Project Description
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Business and Information Systems Project Description
Project Introduction:
The course project has two parts. The first part of the course project will help you use information systems to
analyze the performance of a company and decide its future course of action. In addition, the course project
will enable you to explore ways in which databases play an integral role in the management of business
information and their use as decision-making tools. You will also identify potential threats to database
information.
The second part of the course project will enable you to identify supply chain management solutions for
operational excellence and develop an e-commerce strategy. In addition, it will enable you to use knowledge
management techniques for an improved decision-making process. This part will also help you to design an
appropriate information system to solve business problems.
Course Objectives Tested:
1. Use information systems to enhance a business’s reach, competitive advantage, and operational
efficiency.
2. Choose appropriate hardware, software, and information technology (IT) management infrastructure
for a business.
3. Use databases for business decision making and operational efficiency.
4. Use electronic communication technologies for improved business decision making and operational
efficiency.
5. Choose appropriate security and control measures for a business’s information systems.
6. Use enterprise systems, supply chain management (SCM) systems, and customer relationship
management (CRM) systems to achieve operational excellence.
7. Use e-commerce and m-commerce to achieve operational excellence and customer intimacy.
8. Use knowledge management techniques to improve the decision-making process and operational
efficiency.
9. Design an appropriate information system to solve business problems.
Project Submission Plan:
Project
Part
Course
Project
Part 1
Description/Requirements of the Project Phase
Tasks:
1. Examine the “Dirt Bikes U.S.A.” case study, and also review “How to Analyze a Case
Study”.
2. Read the “Dirt Bikes U.S.A” case study and review the following information:
¡ Company History and Background
¡ Organization Chart and Employees
¡ Products and Services
¡ Sales and Marketing
3. Next, you will use the Web to identify Dirt Bikes’ competitors and the competitive forces in
its industry. You’ll use value chain analysis to determine what kinds of information
systems will provide the company with a competitive advantage. Dirt Bikes’ management
wants to be sure it is pursuing the right competitive strategy. You have been asked to
perform a competitive analysis of the company using the Web to find the information you
need. Prepare a report that analyzes Dirt Bikes using the value chain and competitive
forces models. Your report should include the following:
¡ Which activities at Dirt Bikes create the most value?
¡ How does Dirt Bikes provide value to its customers?
¡ What other companies are Dirt Bikes’ major competitors?
¡ How do their products compare in price to those of Dirt Bikes?
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What are some of the product features they emphasize?
What are the competitive forces that can affect the industry?
¡ What competitive strategy should Dirt Bikes pursue?
¡ What information systems best support that strategy?
¡ (Optional) Use electronic presentation software to summarize your findings for
management.
4. Finally, you will use spreadsheet software to compare the total three- year cost of
licensing and maintaining new manufacturing software or renting the software from a
SaaS provider. Dirt Bikes would like to implement new production planning, quality
control, and scheduling software for use by 25 members of its manufacturing staff.
Management is trying to determine whether to purchase the software from a commercial
vendor along with any hardware required to run the software or to use a hosted software
solution from a SaaS provider. (The hosted software runs on the service provider’s
computer.) You have been asked to help management with this rent versus buy decision
by calculating the total cost of each option over a three- year period. The costs of
purchasing the software (actually for purchasing a license from the vendor to use its
software package) include the initial purchase price of the software (licensing fee of $
100,000 paid in the first year), the cost of implementing and customizing the software in
the first year ($ 20,000), one new server to run the software ( a first- year purchase of $
4,000), one information systems specialist devoting half of his or her time to supporting
the software ($ 55,000 in full- time annual salary and benefits with a 3- percent annual
salary increase each year after the first year), user training in the first year ($ 10,000),
and the cost of annual software upgrades ($ 5,000). The costs of renting hosted software
are the rental fees ($ 2,500 annually per user), implementation and customization costs
($ 12,000 in the first year), and training ($ 10,000 in the first year):
¡ Use your spreadsheet software to calculate the total cost of renting or purchasing
this software over a three year period. Identify the lowest-price alternative that
meets Dirt Bikes’ requirements.
¡ What other factors should Dirt Bikes consider besides cost in determining whether
to rent or buy the hardware and software?
¡ Optional) If possible, use electronic presentation software to summarize your
findings for management
5. Go to the following URL and download the database file:
http://wps.prenhall.com/wps/media/objects/5528/5661380/dirtbike/
laudon_ch05_customer_database.mdb
¡ Dirt Bikes USA sells primarily through its distributors. It maintains a small customer
data-base with the following data: customer name, address (street, city, state, ZIP
code), telephone number, model purchased, date of purchase, and distributor.
These data are collected by its distributors when they make a sale and are then
forwarded to Dirt Bikes. Dirt Bikes would like to be able to market more
aggressively to its customers. The marketing department would like to be able to
send customers e- mail notices of special racing events and of sales on parts. It
would also like to learn more about customers’ interests and tastes: their ages,
years of schooling, another sport in which they are interested, and whether they
attend dirt bike racing events. Additionally, Dirt Bikes would like to know whether
customers own more than one motorcycle. (Some Dirt Bikes customers own two or
three motorcycles purchased from Dirt Bikes USA or other manufacturers.) If a
motorcycle was purchased from Dirt Bikes, the company would like to know the
date of purchase, model purchased, and distributor. If the customer owns a nonDirt Bikes motorcycle, the company would like to know the manufacturer and model
of the other motorcycle (or motorcycles) and the distributor from whom the
customer purchased that motorcycle.
6. On the basis of this information, answer the 2 case study question listed below:
¡ Redesign Dirt Bikes’ customer database so that it can store and provide the
information needed for marketing. You will need to develop a design for the new
customer database and then implement that design using database software.
Consider using multiple tables in your new design. Populate each new table with 10
records.
¡ Develop several reports that would be of great interest to Dirt Bikes’ marketing and
sales department(for example, lists of repeat Dirt Bikes customers, Dirt Bikes
customers who attend racing events, or the average ages and years of schooling of
¡
¡
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Dirt Bikes customers) and print them.
Deliverables and Format:
l
l
Submit a report, including the answers to the questions posed in this part of the project.
The answers should follow a logical pattern and include an explanation for assumptions
and appropriate examples.
Include appropriate spreadsheet data to support your answers.
Font: Arial; 12-point
Line Spacing: Double
Assigned and Due Date:
Assigned: Week 2
Due: Week 4
Course
Project
Part 2
Tasks:
1. Management is concerned that Dirt Bikes’ computer systems could be vulnerable to power
outages, vandalism, computer viruses, natural disasters, or telecommunications
disruptions. You have been asked to perform an analysis of system vulnerabilities and
disaster recovery planning for the company.
2. On the basis of this information, answer the case study questions listed below:
¡ What are the most likely threats to the continued operation of Dirt Bikes’ systems?
¡ What would you identify as Dirt Bikes’ most critical systems? What is the impact on
the company if these systems cannot operate? How long could the company survive
if these systems were down? Which systems are the most important to back up and
restore in the event of a disaster?
¡ Use the Web to locate two disaster recovery services that could be used by a small
business such as Dirt Bikes. Compare them in terms of the services they offer.
Which should Dirt Bikes use? Exactly how could these services help Dirt Bikes
recover from a disaster?
¡ (Optional) If possible use electronic presentation software to summarize your
findings for management.
3. Bill of materials is used in manufacturing and production to show all of the parts and
materials required to manufacture a specific item or for the subassembly of a finished
product, such as a motorcycle. The information in the bill of materials is useful for
determining product costs, coordinating orders, and managing inventory. It can also show
how product costs will be affected by price changes in components or raw materials. This
project provides you with an opportunity to use spreadsheet software to perform a
sensitivity analysis showing the impact of various prices for component parts on the total
costs of a dirt bike. The bill of materials for this project has been simplified for
instructional purposes.
Dirt Bikes’ management has asked you to explore the impact of changes in some of its
parts components on production costs. Review the following bill of materials information
for the brake system for Dirt Bikes’ Moto 300 model.
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The completed bill of materials contains the description of the component, the
identification number of each component, the supplier ( source) of the component, the
unit cost of each component, the quantity of each component needed to make each
finished brake system, the extended cost of each component, and the total materials cost.
The extended cost is calculated by multiplying the quantity of each component needed to
produce the finished brake system by the unit cost. The prices of components are
constantly changing, and you will need to develop a spreadsheet application that can
show management the impact of such price changes on the cost to produce each brake
system and on total production costs for the Moto 300 model.
4. On the basis of this information, prepare a system analysis report describing the Dirt
Bikes’ problem and a system solution that can be implemented using PC database
software.
5. Develop a simple system solution using database software. The report should include the
following points:
¡ Description of the problem and its organizational and business impact.
¡ Proposed solution and solution objectives.
¡ Information requirements to be addressed by the solution.
¡ People, organization and technology issues to be addressed by the solution,
including changes in business processes.
6. On the basis of the requirements you have identified, design a solution as instructed in
the case study.
Deliverables and Format:
l
l
Submit a report, including the answers to the questions posed in this part of the project.
Include appropriate spreadsheets and databases to support your answers.
Font: Arial; 12-point
Line Spacing: Double
Assigned and Due Date:
Assigned: Week 4
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Due: Week 6
Note to the Students: Each part of the project will be graded equally.
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