The Business Technology Management Capstone Project
Ryerson University is renowned for the relevance of its education programs. Nowhere is this
more evident than in the final year Capstone Project carried out by every student in the
Bachelor of Commerce, Business Technology Management (BTM) program offered by the Ted
Rogers School of Management, the largest IT Management school in North America.
Over the last 10 years, more than 400 organizations from major public corporations to boutique
non-profits have agreed to provide a client environment for groups of 5-6 fourth year students to
carry out a real-life consulting project with the aim to identify a feasible IT solution that could
potentially deliver business benefits for the organization.
This project allows the BTM students to apply “book learning” to real world business challenges,
and at the same time provides valuable insights to our sponsor clients. Many clients have used
the deliverables as a pilot or implemented the recommendations.
Activities and Deliverables
The engagement runs between two semesters, with the practical work supported by related
classroom activities as well as guidance from their course instructor.
By the 1st semester: A report analyzing and redesigning a business process that needs to be
improved will be delivered which includes:
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Strategy and Business Process: a comprehensive examination of the client's business
strategy and key processes crucial to the strategy.
Existing Business Process: an in-depth analysis of process to be created or
reengineered.
Redesigning Business Process: a to-be process reengineering that further
supports/enables the business strategy.
By the 2nd semester: The groups are required to determine requirements for a proposed system
solution, develop a request for proposal/Information (RFP/I) document, compare vendor
solutions, recommend the most feasible vendor choice, and develop an implementation plan for
the vendor solution. The report includes the following topics:
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IT Solution Supporting Business Process Change: a detailed analysis of system
requirements of a proposed IT solution.
Feasibility Analysis of Proposed Solutions: a comprehensive comparison of vendor
solutions.
Implementation Plan: a detailed plan suggesting how the client should effectively
implement the recommended solution.
Based on the deliverables, there will be a final presentation to the instructor and the respective
client.
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What We Ask Of Our Clients/ Sponsors
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First, that a manager or executive acts as the main point of contact and make
him/herself available to meet with the group periodically between September and April
Second, that the consulting team be allowed some access to the client organization’s
staff to obtain a comprehensive understanding of internal business environment and
gather information needed to identify business problems and a suitable IT solution
Third, that they have reasonable access to business data, under a confidentiality
agreement
Previous Business Cases
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Internal vehicle leasing process in a large automotive company
o Business problem: The internal car leasing process involves multiple
stakeholders (e.g., Finance, HR, Distribution), to get a leasing request approved
and payroll deduced before getting a vehicle is time consuming. It is error-prone
as all vehicle leasing documents are paper-based and difficult to manage leasing
documents and monitor the status of leases.
o Solution: A SharePoint application was proposed to centralize lease documents
management, access information different departments, and enable the senior
management with the transparency of the status of leases within the company. A
Canadian vendor who is specialized in SharePoint applications development was
recommended to develop and implement the proposed solution.
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Campaign Management Process in a non-for-profit charity organization
o Business problem: The organization is committed to providing a sense of
normalcy to children whose lives are challenged by medical conditions. To
achieve the goal, the organization raises funds for young kids with medical
conditions to enjoy summer camps. Unfortunately, the organization suffers from
low brand awareness, which prevents it from achieving its mission.
o Solution: As the organization has limited resources and IT capacity, a low-cost
peer-to-peer campaign management system is proposed to allow people who are
interested in the cause.
Examples of business processes improved by our capstone projects
 Client acquisition process: for a small consulting firm to target and attract interested
clients
 Internal IT training process: for an IT department to develop training content, deliver
training, and assess training outcomes across a large insurance company
 Project management process: for project managers of a medium-sized manufacturing
company to allocate resources, monitor project progress, and assess project outcomes
 Volunteer recruitment and retention process: for the management office of a non-forprofit organization to recruit and retain volunteers
 Collaboration process: for the owner of a small fashion firm to attract and support
designers to collaborate on a fashion design project
 Freight transport process: for a logistics firm to improve the communication among
dispatchers, drivers, consignors, and consignees
 Risk governance process: for an IT department of a large retailer to improve risk
governance across the organization
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Want To Get Involved in the Partnership?
For more information or if you want to sponsor a student group, please contact us:
Ted Rogers School of Information Technology Management,
Ryerson University
Address:
575 Bay Street
Toronto, ON
M5G 2C5
Phone: (416) 979-5316
Email: [email protected]
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