Introduction In today’s ever-changing world of technology, organizations must compete to offer better products and services. Organizations look for new technologies to help them be more efficient and Original Papers

Introduction

In today’s ever-changing world of technology, organizations must compete to offer better products and services. Organizations look for new technologies to help them be more efficient and gain market share. Emerging technologies are innovations that are new or the most modern for the field or industry. They may also be considered groundbreaking or disrupt the way businesses traditionally operate.

For this assessment, you will choose one of the attached case studies, each of which presents the existing technology and needs of a fictional organization. You will propose a technology product that will benefit the organization in the chosen case study and discuss how the technology would affect the organization if it moves forward with your proposal. The technology product you propose must have launched within the last four years, and you must provide a credible citation verifying the product’s launch date.

Requirements

Your submission must represent your original work and understanding of the course material. Most performance assessment submissions are automatically scanned through the WGU similarity checker. Students are strongly encouraged to wait for the similarity report to generate after uploading their work and then review it to ensure Academic Authenticity guidelines are met before submitting the file for evaluation. See Understanding Similarity Reports for more information.  Grammarly Note: Professional Communication will be automatically assessed through Grammarly for Education in most performance assessments before a student submits work for evaluation. Students are strongly encouraged to review the Grammarly for Education feedback prior to submitting work for evaluation, as the overall submission will not pass without this aspect passing. See Use Grammarly for Education Effectively for more information.  Microsoft Files Note: Write your paper in Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx) unless another Microsoft product, or pdf, is specified in the task directions. Tasks may not be submitted as cloud links, such as links to Google Docs, Google Slides, OneDrive, etc.  All supporting documentation, such as screenshots and proof of experience, should be collected in a pdf file and submitted separately from the main file. For more information, please see Computer System and Technology Requirements.   

You must use the rubric to direct the creation of your submission because it provides detailed criteria that will be used to evaluate your work. Each requirement below may be evaluated by more than one rubric aspect. The rubric aspect titles may contain hyperlinks to relevant portions of the course.

A.  Summarize an organizational need from either the attached TechFite Case Study or the ElectraMovers Case Study, including the scope of the need. 

B.  Propose a technology product that has launched within the last four years that addresses the organizational need from part A. Include a citation from a credible industry source.

Note: The technology product you propose must have launched within the last four years of your task submission date. The citation must confirm the product’s launch date from within that same four-year period. Although using the product’s official website as the citation is recommended, other reliable sources are acceptable.

1.  Explain how the proposed product meets the organizational need identified in part A. 

C.  Explain the steps for adoption you would recommend the organization take to integrate the new technology product. Use the Gartner STREET process.

1.  Describe why each step of the adoption process is necessary and how each step relates to the organization. 

D.  Describe one positive and one negative effect your technology product could have on the people or current processes in the organization.

1.  Describe two strategies to address the negative effect. 

E.  Compare your technology product to an alternative technology product, including two advantages and two disadvantages that each technology product may have for the organization. 

Note: The alternative technology product can be older than four years. 

F.  Create a plan that can be used by the organization to determine whether the adoption of the proposed technology product successfully addresses the organizational need from part A by doing the following:

•   Recommend a specific time frame for evaluation.

•   Describe two measurable criteria the organization can use to evaluate the outcome of adopting the proposed technology.

•   Explain how the organization will use both measurable criteria to determine whether adopting the proposed technology has successfully addressed the organizational need. 

G.  Acknowledge sources, using in-text citations and references, for content that is quoted, paraphrased, or summarized. 

H.  Demonstrate professional communication in the content and presentation of your submission. 

Case Study that can be used

ElectraMovers Case Study

ElectraMovers is a startup company based in Austin, Texas, with a mission to revolutionize personal transportation. Not content with just electric vehicles (EVs), ElectraMovers aims to create a complete ecosystem of sustainable mobility solutions, including personal mobility devices. As the company grows, however, it faces challenges that require the most modern technologies such as augmented and virtual reality, Internet of Things (IoT), 5G, robotic process automation, AI apps, and quantum computing.

ElectraMovers has a diverse fleet of EVs and personal mobility devices, ranging from electric bicycles and scooters to smart skateboards and self-balancing electric unicycles. Managing and maintaining many vehicles is a significant challenge, requiring periodic software updates, battery monitoring, and predictive maintenance. Though innovative, the company’s personal mobility devices lack intuitive controls and safety features. New riders often need help to operate them, leading to accidents and negative user experiences. Additionally, if pedestrians and other road users are not aware of the devices’ presence, there is an increased risk of collisions.  

As demand for its products soars, ElectraMovers faces the challenge of delivering customized experiences while maintaining brand consistency. The company needs a solution that can personalize the look and feel of its vehicles without compromising core design principles. As customers increasingly demand more personalized experiences, ElectraMovers seeks a solution to streamline its design and customization process, ensuring the smooth integration of modular components while upholding high quality standards and reducing operational complexities.

ElectraMovers also requires a solution that leverages technologies to streamline customer management and enhance product offerings while allowing for data-driven insights. The solution must efficiently collect and analyze customer data to understand preferences and behavior. The solution must also provide personalized recommendations and tailored experiences, effectively manage inventory and supply chain through real-time data insights, and optimize product development based on customer feedback and market trends. The ElectraMovers logistics system is large and complex, making it challenging to find the most efficient routes, assign vehicles to customers, and manage charging stations. As customer demand increases and the number of vehicles required to deliver service grows, ElectraMovers must optimize its complex routing and logistics system. Ideally, the company hopes to find a solution to improve operational efficiency, reduce energy consumption, and enhance customer satisfaction by providing timely and sustainable transportation services.

ElectraMovers is committed to revolutionizing personal transportation, and the company envisions a future where personal mobility devices and electric vehicles seamlessly integrate into people’s lives, providing convenient, sustainable, and personalized transportation experiences. By leveraging emerging technologies, ElectraMovers aims to transform how people move, contributing to a greener and more efficient future of personal transportation.

TechFite Case Study

TechFite is a company based in Houston, Texas, that manufactures proprietary technical medical devices for humans to allow them to work longer hours in space. The devices are developed for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which is an independent agency of the United States federal government responsible for the civil space program. Because this technology is used by the government, security is the top priority.

TechFite complies with the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA), which is a United States federal law enacted in 2002. The act recognizes the importance of information security to the economic and national security interests of the United States. The act references the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which is a physical science laboratory and non-regulatory agency of the United States Department of Commerce.

TechFite’s IT department consists of five employees: an IT manager, a system administrator, two entry-level specialists, and a senior specialist.

TechFite has a dual-firewall system. The outside firewall protects TechFite and its partners, and the inner firewall protects the TechFite intranet.

The dual-firewall system creates a three-ring network in which the innermost ring is the most secure and the outermost ring connects directly to the internet. Each of these firewalls creates a log of all the network traffic that passes through it. The TechFite chief information officer (CIO) has notably raised concerns about current infrastructure security implications.

A large amount of traffic passes through these firewalls. TechFite currently scans 10,000 log files manually per week with a 30% success rate in identifying intrusion signature patterns and has only four terabytes allocated locally for log storage. Companies want to securely collaborate with TechFite and need government agencies to have access to TechFite’s data. TechFite administrators have been researching emerging solutions that are available to meet the growing demands of secure collaboration. Additionally, it is difficult to scan the logs manually, and TechFite has been exploring open-source solutions to automate log correlation for both host-based and network appliances. However, the amount of storage space needed to keep these logs for at least a year is more than TechFite has on site. One of the system administrators suggested using technology to not only review the logs but also store the log files.

The company is interested in open collaboration with other institutions and companies to expand its business, which may result in opening subsidiaries in other locations domestically and overseas. This may force the company to store its information for longer periods of time, and working with more locations means more log data will need to be stored.

In addition to scanning the log data for potential attackers after systems have been compromised, the system administrators would like to be alerted by a new system that meets FISMA regulations of when potential attacks are occurring on host and network systems. This means real-time log scanning and behavior analysis of incoming network traffic will be needed to determine when a denial-of-service (DoS) attack or advanced persistent threat is happening so the system administrators can catch the hackers.