BISM1201
Transforming Business with Information Systems


Assignment 1
Information Systems Analysis Report

Semester 1, 2026


Course Coordinator and Lecturer: Dr Shahrzad Roohy Gohar


The University of Queensland School of Business





Due Date: 02/04/2026 3pm (AEST)
Verdant Threads
Competition, Sustainability, and
the Need for Strategic Information
Systems



Verdant Threads is a medium-sized Australian
clothing company headquartered in Brisbane.
Established in 2016, the company initially gained
popularity by offering affordable everyday fashion while maintaining a strong
commitment to ethical sourcing and environmentally responsible production. Over
time, Verdant Threads expanded its operations and now serves customers through an
online store as well as six physical retail outlets located across Queensland and New
South Wales. The organisation has built its identity around the belief that fashion
businesses can remain profitable while also reducing environmental harm.
A key part of Verdant Threads’ mission is its focus on sustainability. The company has
invested in eco-friendly fabrics, recyclable packaging, and partnerships with local
suppliers to minimise transportation emissions and support Australian businesses.
These initiatives have helped the company develop trust among socially conscious
customers who value transparency and ethical business practices. Verdant Threads
believes its competitive advantage lies not only in its sustainability efforts but also in
the quality of its product design, its reliable supplier relationships, and its reputation as
a responsible brand within the fashion industry.
Despite these strengths, Verdant Threads has recently begun to face significant
challenges in the Australian retail market. In the past few years, large international
fashion brands have entered the market with competitive pricing strategies in both
products and delivery services. At the same time, smaller companies have emerged
that focus exclusively on sustainable fashion and market themselves as more
innovative and environmentally advanced than established organisations such as
Verdant Threads.
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As competition has intensified, Verdant Threads has experienced slower sales growth
compared to previous years and has observed a decline in customer loyalty.
Management has become increasingly concerned that although sustainability remains
an important value, customers are also demanding more values that go beyond just
merely lower prices. Additionally, the company faces rising operational costs due to
economic inflation and sourcing limitations, making it more difficult to compete directly
with low-cost fast fashion brands.
Verdant Threads is also encountering operational challenges that limit its ability to
respond effectively to market pressures. The organisation currently relies on a
combination of systems and processes, including analysis in spreadsheets, email-
based supplier communication, and separate systems for online and in-store sales.
For example, store managers often maintain their own stock tracking files to monitor
fast-moving items, while head office staff compile weekly inventory updates by
requesting reports from each location. Online orders are processed through the
company’s e-commerce platform, but in-store purchases are recorded through a
different point-of-sale system, making it difficult to gain a complete picture of customer
demand across channels. As a result, staff frequently spend time reconciling
information from multiple sources before decisions can be made about replenishment
or promotions.
Supplier communication is also handled through a mixture of emails, shared
documents, and phone calls, particularly when delays or quality concerns arise.
Sustainability-related information, such as fabric certifications or packaging
compliance, is often stored separately from purchasing records, requiring additional
effort when the company wants to evaluate its environmental performance. Managers
have limited visibility into inventory levels across store locations, and identifying where
stock is available can involve multiple enquiries between retail staff and warehouse
teams. Similarly, tracking supplier performance over time is challenging, as delivery
reliability and ethical sourcing data are not consistently captured in a centralised way.
Customer service operations face similar difficulties. Customer inquiries arrive through
various channels, including email, website contact forms, and social media messages,
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and responses may depend on staff manually checking order history or stock
availability across systems. Reporting processes are also time-consuming, with
managers often exporting data into spreadsheets to prepare sales summaries,
sustainability updates, or performance dashboards for leadership meetings. Overall,
Verdant Threads lacks the integrated customer and operational insights necessary to
support personalised marketing, timely decision-making, and efficient coordination
between its retail, online, and supply chain activities.
These issues have led Verdant Threads’ leadership team to recognise the need for
professional business analysis support. The company believes that a business analyst
could help evaluate the competitive environment, identify strategic options that align
with Verdant Threads’ sustainability values, and determine how information systems
could enable the organisation to strengthen its market position. Management is
particularly interested in ensuring that any future strategy maintains profitability while
continuing to reinforce environmental responsibility as a core element of the
company’s identity.
At this stage, no decisions have been made, and the organisation is waiting for a
detailed analysis and recommendation. As a junior business analyst, you have been
asked to examine Verdant Threads’ situation and propose how the company can
respond strategically to competition while leveraging sustainability and information
systems as sources of long-term advantage.

You will be exploring potential avenues for cost leadership, product differentiation,
market niche focus, or strengthening their customer and/or supplier intimacy. The
leadership team is considering all options but the decision on how best to move
forward remains a crucial one.

In order to help Verdant Thread, you need to use the Analysis Report Template to
complete FOUR TASKS for a complete analysis and recommendation:
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Task 1: Problem Analysis: Internal and External Challenges (7
marks)
As a junior business analyst, you are preparing a report to your immediate manager.
In this report, you are required to
 Provide your analysis of the company's challenges
 Analyse the challenges in relation to Porter’s five forces
 Choose the challenge that you would like to address and find solution for in
your report. The last paragraph of your challenge analysis should contain the
challenge/issue you chose to resolve, and it should be aligned with your
chosen strategy in task 2 and the information system you analyse and
recommend for the company in task 3.

Task 2: Analysis of Suitable Strategic Choice for the Company (7
marks)
After an in-depth analysis of relevant Porter’s competitive forces related to challenges
the company is facing, choose ONE strategic choice from the following four options,
define and justify your chosen strategy in detail, explaining its relevance to the
challenge(s) you are addressing.

 Cost leadership
 Product differentiation
 Market niche focus
 Strengthening customer and/or supplier intimacy

2.1 In your Analysis Report template in Task 2, you should explain how your chosen
strategy addresses the issue. The last paragraph of your analysis should contain
your recommended strategy (ONE) providing your reasoning for choosing the
strategy following your chosen challenge(s)/issues in Task 1.

2.2 To ensure the company is trusting your recommendation, you are to provide a
real-world example of a real-world company that has successfully implemented a
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similar strategy. You are to undertake a web search to find suitable examples, select
the closest example and demonstrate why it supports your recommendations. Take
note of the following items when you choose the real-world example:
 Choose an example that is specific and relevant to your argument. You may
have two examples. However, it is better to have one strong example.
 Use "Google" as your search engine and read reports and cases from
industry forums, online magazines, industry journals, case studies and
research papers.
 Do not use commercial advertisements, Wikipedia, or opinion blogs as your
source.
 Please do not repeat the case examples already discussed in lectures and
tutorials both. Using the already used examples from your textbook or course
material will result in zero marks being awarded.
 Support your arguments with sound reasoning, statistics if needed, and
references to relevant academic sources of IS and strategy concepts.
 The ONE real-world example must be referenced according to referencing
requirements.
 You must provide only ONE source of reference for each real-word example.

Important Note for Quality of Analysis: Your analysis should go beyond
surface-level observations. Provide a critical assessment of why your chosen
strategy is suitable for the company, considering the company’s competitive
landscape, Porter’s five forces and competitive advantage.
Four strategies are not to be compared with each other in Task 2.1 but rather each
one seen as an independent strategy which could address the challenge for the
case. Then, choose the best ONE that would address the case's concern in your
judgement.
Please avoid using major firms such as Apple, Microsoft, Tesla, Amazon, Samsung,
UPS, Walmart, Toyota, and avoid repeating the examples already discussed in
lectures/tutorials. Using already discussed example of the companies would lead to
non-award of the marks for the real-world example selection.
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Task 3: Analysis of Information Systems (IS) Solutions for the
Company (7 marks)
In this task you are required to analyse and describe how and which IS solution can
support your choice of strategy to help the company achieve competitive advantage.
Be specific about the information system functionalities that align with your strategic
choice. Be specific about how the suggested IS solution could create value. Your
analysis should contain one recommended IS solution after an in-depth analysis and
provided your reasoning following your chosen strategy in Task 2. We recommend
for your IS solution to come from the list of IS solutions from BISM1201 learning
resources, or from your course textbook. If you are to provide an external IS solution,
then it is mandatory to provide credible academic reference. Your references must
come from industry reports or academic journals, or conference papers, books, digital
resources (exclude marketing material), industry protocols, standards or frameworks. This
includes in-text citation and inclusion of sources in reference section of your report
template.
Task 4: Analysis of Ethical Considerations for the Company (4
marks)

Identify one UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs 1-17) AND one non-SDG ethical
challenge (e.g., responsible AI use, data privacy, algorithmic bias, digital divide) relevant
to Verdant Threads' case. Justify why your chosen SDG and ethical challenge is critical
for Verdant Threads.

For your SDG and non-SDG ethical consideration use at least one credible source to
support your argument. Your references must come from industry reports or academic
journals and conference papers, books, digital resources (exclude marketing material),
industry protocols, standards or frameworks.
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Assignment Preparation and Submission Guidelines
Submission Due Date:
• The assignment is due by Thursday 02/04/2026 3:00 PM (Brisbane time).
• Late submissions of more than 30 minutes will incur penalties. Please
visit BISM1201 Course Profile for more details about late
submission penalties and extensions.
Assessment Helper Module:
• This semester, we will be using a carefully designed assessment helper
module, available for you to organise your assignment plans, and required
steps for a successful delivery.
Preparation and Submission:
• Download the Analysis Report Template from blackboard and
complete with your answers to tasks, AI acknowledgement and
other requirements.
• Word Count Adherence: Stick closely to the prescribed word
counts. Minor deviations (up to over 10%) are acceptable if
the quality of analysis is maintained.
• 1.5 spacing, 12-point font, page numbering, layout as per report template
• Proofread for spelling and grammatical quality
• File Format: PDF (Portable Document Format) is the only
format acceptable.
• Documents submitted using other templates will not be
accepted.
• File Naming Convention: BISM1201_LastName_StudentID
• Submit through Blackboard, Assessment, IS Analysis Report Turnitin
link
• Multiple submissions are allowed before the due date for Turnitin
checks; only the last submission will be marked.
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• No hardcopy or email submissions will be accepted.
• See Blackboard Assignment Submission Instructions for more
information.
• See Turnitin Assignment Instructions for more information.

Individual Completion:
• This assignment is to be completed individually by each student.
• Discussion with peers is encouraged, but the written work you submit
must be entirely your own.
• Do not share yours or other assignments (present or past) to help your
peers.
Referencing and Citing:
• You need 3-5 references to back up your analysis and arguments
throughout the whole assignment. Use references not older than 10
years (NB: ChatGPT or GenAI platforms are not references and
avoid using commercial advertisements or Wikipedia).
• Use your own words for reporting other authors’ views and reference
properly. Do not copy and paste f rom online materials and other
authors’ work in your document.
• Avoid using direct quotations or ensure they are kept very
minimal, in quotation marks, and referenced.
• For example, “Nike uses a product differentiation information
system strategy because it allows customers to use its online
platform to customise its sneakers. This means that Nike can use
information systems to offer a different value proposition than its
competitors (Smith & Chang, 2010)”.
• Provide a real-world example for Task 2.2, properly referenced using
in- text referencing and included in the reference list. Examples can
come from academic journals, industry journals, online newspapers,
organisation websites, magazines etc. The real-world examples
must be referenced according to referencing requirements.
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• If the reference source anonymises the real-world company’s name,
then you should look for the anonymised name in the paper and
use that. For example, company’s name in the reference source
is anonymised to ‘Company A’. You should use 'Company A’ from
the original reference source. Please make sure you also cite the
reference source.
• Use the APA (7th edition) or another UQ Library approved style as
long as you are consistent across the document.
• See Referencing Style Guides

Guidelines related to Assignment Rubric:

• Critical Thinking: Your submission should reflect a well-
supported, in-depth analysis. Ensure every claim is
justified with evidence and reasoning.
• Clarity and Coherence: Your arguments should be structured
logically, with each section building on the previous one. Clear
headings and subheadings are encouraged.
• AI Transparency: While the use of UQ-guided Gen AI tools is
allowed as long as you acknowledge their contribution, your final
work must clearly demonstrate your own critical analysis.
• Please find the marking rubric on next page.



Assignment 1 Marking Rubric

This assignment is worth 30 marks (30% of your total course credit). The marking rubric is designed to reflect a marking schema of
100 percent that is scaled back to 30 marks. Part marks are rounded up to the nearest half mark.
Criteria High Distinction 85-100% Distinction 65-84% Credit 50-64% Marginal Fail 35-49 Fail 0-30
Task 1: Problem Deep and insightful Clearly identifies Identifies some Identifies very few No clear problem
Analysis analysis of the company’s most key problems relevant challenges problems. Analysis is identified, or problems
(7 marks) challenges. Porter’s Five and logically and provides basic limited or superficial. are misinterpreted.
Forces are coherently and connects them to analysis using Weak explanation of Analysis is missing or
accurately integrated to Porter’s Five Porter’s Five Forces, how the selected unsupported by case
explain the competitive Forces with strong though integration problem links to the evidence. Response
environment. explanation. lacks depth. strategy chosen in Task does not meaningfully
2 or to the case context. address the task.
Task 2.1: Analysis Exceptional analysis of Clearly defines and Identifies a strategic Multiple strategies may No clear strategy
of Suitable competitive forces and justifies an choice with a be described, but the presented. Strategies
Strategic Choice company positioning. appropriate reasonable but basic strategic choice is are listed without
(3.5 marks) Strategic choice is strategic choice. connection to unclear or weakly explanation,
persuasive, clearly Strong logical Porter’s Five Forces justified. Limited justification, or
justified, and logically connection to the and the chosen relevance to the problem relevance to the case.
derived from problem identified problem challenge (problem). identified in Task 1. No evidence of
analysis. and Porter’s Five strategic reasoning.
Forces.
Task 2.2: Real- Insightful, well-researched Relevant real-world Real-world example Example provided but No real-world example
World Example & real-world example. Strong example clearly is somewhat lacks relevance, depth, provided, or example is
Relevance integration with the connected to the relevant but lacks or clear connection to repetitive from course
(3.5 marks) selected strategy and clear strategic choice and strong justification or the case and strategic material and not
application to the company identified challenge. clear linkage to the choice. May be generic. adapted to the case.
context. Good use of strategy and
supporting problem.
research.




Criteria High Distinction 85-100% Distinction 65-84% Credit 50-64% Marginal Fail 35-49 Fail 0-30
Task 3: IS Solution
& Competitive
Advantage
(7 marks)
Exceptional, well-justified
IS solution. Clear
alignment with chosen
strategy and convincing
explanation of competitive
advantage. Research is
tightly integrated and
strengthens the argument.
Well-explained IS
solution aligned
with the chosen
strategy and clearly
addresses the
identified challenge.
IS solution
presented with some
relevance to
strategy, but
explanation lacks
depth or clarity in
demonstrating
competitive
advantage.
IS solution described but
evaluation is limited or
unclear. Weak or implicit
connection to strategic
choice. Limited
explanation of how the
solution addresses the
challenge.
IS solution missing or
incorrect. No
evaluation or
judgement provided.
No link to strategic
choice. Does not
explain how the
solution addresses the
case challenge.
Task 4: Ethical
Considerations
(4 marks)
Accurately identifies one
relevant SDG and one
non-SDG ethical concern.
Strong justification and
clear explanation of
relevance to company
operations and competitive
positioning, supported by
research.
Identifies one
relevant SDG and
one non-SDG
ethical concern.
Clear explanation of
connection to the
case, supported
with references.
Identifies one SDG
and one non-SDG
ethical concern.
Some connection to
the case is made,
though explanation
lacks depth.
SDG or ethical issue
mentioned but
explanation is limited,
partially incorrect, or
weakly linked to the
company. Connection
lacks clarity.
SDG and/or non-SDG
ethical concern missing
or incorrect. No
meaningful connection
to the company case.
Writing &
Presentation
(2 marks, applies
across all tasks)
Exceptionally well-
organised and
professionally structured.
Clear, precise writing.
Referencing is accurate
and consistently formatted.
Well-organised and
clearly structured.
Minimal language
errors. Referencing
accurate and
appropriately
formatted.
Basic structure and
logical flow. Minor
language or
referencing errors.
Referencing present
but inconsistent.
Structure uneven but
mostly understandable.
Noticeable grammar,
expression, or
referencing errors. Slight
formatting issues or
slightly over word limit.
Poor structure; difficult
to follow. Frequent
grammar and
referencing errors that
impede understanding.
Significantly over word
limit. Academic
conventions not
followed.
AI
Acknowledgement
(3 marks)
Meets expectations: Clearly applies the CAC Co-intelligence
framework to use AI ethically OR clearly explains non-use of AI.
Below expectations: Does not apply the CAC Co-
intelligence framework to use AI ethically OR
does not explain non-use of AI.
END OF ASSIGNMENT

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