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BU1410 Project 1 P ROJECT D ES CRIP TION Project Introduction: Dirt Bikes U.S.A.

ID: 671955 • Letter: B

Question

BU1410

Project

1

P ROJECT D ES CRIP TION

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 oppo

rtunities. 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 businesse

s 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 appropri

ate 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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P ROJECT S UBMIS S ION P

LA N

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Part

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 strateg

y. 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 activit

ies 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%

BU1410

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Project

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Description/Requirements of Project Part

Evaluation

Criteria

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:

Cu

stomer 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 aggress

ively 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 sport

s 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 th

e 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%

BU1410

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Project

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Description/Requirements of Project Part

Evaluation

Criteria

manufacturer and model of the other motorcycle (or

motorcycles) and the distributor from whom t

he

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 c

ould 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 question

s 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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Description/Requirements of Project Part

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Criteria

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 s

ervices

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 f

ear 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 altern

ative 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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Description/Requirements of Project Part

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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 Int

ernet 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.

(Optio

nal) 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

servi

ce?

b.

How would a website provide value to

Dirt Bikes? Use the Internet to research

BU1410

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Description/Requirements of Project Part

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Criteria

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 importan

t 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 pos

itions 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 the

se 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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Description/Requirements of Project Part

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Criteria

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

trai

ning 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:

Descrip

tion 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

desig

n. 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 man

agement or

BU1410

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Description/Requirements of Project Part

Evaluation

Criteria

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

Explanation / Answer

Products the company should restock:

Dirt Bikes is a company that produces off-road and motocross motorcycles. The bikes prodcued by this company are of best quality that serves the purpose of racing and styling.It is a small company that produces bikes using best quality parts. It should restock all the parts that are necessary to manufacture the bikes.

Threats to which Dirt Bikes’ systems are most vulnerable

Hackers

Cyber vandalism

Spoofing

Sniffing

Bottleneck

Phishing

Pharming

Evil Twins

Most critical systems at Dirt Bike:

Information System

Personnel System

Security System

Encryption System