(Solved by Humans)-IFSM 300 Final Assessment Exam NOTE: As for all work in this

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IFSM 300 Final Assessment Exam
NOTE: As for all work in this class, the final exam must be original work developed by the
student solely for use in this class and must conform to UMUC?s academic policies.
Instructions:
Use the Case Study presented here to answer the questions below. Your answers should be long
enough to answer each question fully and completely and typed below the individual question in this
document. Follow the instructions in the questions to determine the appropriate length of your
responses. Your answers should demonstrate an understanding of the concept(s), should apply
critical thinking, and should provide analysis of the Case Study in light of the concepts(s). You
should not just re-iterate what has been presented in class, but integrate the information and relate it
to the Case Study. Proper APA style must be used for any citations and references that you use.
Your exam will be graded on the completeness and accuracy of your responses and whether you
have appropriately tied your responses to the Case Study. Responses that do not mention the Case
Study will receive very few points, if any. Each question is worth 10 points.

Virginia Bikes
Case Study
In 1985 Bill Thomas took $6,000 of his savings, borrowed another $4,000 from his best friend, and
opened a bike rental business in Vienna, VA. The rental shop is adjacent to the Washington & Old
Dominion Trail (W&OD) that goes from Purcellville to Old Town Alexandria (45 miles), connects to
the Mt Vernon Trail (18 miles) and ends at George Washington?s Mt Vernon Estate. Bill, bought 10
bikes for his first store. The location has parking, and is near the historic Vienna Inn and a number of
food and drink establishments. He has since opened stores in Old Town Alexandria and Reston, VA,
where he sells, rents and repairs bicycles.
The Vienna store is now Bill?s anchor store, and at 5,000 square feet, it is three to five times larger
than his other stores. Bill estimates he sells around 3,000 new bikes a year. Because of the high
use of the W&OD trail, especially on weekends, he also provides tune up and maintenance services
at all of his stores for the many riders from up and down the trail.
In 2012, Bill leased a store in the heart of D.C., near the Smithsonian Museums and other tourist
attractions. He uses this store to rent bikes to tourists and residents of the city, and does some
repairs to his rental bicycle inventory in the back of the shop.
Although he has always made money, or he would not be in business, Bill has seen a decline in
bikes sales of about 20 percent since 2008. He attributes this to the downturn in the economy and
the growth in Internet sales. However, his rental, tune up and repair business has increased
dramatically. Over the past few years, he realized that he must be more aware of expenses and
decrease them wherever practical in order to preserve profits.

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Bill thinks that the one of the most important factors is the weather, but has no data to support that
thinking. On rainy days, there are few customers in the stores, while on sunny weekends all of his
locations are extremely busy. From spring through fall, Bill keeps all his stores open seven days a
week, while in the winter months he opens his stores on the weekend when the weather is good for
riding. Through observation, Bill figures his highest sales occur in May, and that June and
September are his best months for rentals. He also sells many bikes during the holiday season in
December, but in January and February, he often wonders if he should close shop and go to Florida
for a couple of months.
Virginia Bikes grosses between $5 and $8 million annually and earns Bill a comfortable six-figure
income. Each year, he leaves a considerable amount of cash in the business so that he does not
have to borrow money to keep his business going. He sells a wide variety of bikes (from tricycles for
toddlers to sophisticated racing bikes) and accessories such as helmets, speedometers, bike racks,
repair kits, and clothing. Bicycle sales have decreased to account for 25 percent of revenues.
Accessories such as helmets, bike racks, gloves, and locks amount to another 5 percent. Rentals
make up about 35 percent, and repairs make up the remaining 35 percent.
In recent years, he has noted that customers are less likely to purchase the high-end road and
triathlon bikes, and are purchasing bikes in the range of $400 to $1,000. The lower-priced bikes are
also easier to sell and to keep the inventory moving.
Most of the rental business is concentrated in the downtown D.C. and Alexandria stores, due to the
tourists and university students located near those stores. Bill is excited about rentals, as they have
a huge profit margin. He can charge as much as $50 a day, which means the bikes pay for
themselves after just a few rentals.
Bill?s expenses include such costs as new bikes, parts and accessories, rent and payroll. He
negotiates leases for all his locations except the Alexandria store, which he owns outright. Bill has
15 full-time employees and usually hires another 15 part-time employees during the busy months
and weekends.
Until two years ago, he was spending about $30,000 a year on advertising in local papers. Now he
uses a simple website and has links on many of the local biking trail sites to provide information
about his various locations, and his advertising budget is close to zero.
In the late 1990s, Bill over-expanded to six stores, including a store in Purcellville, VA, and one in
Bethesda, MD. The expansion necessitated a warehouse in Springfield, VA, the hiring of a general
manager and considerable overhead expenses. In a subsequent cost-reduction effort, Bill closed
the Bethesda store, gave up the warehouse and moved his inventory to the Vienna store, and let the
general manager go. Now, he handles all the general management tasks himself, which affects the
time that he has available to plan and develop strategies.
Bill further reduces his expenses by working in the Vienna store two days a week. Since he has only
one staff person in some of his stores, he has to make special arrangements if that person does not
come to work, or takes a day (or week) off.
He is trying to expand the bicycle repair work, especially on the weekends, so he will be able to
increase revenue from this profitable aspect of his business. He needs to have repair capability at
each store to maintain the rentals, prepare the new bikes for sale, and perform the periodic
maintenance for the bikes that he has sold, as well as provide the breakdown repairs and
adjustments for the riders on the trail.

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In an effort to increase profits, Bill tries to get good deals from his suppliers so he can realize a good
margin on bike and accessory sales and repairs. He looks for situations where suppliers have more
bikes in a line than they need and buys those bikes at a discount for rentals and low-end sales, while
maintaining a rapport with high-end suppliers so that he can offer his customers the best at
reasonable prices. By doing so, he can sell bikes at a lower retail price with on-the-spot delivery
while still realizing a nice profit.
Bill has no bank debt and has long since repaid the $4,000 he borrowed from his friend to start the
business. He feels that, because he has a diverse business strategy that addresses the many
different aspects of the local bike business, he will do well in the many different economic climates
as long as he is able to manage his varied business. He also feels that he is insulated from
?substitutes? from the electronic world, due to the rental and repair aspects of his business.
Bill is seeking your help to analyze his business and identify areas where information systems could
help him better manage and grow his business.

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Questions:
1. Analyze the Virginia Bikes business using Porter's Five Forces Analysis to complete the
table below.

FORCE
List Porter's Five
Forces

IMPACT
(POSITIVE,
NEGATIVE,
or
NEUTRAL)
This must
have an
entry

JUSTIFICATION of your selected impact
Minimum 2 good sentences that explain the impact of the force
on Virginia Bikes to demonstrate understanding of the force.
Refer to specific details from the business in the case study to
support your explanations.

2. Identify which of Porter's Generic Strategies is most appropriate to Virginia Bikes and
explain why you selected it in light of your Five Forces Analysis.

3. Bill uses the three business processes listed below, and each of them could be improved
using technology. Identify and explain how a type of information technology system solution
could improve each one of the processes. Do not research a specific product (e.g.,
SalesForce) but do include the type of solution (e.g., CRM).
Selling bicycles - how technology could improve the process:

Repairing bicycles - how technology could improve the process:

Managing inventory - how technology could improve the process:

4. Using the three business processes listed in question #3, list one input, one system
processing action, and one output that would be part of that process.

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Process

Input

Processing

Output

Information/data
item entered into
the system as
part of this
process

Processing or
action the
system must
perform for this
process

Information/data
item displayed or
printed out for
the user in this
process

(input needed for
the system)

(what the system
will do with the
input)

(what the system
will output/display)

Selling
Bikes
Repairing
Bikes
Managing
Inventory

5. Bill has decided to use technology to improve one of business processes identified in
question #4 above. Select one of the processes and analyze the IT requirements as they
apply to that process using the table below.

Name the business process that you selected from #4 here: __________

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Importance/
Relevance
IT
Requirement

High,
Medium,
Low, or Not
Applicable
(N/A)

Explanation for Ranking
(Write a minimum of 3 good sentences for
each. Tie each answer to the business in the
case study and the selected process. Identify
the data or type of data used in your
explanation, where it applies.)

(each must
have a
ranking)
Usability

Data
Completeness

Database

Reliability/
Availability

Security

6. Using a cloud-based Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution, list and briefly explain three
specific quantifiable (measurable) business benefits. These should reflect benefits
achieved by using a SaaS solution ? not general benefits. Your explanation must explicitly
refer to the Virginia Bikes business in the case study.
Business Benefit #1 and explanation:

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Business Benefit #2 and explanation:

Business Benefit #3 and explanation:

7. Bill has decided to implement a cloud-based SaaS solution to improve the bike repair
process for his business. Identify one important activity that Bill would need to do during
each of the following phases of the system development life cycle (SDLC) to implement
his solution. Your answers should demonstrate an understanding of the phase of the SDLC
and implementation of a SaaS solution. (An example answer is provided for the
Programming phase.)
a. Planning:
b. Analysis and Design:
c. Programming: Since the system has already been developed by the SaaS vendor,
Bill is not required to take any action regarding the Programming Phase.
d. Configuration:
e. Testing:
f.

Implementation and Use:

8. Bill would like to increase repair work and rentals as they are the highest profit aspects of his
business. He wants to analyze the data he will be collecting in his new information system to
help him do this. Identify three questions that Bill would want answers to in order to
determine ways to increase repairs and rentals. Then, identify what information Bill would
need to answer each question. Finally, explain how that information and the answers to
the questions would help Bill increase repair work and rentals.
For example: How many bikes are rented on rainy days? Bill would need to know which
days are rainy days and how many bikes are rented each day, so he can correlate the data.
Using this information, Bill may decide he should close the rental offices on rainy days and
save the cost of staffing and operations on those days, thus increasing the profitability of the
rental business.
Question, information and explanation #1:

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Question, information and explanation #2:

Question, information and explanation #3:

9. Bill has set up a website with information about his stores, and he wants to expand this
website to conduct e-commerce. Identify two different categories of e-commerce (as
defined in the Week 2 Learning Resource "Categories of Electronic Commerce") that Bill
could use to improve his business. Explain how each e-commerce category would be used.
Your explanations should include the name of Bill's business and demonstrate your
understanding of each of the two e-commerce categories.
E-Commerce category #1 and how it would be used:

E-Commerce category #2 and how it would be used:

10. Explain how each of the following could benefit Bill's Virginia Bikes business. Use 2-3
sentences for each and be sure your explanations mention Virginia Bikes and show that you
understand each of the types of systems.
a. Supply Chain Management System

b. Customer Relationship Management System

c. Enterprise Resource Planning System

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Solution details: