Course Title: DIPLOMA IN LOGISTICS / DIPLOMA IN

BUSINESS INFORMATION MANAGEMENT / ADVANCED

DIPLOMA IN BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
Module Title: PRINCIPLES OF INFORMATION SYSTEM
MID TERM ASSESSMENT 2
2016 Q1
Case Study
Lecturer: Chan Chee Seng
Submission Date: 7th March 2015

1. Name: Peter Quek Zhong Yee

2. Name: Le Anh Long
3. Name: Chu Linh Phuong

Student ID: 1511012741

Student ID: 1511012737
Student ID: 1502012321

4. Name: Chhun Panhawat

Student ID: 1509012684

5. Name: Melvin Lee Jia Xian

Student ID: 1509012659

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Introduction
1.1 An introduction to Online and Cloud Applications
1.2 What is Trello?
Chapter 2: Accessibility of Trello

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2.1 Overcoming Geographical Barriers

2.2 Reducing Cost of Communications

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Chapter 3: Strengths and Limitations of Trello

3.1 Strengths of Trello

3.1.1 Simplicity
3.1.2 Freemiums
3.2 Limitations of Trello
3.2.1 Limited security features in free version
3.2.2 Lack of complex system
Chapter 4: Case Study: Comparison with Basecamp
4.1 Membership cost and features
4.2 Availability of Operating Systems
Chapter 5: Trellos Manual
Chapter 6: Future Plans
6.1 Short-term plans
6.2 Long-term plans
References

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1. Introduction
1.1 An introduction to Online and Cloud Applications
With the modernisation of cultures and the advancement of technologies, cloud and online
applications have taken the crown to be the foundation between subsidiaries companies that
are separated by large bodies of ocean to establish relationships as well as conveying ideas.
Humans, especially those living fast paced lives, are increasingly obsessed with profits and
speed. They want to stay competitive and relevant in the society to survive. Hence it is not a
surprise that companies desire not only setting businesses locally but also overseas.
In the past decade, the vast innovations of cloud computing have led to rapid developments
of cloud-based applications. In society today, many people are utilising cloud computing in
their everyday life; ranging from education such as searching for information via search
engines like Google to even recreation activities such as updating personal status or posting
feeds on social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Humans are increasingly profit-driven,
not only do they seek productivity and efficiency, but also convenience, which led to an
eureka of cloud-based application made assessable via our hand-held mobile devices. In this
case-study report, we are going to explore one of the widely used Cloud and Online
application, Trello.

1.2 What is Trello?

Trello is a web-based project management application made by Fog Creek Software in 2011.
It allows users to organises their projects into boards. It also informs people the topic of
project that is being managed, individuals that are tasked for the project and the progress in
which the project is being managed. Today, there are over 12 million users in Trello,
comprising of people from all aspect of occupation such as managers to manage international
business, lawyers to discuss law-cases and even between students and teachers for after
school class discussions (Novet, 2016)

Figure 1. Graph illustrating the growth of Trello users over the years.

2. Accessibility of Trello
According to SuccessFactors (n.d.), it was pointed out that:
Business productivity software ensures organisations to have the tools to overcome the
challenges of executing on strategy every day and prospering in today's economic times.
Increased business productivity can be traced to the automation of processes allowing for
faster communication of strategy, increased time spent on strategic priorities and greater
project completion rates.

2.1 Overcoming Geographical Barriers

With Trello, it helps to overcome geographical barriers between subsidiary managers. As Trello
is an online solution, projects can be discussed over the internet and the power of internet allows
information to be received as well as transmitted internationally almost instantly. In addition,
Trello is a mobile-friendly application and which grants users easy access to the solution as and
when they prefer. Thus, it grants users the convenience of accessing Trello from any locations.

2.2 Reducing Cost of Communications

Cost for communication is also an important factor to be considered when it comes to discussion
of projects between subsidiary managers. Trello is an online solution, thus many projects can be
discussed online by posting cards and managers from other countries will receive information
almost immediately. This in turn replaces many traditional means of communication such as fax
machines, phone calls or even mailing, which are time consuming and extremely costly
compared to an online solution such as Trello. Hence efficiency in communication is highly
important as it leads to productivity. Any amount of time wasted on waiting for information to be
received constitutes to wastage of productivity.

3. Strengths and limitations of Trello

3.1 Strengths of Trello
3.1.1 Simplicity
It is easily used to customize project boards. Built as a card sorting platform, the simplicity of
Trello allows users to create just about any board for a project that they would prefer. Users
can also keep track of the progress of different stages of completion of a project. They can
also can add and make use of the content idea boards to further develop the project ideas. As
such Trello provides the flexibility to create ideas as well as having the essential tools to
organise and manage those ideas with the group of people who are working together.

3.1.2 Freemiums
This is a great opportunity for small organizations or companies that just started out. The free
version of Trello has most of the important features you need to discuss ideas and manage
projects effectively. You are granted unlimited boards, cards and lists and in addition, Trello
can integrate with many third party apps such as Google+ to make even greater use out of
Trello.

3.2 Limitations of Trello

3.2.1 Limited security features in free version
Despite having its strengths, Trello is limited in such a way that the free version of Trello has
very limited security features. It does not allow selected members from the organization to
access certain features, such as deleting posts and adding of new members. It is unwise to
give all members of an organization equal authority to access every features. The higher
ranking members should be given more administrative authorities and responsibilities to
manage its subordinates who are at the lower management level. If security features are not
promised by Trello, it is very difficult for the organization to discuss projects which are
meant to be unique and confidential to its rivals. Valuable information may be leaked out for
as long one member fails to practice responsibilities to keep it confidential, which makes the
entire project futile.
3.2.2 Lack of complex system
Another limitation is that Trello does not provide a more complex system for bigger
organisations. A big project will need a more detailed and complex system to be managed
properly as it involves many members at different management levels to process numerous
tasks. The number of boards needed for such projects are many and it can be too confusing
when individual boards of the same genres are not grouped together. This lack of a more
complicated system really limits Trellos target market.

4. Case study: Comparison with Basecamp

While Trello has a very systematic structure with their boards, lists and cards that are easy to
manage, Basecamp also has a few ways to manage projects efficiently while maintaining a
simple structure. Basecamp allows user to access all the files in one place and from there, users
are individually assigned with project tasks, deadlines and templates. However, Trello is not
limited to a large extent as compared to Basecamp as it possesses drag-drop features, making
brainstorming between users more just as efficiently as Basecamp.

4.1 Membership cost and features

Both Trello and Basecamp also differ in terms of their membership benefits. Despite
being free, Trello also has a 'Trello Enterprise' membership plan of
USD20.83/month(USD249.96/year) per organisation that grants more administrative
supports such as integration with Google Apps which increases the efficiency and
effectiveness of an organisation by providing an easy bulk export and controlling options.
By upgrading its membership allows users to upload attachments up to 250MB instead of
10MB for the non-members. Basecamp on the other hand, only provides users with a 60day free trial and its freemium has very limited functions unless users upgrades to
membership premiums. The surcharge for Basecamp are at the rate of USD20/month or
USD3000/year per organisation. By paying the formal, organisations can have unlimited
number of users to perform a maximum of 10 projects, with a storage of only 3GB. While
the latter grants up to 500GB and unlimited number of projects. In comparison, Trello is
still a more preferable choice for smaller organisations as it a cheaper platform as
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compared to Basecamp. Although the attachment uploaded can only be of 250MB cap,
users can still make use of the Google App to combine these attachments as a whole.
4.2 Availability of Operating Systems
Lastly, Trello is accessible through any iOS platforms while Basecamp is unavailable
through android platform. The world today has about 1.4billion android users (James
2014) and that implies that Trello is more reachable to a larger population than
Basecamp. As such it is even easier to connect with people any part of the world. In
contrast, Trello is limited in the number of language it offers to its users as compared to
Basecamp. Trello currently only is available in English, Portuguese, and French while
Basecamp offers dozens of languages, even Chinese. In time to come, the world will be
integrated with more English speaking population as it is an international language
widely accepted by majority of the countries today. As such, Trello is not undermined
despite the lack of languages because having English suffice to compete with the world.

5. Trellos manual
As mentioned, your projects in Trello are organized as boards, lists and cards. A board is used
to house your project, within boards are lists which are presented as columns and can be
utilized to categorize and track your tasks, which are cards. Cards are your to-dos or ideas
that are under discussion and such. You can perform several actions with your cards to help
manage your project in a most logical and efficient way possible, which will be elaborated
further.
To start a project, the first thing you do is to create a board. Simply click the plus button next
to your user name and choose Create Board then give it a name. Your board can be assigned
to a specific team or individuals and it can be either private or public. In your board, on the
right side theres a menu where you can add members to that specific board. You can also
customise and keep track of real time update of the board.

The first board you create with Trello will have 3 default lists: To Do, Doing and Done. You
can rename them if you want. You also can create more lists by clicking on Add a list or just
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double click on any open space on your board. The latter gives the feel of working on a real
board with sticky notes which gives more user involvements.

You can click on the drop down triangle in your

list to get access to some actions to modify your
list. You can add cards, copy the list, or
subscribe to get notified whenever a change is
made to the list. You can have an unlimited
number of boards, cards and lists. However it is
recommended that user should keep the number
under control to keep it organised.
Your cards are created through the list actions, or simply by clicking Add a card. Your cards
should not be too long, instead it should be concise and informative since you can add more
information to the card description.

One well designed feature you can do to your cards is to add labels to arrange cards neatly.
Click on Labels, pick a color and edit the labels name.

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Another important
feature of cards is
to add deadlines.
Click on Due date
and you can start
assigning your
deadlines from
there. You also
have the option to
add attachments to
your cards, but it is
limited to 10Mb per attachment.

You can also use the search function to find more information relevant to you:

Type @username to search for cards assigned to a particular user.

Type #label to search for cards with a certain label.
Type is:open or is:archived to search for open or archived cards.
Type has:attachment to search for cards with attachment.
Type due:day to search for cards due within 24 hours. Similarily due:week, due:month,
due: overdue works accordingly.

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6. Future Plans
6.1 Short-term plans
As Trello is free and allows members to post unlimited boards hence unlimited small
projects, it is very beneficial for small organisations that have just established as they
may not have additional capital to run expensive online solutions. Trello in the short-run
can act as a temporary online solution to these problems, helping the organisation to
expand.

6.2 Long-term plans

In the long-run as the organisation grow bigger, its members may consider to upgrade its
membership for better security features as confidentiality of organisation project is of
high importance. Its membership fees are not considered expensive as compared to other
online solutions. However, should the organisation have enough capital, it is possible to
consider other online solutions such as Basecamp as it allows a larger uploads of files (up
to 500GB).

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References:

Basecamp, Basecamp pricing,

Viewed on 6 February 2016
https://basecamp.com/3/pricing

J. Novet 2016, Trello hits 12M users, launches Power-Ups Platform with
partners Giphy, Join.me, SurveyMonkey, and Zendesk
Viewed on 15 February 2016
http://venturebeat.com/2016/01/19/trello-hits-12m-users-launches-powerups-platform-with-partners-giphy-join-me-surveymonkey-and-zendesk/

Trello, Trello pricing

Viewed on 6 February 2016
https://trello.com/pricing
Trello, Trello Tour
Viewed on 6 February 2016
https://trello.com/tour
R. Saigal 2014, Everything You Need to Know to Work Productively in Trello
Viewed on 15 February 2016
http://computers.tutsplus.com/tutorials/everything-you-need-to-know-to-work-productivelyin-trello--cms-21450

V. James 2014, Android is now used by 1.4 billion people available at:
View on 10 February 2016
http://www.theverge.com/2015/9/29/9409071/google-android-stats-users-downloads-sales

SuccessFactors

(n.d.)

Using Technology

to Increase Your

Business

Productivity
Viewed on 5 march 2016

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https://www.successfactors.com/en_us/lp/articles/using-technology-to-increase-yourbusiness-productivity.html

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