A grassroots group of college students has decided to work together to do their part in making the world a better place. The students are from many different countries, and several of them met at global conferences, through study abroad experiences, or on various Internet groups. Strategic goals of this group include developing skills for both college students and for needy populations, sharing information on existing products and services that promote economic growth and sustainability, and promoting entrepreneurship. Leaders of this group were reviewing some ideas for projects (all with a significant IT component) that they could do to support their strategic goals: 1. Global Treps: Many people are familiar with the television show called Shark Tank where entrepreneurs (sometimes called "treps") present their business ideas to a group of investors or sharks. Several colleges, high schools, and even elementary schools throughout the world hold unique versions of a shark tank like event. You believe that creating a non-profit organization with one central mobile-friendly website/application to assist groups in organizing these types of events would spark even more entrepreneurs throughout the world. You would plan to hold several shark tank like events during the term of the project and create a site and applications to help continue developing more global treps. This site/application would include the following capabilities:
• Provide guidelines and templates for running a shark tank type of event
• Accept donations from potential investors targeted toward specific schools or organizations
wishing to host an event (similar to the popular DonorsChoose. org site where people
can fund teacher’s requests)
• Accept ideas for needed new products or services
• Provide the ability for organizations to create their own custom site to solicit local participants
and sharks, accept applications, and promote the winners as well as losers
• Research ideas for a mechanism where a certain percentage of all donations and profits
earned by contestants are donated back to the Global Treps organization
• Provide an online version of the events by showing videos of contestants and live reactions
of the sharks while also getting live inputs and donations from viewers

QUESTION:
Prepare a business case for the Global Treps project. Assume that the project will take six
months to complete, use many volunteer hours, and cost about $120,000 for hardware, software,
travel, and labor. Use the business case template provided on the companion website
for this text. Be sure to research information on the television show and events held by colleges
and other groups, which have been sparked by the need for more successful entrepreneurs.
Also visit DonorsChoose. org to see how that site operates and look into steps for
forming a non-profit organization.

Follow up Thoughts:
When completing the business case, review the following.
Assume you would be the IT project manager for the project and that you want it to be implemented.
Reread the "Global Treps" project description.
Study the "Weighted Decision Matrix Template" results for the project.
Assume that the new system must run on existing hardware and software, should require minimal technical support, must be easily accessible by employees, and must be protected from unauthorized users.
For the "Analysis of Options and Recommendation" section, consider other possible options if the project is not implemented. For the "Potential Risks" section, consider business risk to the company if the project is not implemented.
Be creative in the business case and state any additional assumptions.