| Course | MT300 Management of Information Systems |
|---|---|
| Unit | Unit 3 |
| Paper type | Information systems business case |
| Length | About 860 words, 6 pages double-spaced |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Purdue University Global |
| Program | BS in Business Administration |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for MT300 Unit 3
Paid Back by September: An MT300 Unit 3 Business Case for Replacing a Rental Company's Desktop Software
[Student Name]
Purdue University Global
MT300: Management of Information Systems
Unit 3 Business Case
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
Larkfield Event Rentals and all figures are composite; the methods and sources cited are real.
Executive Summary
Larkfield Event Rentals requests approval to replace its unsupported desktop rental package with a cloud rental platform and ten driver tablets. One-time costs are $35,152 and the subscription is $13,800 a year. Expected benefits of about $56,000 a year come from fewer return trips, recovered damage charges, less reconciliation time and the retired support fee. Discounted at 8 percent across five years, the investment is worth about $131,000 in today's dollars. A February launch pays back in seven months; a July launch in ten. We recommend launching in February.
What the Present Process Costs
The figures come from records the company already keeps for last season's 1,380 events.
Return trips. Crews made 190 trips back to a venue to deliver something missing or wrong, at about $165 each in driver time, fuel and truck wear, or $31,350.
Unbilled damage and loss. Linen and chair count-backs suggest roughly $48,000 in damage and loss that was never billed, because damage was noticed days after pickup and could not be tied to an event.
Reconciliation. The office manager spends nine hours a week matching deposits to orders by hand, roughly $11,000 each year when priced at $23.50 an hour including benefits and payroll taxes.
Support. The current vendor's support fee is $1,900 a year for software that no longer receives updates.
Benefits Beside Their Assumptions
Each benefit is stated as a baseline, an expected reduction and the reason for it, so an owner who doubts one line can change it.
1. Return trips avoided: $17,240 a year. Baseline $31,350; expected reduction 55 percent, because most return trips trace to late changes and loading errors that a live order record and tablet check-in would catch.
2. Damage recovered: $28,800 a year. Baseline $48,000; expected recovery 60 percent, because photo check-in at pickup ties damage to an event before the truck leaves.
3. Reconciliation time: $8,250 a year. Baseline $11,000; three quarters removed, because the platform matches card deposits to orders automatically.
4. Support fee retired: $1,900 a year.
Total expected benefits: about $56,190 a year at full effect.
An efficiency that cannot be written as trips, dollars or hours does not belong in a business case.
Costs a Vendor Quote Omits
Ellram (1995) argues that the true cost of a purchase includes everything the buyer spends to acquire, use and maintain it, not only the price. The one-time costs below reflect that view.
Implementation and data migration: $9,500
Ten rugged tablets: $6,400, with replacement of $4,000 in year four
Office and seasonal crew training: $7,200
Six weeks of double entry during parallel running: $6,552
Operations manager's project hours: $5,500
One-time total: $35,152. Annual subscription: $13,800. Markus et al. (2000) found that firms adopting enterprise systems commonly underestimated the effort of the period around go-live, which is why parallel running and project time appear as separate lines here.
The Present System's Hidden Costs
Laudon and Laudon (2022) describe information systems as combinations of technology, people and procedures, and Larkfield's present costs sit mostly in the last two. No invoice records the hour a driver spends returning to a venue with twelve forgotten chair covers, or the Monday afternoons the office manager spends matching card slips to orders. Those costs are real but invisible, which is why the case prices them before describing any product. The desktop package itself costs only $1,900 a year in support, and an owner who looks only at that figure will conclude that the present system is cheap.
Financial Analysis
Net annual benefit at full effect is about $42,390 after the subscription. Discounted at 8 percent over five years and subtracting one-time costs and the discounted tablet replacement, the net present value is about $131,000.
A short Python script, included as a one-page appendix, spreads benefits across months in proportion to events, since seven in ten events fall between May and October, and places each cost in the month it would be paid. Benefits run at half effect for the first two months while staff learn the system.
February launch. Learning happens in the quiet months. The platform reaches full effect by April, catches the whole season and pays back by September, seven months after go-live. By the end of the first October, cumulative benefits exceed all one-time costs and nine months of fees.
July launch. The first peak is spent at half effect as staff learn under load. Payback slips to the following spring, ten months after go-live.
Risks
Benefits may come in lower if crews skip photo check-in, so a check-in rate will be tracked weekly. Subscription prices may rise; the vendor's contract caps increases at 5 percent a year. Migration errors are the largest one-time risk and are addressed in the transition plan for Unit 10.
Recommendation
Approve the cloud rental platform and tablets at $35,152 one-time and $13,800 a year, with a February launch.
References
Ellram, L. M. (1995). Total cost of ownership: An analysis approach for purchasing. International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, 25(8), 4-23. https://doi.org/10.1108/09600039510099928
Laudon, K. C., & Laudon, J. P. (2022). Management information systems: Managing the digital firm (17th ed.). Pearson.
Markus, M. L., Axline, S., Petrie, D., & Tanis, C. (2000). Learning from adopters' experiences with ERP: Problems encountered and success achieved. Journal of Information Technology, 15(4), 245-265. https://doi.org/10.1080/02683960010008944
The Purdue Global MT300 Unit 3 instructions
In Unit 3 students write a business case for an information system investment. The case should begin with a short executive summary stating the request, costs and expected return. Instructors expect the current process to be costed with figures from records the organization keeps. Benefits should be stated as measurable reductions with their assumptions, not as adjectives. Costs must include implementation, training, hardware, parallel running and internal staff time as well as subscription or license fees. Most prompts require at least one standard financial measure, such as payback period or discounted value, with the rate named. A short risks section and a clear recommendation close the case. Technical description of the system is rarely rewarded, since the audience is a business owner.
How this MT300 Unit 3 example is built
The sample's summary states the request, a one-time outlay of $35,152 plus yearly fees of $13,800, and the answer, a net present value of about $131,000. The present costs are set down before any product is described. Four benefits follow, each with a baseline, a reduction and a reason, under the highlighted line that an efficiency that cannot be written as trips, dollars or hours does not belong in the case. Five one-time cost lines reflect Ellram's view of total cost. A section on hidden costs uses Laudon and Laudon on people and procedures. The financial analysis explains a short script that spreads benefits by month and compares February and July launches. Risks and a one-line recommendation close the case.
Where the points sit in the MT300 Unit 3 rubric
Business cases in this unit are typically graded on the quality of the financial analysis, the credibility of benefits and costs, organization and persuasiveness. Graders reward a current-state baseline built from real records. Each benefit should be measurable and carry an assumption a reader can challenge. Costs should be complete, including the parallel period and staff hours, which often exceed a first year of fees. Payback or net present value should be calculated correctly with a stated rate. Timing effects, such as seasonality, strengthen the analysis. The scale of the solution should fit the organization. A clear executive summary and a specific recommendation are expected. Cited work in APA 7 backs the costing approach and the implementation assumptions.
MT300 Unit 3 help from the desk
Business cases often describe benefits as streamlined or efficient without converting them into hours, trips or dollars. Another frequent error is costing only the subscription and leaving out implementation, training and double entry during the transition. Some cases give five-year totals without any discounting, which ignores when money moves. A missing baseline makes improvement impossible to show. Enterprise software proposed for a small company undermines credibility. Before drafting, pull last year's records for the problem the system would fix and count it: trips, errors, hours or losses. Those counts become the baseline. Forward them with the case prompt, and the financial analysis can be built from your own numbers.
Get an MT300 Unit 3 example written to your instructions
Whatever system your MT300 case has to justify, the first sample business case is free: costs, benefits with their assumptions, and a payback figure built from your case figures, measured against the Unit 3 rubric. It arrives in 24-48h. Where your instructor wants the calculation shown in Excel rather than a script, say so and it is built that way. The paper above is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Purdue University Global document.
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MT300 Unit 3 questions, answered
Does an MT300 business case need net present value?
Many sections ask for it, and where a prompt says only financial justification, payback plus net present value covers both kinds of reader. Payback is intuitive for an owner; net present value accounts for timing and the cost of money. Include the discount rate and a sentence on why it was chosen, since the result moves with it.
Where do benefit estimates come from?
From counts the organization already keeps or could keep: trips logged, hours worked, charges billed. Where no count exists, a short sample, such as one month of delivery notes, supports an estimate better than an industry average does. Every estimate then needs a percentage of improvement and a reason for it, and that reason is what an instructor actually grades.
Why run the numbers in a script instead of a spreadsheet?
Either works; what earns credit is the logic, whichever tool carries it. This sample relies on a thirty-line Python script because monthly seasonality made its spreadsheet unwieldy, and printing the script in an appendix lets a reader check each step. Where a section expects Excel, the same logic fits in one sheet with a row per month.
Where can I find a free MT300 Unit 3 sample paper?
The complete MT300 Unit 3 business case is on this page, costing a cloud rental platform for an event rental company.
Why does the launch month matter in the MT300 Unit 3 sample?
A February launch lets staff learn during the quiet months and pays back in seven months, while a July launch spends the first peak at half effect.