Dirt bikes usa case study answers

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PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Project Introduction:

Dirt Bikes U.S.A. is a small company headquartered in Carbondale, Colorado. It manufactures and sells its own brand of

off-road motorcycles. The company, founded in 1993, produces customized dirt bikes for racing and off-road

recreational riding using the best quality components from all over the world. Today, the company faces a new set of

challenges and opportunities. You have been asked, as a consultant, to apply your knowledge of information systems

to help Dirt Bikes U.S.A. solve some of the problems it is encountering.

Course Objective Tested:

1. Project the future impact of information systems on businesses and on your career.

2. Use information systems to enhance a business’s reach, competitive advantage, and operational efficiency.

3. Choose appropriate hardware, software, and Information technology (IT) management infrastructure for a

business.

4. Choose appropriate security, backup, virus protection, and control measures for a business's information

systems.

5. Use enterprise systems, supply chain management (SCM) systems, and customer relationship management

(CRM) systems to achieve operational excellence.

6. Use e-commerce and M-commerce to achieve operational excellence and customer intimacy.

7. Use knowledge management techniques to improve the decision-making process and operational efficiency.

8. Design an appropriate information system to solve business problems.

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PROJECT SUBMISSION PLAN

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Description/Requirements of Project Part Evaluation Criteria

1 Dirt Bikes U.S.A.—Case Study

Task 1:

Examine the Dirt Bikes U.S.A. case study and review How

to Analyze a Case Study. After reading the case study,

review the following information:

 Company History and Background

 Organization Chart and Employees

 Products and Services

 Sales and Marketing

On the basis of this information, answer the following

questions:

1. Which products should the company restock?

2. Which stores and sales regions would benefit

from promotional campaigns and additional

marketing?

3. When (what time of year) should the company

offer products at full price and when should it

offer discounts?

Task 2:

Dirt Bikes’ management wants to be sure that it is

pursuing the right competitive strategy. You have been

asked to perform a competitive analysis of the company

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:

1. Which activities at Dirt Bikes create the most

Criteria Points

Assigned Points Earned

Did the students answer the specified case study questions?

35%

Did you provide answers that follow a logical pattern and include an explanation for assumptions and appropriate examples?

45%

Did you include appropriate spreadsheet data to support their answers?

20%

http://www.content.distance-education.itt-tech.edu/cliksdmrroot/content_directory/mount1/507393/BU1410_v1/Dirt_Bikes.pdf
http://www.content.distance-education.itt-tech.edu/cliksdmrroot/content_directory/mount1/507393/BU1410_v1/Analysis_case_study.pdf
http://www.content.distance-education.itt-tech.edu/cliksdmrroot/content_directory/mount1/507393/BU1410_v1/Analysis_case_study.pdf
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value?

2. How does Dirt Bikes provide value to its

customers?

3. Who are Dirt Bikes’ major competitors? How do

the prices of their products compare with those

of Dirt Bikes’? What product features do they

emphasize?

4. What are the competitive forces that can affect

the industry?

5. What competitive strategy should Dirt Bikes

pursue?

6. What information systems best support that

strategy?

7. (Optional) Use electronic presentation software

to summarize your findings for the management.

Task 3:

Dirt Bikes would like to implement new software for

production planning, quality control, and scheduling. The

software will be used by 25 members of the company’s

manufacturing staff. The management is wondering

whether to purchase the software from a commercial

vendor along with the hardware required or to use a

hosted software solution from a Software as a Service

(SaaS) provider. (The hosted software runs on the service

provider’s computer.) You have been asked to help the

management with this rent-versus-buy decision by

calculating the total cost of each option over a three-year

period. The cost of purchasing the software includes the

initial purchase price of the software (licensing fee of

$100,000 in the first year), and the cost of implementing

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and customizing the software in the first year ($20,000).

Hardware costs include a server to run the software (a

first-year purchase of $4,000), one information systems

specialist devoting half his or her time to support the

software ($55,000 in full-time annual salary and benefits

with a 3 percent annual salary increase each year after

the first year), and user training in the first year

($10,000).You also need to account for the cost of annual

software upgrades ($5,000). On the other hand, the costs

of renting hosted software include 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).

1. 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.

2. What other factors should Dirt Bikes consider,

besides cost, while determining whether to rent

or buy the hardware and software?

3. (Optional) If possible, use electronic presentation

software to summarize your findings for

management.

4.

Submission Requirements:

 Submit your findings in an MS Word document.

 Submit the updated spreadsheet and database

files.

 Font: Arial; 12-point

 Line Spacing: Double

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Assigned: Week 1

Due: Week 3

Grading Weight: 12.5%

2 Dirt Bikes U.S.A.—Redesign Database

Task 1:

Dirt Bikes U.S.A. sells primarily through its distributors.

Click here to download the database file. It maintains a

small customer database with the following data:

 Customer name

 Address (street, city, state, ZIP code)

 Telephone number

 Model purchased

 Date of purchase

 Distributor

The distributors collect this data after each sale and then

forward it to Dirt Bikes. Dirt Bikes would like to be able to

market more aggressively to its customers. The marketing

department would like 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, other sports in

which they are interested, and whether they attend dirt

bike racing events. In addition, Dirt Bikes would like to

know whether its customers own more than one

motorcycle. If a motorcycle was purchased from Dirt

Bikes, the company would like to know the date of

purchase, model name, and distributor from whom it was

purchased. If the customer owns a non-Dirt Bikes

motorcycle, the company would like to know the

Criteria Points

Assigned Points Earned

Did you prepare a report containing answers to the case study questions?

35%

Did you include appropriate tables, reports, and databases to support their answers?

25%

Did you design a solution as instructed in the Dirt Bikes U.S.A case study?

40%

http://www.content.distance-education.itt-tech.edu/cliksdmrroot/content_directory/mount1/507393/BU1410_v1/laudon_ch05_customer_database.mdb
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manufacturer and model of the other motorcycle (or

motorcycles) and the distributor from whom the

customer purchased that motorcycle.

On the basis of the above information, perform the

following activities:

1. 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 it using database software. Consider

using multiple tables in your new design.

Populate each new table with 10 records.

2. Develop reports that would be of 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 Dirt Bikes

customers) and print them.

Task 2:

The 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.

Answer the questions below. You may refer to Table 7.2,

“Examples of Computer Crime,” on page 242 of your

textbook for more information.

1. Identify the threats to which Dirt Bikes’ systems

are most vulnerable.

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2. Classify the most critical systems at Dirt Bikes.

What would be the impact on the company if

these systems could not 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?

3. Use the Internet 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 of the two services

should Dirt Bikes use? How would these services

help Dirt Bikes recover from a disaster?

Task 3:

Dirt Bikes cannot fulfill many of its orders on time

because of delays in sourcing some important motorcycle

components and parts, such as fuel tanks. Complaints are

mounting from distributors who fear losing sales if the

dirt bikes they have ordered are delayed too long. Dirt

Bikes’ management has asked you to help address some

of its supply chain issues. Based on this information,

answer the questions listed below:

1. Use the Internet to locate alternative suppliers

for motorcycle fuel tanks. Identify two or three

suppliers. Find out the time and the cost of

shipping a fuel tank (weighing about five pounds)

by ground (surface delivery) from each supplier

to Dirt Bikes in Carbondale, Colorado. Which of

these suppliers is likely to ship the fuel tanks in

the shortest amount of time and at the lowest

cost?

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2. The management wants to know about any

supply chain management software that would

be appropriate for a small business, such as Dirt

Bikes. Use the Internet to locate two providers of

supply chain management software. Briefly

describe the capabilities of the two software

applications and indicate how they could help

Dirt Bikes. Which of these products would be

more appropriate for Dirt Bikes? Why?

3. (Optional) Use electronic presentation software

to summarize your findings for management.

Task 4:

Dirt Bikes’ management believes that the company could

benefit from e-commerce. The company sells motorcycles

and parts primarily through authorized dealers. It also

advertises in various magazines catering to dirt bike

enthusiasts and maintains booths at important off-road

motorcycle racing events. You have been asked to explore

how Dirt Bikes could benefit from e-commerce and by

selling online through a website.

1. Prepare a report for management that answers

the following questions:

a. How could Dirt Bikes benefit from e-

commerce? Should it sell its

motorcycles or parts online? Should it

use its website to advertise its products

and services or to offer customer

service?

b. How would a website provide value to

Dirt Bikes? Use the Internet to research

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the cost of an e-commerce site for a

small-to medium-sized company. How

much revenue or cost savings would the

website have to produce to make it a

worthwhile investment for Dirt Bikes?

2. Prepare specifications to describe the functions

that should be performed by Dirt Bikes’ website.

Provide links to other websites or systems in

your specifications.

3. (Optional) Design the home page for Dirt Bikes’

website along with an important secondary page

linked to the home page using a word processor

or a Web page development tool of your choice.

4. Identify some important website features that

can be used to create customer relationships.

Analyze the challenge that Dirt Bikes may face in

the course of creating customer intimacy and

loyalty.

Task 5:

Dirt Bikes promotes itself as a “learning company.” It

encourages employees to undergo training to help them

advance in their careers. As employees move on, their

positions fall vacant. These positions must be filled

quickly to maintain the company’s pace of production.

Dirt Bikes’ human resources staff would like to find a way

of quickly identifying qualified employees who have the

training to fill vacant positions. Once the company knows

who these employees are, it has a better chance of filling

open positions internally rather than paying to recruit

outsiders. Dirt Bikes would like to track each employee’s

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years of education and the title and date of completion of

any training that each employee has attended. Dirt Bikes’

existing employee database is limited to basic human

resources data, such as employee name, identification

number, birth date, address, telephone number, marital

status, job position, and salary. Click here to download

some sample records from this database. Dirt Bikes’

human resources staff maintains employees’ skills and

training data in paper folders.

On the basis of this information, prepare a system

analysis report describing Dirt Bikes’ problem and

suggesting a solution that can be implemented 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

On the basis of the requirements you have identified,

design the solution using database software and populate

it with at least 10 records per table. Consider whether you

can use or modify the existing employee database in your

design. Print out the design for each table in your new

application. Use the system to create queries and reports

that would be of interest to the management, such as the

names of employees who have a college education, or

have undergone training in project management or

http://www.content.distance-education.itt-tech.edu/cliksdmrroot/content_directory/mount1/507393/BU1410_v1/laudon_ch11_employee_database.mdb
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advanced computer-aided design (CAD) tools. If possible,

use electronic presentation software to summarize your

findings for the management.

 Submit a report including the answers to the

questions posed in this part of the project.

 Include appropriate databases to support your

answers.

Submission Requirements:

 Submit your findings in an MS Word document.

 Submit the updated spreadsheet and database

files.

 Font: Arial; 12-point

 Line Spacing: Double

Assigned: Week 3

Due: Week 5

Grading Weight: 12.5%

End of Project Description