BPP Business School Coursework Cover Sheet

Please use this document as the cover sheet of for the 1st page of your assessment. Please complete the below table – the grey columns

Please complete the yellow sections in the below declaration :

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 Msc Management

 Data driven Decisions for Busines

 Coursework Assessment Brief

1.General Assessment Guidance

• Your summative assessment for this module is made up of this 2500 submission which accounts for 100% of the marks
• Please note late submissions will not be marked.
• You are required to submit all elements of your assessment via Turnitin online access. Only submissions made via the specified mode will be accepted and hard copies or any other digital form of submissions (like via email or pen drive etc.) will not be accepted.
• For coursework, the submission word limit is 2500 words. You must comply with the word count guidelines. You may submit LESS than 2500 words but not more. Word Count guidelines can be found on your programme home page and the coursework submission page.
•  Do not put your name or contact details anywhere on your submission. You should only put your student registration number (SRN) which will ensure your submission is recognised in the marking process.
• A total of 100 marks are available for this module assessment, and you are required to achieve minimum 50% to pass this module.
• You are required to use only Harvard Referencing System in your submission. Any content which is already published by other author(s) and is not referenced will be considered as a case of plagiarism.
• You can find further information on Harvard Referencing in the online library on the VLE. You can use the following link to access this information: http://bpp.libguides.com/Home/StudySupport
• BPP University has a strict policy regarding authenticity of assessments. In proven instances of plagiarism or collusion, severe punishment will be imposed on offenders. You are advised to read the rules and regulations regarding plagiarism and collusion in the GARs and MOPP which are available on VLE in the Academic registry section.
• You should include a completed copy of the Assignment Cover sheet. Any submission without this completed Assignment Cover sheet may be considered invalid and not marked.

1.Assessment Brief

2.1.Assessment learning outcomes

This assessment is designed to gauge your understanding, skills and application of common data analysis techniques used in business and other organisations today. As such you need to demonstrate your attainment in these areas according to the four Module Learning Outcomes (LOs):

• LO1: Critically evaluate the evolving use of data in solving business problems, presenting logical arguments based on evidence
• LO2: Explore how data analytics can be used within a business context
• LO3: Critically appraise the presentation of data within a business environment
• LO4: Critically evaluate different business analytical techniques as part of planning a data analytics initiative.

2.2.Scenario

You have recently been employed by iAccounting International Ltd. as a data analyst. iAccounting International Ltd. is a multi-national, fully online accounting firm offering accountancy services in the UK and over 10 subsidiaries in countries around the world. The firm’s core services help organisations with tax related decisions, accountancy and audit.

iAccounting International Ltd. uses sophisticated data-encryption and communications technology to link clients to their services via an online platform. Source documents and data are uploaded to cloud storage where they can be accessed from any remote location. The firm typically bill for its services at a fixed monthly rate, benefiting its clients from a budget planning standpoint.

Since its foundation, iAccounting International Ltd. stablished a partnership with SAGE to deliver its online services. Sage is the flexible and scalable financial platform that delivers deep accounting capabilities to thousands of businesses across the world. Sage allows iAccounting International Ltd. to offer online accounting services such as general ledger, accounts payable, accounts receivable, cash management, and order management, as well as built-in dashboards, real time reporting, time and expense management, project accounting, revenue management, and global consolidations for multiple entities.

iAccounting International Ltd. has a structure of a limited liability partnership or LLP, which allows to have a flexible organisational structure to adapt to each country’s workforce profile. The possibility to have independent and yet coordinated organisational structure across countries allows the company to offer and deliver fully online services using local workforce, being able to support a wide range of customers from local clients to multinational organisations.

As iAccounting International Ltd. growths, it continues to increase its data analytic roles within the organisation to strengthening its strategic and operational decision-making capabilities. The recruitment strategy is to employ young professionals with strategic and data analytics skills willing to provide iAccounting International Ltd. top management with strong evidence-based foundation for their business decisions. They like recruits to have a broad management experience combine with strong academic background. Your MSc degree at BPP University was a key element in their decision to recruit you.

As part of your first assignment at iAccounting International Ltd., you have joined the Marketing department as dada analyst. Your manager, the Marketing Director, requested you to complete a number of tasks to ensure that you have a grounded knowledge and understanding of data analytics and its application in decision-making. This is your opportunity to demonstrate your capability and give your employer the confidence to let you run your own project in the future.

The Marketing team is analysing different digital marketing strategies to provide a more balanced growth in the future, combining traditional online promotion with more advance social media tactics. In particular, the Marketing department has teamed up with other departments such as Finance, Audit, Tax and Advisory, to explore how more modern digital marketing strategies can provide the basis for developing effective client engagement strategies. As in most strategy development process, three steps are needed: first understand where the company stands now (where we are), second define strategic objectives (where we want to be) and third develop the approaches/initiatives/tactics to achieve these strategic objectives (what path we are going to use). So, you have been given the responsibility to analyse iAccounting International Ltd. current business performance (where the company stands now).

Your job will be to analyse the performance of three of the best international subsidiaries of iAccounting International Ltd.: Germany, USA and the UK. iAccounting International Ltd. has experienced strong competition in these countries from other online accounting firms. For instance in the UK competition comes from e-accounts, The Accountancy Partnership, Crunch and Gorilla Accounting. So, the performance of these three subsidiaries is a good indication of the current global market performance of the company.

2.3.Research objectives and tasks

The Financial Director is interested in identifying the best country to start implementing the new strategy. For this purpose, he wants you to:

Question 1: Perform an analysis of the revenue and number of projects of the three subsidiaries to identify the best country to start a new strategy.

As part of the analysis, the top management wants to consider the strengthening of the business by acquiring other companies which are strong in the areas where the organisation is weak. The option being considered is to acquire a competitor which would give, in one hand, a competitive advantage to iAccounting International Ltd. by reducing competition, increasing market share, and improving its market position. On the other hand, the acquisition would provide access to the competitor’s customer base and possible easy entry to new markets where the company has not yet any presence.

Therefore, Financial Director wants also to understand the weakness of the company in terms of those services with a low revenue and low project pipeline. iAccounting International Ltd. current offer is made of the following accounting services categories:

• audit
• assurance
• consulting
• financial advisory
• risk management and tax compliance services. In this respect, she wants you to:

Since its foundation as an online business, iAccountants International Ltd. has used digital platforms to promote its business such as corporate website and accountancy portals. However, since social media has become so dominant in the online world, the company feels it doesn’t exploit entirely the spectrum of opportunities this new and powerful digital channel offers. So, in January 2023 the company stablished an equity partnership with UK-based 20:80 InnoWeb, a social media marketing agency specialised in B2B social media for the UK market. The idea of the partnership is to allow iAccountants International Ltd. to quickly develop in the UK marketing capabilities in the social media arena, such as brand positioning, content promotion, recruitment activity and direct lead generation.

The Marketing Director is keen to understand if the business model used in the UK with 20:80 InnoWeb could be applied to other subsidiaries of the company, so that similar partnerships with local social media marketing agencies can be established in other countries. So, she wants you to address the question:

Question 3: Did the equity partnership with 20:80 InnoWeb which brought social media know-how to the operations in the UK increase the revenue and overall performance of the subsidiary?

The responses to requests detailed below should be included in a summary MS Word report that you save and submit as a PDF format file.

Because this is your first project within iAccountants International Ltd., the management team has given you additional details regarding the structure and content that it is expected to see in your report. This is set out in Section 3 – Report Structure.

A set of data is available (see module dataset spreadsheet file). Since the data comes directly from the subsidiaries, quality issues are present which will require your attention!

You have five tasks to complete for your summative report. The first three are exactly the same as for your formative report and you should update your answers to these tasks based both on feedback on your formative submission together with your own further learning across the module.

Task 1: Introduction and project plan (20 marks)

Summarise what you are going to present in the report. Then justify your plan for delivering the research project to the management of the company. Ensure you also clearly reference a data analytics implementation framework as part of your plan. Finally, specifically explain how data analytics can add value and drive business performance improvement to iAccountants International Ltd.’s subsidiaries.

Guidelines:

• State the purpose of report and describe the report structure and contents
• Present your overall project plan for delivering the project
• Ensure that your project plan explicitly refers to a data analytics implementation framework and explain how the selected framework can be used to addresses the core business questions the top management has assigned to you.
• Suggest a list of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) iAccountants International Ltd.’s subsidiaries can use to measure tits performance. Then explain how data analytics can help the company to improve these KPIs. 

Task 2: Data quality issues and remedies (10 marks)

Discuss first, the generic issues that data analysts encounter in collecting, reviewing and cleansing data. Second discuss specific quality issues the project data provided by the company has and explain how you propose to address those issues.

Guidelines:

• List and explain generic data problems and how to identify them. What are the different options for resolving these generic issues?
• Search and list all data problems you have identified in iAccountants International Ltd. dataset. Explain how you identified the problems (give examples of the issues) and how you propose to address/solve them.

Task 3: Data analysis and commentary (20 marks)

Using tables, set out and explain the results of your numeric data analysis and supporting commentary. Start by including summary of exploratory data analysis of the dataset. Explain how your results of your analysis provide an understanding of iAccountants International Ltd.’s subsidiaries performance. This should include three tables setting out:

(Table A) Data and trends in revenue and number of projects by month, by year across the 3 years period.

(Table B) Benchmark comparisons of accounting service categories performance covering revenue and number of projects by quarter, by year across the 3 years period,

(Table C) Benchmark comparisons of revenue and number of projects between subsidiaries by quarter, by year across the 3 years period.

Guidelines:

Include summary exploratory data calculations for total revenue and total number of projects. The analysis could include for example top and bottom performing accounting service categories, ranges, averages, standard deviations; top and bottom performing time- periods, etc.

Ensure your tables are professionally presented: Headings, units, data formats. Highlight and annotate key data elements.

For each table, include firstly an explanation of the table and its contents, then a bullet-point list of what you can see or infer from your analysis of the data.

Task 4: Data charting and commentary (20 marks)

Use your data charting and interpretation skills to develop graphical presentations of your findings together with bullet-points setting out the key findings and inferences from the charting. This should include three charts presenting: 

(Chart A) Comparison of revenue trends across subsidiaries over time,

(Chart B) Accounting service category performance comparisons between subsidiaries, (Chart C) Assess the impact of the acquisition of 20:80 InnoWeb in the UK subsidiary, and in comparison with the other two subsidiaries.

Guidelines:

• Ensure you provide well-presented and labelled charts
• Use a combination of visual data presentation techniques such as bar charts, stacked bar charts, trend charts, pie charts and tree map charts (choose the best graphic type that suits your analysis)
• For each chart, include firstly an explanation of the chart and its contents, then a bullet- point list of what you can see or infer from your analysis of the data.

Task 5: Conclusions and recommendations (20 marks)

Based on your analysis and findings in Tasks 3 and 4 set-out your conclusions and recommendations.

Guidelines:

• What conclusions can be inferred regarding iAccountants International Ltd.’s subsidiaries performance and operations? Remember to answer the three questions raised by iAccountants International Ltd. top management.
• What are your business recommendations to iAccountants International Ltd.’s CEO and top
• management?
• Include any suggestions related to data analytics and its better use within the company.
• Note that it is also acceptable to add to your data analytics recommendations, possible actions that iAccountants International Ltd. might take, based not only on your findings but also on your wider knowledge of business and accounting market sector (you can use what you have learned in GSS and LTDD modules).

 Report Structure and References (10 marks)

In addition, ten marks are awarded for the overall professionalism of your report and the adoption of academic standards.

Guidelines:

• Your report should follow the section naming structure and order set out in the Brief. You should also add your own sub-headings as you see fit to demonstrate your ability to on-develop structure and content
• Your report should include an auto-generated contents page including section headings and sub- headings. The contents page should also include a page-referenced list all tables, charts and
• figures provided in our report. Remember to number all pages in your report, for example ‘Page 8 of 12’.
• Ensure you develop your discussion in a logical progression: Findings, inferences, conclusions, recommendations
• Do not make general assertions without supporting evidence
• Zero spelling errors and grammatical mistakes
• Cite all your sources in the body of the text and in the Referencing using the Harvard Referencing style
• Include a blend of industry research, case studies and academic references 

2.Report Structure

You should set out your report according to the following heading structure. You should add sub- headings under this overall structure as you feel fit to demonstrate your ability to on-develop the section themes and to provide meaningful sub-structure. But you must use this overall structure in order to provide a consistent framework against which your marker will allocate marks. You will be deduced marks if you do not follow this structure. Also note that there is no requirement for producing an Executive Summary.

University Cover Page Table of contents

• Introduction and project plan 
• Data quality issues and remedies 
• Data analysis and commentary 
• Data charting and commentary 
• Conclusions and recommendations 
• References 
• Appendix (optional)

In addition, you may wish to add further appendices as you see fit in order to support your work.

Word count: 2,500. Cover Page, Table of Contents, References, Appendices, Tables, Charts and Figures do not count towards word count.

3.Mapping Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes

The table below sets out the mapping between the four Module Leaning Objectives and the key tasks in your Summative Assessment which test your achievement against these Learning Objectives.

4.Marking Guide

The assignment is marked out of 100 and counts towards 100% of your module mark. The following table shows the tasks, marks and marking rubric. You should iteratively self-assess your performance against the Marking Guide as you develop your draft submission, in order to evaluate your performance against your target grade.