Homework 1 Chapter 1 Personal Trainer Inc Continuing Case Pe

Homework 1: Chapter 1 Personal Trainer, Inc.

Continuing Case: Personal Trainer, Inc.

Personal Trainer, Inc. owns and operates fitness centers in a dozen Midwestern cities. The centers have done well, and the company is planning an international expansion by opening a new “supercenter” in the Toronto area.

Background

Cassia Umi, president, heads Personal Trainer’s management team. Three managers report to her at the firm’s Chicago headquarters: Janet McDonald, manager, finance; Tai Tranh, manager, sales and marketing; and Reed Curry, manager, operations. The managers who run the 12 existing centers all report to Reed. Cassia wants the new supercenter to emphasize a wide variety of personal services and special programs for members. If the supercenter approach is successful, it will become the model for Personal Trainer’s future growth. Cassia personally selected Gray Lewis, a manager with three years of fitness center experience, to run the new facility.

The new supercenter will feature a large exercise area with state-of-the-art equipment, a swimming pool, a sporting goods shop, a health food store, and a snack bar. In addition, the center will offer child care with special programs for various ages, a teen center, and a computer café. Cassia also wants members to have online access to customized training programs and progress reports.

Personal Trainer currently uses BumbleBee, a popular accounting package, to manage its receivables, payables, and general ledger. Membership lists and word processing are handled with Microsoft Office products.

Cassia believes the new supercenter will require additional data management capability, and she decided to hire Patterson and Wilder, an IT consulting firm, to help Personal Trainer develop an information system for the new operation. The firm assigned Susan Park, an experienced consultant, to work with the Personal Trainer team. Susan’s first task was to learn more about business operations at the new center, so she requested a meeting with Gray. After some small talk, the discussion went like this:

Susan: Tell me about your plans for the new operation. I’m especially interested in what kind of information management you’ll need.

Gray: Cassia thinks that we’ll need more information support because of the size and complexity of

the new operation. To tell the truth, I’m not so sure. We’ve had no problem with BumbleBee at

the other centers, and I don’t really want to reinvent the wheel.

Susan: Maybe we should start by looking at the similarities — and the differences — between the new

center and the existing ones.

Gray: Okay, let’s do that. First of all, we offer the same basic services everywhere. That includes the exercise equipment, a pool, and, in most centers, a snack bar. Some centers also sell sporting goods, and one offers child care but not child-fitness programs. It is true that we’ve never put all this together under one roof. And, I admit, we’ve never offered online access. To be honest, I’m not absolutely sure what Cassia has in mind when she talks about 24/7 Web-based access. One more feature — we plan to set up two levels of membership — let’s call them silver and gold for now. Silver members can use all the basic services, but will pay additional fees for some special programs, such as child fitness. Gold members will have unlimited use of all services.

Susan: So, with all this going on, wouldn’t an overall system make your job easier?

Gray: Yes, but I don’t know where to start.

Susan: Gray, that’s why I’m here. I’ll work with you and the rest of the team to come up with a solution that supports your business.

Gray: Sounds good to me. When can we start?

Susan: Let’s get together first thing tomorrow. Bring along an organization chart and think about how you plan to run the new facility. We’ll try to build a model of the new operation so we can identify the business functions. When we know what the functions are, we’ll know what kind of information is needed or generated by each function. That will be our starting point.

Tasks

1. Use the background information to create a business profile for Personal Trainer. Be sure to indicate areas where more information will be needed.

2. Each new supercenter service represents a business function, which is composed of one or more business processes. Using the background information and the conversation between

Susan and Gray, list the business functions and the processes with each function.

3. Based on what you know, should Personal Trainer consider any of the following systems: ERP, transaction processing, business support, knowledge management, or user productivity? Why or why not?

4. What opportunities might Personal Trainer have for Web-based B2C transactions in the future? What about B2B?

Solution

1)

Personal Trainer Inc

Personal Trainer Inc. is a fitness center which operates in mid-western cities which has performed very well in the market. The company offers basic services like exercise equipment, pool, a snack bar and some center also sell the sporting goods & child care services. Also the company uses bumble as an accounting package and to manage the receivables and payables the company uses Microsoft office products

Cassia Umi head’s the management team and 3 managers reports to her,

Janet Mc Donald- Manager, Finance

Tai tranh – Manager – Sales & Marketing

Reed Curry – Manager – Operations

Since the company is operating in one of the corner, the company wants to expand the business to international level by creating “ supercenters” in the Toronto area which will have better facility than what it is currently operating. The company has planned to have better personal service to the members by offering various special programs. For the supercenters company wants to modify themselves with respect to services they are offering, company wants to have 24/7 online access which the company did not offer before. Also the company wants to have additional data management capability to serve the members better in collaboration with Patterson & Wilder.

2) The new supercenters represents the list of business functions. They are

                a) Exercise equipment – provide gym facility for each members on a daily basis to maintain the member’s physical fitness

                b) Pool – Provide the facility to all the customers for refreshment

                c) Snack bar – provide good energy boosters for those who are in need

                d) Selling Sporting goods – stock all the selling sport product for the members who want to purchase

                e) Child care – Members who are parents can leave the children in child care center during the workout time

                f) 24/7 web based access – Serve as an information provider to the members any time.

3) Personal trainer is a person who is purely in to the fitness activity programs. So, if the trainer wants to run a fitness business couple of the knowledge he should have,

ERP – should have knowledge on the ERP to have better control on the information

Transaction process - to run the daily business the trainer should have knowledge on receiveables and payables which is a basic requirement to run any business

Business support, knowledge management & user productivity is not really necessary for a trainer since they are not so important to run fitness program. The required knowledge is mentioned above.

Personal trainer will have a benefit with respect to B2C transactions. The personal trainer can make a video of the fitness program and upload on the web\\ social media which helps them to make a good name in social networking. It helps in building the name and enables to attract many customer. Since Internet has become a mode of marketing personal trainer can make best use of it.

With respect to B2B, the personal trainer can be associated with another business to run or start the business. Also if there is any other company running the successful business of similar nature, the personal trainer can get along and join the company. With the help of the other company they can attract the customers for service.