the current manual-based system
  o The estimated total benefit of Option 2 is $450,000.00, with a probability of 82%.
  o The estimated cost of Option 2 is $170,142.00, with a probability of 95%.

In addition to the numeric information, the sales consultants now have more time to spend on getting to know clients as well as engaging in other more value-added activities like research on new products, more hands-on demonstrations and training.

You may make reasonable assumptions to support your answers as long as your reasoning is clearly explained to support the assumption.

Task 1: Evaluating the change and innovation

a. Identify what you consider to be the change or the innovation at CFS with brief reasons.

(Word count guideline: 100 words)
(10 marks)

b. Briefly discuss three benefits and three risks of the change and innovation at CFS with reasons and include some discussion why risks should be considered when undertaking change.

(Word count guideline: 500 words)
(30 marks)

Task 2: Cost-benefit analysis

CFS needs to decide whether or not to move its entire time recording over to the web and app-based Harvest time recording system.

a. Use the benefit–cost ratio (BCR) analysis to calculate and then analyse the results from the Hamilton trial.

(Word count guideline: 150 words)
(10 marks)

b. Provide Shaun and Rangi with an opinion on the merits or otherwise of moving to the Harvest system.

(Word count guideline: 150 words)
(10 marks)

Task 3: Qualitative evaluation of change and innovation – Balanced Scorecard Analysis

Use the Balanced Scorecard Model to evaluate the Harvest trial.  

Use the following layout to present your answer:

(Word count guideline: 500 words)
(30 marks)

Writing and Referencing  

You will be marked on your use of relevant references and citations when discussing different models and perspectives. Follow APA 7^th referencing conventions accurately whenever you refer to external resources contained in the course content or any other external resources (anything not mentioned in the assessment scenario). Use in-text citations in every answer. At the end of your answer, write a reference list with all the materials you have used (other than the assessment scenario).

(10 marks)
 (Assessment 2 total: 100 marks)